David Schonthal

Award-Winning Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management

Travels From Travels From:
Chicago, IL, USA
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David Schonthal Biography

David Schonthal electrifies audiences with actionable tips for how to be a change-maker in today’s rapidly evolving world.

He is an award-winning Professor of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation, venture capital, and creativity. Along with his colleague Loran Nordgren, Schonthal is a pioneer of Friction Theory—a ground-breaking methodology that explains why even the most promising innovations and change initiatives struggle to gain traction with their intended audiences—and more importantly, what to do about it.

This work is popularized in Schonthal’s Wall Street Journal and National Bestselling book, "The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas" (Wiley). Outside of Kellogg, Schonthal has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He has spent a decade working at the world-renowned design firm, IDEO, and currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm, and a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a consumer and enterprise-focused fund. Schonthal is also a Global Advisor at Design for Ventures (D4V), a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in designed Japanese startups.

He is a contributing writer to Forbes, Inc., Fortune, and Harvard Business Review magazines, authoring articles on entrepreneurship, innovation, change, and business design. Schonthal was honored as a Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist and was named one of the "30 Global Thinkers to Watch in 2022" by Thinkers50, an international organization that identifies, ranks, and shares the leading management ideas of our age. He has won Kellogg’s Executive MBA Outstanding Professor award 7 times and has received the school’s Faculty Impact Award for excellence in teaching.

As much as Schonthal would like to think he’s one-of-a-kind, he’s actually a triplet.

David Schonthal Speaking Topics

  • OVERCOMING THE RESISTANCE THAT AWAITS NEW IDEAS

    How do you get people to say yes to a new idea or innovation? In this interactive session, David Schonthal highlights the Frictions that operate against new ideas and innovation; describes the unexpected reasons why the ideas and initiatives people are most passionate about get rejected; and explains how to transform those frictions into important, powerful catalysts for change.

  • DESIGN THINKING

    Design is not just a verb – it is a way of thinking. In this interactive session, David highlights some of the fundamentals of Design Thinking and discusses how they can be applied to everything from products and services to business models. Participants will explore how to apply these principles across a variety of industries, in small companies and large enterprises alike.

  • QUESTION 0: BEGINNING THE HUNT FOR NEW IDEAS

    Inspiration for innovative new products, services and ventures is all around you – sometimes hiding in plain sight. The best way to discover these opportunities often starts with asking the right questions. In this session, David shares tools and techniques for reframing the world around you, identifying ways to make an impact and mustering the confidence to do something about it.

  • HUMAN—CENTERED INNOVATION SPRINT

    Business is, at its core, a social enterprise. As a result, understanding the social, emotional and functional needs of humans is essential to providing true and lasting innovation. In this workshop, David highlights the fundamentals of Human-Centered Innovation and discusses how they can be applied to everything from products and services to business models. Participants will explore how we can apply these principles across a variety of industries, in small companies and large enterprises alike. The workshop culminates in a popular hands-on design sprint where audience members will roll-up their sleeves and design new products and services for each other.

  • THE POWER OF WHY

    Truly innovative products and technologies start by focusing on the consumers’ problems to be solved. What do consumers really want to accomplish? What are the tradeoffs they are willing to make to achieve better outcomes? Why do they make the choices and decisions that they do?

    The key to all of this is finding the right struggle to address. In this session David unpacks the most powerful tools and techniques for discovering the hidden needs of consumers, and translating them into compelling new products, services and ventures.

David Schonthal Videos

  • How to introduce new ways of working… that will actually stick ...
    TED & Upwork | Have you ever worked at an organization where a promising policy or program was ... says innovation expert David Schonthal.
  • David Schonthal - The Human Element

David Schonthal Books

  • The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas
    The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas

FAQs on booking David Schonthal

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  • What topics does David Schonthal speak about?

    David Schonthal is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business, Business Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Professors, Technology.
  • Where does David Schonthal travel from?

    David Schonthal generally travels from Chicago, IL, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
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David Schonthal is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as OVERCOMING THE RESISTANCE THAT AWAITS NEW IDEAS, DESIGN THINKING, QUESTION 0: BEGINNING THE HUNT FOR NEW IDEAS, HUMAN—CENTERED INNOVATION SPRINT and THE POWER OF WHY. The estimated speaking fee range to book David Schonthal for your event is available upon request. David Schonthal generally travels from Chicago, IL, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Nidhi Chadda, Dhiraj Mukherjee, Jennifer Hyman, Daymond John and Hill Harper. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling David Schonthal for an upcoming live or virtual event.

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