RJ Grimshaw
Founder and CEO • ABLE Leadership
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States •
$5,001 - $10,000
About
He’s run the business, not just studied it. For ten years he led a bank-owned equipment finance company. He took the cost of earning each dollar of revenue from $1.20 to 49 cents and contributed $42.4 million to the parent bank. He doesn’t start with the technology. His message is that the advantage is already inside your company: in the people closest to the work. AI should serve the strategy, not set it. That’s a different talk from the AI keynotes your audience has already heard. Your audience leaves with four questions they can use Monday: Is leadership aligned? What outcome must this business deliver? What specific work will this tool eliminate? Who owns the outcome? The talk runs on stories, not slides. It covers walking into a 35-year-old company and listening for 30 days before changing anything. It also draws on 20 years of coaching hockey, summed up as “Nobody plays the whole game.” His AI credentials are current. He’s Strategic AI Advisor to NEFA and holds Anthropic’s Claude Partner Badge for Claude Code. The format fits your event. He offers a keynote or webinar in 15-, 30- and 45-to-60-minute versions, in person or virtual, with no travel limits.
Speaking Topics
Signature Programs (1)
You can't win with six goalies. RJ Grimshaw has coached hockey for more than 20 years, and he ran a bank-owned equipment finance company the same way he runs a bench: as the general manager, not the player who never leaves the ice. When he walked into a 35-year-old company where people had been there 15 years on average, he spent his first 30 days listening more than he talked. Then he and his team built the Intrapreneur Operating System: the people closest to the work got the authority to improve it, and leadership held them accountable for results. This keynote shows leaders how to stop letting technology define how their business runs, and why the competitive advantage is already inside the building.
Key Takeaways
- - Is leadership aligned? If leadership isn't aligned on the outcome, no tool, team, or AI will fix it. - What outcome must this business deliver? Start with the outcome and the work that produces it. Technology comes last. - What specific work will this tool eliminate? Measure success by work eliminated, not tools created. - Who owns the outcome? Companies that reward people for doing their jobs instead of improving the business leave their competitive advantage on the table.
Audience
CEOs and leadership teams at mid-market companies across industries: leadership offsites, sales kickoffs, CEO peer groups, and franchisor national meetings and conferences.
Format
Duration
60 minutes
Delivery
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