Menu

Ade McCormack

The Intelligent Organisation

How Organisations Survive & Thrive
In An Increasingly Unknowable World

Disruptive Leadership, The Future of Work
CHECK AVAILABILITY

Ade McCormack is a globally recognised keynote speaker and advisor on how organisations survive and thrive in an increasingly disruptive and unpredictable world. A former Financial Times columnist, he has worked with leadership teams across more than forty countries.

He frames his work through a simple but powerful question: how do organisations designed for more innocent times survive and thrive in an increasingly disruptive world?

He introduces the concept of the Intelligent Organisation—one that can sense change, make better decisions, and act with speed and coherence—providing leaders with a practical framework for navigating complexity and improving organisational performance.

His sessions are designed to challenge and engage audiences—combining fresh thinking with clear, real-world relevance that leaders can act on immediately.

     Credentials and Experience

  • Founder, The Intelligent Organisation
  • Former Financial Times columnist (10 years)
  • Guest lecturer, MIT Sloan
  • Associate, University of Cambridge (Møller Institute)
  • Background in astrophysics; worked with the European Space Agency
  • Worked across 40+ countries with global organisations
  • Author of six books on strategy and society
  • Advisor to governments and institutions including the European Commission

 

He is an international keynote speaker and strategic advisor specialising in organisational intelligence, leadership and disruption and his central thesis is simple but urgent: most organisations are no longer fit for the pace and complexity of the world they operate in.

In response, he introduces the concept of the Intelligent Organisation, an organisation that can:

  • Sense what is happening internally and externally
  • Decide effectively under conditions of uncertainty
  • Act quickly and coherently

 

His work explores how organisations can be designed as living systems—capable of sensing change, making better decisions and acting with speed and coherence.

He argues that many investments in leadership, digital transformation and employee experience address symptoms rather than root causes—limiting organisational effectiveness in the face of increasing disruption.

His keynotes challenge conventional thinking around leadership, transformation and value. Rather than incremental change, Ade explores how organisations must be designed differently—as adaptive, distributed and cognitively capable systems.

He draws on the principles of living systems to show how organisations can become more adaptive, resilient and capable of operating in real time.

Audiences gain a visceral sense of how their organisation can move from an inert, process-driven machine to a real-time, adaptive, innovation-fuelled system capable of thriving in hostile environments.

Known for combining deep strategic insight with practical, real-world relevance, Ade ensures audiences leave with both a new lens and clear, actionable insight.

He works with CEOs, executive teams and government leaders who recognise that traditional models are breaking down—and who want to build organisations that can continuously adapt.

He combines strategic insight with an engaging delivery style—ensuring audiences are both challenged and energised throughout.

 

 Keynote Topics

       The Intelligent Organisation

How to design organisations that can sense, decide and act in real time:

  • Why traditional organisational models are failing
  • The shift from hierarchy to distributed intelligence
  • Designing for speed, adaptability and resilience

 

  Leading in an Unknowable World

Why leadership must evolve beyond control and certainty:

  • Decision-making under ambiguity
  • Leadership as an organisational ‘nervous system’, not an individual capability
  • Creating organisations that don’t rely on heroic leaders.

 

Rethinking Organisational Design for Disruption

Why structure, not strategy, is now the limiting factor:

  • The hidden constraints inside traditional organisations
  • Moving from static structures to dynamic systems
  • Aligning people, technology and decision-making

  • Rethinking governance


AI, Cognition and the Future of the Organisation

How human and machine intelligence combine to create competitive advantage:

  • AI as part of the organisational ‘nervous system’
  • Augmenting decision-making at scale – the player closest to the ball…
  • Avoiding the trap of digital transformation as the solution to increasing disruption

Audience Takeaways

        Audiences leave with:

  • A clear understanding of why their current organisational model is under pressure
  • A new mental model: the organisation as a living, intelligent system
  • Practical insights into how to improve sensing, decision-making and execution
  • Clearer priorities for strengthening organisational adaptiveness and performance
  • A sharper view of the role of leadership in a disrupted world.


As an opening keynote speaker, Ade sets both the energy and the level of conversation for the rest of the event


Ideal Audience

Public and private events that include:

  • CEOs and executive teams
  • CHROs / People leaders
  • CIOs / Digital and AI leaders
  • Public sector leadership teams.


Through his extensive work with FT Live and major brands, Ade also has extensive experience as:

  • A conference chair
  • Panel moderator
  • Private event facilitator, host and speaker

Ade is often engaged to provide a fresh and thought-provoking perspective—bringing energy, insight and a distinctive lens that complements
 and elevates the core agenda.

 Tone & Style

  • Strategic and thought-provoking
  • Highly engaging, thought-provoking and audience-focused
  • Human-centric and inspiring
  • Grounded in real-world experience
  • Clear, structured, and commercially relevant
  • Challenges assumptions while remaining practical

       

Intelligent Leadership

The problem he addresses is that many organisations are in a tailspin because their business model was not designed for the growing uncertainty and volatility. Some leaders are in denial and some think that the digitalisation of their anachronistic model will somehow save them.

Ade will make them acutely aware of the scope of the problem they are facing and how holding their breath and hoping the world will return to normal shortly will not cut it. He will highlight the implications in relation to a variety of areas including leadership, risk, innovation, talent, business models and strategic planning (RIP). He will then introduce them to the concept of super-resilience and how to build what in effect is a people-centric situationally aware ‘living organism’.

In order to capture the attention of the audience, Ade draws upon a variety of disciplines, including strategy, IT, neuroscience, anthropology, biology and human performance. He uses very memorable soundbites and memes to maximise audience resonance and retention.

Ade storifies his keynotes and thus they play out like a compelling drama where your audience is the hero. There is even a love interest! And there is quite a twist at the end when the antagonist’s true role is revealed.

Your audience can expect to leave profoundly moved, enlightened and inspired. Ade’s keynote will reset the bar in respect of subsequent conversations within your organisation / throughout your event.

Ade has written a number of books covering digital matters. His latest being Biz 4.0: An anthropological blueprint for business in the digital age’.

The irony of the digital age is that it is not about technology, though IT has a role to play. It cannot be conceptualised as ‘the industrial era amped up on tech steroids’, as implied by the much-used term, Industry 4.0. It is fundamentally about people reclaiming their humanity, and requiring the organisations they support and patronise to reshape accordingly. It also represents a return to a less certain and more dangerous world, less new town business park, more prehistoric savannah. This book, based on the author’s Biz 4.0 digital age business model, is a strategic template for reshaping your organisation for the digital age.

Check Availability for

Ade McCormack