NSB Logo Amy Karam Amy Karam

Amy Karam

Speaker

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Global Competitive Strategist

Amy Karam is a trusted authority on globalization, innovation, competitive strategy, the shifting power dynamics in international business, and the geo-political impact of China’s rise as well as other emerging nations. 

With a dynamic, engaging and unique presentation style, she combines humor, wit and hard truths to create an effective and lasting impression on the audience. She has engaged thousands of leaders and sales professionals worldwide. 

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
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Our Evolution to Digital Transformation

While there are exponential leaps in 5G connectivity, quick accommodation of virtual work and availability of remote services online, we’re not at the point of full adoption yet. Many virtual organizations weren’t really technologically ready from a security perspective for example. And many banks still don’t provide banking statements electronically longer than 3 months ago. What’s happening?

Technology creation evolves faster than technology adoption. The push for digital transformation should really be considered digital evolution. As an active member of the tech community, Amy Karam shares how you can make small, ongoing incremental changes to evolve on your way to digital transformation.

The new work paradigm has opened eyes of employees and employers to new options and infrastructure requirements. Customers are also now aware of different ways to be serviced remotely – is your institution ready to do that? Gain a competitive edge by digitizing your customer fulfillment strategy – won’t take much to get ahead of others as you continue to evolve.

Global Trends are Shifting the World Order

Geopolitics are not just for politicians – governments, business and trade organizations need to incorporate it into their strategic plans as they look to diversify their approaches.

Expert in emerging markets, Amy Karam shares evidence that the G7 democracies no longer rule, it’s now the G20. Emerging market players now have a much bigger influence on global trade, including China, Russia, India, as well as smaller nations. With large populations, they are quickly climbing the economic development ladder, and are catching up to (and sometimes surpassing) other developed nations.

Our economies are intertwined. Supply and value chains are concentrated in too few countries, which lends to economic and security risks. The pandemic highlighted critical gaps that have been accumulating for many years and the need for the Western nations to focus on maintaining and growing their innovation advantage in order to secure/re-secure global competitiveness. To accomplish this, Karam proposes ways that the West can approach innovation in different ways.

Public/private collaboration also needs to shift to a whole new level, as nations seek to thrive in this new global economy.

Hear about where we’ve been, how we got to where we are today, and what we need start or continue to do in the future to secure our competitiveness, economic and national security.

Is the 'Innovation Advantage' slipping in the West?
Amy Karam notes that while we’re often lauded for our innovation, she challenges whether we are truly actioning our ideas and monetizing them for future growth and prosperity:
  • The West has been resting on its laurels and its ‘innovation advantage’ status from past decades.
  • Being the best is static – becoming better (like emerging competitors are) is growth
  • West has been naïve about collaboration with and knowledge transfer to emerging countries like China and others – now they are surpassing us in some areas.
  • What was really behind the lobbying of other countries to ban Huawei, other than national security concerns?
  • We need to shift mindset from innovation R&D to innovation commercialization – intellectual to monetization mindset. Is Canada just too comfortable? Are we looking at true Business Model Innovation?
The China Factor

Drawing on content from her best-selling book, The China Factor, Karam  equips Western audience with a practical framework for competing successfully in today’s ever–changing global markets. 

Based on customers in over 50 countries, and Karam’s experience competing with Huawei when she led a competitive intelligence and sales support program at Cisco, you will learn why a premium product, may not be the key to winning business in foreign  markets, and you’ll discover the new critical factors that contribute to success in both established and emerging markets. Disruptive competitors are transformed from threats to examples as you learn to recognize opportunities for re–evaluation, and shift your strategy to stay ahead of the curve.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to become innovative in how you do business globally
  • How your business can become innovative at innovation

Audience reviews:

  • Amy’s deep experience in global business strategy at Fortune 500 companies informs her engaging and thought–provoking presentations and writing. Lively examples and humor are skillfully integrated in her seminars, and participants come away with fresh insights and with specific action plans to achieve targeted business goals. - Chief of Staff, HP
  • Amy’s understanding of international markets and the bigger picture are critical in our competitive battles and her efforts for the Middle East and Africa regions are praised at all levels. Additionally, her work delivering training, and her work with the Value–Selling team, are very valuable to the program. - Senior Director, Sales Operations, Cisco Systems
  • Amy’s expertise in competitive intelligence programs was a valuable asset in the creation of our strategy. She was able to quickly assemble the program structure, assess critical success factors, and establish rollout priorities. We refer back to the created framework constantly – it has been our go–to roadmap as well as a critical communication vehicle for rollout status. - Senior Director of Product Marketing - Evault, A Seagate Company
  • Amy was so real and engaging. She encouraged healthy discussions that allowed the class to see real-life examples. I also like that she didn't simply read the slides and booklet the whole time. She added her own flair and experiences to convey the content. - Bank of Canada
  • Best teacher I've had in this program! - AVP, Nationwide
  • Amy was very knowledgeable, engaging and enthusiastic. She definitely made the course useful and encouraged dialogue and discussion throughout. I would register again if she was instructing another course. - Global Affairs Canada
  • Your talk was the best among the MBA classes. Your careful preparation and delivery made the students very engaged. Your presentation format works really well for the class. - Ph.D, Marketing Professor, San Francisco State University

Speaker Biography

Business, politics and innovation are intertwined as never before. As a speaker, author, commentator and educator, Amy Karam equips companies and governments with insights and strategies to successfully navigate challenging global trade dynamics and a new kind of competition from China and other emerging nations.  

Amy Karam is the author of The China Factor: Leveraging Emerging Business Strategies to Compete, Grow and Win in the New Global Economy (Wiley) and a Global Expansion and Competitive Strategy consultant. She equips organizations with strategies and tactics to navigate the new global geopolitical-business dynamics and is a professional instructor for Stanford and Duke University, as well as conducting her own workshops, as founder of the Global Business Innovation Academy. 

Karam is a keynote speaker on global trade and innovation; she shares her 15 years of Silicon Valley experience and extensive international expertise having worked with 50+ countries on all continents. She was also the lead of a CEO-sponsored global competitive sales support program at Cisco Systems where she defended and won up to $1 billion in revenues per year in deals competing with Huawei. As a fellow for the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, she shares with thought leadership with a perspective on how public policy and private sector can collaborate to enable global competitiveness.