Jim Gilmore

As co-author of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage (Harvard Business School Press, 1999), James H. Gilmore literally wrote the book that spawned worldwide interest in experience design, customer experience management, and experiential marketing. Tom Peters rightly called The Experience Economy “a brilliant, absolutely original book." Now published in ten languages, the book continues to find new readers across myriad industries as businesses find their goods and services commoditized, with customers increasingly spending their time and money on experiences--memorable events that engage them in an inherently personal way.

Gilmore’s most recent book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want(Harvard Business School Press, 2007, see www.AuthenticityBook.com), contends that Authenticity is the new Quality--that businesses must learn to manage authenticity as a distinct business discipline. Indeed, in a world of increasingly commercialized activity--intentionally staged and technologically mediated--people today want the real from the genuine, not the fake from some phony. For businesses and industries sensing the need to render greater authenticity, Gilmore and his co-author Joe Pine, offer unparalleled insights concerning this important new issue.

Jim is co-founder of Aurora, Ohio-based Strategic Horizons LLP. He is a “professional observer," sought by enterprises around the globe for his expertise in conceiving and designing new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. He is a frequent keynote speaker, as well as workshop facilitator and executive coach; a number of professional societies, trade associations, and individual companies also engage Gilmore to help design their overall events. Most interestingly, many organizations employ him to conduct “learning excursions"--peripatetic tours of exemplary experiences in the cities in which they convene conferences and events, followed by intensive debriefs to extract lessons learned from the touring.

Gilmore’s ideas have been featured in numerous articles on business strategy and innovation for such publications as the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Investors Business Daily, among others. He is also co-editor of Markets of One: Creating Customer-Unique Value through Mass Customization (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000).

Mr. Gilmore began his career with Procter & Gamble and then spent over ten years consulting with Cleveland Consulting Associates and Computer Sciences Corporation, heading up CSC Consulting's process innovation practice before starting his own firm. Mr. Gilmore is currently a Batten Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. He previously served as the 2002-2003 Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Co-chair at the College of Family & Consumer Sciences at Iowa State University. Mr. Gilmore is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania--and an avid Cleveland Indians baseball fan.