David G. Thomson

David G Thomson has a passion for innovation, business-building and leadership. His unquenchable thirst for identifying the difference-making traits of the most successful high growth businesses led him to a deep inquiry into the growth and management traits of America’s highest growth companies. Based on three years of detailed research of American companies that have IPO’d since 1980 and grown to at least $1 Billion in revenue.

Thomson’s recently released (John Wiley & Sons Publishing) Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth provides the first quantitative identification of the success patterns common across this distinctive group of “Blueprint Companies”. During the research period, Thomson presented early findings to over one thousand Fortune 500 executives, small company CEOs and investors to test his findings and gain insight to dig even deeper.

Since being published in January 2006, the book is its fourth printing. It is being translated in 4 countries and has been featured as the #1 best selling book on www.800CEOREAD.com. SoundView Book Summaries awarded the Blueprint to a Billion as one of the best business books for 2006.

Thomson has appeared on CNBC's Closing Bell and in such well know publications as the NY Times, Investors Business Daily, Entrepreneur Magazine, Leader to Leader (formerly Peter Drucker Foundation) - the lead featured article in the May issue, the cover story in May's Fortune Small Business and Red Herring Magazine.

Thomson has presented the Blueprint to a Billion to a vast audience including top tier VC firms including the National Venture Capital Association,, Fortune 500 CEOs, the Churchill Club and Deloitte & Touche Fast Company Awards.

Besides speaking and signing thousands of books, Thomson conducts workshops for high growth companies, provides consulting services. He has formed Blueprint Capital Advisors were he is incubating a Blueprint Company Index which is being calculated by Standard & Poor's Custom Index Group.

David G. Thomson has been leading business growth for 20 years in general management and executive sales/marketing at Nortel Networks and Hewlett-Packard. He also served as an Associate Principal during his five years at McKinsey & Company. Thomson graduated with an Electrical Engineering Degree for the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. He resides with his family in Overland Park, Kansas. His favorite hobbies are running, golfing and radio-controlled jets.

The hallmarks of Thomson’s business-building career was at Nortel Networks where, as General Manager, Residential Services, he led the development, standardization and deployment of advanced Wireline Caller ID services; Caller ID on Call Waiting and Telemarker Call Rejection. This initiative, in partnership with Bell South launched a billion dollar software and telephone business for Nortel. As Vice President, Sales and Marketing in both Nortel and HP, Thomson led strategic account growth from $100M to over $500M. These successes in large companies drove Thomson to identify the success pattern for standalone businesses.

MOST REQUESTED PROGRAMS:
Align Your Goals with the Success Pattern of America’s Highest Growth Companies!
Whether you are a senior management team of a large corporation aspiring to create a billion dollar business or high growth entrepreneurs to get onto the exponential growth trajectory, David’s keynote speaking presentations will not only motivate you but aspire to achieve greater growth. David’s presentation style provides a unique blend of content and stories to guide your growth aspirations and actions.

Deloitte & Touche has hosted David’s Blueprint to a Billion presentation to Deloitte’s Fast Company CEOs and investors in Atlanta, Washington DC and New York. Award winners have been presented with the book along with a visual summary provided by Visual Ink. Below is a picture of a keynote to over 130 CEOs in Washington. That day was a special day. We achieved a feedback score of 4.8 out of 5! What was the primary driver? It was powerful and unique content!

Prior to the book being released, Vish Mishra asked me to present to TiE in Silicon Valley. With 4 days notice, he had over 130 entrepreneurs for a Sunday afternoon presentation! Whether you are a small business or one on the way, the story of exponential growth applies to you – it is a journey all the way to the top!

Take away not just notes but a book and visual map of the Blueprint to a Billion! Almost all of my audiences want more than a few key learnings. They are energized to read the book and use the visual map as a one-sheet summary of the book. David makes a special effort to customize autographs and messages for each of the readers.

David will customize his message to meet your needs. Whether it is:

Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth
David will summarize the book in typically an hour and deliver stories and facts to complement the book. He will field the questions that the engaged audience invariably asks.

Blueprint to the Inflection Point
You may think the 7 Essentials don’t apply early on. They do. The challenge is building them out. David takes the 7 Essentials and explains the lessons learned as companies journeyed from founding to achieve exponential growth at the inflection point.

Blueprint to $10B
Only 29 of the 387 Blueprint Companies traveled the journey from $1 billion to $10 billion in revenue. What are the lessons learned for companies who are approaching $1 billion and desire to grow?