Reframe everything you thought about business.
I’m a definitive expert in business transformation and leadership.
Official Bio
Mark Maynard is a popular keynote speaker and leadership consultant, known for his extraordinary ability to revitalize service businesses and elevate them to new heights of success. With a seasoned career spanning three decades at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, Mark has become the go-to expert for businesses seeking remarkable transformation and achievement.
Mark’s presentations are centered on enhancing the customer experience, strengthening employee engagement, and optimizing financial performance. He equips organizations to exceed market expectations with practical, actionable strategies that transcend industry boundaries.
At the core of Mark's philosophy is the conviction that purpose and alignment are crucial to business triumph. He directly confronts common challenges such as productivity decline, high employee turnover, and customer loyalty issues. His presentations and workshops showcase his practical approach, empowering leaders with effective solutions to these prevalent problems.
"The Next Frontier of Restaurant Management," co-authored with Alex Susskind of Cornell University, showcases Mark’s ability to turn cutting-edge hospitality research into a universally applicable business success blueprint. While targeted at the restaurant sector, its principles are indispensable to any business focusing on customer and employee relations.
A distinguished speaker at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, Mark is also a celebrated guest lecturer at Columbia Business School, NYU, and the Institute of Culinary Education. His sessions are both educational and transformative.
Outside the professional arena, Mark is an avid cyclist, a nature enthusiast, and a passionate cook, who enjoys sharing his interests with family and friends.
Mark is a transformative force in business and leadership, guiding organizations and individuals towards unparalleled success and growth.
My keynotes ignite meaningful change in business.
Leadership
Love Your People: Embracing Love in Leadership
Discover why love is a game-changer in business leadership. This talk delves into the transformative power of leading with love, demonstrating how it fosters trust, innovation, and exceptional team performance. You’ll learn to harness love in leadership effectively, inspiring your team while maintaining professionalism.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Harness vulnerability as a strength
Foster belonging and safety in your team
Cultivate accountability among team members
Best-fit audiences:
For leaders facing challenges in team cohesion, motivation, and creating a supportive yet high-performing work environment.
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Operations
Working with Purpose: Aligning Vision with Action
Dive into how purpose-driven operations catalyze superior business outcomes. This session explores aligning company purpose with daily operations, resulting in a more engaged workforce, delighted customers, and enhanced financial performance.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Create powerful teams united by a shared purpose
Use a clear sense of purpose as a guide through challenges
Decrease turnover and build a sense of belonging through enhanced onboarding
Best-fit audiences:
Ideal for businesses grappling with high turnover, lack of alignment, and low employee engagement, and those seeking to enhance operational efficiency through shared values.
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People & Culture
Be a Boss, Not a Friend: Leadership Beyond Friendship
Learn the art of balancing professionalism and personal connections. This talk emphasizes the importance of clear boundaries, authentic relationships, and constructive feedback in building a supportive and effective work environment.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Set clear boundaries for improved professional relationships
Deliver and structure constructive feedback effectively
Grow trust through increased self-awareness
Best-fit audiences:
Tailored for leaders struggling with maintaining professional boundaries, seeking to build trust, and those looking to improve their feedback and relationship-building skills.
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Innovation
Trouble Me!: Fostering a Culture of Collaboration
Uncover the strength in admitting what you don’t know. This presentation focuses on the power of delegation, collaboration, and vulnerability in driving innovation and uncovering hidden potential within your team.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Empower your team to innovate and take risks
Create channels for effective idea exchange
Express vulnerability to build trust and encourage sharing
Best-fit audiences:
Suitable for organizations and leaders facing challenges in innovation blockages, teamwork inefficiencies, and those looking to enhance collaborative problem-solving.
Hospitality
Complaints are Gifts: Turning Feedback into Loyalty
Transform complaints into opportunities for growth and customer loyalty. This talk provides strategies for effective complaint management, emphasizing compassion, process, and team coordination in building stronger customer relationships.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Handle complaints with compassion and understanding
Develop proactive complaint management strategies
Build a team-based approach to customer loyalty
Best-fit audiences:
Perfect for service-oriented businesses dealing with customer satisfaction issues, seeking to improve their complaint management processes, and aiming to build customer loyalty.
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Change Management
How to Make Transformation Stick: Guiding Sustainable Change
Explore how to lead and sustain organizational transformation. This session offers insights into forming change coalitions, communicating vision, and embedding new processes into company culture for lasting impact.
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In this talk, you will learn how to:
Leverage internal change agents effectively
Communicate your vision consistently and compellingly
Embed transformative changes into your organizational culture
Best-fit audiences:
Ideal for organizations undergoing significant change, those looking to enhance buy-in at all levels, and leaders seeking to make lasting impacts through transformative initiatives.
“Mark is one of the best speakers we have had during 13 years of organizing conferences for the hospitality industry. With his clear and light manner of presentation, engaging speech and insightful content for the audience, we always have amazing feedback from our attendees when Mark is presenting.
Empathy, strategic mindset, wonderful sense of humour, oratory and deep knowledge of the hospitality industry make Mark an outstanding speaker who wins the hearts of the professional audience.
Mark made a massive contribution to the success of each of our events, and I can’t wait to work with him again.”
—Julia Chesnokova, Founder of Food & Success Agency
Get a speaker who walks the walk.
Whatever you've been through in business, I get it. Instead of speaking from a model, I speak from experience and can get you where you want to go faster.
