John R. Brandt

An experienced executive, entrepreneur, journalist, author, and researcher, John R. Brandt is the founder and CEO of The MPI Group, a global management research firm, and the former editor-in-chief and, later, publisher of IndustryWeek in the 1990s and early 2000s.

His book Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It (HarperCollins, 2019)—is based on groundbreaking research into leadership and performance excellence across more than 50,000 organizations. Brandt has earned more than 20 editorial awards for excellence, and also led more than 300 advisory, marketing, research, and data engagements for clients, including Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Grant Thornton, Infor, the Italian Trade Commission, Microsoft, Performance Solutions by Milliken, SAP and many others. Brandt also maintains a busy lecture schedule, speaking worldwide on how organizations, industries, and communities can avoid "nincompoopery and despair" by adapting themselves to the realities of new markets, new corporate structures and new customer expectations.