Tim Leberecht is a German-American entrepreneur, consultant, author and speaker and one of the most passionate and perceptive 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 the arts with a mission to develop positive visions for the future of business and society. Previously, Leberecht was Chief Marketing Officer of 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 for Apple. Leberecht is the author of the international bestseller “Business Romantiker: Von der Sehnsucht nach einem anderen Wirtschaftsleben” His two TED Talks have been seen by more than 3 million people. His second book “Gegen die Diktatur der Gewinner” was published in 2020.
Tim Leberecht Lecture topics
The Brave New Economy
Against data-driven reductionism a la Silicon Valley, Tim Leberecht draws the contours of a new movement: Beautiful Business. When everything that has 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 has 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, which will be shaped by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation – and allow us to remain human. 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 worlds of emotion that accompany them. Instead of “fail fast” and error culture, he pleads for an honest confrontation with the consequences of digital disruption, especially the loss of status, control and uniqueness. His vision: a deeper transformation that is not just about efficiency and optimisation, but enables a radical redefinition of value creation in terms of a humane and ecological society.
The New Romantic Revolution
In his acclaimed book Business Romantics, Tim Leberecht argues for a radically different view of business and a new definition of success. For him, business means much more than rational decisions and acting in self-interest. In the face of aggressive datafication and quantification and the accompanying demystification of the world, we need a new romantic countermovement that sets a subjective, emotional truth against the logic of data. Leberecht adds romantic motives to business life: intimacy instead of transaction, mystery instead of unambiguity, vulnerability instead of control, surprise instead of predictability, character instead of efficiency, dedication instead of fact orientation and meaning instead of instant need satisfaction. In his “3 Rules for Business Romantics”, Leberecht suggests concrete techniques we can use to make experiences at work 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, how we win in life: The dogma of having to win is unbroken. Nobody talks about losing – for fear of looking like a failure. Tim Leberecht, however, sees this as a great opportunity: because only a society in which we can lose without being labelled as losers is a humane society. He describes different ways of losing and explains which strategies help us to deal constructively with defeat and loss. They range from reimagined state care and space for negative experiences in the world of work to rituals and personal renunciation. A perceptive observation of our digital society, a radical taboo-breaking that understands vulnerability as strength in a thoroughly optimised world, and the inspiring utopia of a deeply human society of good losers.
End times and the three taboo breaks we need now
Climate, democracy and health: three crises, three world pains. Growth and profit 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 taboo breaks are needed to enable a better, more humane future: beauty instead of efficiency, losing instead of winning at all costs, and spirituality instead of humanism.
End times and the three taboo breaks we need now
Climate, democracy and health: three crises, three world pains. Growth and profit 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 taboo breaks are needed to enable a better, more humane future: beauty instead of efficiency, losing instead of winning at all costs, and spirituality instead of humanism.
Emotional diversity: Why we all need feelings at work
Against the tyranny of positive emotions – optimism, joy and happiness – Tim Leberecht puts the whole range of emotions, especially those that are complicated. Because a human workplace is not the one that makes us happy all the time, but the one that allows us to be sad once in a while. In this lecture, he describes how we create such a corporate culture and how leaders can embody it.
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.