The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau
A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.
A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.
Are you looking for an edge to help you succeed? Guess what—you've already got one.
How do you get a competitive “edge” at work and in life? Star business professor Laura Huang says that we don’t need to change ourselves to get the upper hand: we can simply make the most of who we already are. She’s a Harvard professor and a Distinguished Professor at Northeastern, as well as the Director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Center and author of Edge. Laura teaches us how to use everything—even our perceived flaws and the systemic biases that hold us back—to our advantage. Laura’s insights into edge will help us overcome adversity by flipping unfair stereotypes on their head and turning obstacles into assets. If we combine our edge with hard work—Laura’s revolutionary idea of “hard work, plus”—we’ll have the tools to compete and win.
“We’re all looking for an edge. But where does it come from? Laura Huang provides the answers. Be authentic and distinct. Provide value to others. And turn adversity into advantage.”— Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human
How do we find the elusive “edge” that will help us gain success? We don’t need to go searching too far, says Laura Huang, acclaimed business professor and author of Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage. If we learn more about our strengths and weaknesses and put them both to work with grit and determination, we can empower ourselves to create personal success—and find our edge. Laura’s talks teach us how to use that edge in a strategic way, drawing on examples from Olympians to Louis Vuitton assistants-turned-executives; along the way, she’ll show you that staying sharp means understanding and building on everything about yourself, even the flaws that you thought would be an obstacle.
In the working world, others may misunderstand or stereotype us as less capable. But this very disadvantage is what gives us the opportunity to shape the relationships and connections we make. We can learn to flip these stereotypes into something that propels us to success. Laura shows us how understanding how others perceive us will set us up to achieve more, and how communicating well creates an environment where we can use our edge and stay sharp. She teaches us practical strategies for making our differences work for us. Laura’s ground-breaking research also includes her work on “gut feel”—that sixth sense often written off as fake. She conducted dozens of interviews with investors and entrepreneurs, revealing the vital role that gut feel plays in managing complexity and risk—and the difference between big wins and playing it safe.
Laura has never played it safe in her own life, from her work at Harvard to her years as a high-powered consultant. New York Times bestselling author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz says that Laura shows us how to “take control of our toughest challenges with poise and authenticity”, giving all of us a model for what it means to use our natural talents to the fullest. She’s a professor at Harvard Business School, where she studies relationships and bias in entrepreneurship and at the workplace, and has previously held a faculty position at Wharton. She was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets and Quants, and was named to the global Thinkers50 Radar list as one of the top thinkers with the potential to change the world of theory and practice. Laura has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and Financial Times, where she’s changing the way that we think about ourselves.
CEO & Co-Founder of XLabs and Ribo One of Forbes's 30 Women in AI to Watch Artificial Intelligence Pioneer
CEO of Trend Hunter New York Times bestselling author of Create the Future
Bestselling author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Activist and scholar
Curiosity Expert Author of Seek Fellow at U.C. Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center Lecturer at The University of Texas
Director of the Penn Primals Project Senior Research Scientist at the Penn Positive Psychology Center
Leading Expert on Adolescence and the Parent-Child Relationship Award-Winning Psychologist Author of You and Your Adult Child
Curiosity Expert Author of Seek Fellow at U.C. Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center Lecturer at The University of Texas
Director of the Penn Primals Project Senior Research Scientist at the Penn Positive Psychology Center
Leading Expert on Adolescence and the Parent-Child Relationship Award-Winning Psychologist Author of You and Your Adult Child
Grit, more than talent, IQ, looks, or wealth, is a powerful indicator of success.
There isn’t a beat you can cover in America—education, housing—where race is not a factor.
Great brands don’t simply reach customers: they create real emotional bonds with them.
Stories of queer identity and Black joy have the power to educate us on diversity, inspire social justice activism, and build community.
Technology and science continue to make the world a better place—we can’t lose sight of that core truth.
Biases and inaccurate perceptions exist in the workplace. But if we find our edge and flip the narrative, we can use these perceptions to our advantage and create an inclusive organizational culture of belongingness. In this talk, Laura Huang explores the research that’s been done on workplace culture and organizational climate, and shows us the actions we can take to make a difference. She empowers us with practical tools and tactics to leverage our diverse backgrounds and career paths to support, inspire and make a sustainable impact. Laura shows us how we can communicate clearly, develop an inclusive culture from the outside and from the inside, and foster an environment where everyone can bring their unique edge to work.
It’s one of the most polarizing pieces of advice that we hear: “Go with your gut.” In this talk, Laura Huang discusses her research on decision-making in organizations, and why the question shouldn’t be about data-driven decisions versus gut feel-based decisions. Instead, effective organizational outcomes are the result of understanding the set of rules that are inherent in any complex decision—which dictate whether more data actually helps us make better decisions.