Books By, and Testimonials for Cliff Spiro

“Having worked in R&D for over 30 years, I was skeptical that a consultant could add value to my career, but Cliff proved me wrong. I have been interacting with Cliff regularly for over 3 years, and he has offered guidance and insights that have been vital in my personal and professional development, making a significant difference on several aspects of my work as a scientist and innovator. His calm and logical method of coaching, genuineness, and his ability to influence people has translated into invaluable life lessons that improved creativity, project execution, time management, communication and decision making.I can’t speak highly enough of Cliff. I have great respect for his credentials and his commitment to learning. He loves books, and even wrote a few masterpieces that I enjoyed reading and recommend. He is also a confidant and a person to go for advice of any kind. In the fast paced work environment that we all live on now a days, having Cliff around to address our growth needs is just priceless.” 

"After 30 years of observing speakers and presentations I can state without reservation Cliff is one of the best. He combines an impressive intellect, keen insights, extensive experience and an effective communication style to create compelling and informative presentations. I have witnessed Cliff's extraordinary presentations that both impress and entertain his audience. Drawing on his extensive experience in industry, he uses an effective story-telling style to convey key lessons on leadership. Unlike most speakers who simply list insights, Cliff puts them in context using anecdotes to engage his listeners. His talk at the Spring 2014 meeting of the American Chemical Society was one of the best I heard. "

 " Dr. Spiro delivered an excellent presentation on technology development at the recent annual meeting of [The Industrial Research Institute]. He spoke on how the transfer and application of new learning can yield unexpected and large benefits down the road. Cliff’s messages were on point and his presentation style resonated well with the audience. He essentially used storytelling to describe several different case studies in which he was personally involved. The cases built upon each other, effectively demonstrating how new knowledge gained in the effort to develop a new technology to address one problem was later applied to a seemingly unrelated problem with success. Feedback from our attendees on his presentation was quite positive, based upon an electronic survey we conducted at the end of the conference.  "

"It is a pleasure to recommend Cliff. He has provided seminars for our engineering management students which were always stimulating and well-received. He is clearly an expert in managing R&D and understanding the development of new technologies, including their business implications. I have also had numerous discussions with him on general management issues and found him to be very insightful and provide excellent advice on a broad range of management topics."  

"I had the pleasure of meeting Cliff nearly 7 years ago during an Innovation Leadership Summit for a leading building materials manufacturer. We instantly connected and has since been my “life coach” and mentor.
 

Cliff’s innate ability to find the very best in talent is a unique gift. He is astute in finding that diamond in the rough through asking the right questions that guide you through your own personal discovery to drive the growth in your leadership journey.
 

Cliff’s constructive feedback throughout our coaching relationship has without a doubt built my self-confidence and enabled me to deliver tangible bottom line results and, importantly, develop talent on my team to grow beyond their capabilities. If you are seeking someone who will go the extra mile for you, Cliff is your “life coach” and comes with my highest regard and level of endorsement."

"We brought Cliff in for an all-day leadership session with our up and coming R&D leaders. While I did not expect that a single one day session would do the trick, I thought it was still a great opportunity to have our young R&D leaders spend the day together, learning from Cliff  and from each other. I was not disappointed: the session turned out to be very impactful and beat all of my expectations. The content was perfect, especially for a group of emerging R&D leaders in the specialty chemical industry. The workshop was broken out into six modules, ranging from hiring the best to effective communication and managing technology portfolios. What I thought was really interesting was the way he wove leadership messages into stories and anecdotes from his career which really helped to keep the audience engaged throughout the day. Cliff encouraged participation from the audience and I was pleased to see a lot of dialog not only between Cliff and the audience, but among the team which enhanced the learning even more. I got very good feedback from the attendees ("Fun", "Energizing", "practical") following the session. I would recommend Cliff's training wholeheartedly for any R&D team. "