Erin Meyer is a cultural expert who explores how successful leaders navigate complex cultural differences in multicultural environments. Her work centres around helping campines develop organisational cultures that facilitate innovation and flexibility, providing evidence-led strategies that improve performance across the globe. Erin currently also serves as a Professor of Management Practice at INSEAD, where she teaches how to operate successful businesses in increasingly global markets. As part of this role, she leads the 'Leading Across Borders and Cultures' executive programme, which helps leaders improve international collaboration.
Erin's education began with a bachelor's degree from Colorado College, which she later followed up with an MBA from INSEAD. Her early career involved a variety of positions, including Director of Training and Development at HBOC and Peace Corps Volunteer. Erin's later roles specialised in regional and national leadership, with her acting as the Regional Director of Business Operations at McKesson Corporation in 1997 and Country Director for France at Aperian Global in 2001. In 2007, she began working as a professor at ISEAD, publishing several influential titles, including her HBR article "Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da", which was named the most-read HBR article of the year in 2015.
Erin has since been featured in the New York Times Sunday paper, Forbes.com, and The Times of India. In 2014, she released her first book, 'The Culture Map', which became an international bestseller. She co-authored her second book, 'No Rules Rules' with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings in 2020, which outlined management strategy and suggested that greater freedom and responsibility were the driving factors behind higher innovation rates. The book later became a New York Times bestseller, and Erin was named one of the fifty most impactful business writers in the world by Thinkers50. Alongside her award-winning publications, she has also been recognised as one of the top thirty most influential HR thinkers of the year by HR magazine. As a speaker, Erin shares her insights across major networks and has been interviewed on CNN, Bloomberg TV, the BBC, and NPR.
With extensive knowledge of complex global business strategy, Erin is a respected authority within workplace culture discussions. She regularly delivers keynote speeches and has run popular seminars for organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba, Twitter, Sinopec, Gerdau, KPMG, Michelin, Deutsche Bank, Heineken, L'Oréal, ExxonMobil, Novo Nordisk, and BNP Paribas. Her most recent engagement was a full-day seminar for DenkProducties, where she explored successful feedback in cultural environments, building trust and adapting while also remaining authentic. Ideal for a range of events, Erin tailors her incredible keynotes for each organisation. To hire her for your next conference, panel discussion, or summit, contact Champions Speakers today!
Erin Meyer's official speaking topics are listed below:
The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
As today's business world becomes ever-more global and virtual, executives and managers are expected to work harmoniously together with counterparts from a broad array of cultures and backgrounds, often without leaving their desks. But when you throw people together who come from starkly different backgrounds and cultures, the result can be interesting, even sometimes funny, but can also lead to misunderstanding and confusion.
In this talk, Erin Meyer offers a highly practical and timely perspective on one of today's most pressing business issues: how do different cultures influence the way to do business when working globally? Even those who are culturally informed, travel extensively, and have lived abroad often have few strategies for dealing with the cross-cultural complexity that affects their team's day-to-day effectiveness.
Meyer provides a new way forward with vital insights for working effectively and sensitively with one's counterparts in the new global marketplace. This talk will help you build a more cohesive and successful team: one that will work together to bridge gaps, transform differences into assets, and ultimately grow your business.
No Rules Rules: Fostering a Culture of Reinvention
How can you create an organizational culture that weathers the storms of disruption, economic uncertainty, and the chaos of a rapidly changing world? Join Erin Meyer, as she provides practical insights from her latest research, conducted with Netflix founder Reed Hastings, exploring how to develop a work environment that fosters creativity and adaptability. You will learn to value people over process, emphasize innovation over efficiency, and lead with context, not control. Through unorthodox principles such as Talent Density, Radical Candor, Freedom and Responsibility, and The Keeper Test, Erin will lay out a proven, systematic method for building and enhancing a corporate culture that breeds high performance, speed, and flexibility throughout the organization.
Building a Culture That Sticks: Turning Corporate Values Into Everyday Behavior
Most companies describe their culture with inspiring words - integrity, respect, transparency - but when employees face difficult decisions, those words rarely provide real guidance. When trade-offs arise, people are left to rely on personal judgment rather than the company's stated values.
In this thought-provoking keynote based on her award winning 2024 Harvard Business Review article 'Building a Corporate Culture That Works' Erin Meyer reveals a more powerful way to build culture: define it through the real dilemmas employees face every day. Should a leader prioritise transparency or stability? Encourage disagreement or preserve harmony? Prevent mistakes or empower bold experimentation?
Drawing on two decades of research and examples from companies such as Netflix, Amazon, and Airbnb, Meyer shows how organisations can turn abstract values into clear decision rules that guide behaviour in critical moments. Leaders will leave with practical tools to build a culture that doesn't just sound good on paper - but actually shapes decisions, aligns teams, and drives strategy forward.
- Multi-cultural TeamBuilding
- Conducting Business Across-Cultures
- Cross-cultural Communication
- Leading Across Cultures
- Developing Your Organizational Culture
- Building a Team Culture of innovation, speed, and flexibility
- 2026 - Delivered a full-day seminar for DenkProducties
- 2023 - Named as one of the fifty most impactful business writers in the world by the Thinkers50
- 2020 - Co-wrote New York Times bestseller 'No Rules Rules' with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings
- 2018 - Selected by HR magazine as one of the Top 30 most influential HR thinkers of the year
- 2014 - Authored international bestseller 'The Culture Map'
- 2015 - Her HBR article "Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da" was the most-read HBR article of the year
- 2007 - Professor of Management Practice at ISEAD
- 2003 - MBA from INSEAD
- 2001 - Country Director for France at Aperian Global
- 1997 - Regional Director of Business Operations at McKesson Corporation
- 1994 - Peace Corps Volunteer
- 1989 - Bachelor's degree from Colorado College
- Director of Training and Development at HBOC
How to hire Erin Meyer
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Erin Meyer for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
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