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Martin Gutmann
Martin Gutmann helps organisations rethink leadership and decision-making for an uncertain world, drawing on history and organisational psychology. A Thinkers50 Radar honouree and Forbes contributor, his TED Talk has drawn over 2 million views.
Martin Gutmann is a globally sought-after keynote speaker who brings fresh and urgent insights into how leaders can understand and navigate today’s uncertain world. Combining history, sociology, and organisational psychology, he delivers engaging, story-driven talks that challenge conventional wisdom and offer practical takeaways for leaders and organisations. His ability to bridge the past with the present helps audiences rethink leadership, decision-making, and strategy in an era of rapid change.
Martin is a professor at the Lucerne School of Business and senior lecturer at ETH Zurich. His research and thought leadership have reached over 60 million people through pieces in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes (where Martin is a regular contributor), Inc., Fast Company, and many other popular outlets, as well as appearances on leading management podcasts. His TED Talk, “Are We Celebrating the Wrong Leaders?”, has been viewed over 2 million times and he was recently recognised in the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2026. Martin is the best-selling author of The Unseen Leader: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership. Adam Grant, organisational psychologist and thought leader, describes the book as a: “A provocative look at what history really teaches us about effective leadership. This book will challenge you to rethink some of your core assumptions about what it takes to align people around common goals.”
Born in Sweden, Martin has lived and worked in Japan, the US, Canada, Mauritius, Germany, and Switzerland. From 2016 to 2020, he was the founding Managing Director of the Swiss School of Public Governance, where he launched a programme for future global public sector leaders. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, an Executive MBA from IE Business School in Spain, and higher education teacher’s training from Harvard University and ETH Zurich. Martin has delivered thought-provoking keynotes for organisations such as Google, UBS, Swiss Re, Zurich, Fujitsu, and Dow, as well as major international conferences.
His presentations resonate with audiences across leadership, HR, strategy, and innovation, inspiring them to rethink how they approach decision-making and organisational culture. Participants leave with actionable strategies, a fresh perspective on leadership, and practical tools to turn uncertainty into opportunity. Book Martin Gutmann to inspire your leaders and equip them with the insights needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Topics, sessions and talks
Why do organisations need leaders in the first place? The answer is uncertainty. When the future is predictable, rules and processes are enough. But when markets shift, technologies disrupt, and crises emerge, people look for something more: direction, confidence, and meaning. Yet uncertainty also makes leadership profoundly difficult. It clouds judgment, fuels anxiety, and tempts us toward simplistic answers precisely when nuance matters most.
Drawing on captivating stories from history—from the pioneers of aviation and great explorers to business icons and world leaders—Martin Gutmann reveals why the leaders who thrive in uncertain times often succeed in ways that are deeply counterintuitive. Blending history, psychology, and cutting-edge leadership research, he challenges many of our assumptions about what effective leadership really looks like.
At the heart of the keynote are three essential leadership balances that enable individuals and organisations to flourish amid complexity: vision balanced with a focus on the mundane, drive balanced with humility, and values balanced with pragmatism. Audiences will leave with a fresh understanding of why these tensions lie at the heart of exceptional leadership—and practical strategies for leading with greater clarity, resilience, and purpose in an increasingly uncertain world.
Based on the TED talk that became a global sensation, Martin challenges your team in this keynote to reconsider their definition of effective leadership, highlighting that true greatness lies in preventing crises rather than responding dramatically to them. Drawing lessons from the disaster-prone explorer Ernest Shackleton and other similarly famous (but consistently unsuccessful leaders), he challenges conventional views and offers a fresh perspective on what makes a leader truly exceptional. Attendees will learn to appreciate the often-overlooked skill of crisis prevention and learn to cultivate the three universal traits of effective leaders: fluency in context, a balance of humility and confidence, and a pragmatic mindset.
What really drives high-performance teams? In this eye-opening talk, Martin Gutmann breaks with conventional wisdom to reveal the secret behind truly resilient, high-performing teams (hint: the key is balancing relationships and performance), the critical role leaders play in making this happen, and why this matters now more than ever. Drawing on exceptional teams from sports—such as the Chicago Bulls, and business, as well as cutting-edge research on psychological safety, team dynamics, and humble leadership, this talk delivers surprising insights and actionable takeaways that will change the way you think about leadership and team performance.
This isn’t a talk about AI strategy. It’s a talk about what it will take to lead through one of the most profound revolutions in modern business. Combining sharp historical insight, witty anecdotes, state-of-the-field research, and actionable foresight, Martin Gutmann delivers a powerful new lens for understanding AI, not as a technical challenge, but as a leadership imperative. Attendees will gain insights into the five concrete tensions they need to master to lead well in the age of AI: trust, productivity, meaning, clarity, and power.
Communication isn't what leaders do after they've made a decision. It's how great leaders shape the decision and create momentum in the first place. In this engaging and thought-provoking keynote, Martin Gutmann challenges the conventional view of communication as a "soft skill," revealing instead that it is the foundation upon which trust, alignment, culture, and high performance are built.
Drawing on surprising historical examples, cutting-edge research in organisational psychology, and memorable stories from business, politics, and sport, Martin explores why some messages inspire movements while others create confusion, resistance, or disengagement. Along the way, he uncovers the hidden role communication plays in everything from leading through uncertainty to building resilient, collaborative teams.
Audiences will leave with practical strategies for communicating with greater clarity, purpose, and authenticity; learning how to align people around a shared vision, foster trust through humility, and use storytelling to turn complexity into action.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Martin Gutmann, email martin.gutmann@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Martin's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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