Chris Hirst – Leadership Speaker for Corporate Offsite
Direct answer
Chris Hirst is the former Global CEO of Havas Creative Group who ran 10,000 people across 100+ countries on a $1bn P&L. His offsite keynote gives senior teams a shared operating language they can take into Monday's exec meeting – plain enough to repeat, sharp enough to act on. Buyers planning a high-stakes offsite get clarity, not another framework.
Most offsites burn the budget on inspiration and send the senior team back to work with no shared language. Chris's offsite keynote is the opposite. He has sat in those rooms as Global CEO and run them. The promise is a usable operating language – Impact = Clarity x Action, the 40/70 rule, and the discipline to cut consultant vocabulary out of the exec meeting. The room leaves with words it can repeat on Monday and use to make a real call by Wednesday.
Want to ask about Chris? ChrisHirst@clash.cc
Stage presence
Buyer confidence
Room-ready delivery
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. He is the author of No Bullsh*t Leadership (Profile Books), where the Leadership Equation – Impact = Clarity x Action – and the line "Leadership is a word drowning in words" sit at the centre of his operating view. He also wrote No Bullsh*t Change (Profile Books) and Indispensable (Macmillan Business, paperback forthcoming 11 June 2026). The offsite keynote anchors on the operating-language moment from his Havas tenure – the discipline of cutting consultant vocabulary out of the exec meeting and replacing it with words a senior team can repeat and act on. The Colin Powell 40/70 rule – act on 40-70% of the information – is the decision discipline he hands the room.
- Former Global CEO of Havas Creative Group
- Best Business Book of the Year winner
- Trusted by Google, PwC, Verizon and global leadership teams
What Your Audience Leaves With
A usable frame for the decision in front of them
Senior teams leave with a shared operating language for Monday's exec meeting. They have the Leadership Equation as a working test: Impact = Clarity x Action, both terms non-zero. They have the 40/70 rule as a decision discipline. They have a hit list of consultant words the team will stop using – and the plain-language replacements that actually move work. They also have a small set of standing questions the team will start asking each other: what is the call, what are we not certain about, what is the next move. The promise is a vocabulary the senior team owns, not a framework it borrowed.
Topic focus
Leadership
The Problem
Why most leadership offsites do not survive the flight home
Chris was once sent on a two-day residential to define the "purpose" of a well-known household brand. The consultants ran the process using what they called their proprietary methodology, rooted – they said – in Native American spiritualism. They were all British. The hotel was in Surrey. He was told to walk the grounds, collect pebbles, flowers, and feathers, and bring them back to a circle. The pebbles would, through some mystical process, reveal the brand's purpose. The exercise is the offsite version of the problem his entire body of work names.
His line from No Bullsh*t Leadership (Profile Books) puts it plainly: leadership is a word drowning in words. An offsite that adds more vocabulary has made the problem worse. Senior teams don't need another framework. They need a shared language they can actually use – plain enough to repeat, sharp enough to act on. The Leadership Equation is a working test, not a slide: Impact = Clarity x Action, both terms non-zero. The 40/70 rule is a decision discipline, not a quote.
By the second exec meeting, the vocabulary has shifted. Standing questions replace status updates. People name the call instead of describing the situation. The 40/70 rule gets used out loud. Consultant words get challenged and replaced. The senior team starts to sound like the operating team it is meant to be, and the floor hears it within a fortnight.
Key Takeaways
What Your Audience Leaves With
Leadership is a word drowning in words – the offsite has to subtract vocabulary, not add it.
Use the Leadership Equation as a working test: Impact = Clarity x Action.
Apply the 40/70 rule out loud in exec meetings – decide with 40-70% of the information.
Replace consultant vocabulary with plain language the senior team can repeat on Monday.
Install a short set of standing questions – what is the call, what aren't we certain about, what is the next move.
FAQ