Speaking

Gain valuable insight from the TOTALED story

Learn from TOTALED and avoid making the same mistakes. Invite Brian to speak to your company, accelerator, incubator, professional forum or business school class. Make Brian your next conference keynote or roundtable panelist and receive critical lessons about managing change. Take a deep dive into the dynamic, real-world case study that was the electric car startup Better Place.

Brian speaks to the topics you and your team need to know about.

Seven lessons to learn from the bankruptcy of Better Place

Even the most successful startups make mistakes along the journey. Some overcome those missteps, others shut down and their teams move on to new ventures. Learning from and bouncing back from failure are the keys to becoming a resilient world-class entrepreneur. In this talk, Brian presents seven lessons learned from the bankruptcy of Better Place and how you can apply them at your company or organization.

A case study in managing change

The crash of Better Place was not the result of any single factor. Rather, it was a perfect storm of unexpected changes on multiple fronts, some coming all at once, that upended the company’s business plan and assumptions. Learning how to manage those inevitable changes and not being afraid to pivot can make the difference between acceleration and stalling. In this talk, Brian presents the Better Place story as a compelling business case study.

The pitfalls of innovation: when being first is the last thing you should do

Better Place pioneered a range of ground-breaking innovations: battery swappable electric cars, robot-powered switching stations, a smart charging network, applications for virtual power plants and more. But being first isn’t always the best strategy and sometimes it’s the successors that take home the prize. What are some of the pitfalls to be learned from the Better Place story about innovating too soon?

Is the failure of Better Place a warning sign for the Startup Nation?

Israel has more companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange than does India, Japan and Korea combined. It has more venture capital investment per capita than anywhere else in the world, and is No. 1 in the rate of per capita R&D spending. While there have been some huge successes – billion dollar exits by companies like Waze, Mobileye and M-Systems – there is also the flip side. Is the failure of Better Place a blip – or a warning sign that not all is well in the Startup Nation?

Behind the scenes writing TOTALED

Take a deeper dive into the process of writing TOTALED. Brian interviewed 80 former Better Place executives, investors and car owners; poured through hundreds of documents; conducted clandestine meetings and met some of Israel’s true power players. The story of how the book came together is as fascinating as the lessons learned.

Watch Brian in action

Speaking with Emily Frances Balshan on i24 News.

Talking TOTALED with Aaron Poris on ILTV

The full video from the book launch for TOTALED in Jerusalem

Originally aired on Sirius XM Channel 111 Business Radio.

Listen to the full interview on KAN Israel Radio

A preview of Brian Blum’s appearance on ARTE TV (France)

Events

Listen to TOTALED on Israel Story

Brian produced this audio documentary for the podcast Israel Story. Meet some of the people in the book. Take a virtual drive in the Renault Fluence Z.E. all-electric car. Hear the surprising – and emotional – new ending to the Better Place story.

Contact

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