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Estelle Métayer

Competitive and Strategic Intelligence Expert

Estelle Metayer Headshot
Why Companies Need to Experiment
Estelle
Estelle Metayer Headshot
Why Companies Need to Experiment

Estelle Métayer is one of the world’s leading experts on competitive and strategic intelligence. She specializes in how leaders can build and improve their strategic decision-making processes and competitive intelligence functions to avoid strategic blind spots. Her best work is done when companies need to drastically change the way they do business and/or grow aggressively.  A former consultant with McKinsey & Company, Métayer is fluent in both French and English and skilled at communicating and simplifying complex business ideas and strategies.

Métayer was the president and founder of Competia, a leading training organization for executives and analysts in strategic Intelligence, prior to selling it in 2004. She began her career at ING Bank based in both the Netherlands and Poland, where she studied the financial risks of expanding into emerging countries. She then gained first-hand practical experience while managing competitive intelligence, business development, and strategic planning at CAE Inc.

Today, Métayer is a reputed public speaker and facilitates strategic workshops around the world. She is also an adjunct professor for McGill University, where she teaches in the advanced leadership programs, the International Masters for Health Leadership, the Analytics Leadership Program, and the Executive MBA program, among others. Métayer also leads courses on strategic blindspots, technology oversight, governance of technology, and social media crisis management for the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors, and has been a guest lecturer at IMD, IMB, INSEAD, and MIT.

In 2000, Métayer received the Arista Sunlife Award for “Entrepreneur of the Year,” and was a finalist in 2001 for the “Women of Merit” award from the YWCA. She is an experienced board member, having served on boards of both public and private companies across three continents. She is currently the chair of the board of Nortera, a North American food manufacturer; an independent member of the board of BRP Inc.; an independent member of the board of Audemars-Piguet; a member of the board of Ivanhoe Cambridge; and a member of the board of the Institut des Administrateurs de Société.

Métayer was trained in the Netherlands, where she obtained her MBA and PhD from the University of Nijenrode. She is also a commercial pilot and flight instructor.

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

  • Artificial Intelligence: Reshaping the Future of Work

    In the age of smart machines and artificial intelligence, as robotics are rapidly exceeding human capabilities, this presentation zeroes in on the challenges for the future of work and how your company may be affected. It explores the ways AI is transforming jobs, enhancing productivity, and reshaping the future of work, while offering insights into how employees can thrive in this AI-driven era. This presentation can be customized to your industry.

    Themes discussed can include:

    • An overview of advances in robotics, AI, and smart machines — predictions and reality.
    • The skill gap: The need for reskilling and upskilling the workforce to align with the increasing demand for AI-related skills and competencies.
    • AI as a tool for enhanced productivity: How AI can augment human intelligence by boosting efficiency, creativity, and decision-making across various sectors.
    • Addressing biases in AI and ensuring diversity in AI-driven decision-making processes to build a more inclusive future.
    • Leadership skills for the 22nd century: The evolving role of leaders in managing AI implementation, guiding workforce transitions, and fostering a culture of innovation.
    • A new definition of employee loyalty: Risk or opportunity?
    • How to get ready as an executive so you are not left behind.

  • Polycrisis: Navigating the Collision of Global Threats

    We are living in a world where crises are no longer isolated. Instead, they are interlocking, compounding, and creating a “polycrisis” — a unique convergence of long-lasting political, economic, environmental, and societal risks. As inflation, demographic shifts, geopolitical tensions, artificial intelligence, and changing consumers create a complex world for executives, they have to learn to adapt. The question is no longer whether we can prevent these crises, but how we can survive them. Are we ready to face a future where resilience and agility becomes the norm? This speech will challenge conventional thinking, and show the path to resilience, change, and transformation:

    Key themes explored include:

    • The myth of resilience: Why our systems are fragile.
    • Globalization’s accelerator: How interconnectivity exacerbates risk.
    • Why business-as-usual won’t save us: Learning from those businesses that thrive in a changing world.
    • The ripple effect: How one crisis fuels another, and how to think systemically.
    • Revolution or collapse: What’s your industry’s inflection point?

  • Are You Ready for the Future of Artificial Intelligence?

    The next 5 to 10 years will not just bring change — they’ll bring transformation. Companies and their leaders need to prepare for a radically altered global landscape where geopolitical turmoil and deep consumer shifts collide with disruptive technologies. Are you ready for the oncoming wave of artificial intelligence and transformative trends? In this talk, Estelle Métayer will dive into the forces that will either make or break businesses worldwide and outline what you need to do today to stay ahead.

    Themes discussed can include:

    • A review of major long-term trends that will affect the global business world in the coming decade, both in their impact on business models and customers.
    • The decade of AI disruption: Trends that will obliterate old business models.
    • The AI tsunami: The explosive rise of AI will transform not just operations but demand entirely new leadership approaches — those clinging to old styles will be left behind.
    • The futurist’s arsenal: Sources and new inspiration used by intelligence analysts, futurists, and foresight experts to predict and prepare for the trends shaping tomorrow.
    • From insight to action: Making trend analysis your innovation engine.
    • Why developing a leadership team with a “trendspotter’s mindset” is critical to staying agile and thriving in a world of constant change.

  • Unlocking the Hidden Goldmine: How Data Can Fuel Unstoppable Creativity, Making Artificial Intelligence Real

    Forget dry analytics — data is the ultimate playground for creativity. In the hands of the right minds, data isn’t just numbers; it’s the key to unlocking revolutionary insights about your consumers or stakeholders. This talk challenges conventional thinking and reveals the untapped potential of data to fuel creativity, disrupt industries, and reveal the deepest truths about consumer behaviour.

    Key themes explored include:

    • Data as a creative superpower: How to stop thinking small and use data to creatively unlock groundbreaking ideas and innovations that go beyond traditional market research and customer profiling.
    • Cracking consumer codes: How data reveals hidden consumer desires and behaviours. Learn how to interpret the signals and uncover the needs your customers don’t even know they have.
    • From Stats to Stories: How to urn data into compelling narratives that captivate consumers and drive engagement.
    • The new era of personalization: How leveraging consumer data can help brands design hyper-personalized experiences that resonate deeply, creating unbreakable loyalty.

  • Digital World, Analog Company: Preparing for the Artificial Intelligence Age

    New media and artificial intelligence are deeply changing how companies organize, make decisions, retain talent, and interact with their customers. Business models are imploding and customers are increasingly savvy and demanding. In these challenging times, traditional companies face the need to make rapid and responsive changes while operating in a world of ambiguity. What strategies are best?

    Key themes explored include:

    • A dynamic review of disruptive technologies in your industry and a 20-year outlook.
    • The digital journey: Illustrating through concrete case studies how companies can go from digitally reactive to digitally strategic and transformational with a particular emphasis on customer centricity.
    • Dealing with the friction posed by the clash of generations and the benefits of reverse mentoring.
    • Catalysts and inhibitors to the adoption of artificial intelligence for developing new skills and new organizational structures.
    • Aligning the organization’s processes and mindset to the influx of data and its impact on customer service, corporate communication, and R&D development.
    • Sorting noise from signal – triangulating data, eliciting information.
    • Pragmatic takeaways: A toolkit to keep up to speed and find new and refreshing sources of intelligence to challenge assumptions and develop as an individual.

  • Weak Signals: Finding Your Canary to be Ready for Anything

    In a world where we are inundated by data, it is often difficult to filter the critical information from the noise. However, if you look closely, weak signals are always detectable, signalling a significant change ahead. When these signals go undetected or are disregarded, the results can be disastrous. Witness Kodak, Blackberry, Blockbuster — all companies that did not heed the signals of change in their environment.

    No company is immune to change. Through striking examples and case studies, this presentation demystifies the methodology and tools that can be used to decipher the signals of the future.

    Key themes covered include:

    • Weak signals as precursors of future trends.
    • Tapping into orthogonal sources of information to find signals.
    • Telescoping from big patterns to tiny insights using artificial intelligence.
    • Finding new and refreshing sources of inspiration to challenge assumptions.
    • Broadening your fields of expertise to open peripheral vision.

  • Strategic Blindspots: Risks and Opportunities

    Even the most sophisticated companies fail sometimes to pick up signals that the environment is about to change. When strategic decisions are largely driven by anecdotes, executive intuition, and past experiences, companies run the risk of making decisions based on biased information and wrongly rejecting potential growth avenues, limiting entrepreneurial opportunities.

    The objective of this training session is to introduce tools and methodologies to identify and prevent strategic blindspots and unlock future opportunities for growth. Discussion could include the following modules:

    • An introduction to strategic blindspots and a discussion of the key sources of blindspots in companies.
    • How to challenge unchallenged assumptions and corporate taboos.
    • How to unlock new growth pillars by challenging industry boundaries.
    • Capturing weak signals: The art of trend analysis and action.
    • How to build processes to scan for blindspots and develop an independent intelligence process.

  • Governance in the Eye of the Social Media Hurricane

    Social media has overtaken traditional means of communication to customers, employees, and shareholders. Yet, few boards have the tools and processes to allow the agility to respond to emerging crisis, or to harness the opportunity to build resilience and connect directly to stakeholders.

    In this energetic session, Estelle Métayer will demystify why social media matters for governance professionals, and discuss the following, based on real case studies:

    • Managing reputation risk for the company and responding to social media crises.
    • Developing and supervising social media as an emerging official, but also unofficial, channel of communication to the public and to shareholders.
    • How to react when social media disrupts your company strategy, compensation policies, or succession planning.
    • The particular agility to build in case of cybersecurity breaches gone viral.
    • Dealing with a social CEO.
    • Dissecting the digital playbook of the activist shareholder or stakeholder.
    • Understanding the impact of tough social media campaigns to build the resilience of your employees.
    • Building pro-active lines of defense.
    • Structuring the board processes to allow rapid alignment and decision-making.

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Client reviews

  • EMBA McGill-HEC Montreal

    Estelle Metayer was a keynote speaker for our conference on “The Future Ready Organization” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our program. The audience was 150+ senior executives who had completed the EMBA McGill-HEC Montreal over the previous 10 years.  She’s a great speaker, her material is relevant and cutting edge, and she does an amazing job of involving the group.  She had everyone in the group up and working and fully engaged.  She also does a great job of drawing the learnings out of the ideas the group generates.  On top of the great content and delivery, Estelle is a pleasure to work with on every level. We had some great discussions before the conference to nail down the topic and approach – she is keen to understand the audience and to make sure what she delivers is meaningful to them. She’s very professional, well-organized, well-prepared, adaptable and personable.

  • TD Securities, Québec Investment Banking

    I have had the great fortune of knowing Estelle for a number of years now. Not only is she a thoughtful executive and board member, but Estelle is a one-of-a-kind speaker and panelist. We had the pleasure of hosting Estelle during one of our breakfast conference event at the Quebec Chapter of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). Estelle is the only speaker that ever got a 100% approval rating from the audience – we send surveys to people attending (approx. 250 people in attendance with 40% response rate) and every single survey we received rated Estelle and Estelle’s conference as the best ICD speaker and best ICD conference they have ever attended. The result is obviously impressive, but having known Estelle for many years, it was not-so-surprising given how interesting and articulate Estelle is.

  • Cambrian Credit Union

    Estelle has delivered keynote addresses at many conferences and forums that I have organized and hosted over the years. She is a visionary provocateur who challenges assumptions and focuses on the future. Estelle captivates her audience, leaving them wanting more. She doesn’t just give a presentation; she creates an experience. Her thorough preparation, professionalism, and commitment lead to inspired minds, return engagements and an international fan base. Invite Estelle to your next event and prepare for a transformation!

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