Tim Leberecht is a German-American entrepreneur, consultant, author and speaker, and one of the most passionate and astute thought leaders for a new, more human economy against the backdrop of digitalisation, automation and sustainability.
Tim Leberecht is the founder and CEO of the House of Beautiful Business, an international network at the intersection of technology, management, science and art with a mission to develop positive visions for the future of business and society. Previously, Leberecht was Chief Marketing Officer at NBBJ, an international architecture and design firm. From 2006 to 2013, he held the same position at Frog Design in San Francisco, the design and innovation agency known for its work with Apple.
Tim Leberecht is the author of the international bestseller ‘Business Romantic: The Quest for a Different Kind of Economy.’ His two TED Talks have been viewed by more than 3 million people. His second book, ‘Against the Dictatorship of Winners,’ was published in 2020.
Tim Leberecht lecture topics
- Digital must be beautiful: romance instead of algorithms?
Tim Leberecht counters Silicon Valley-style data-driven reductionism by outlining the contours of a new movement: beautiful business. If everything that needs to be done efficiently will be done even more efficiently by machines, then the most important work for us humans will be the work that needs to be done beautifully: with intuition, imagination and dedication. It is above all aesthetics, ethics and emotions that will differentiate us in tomorrow’s economy, shaped by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation – and allow us to remain human.
- Be careful not to forget to feel: the new romantic revolution
In his highly acclaimed bestseller Business Romantic, Tim Leberecht advocates a radically different view of the economy and a new definition of success. For him, business means much more than rational decisions and acting in one’s own interests. In view of aggressive datafication and quantification and the accompanying disenchantment of the world, we need a new romantic counter-movement that counters the logic of data with subjective, emotional truth. Leberecht expands economic life to include romantic motifs: intimacy instead of transactions, mystery instead of clarity, vulnerability instead of control, surprise instead of predictability, character instead of efficiency, devotion instead of fact-orientedness, and meaning instead of instant gratification. In his ‘3 Rules for Business Romantics,’ Tim Leberecht proposes concrete techniques we can use to make experiences in the workplace and with brands and products more romantic.
- Against the dictatorship of winners: How we can lose without being losers
How we win customers, how we win people over, how we win in life: the dogma of having to win remains unbroken. No one talks about losing – for fear of being seen as a failure. Tim Leberecht, however, sees this as a great opportunity: because only a society in which we can lose without being labelled a loser is a humane society. He describes different types of losing and explains which strategies help us to deal with defeat and loss constructively. These range from a reimagined state welfare system and space for negative experiences in the world of work to rituals and personal sacrifice. An astute observation of our digital society, a radical breaking of taboos that sees vulnerability as a strength in an overly optimised world, and the inspiring utopia of a deeply humane society of good losers.
- The end times: The three taboo breaks we need now
Climate, democracy and health: three crises, three global problems. Growth and profits at any price result in real losses. Digitalisation is efficient, but ugly. Human-centred business is well-intentioned, but ultimately arrogant. Tim Leberecht believes that three taboos must be broken to enable a better, more humane future: beauty instead of efficiency, losing instead of winning at any cost, and spirituality instead of humanism.
- Emotional diversity: Why we all need feelings in the workplace
Tim Leberecht counters the tyranny of positive emotions – optimism, joy and happiness – with the whole spectrum of emotions, especially those that are complicated. Because a human workplace is not one that makes us happy all the time, but one that allows us to be sad sometimes. In this talk, he describes how we can create such a corporate culture and how managers can embody it.
In response to the exponential technologies propagated by Silicon Valley, he calls for a new sentimental education to prepare us for hybrid collaboration models with AI and nature, as well as the new emotional worlds that come with them. Instead of ‘fail fast’ and a culture of error, he advocates an honest examination of the consequences of digital disruption, especially the loss of status, control and clarity. His vision: a profound transformation that is not only aimed at efficiency and optimisation, but also enables a radical redefinition of value creation in the sense of a humane and ecological society.
Born and raised in Germany, the German-American returned to Berlin in 2017 after fourteen years in Silicon Valley. Since August 2021, he has been living in Lisbon and Atlanta.