Keynote topic
Chris Hirst – Leadership Transition Keynote Speaker
Chris Hirst is the former Global CEO of Havas Creative Group who ran a 10,000-person, 100+ country, $1bn P&L network through reset. His transition keynote gives new leaders, incoming CEOs, and strategy offsites the operating equation for the first 100 days – clarity and action – and the discipline to act on 40-70% of the information instead of waiting for certainty that never arrives.
New leaders fail in the same way every time – they hesitate. The room has enough information to move. The new leader wants more. Pace dies, the senior team reads it, and the transition stalls before it starts. Chris has been the new leader walking into that room. The keynote hands incoming leadership a working equation – Impact = Clarity x Action – and a discipline – Colin Powell's 40/70 rule – so the first 100 days produce behaviour change, not status updates.
Or speak to the team directly — ChrisHirst@clash.cc
Why the right voice
Has been the new leader, in the room, on the clock
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 – sits at the centre of the operating model. His third book Indispensable (Macmillan Business, paperback forthcoming 11 June 2026) extends the same work for senior leaders. The transition keynote anchors on a 2009 senior-team meeting at Nokia: a room of senior people with enough information to move and not enough clarity to decide. Chris uses it to mark the moment every new leader either trades certainty for pace, or stalls. The discipline he hands the room is Colin Powell's 40/70 rule – act with 40-70% of the information, never less, never more.
- 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.
New and transitioning leaders leave with a working operating equation and a decision discipline. Impact = Clarity x Action – both terms have to be non-zero or the impact is. Trade certainty for pace and act inside the 40-70% information window. Run the first 100 days on named behaviour changes, not status updates. Read the early signal: is the senior team starting to wait for you, or starting to move with you? They also leave with the plain language to explain the trade to their own team, so the cascade survives contact with the floor.
- 01
Use the Leadership Equation: Impact = Clarity x Action – multiply, not add.
- 02
Apply the 40/70 rule: act with 40-70% of the information, never less, never more.
- 03
Trade certainty for pace – the senior team will read your hesitation faster than your strategy.
- 04
Name what you don't know in public, then make the call anyway.
- 05
Run the first 100 days on named behaviour changes, not status updates.
The contrarian bit
Why most leadership transitions stall before they start
Chris opens a transition keynote on a 2009 senior-team meeting at Nokia. A room of senior, capable people with more information than any of them could read. Everyone able to describe the situation. Nobody willing to name the call. By the time the call gets named, the window has closed.
From there he reaches for the framing in No Bullsh*t Leadership (Profile Books). The job of a leader is not omniscience – it is clarity and action. Impact = Clarity x Action: multiply, not add. If clarity is zero, impact is zero, no matter how much action. If action is zero, impact is zero, no matter how much clarity. New leaders trade certainty for pace, or stall. Colin Powell's 40/70 rule sits on top: never decide with less than 40% of the information, never wait for more than 70%.
The cadence of the new leader's calendar moves first. Fewer information-gathering meetings, more decision meetings. The senior team stops bringing options for review and starts bringing recommendations for sign-off. The new leader makes 40-70% calls in public and names what they don't yet know. The team adjusts to that pace, or self-selects out.
Questions
Leadership Transition — booking Chris.
Yes. Before the date Chris reads the transition brief with the chair, incoming CEO, or HRD – stage of handover, board temperature, what the senior team is still waiting on. The Nokia scene and the 40/70 rule are the spine of every version; the recommended Monday moves are written for the specific room.
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