Keynote topic
Chris Hirst – Keynote Speaker for Annual Conference
Chris Hirst is the former Global CEO of Havas Creative Group who ran a 10,000-person, 100+ country, $1bn P&L network. His annual conference keynote lands with rooms from 500 to 5,000 and still hands managers something practical for Monday. The thesis is simple: leadership is difficult, but not complicated – and practical clarity scales to any room.
Annual conferences need a speaker who can hold a 2,000-person room and also leave a frontline manager with one usable move. Chris does both. The stage energy comes from running Havas Creative Group as Global CEO at scale; the practicality comes from Indispensable (Macmillan Business, paperback forthcoming 11 June 2026) and No Bullsh*t Leadership (Profile Books). The promise is the same operating language at any scale: Impact = Clarity x Action, and leadership that is difficult, but not complicated.
Or speak to the team directly — ChrisHirst@clash.cc
Why the right voice
Stage presence at conference scale, practical for the manager in row 40
Chris was Global CEO of Havas Creative Group, responsible for 10,000 people across 100+ countries and a $1bn P&L. He took the network from mid-pack to record growth and profits, in public, on a measurable timeline. He is the author of No Bullsh*t Leadership (Profile Books) and No Bullsh*t Change (Profile Books). His third book, Indispensable (Macmillan Business, paperback forthcoming 11 June 2026), is the thesis behind this keynote – that practical clarity scales, and that the same operating language that runs a 10-person exco runs a 10,000-person company. The Leadership Equation – Impact = Clarity x Action – is the working operating model. The line from No Bullsh*t Change that anchors the talk is "Leadership is difficult, but not complicated".
- Ex-Global CEO, Havas Creative
- $1bn P&L · 10,000 people
- Best Business Book 2020
- Shortlisted Global CEO of the Year ’22
“Chris is an exceptional leader with an ability to simplify what is complex and galvanize action.”Google
On stage
Why the room goes quiet.
Footage from leadership conferences and board away-days. No slides theatre — a practitioner who ran the thing he’s talking about, distilling it into language a room can act on.
What the room walks away with
What teams take away — and use on Monday.
Conference audiences leave with one operating equation and one line they can repeat in the lift on the way back to their desk. The equation is Impact = Clarity x Action – an actual test, not a slide. The line is leadership is difficult, but not complicated – permission to stop reaching for the next framework and start working the basics. Senior managers leave with the 40/70 rule for their own decisions. Frontline managers leave with one named move for their team this week. Everyone leaves with the same vocabulary, which is the point of putting them in one room.
- 01
Leadership is difficult, but not complicated – stop reaching for another framework, work the basics.
- 02
Impact = Clarity x Action – use it as a test, not a slide.
- 03
Practical clarity scales: the same operating language runs an exco and a 10,000-person company.
- 04
Apply the 40/70 rule on your own calls this week.
- 05
Name one behaviour change you will land with your team in the next two weeks.
The contrarian bit
Why most annual conference keynotes do not reach row 40
Chris carries a story onto conference stages about a piece of dog-eared polyboard. At a company he ran, the objectives were three words on it, and at every company meeting – every one, for years – he would hold the board up and link whatever was being discussed back to those three words. People joked about it. The more they joked, the more the three words became language the org actually used. People he hasn't worked with in fifteen years still ask about that polyboard.
The thesis in Indispensable (Macmillan Business, paperback forthcoming 11 June 2026) follows from that polyboard. Practical clarity scales. The same operating language that runs a ten-person exco runs a 10,000-person company – he ran one. Leadership is difficult, but not complicated – the line from No Bullsh*t Change (Profile Books) – is permission to stop reaching for the next framework and start working the basics. The Leadership Equation is the basic move: Impact = Clarity x Action, multiplied not added.
After the conference, the vocabulary actually shows up in team meetings. Senior managers use the 40/70 rule out loud on their own calls. Frontline managers name one behaviour change for their team this week. The conference theme stops being a logo on a lanyard and becomes a working language the org uses. That is the difference between a conference remembered and a conference re-run.
Questions
Leadership and Culture — booking Chris.
Yes. Chris reads the conference brief with the host and event lead – sector, theme, audience mix, the line you want the room to leave repeating – and tunes the framework emphasis and on-stage examples. The polyboard story and the Indispensable thesis are the anchors; the recommended Monday moves are written so a senior manager and a frontline manager both leave with something usable.
Still deciding? Talk it through with the team.
Booking
Bring this keynote to your leadership moment.
In-person, UK · virtual & international on request · the team replies within 24 hours.
Back to Chris’s full profile“Chris is an exceptional leader with an ability to simplify what is complex and galvanize action.”— Google
Represented by Clash Creation · clash.cc