Karen James Travels from NSW
Fee Range: POA
Karen James's Biography
With over 30 years of engineering and business experience, Karen’s portfolio career has moved her from New Jersey to Europe to Asia to Australia. She has since fixed networks connecting to North Sea oil rigs, designed and implemented a 600-seat virtual service centre in 12 weeks, and turned a $9M business into a $100M business early on in her career – setting the tone for her future in business: have purpose, build the right culture, and bring in amazing leaders who are, above all, human and accessible.
This same approach reaped rewards when Karen co-created a cross-cultural change program in a large corporation, based on the teachings of women in rural India. Partnering with The Hunger Project and McKinsey, she implemented a leadership-lesson program, which has directly – and measurably – changed the lives of business executives since, and its transformational ripple effect continues to make monumental personal and professional changes to this day.
At the same time Karen championed her social intrapreneurship skills to birth and grow the Women in Focus community over three years from scratch – one woman at a time. The stories within this community are often described as 'life changing' by its nationwide members – who believe that collaboration, friendship, trust and ethics is how you get ahead in business, for good.
Characterised by informed and infectious energy, with a great sense of humour, Karen pours her unique career and life experience into energetic consulting, facilitation and keynote presentations. Karen's stories are colourful and full of action-outcome responses to the questions most pertinent in business today.
With an engineer's brain, an entrepreneurial mindset, a knack for community engagement and a deeply ethical moral compass – Karen stands out for all the right reasons in a business world often filled with suits and straight faces.
From innovation to transformation to community building, Karen’s sharp intellect and a global career brings something for everyone.
Karen’s purpose is to ignite just change. Change that is just. Change for a world which needs changing, fast. Her vision is to reach many and have everyone discover the leader within so we can all work together to solve the seemingly intractable issues which our world faces.
Karen couldn't be more excited by the shift towards business for purpose. With over 30 years’ experience in purpose-driven business activities, and a tangible track record, she is an inspirational and accessible advisor to many who want to shape business for good.
Speaking Topics Include
Create, Disrupt & Innovate
Participants will:
Understand the essence of what it takes to move from transacting to relating with current and future customers.
Learn and create new mindsets, new thinking and new operating models.
Understand how to power your purpose with technology and deliver on time, on budget and on purpose programs and projects.
10 Steps To Get Your Life & Business On Purpose
Participants will:
Identify or refine their personal purpose.
Identify or refine their professional purpose.
Develop an action plan to manifest purpose through a formula based ten step approach – identifying who you need to be as a leader and most importantly how to get stuff done, on purpose.
On Purpose, The Book
Participants will:
Understand the book and discover how the PLOT framework can get their organisation, and themselves personally, living on purpose.
Experience real-world examples of the application of purpose-led organisations transforming, innovating and exceeding their goals.
Create their own plan to unleash their purpose – converting mastery, innovation and transformation into amazing meaning-driven results.
Just Change
Participants will:
Understand the true meaning of “just change”.
Learn the top questions used to challenge whether a change is just.
Understand how their personal and professional purpose and leadership has a broad impact.