John E. McLaughlin is one of the nation’s leading authorities on intelligence and foreign policy and currently teaches and researches at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Prior to that, he had a three decade career in the U.S. intelligence community, primarily at the CIA, where he worked on nearly every part of the world, briefed four of the last six American presidents, and served at Deputy Director and Acting Director from 2000-2004. He has also worked on Capitol Hill, the U.S. State Department, and served as a US Army officer in Vietnam.

A life long magic enthusiast, McLaughlin also preforms magic professionally at a number of venues in the greater Washington, DC area. He is member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians’ Order of Merlin and was accepted into London’s prestigious Magic Circle, the world’s oldest magic society.

He has been a contributor as a global affairs expert on CNN and currently on MSNBC and has served on the boards of two corporations — Noblis and Aerospace. He currently writes a biweekly foreign affairs column at www.ozy.com, while contributing op-eds to publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico.

McLaughlin is a co-author, with David Morey and Eugene Burger, of Creating Business Magic, which shows how the principles used by professional magicians to imagine and create the impossible can help leaders in business and government enhance creativity, innovation, and success.

About Creating Business Magic: How the Power of Magic Can Inspire, Innovate, and Revolutionize Your Business

First comes the magic, and then the magic becomes the reality

You may think you know what magic is. Abracadabra, hocus-pocus. Forget about it. Magic? Magic is what human beings do. It’s just that some do it a lot better than others.

This book takes everything that three remarkable authors―a corporate strategist, the former acting director of the CIA, and a world-renowned magician―have learned about magic and packs it into a unique framework that captures the best of this art form and relates it directly to key lessons applicable to a wide variety of business enterprises. The authors’ objective is not to create a new generation of magicians, but to adapt nine strategies of the world’s greatest magicians and inspire boundless imagination, bolster innovation, energize leadership, and spark success in any business. At the core of Creating Business Magic is the belief that imagination can make magicians of us all.

Magic and disruptive innovation: Each chapter opens with a scenario depicting a pivotal historic moment in magic―from Harry Houdini to Doug Henning to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield―and uses it as a starting point to explore how the magical technique employed can create a fertile environment for industry disruptive innovation and propel a company light years ahead of the competition. The nine disruptive strategies presented by the authors demonstrate how to:

Anticipate the next trends out of thin air; Create remarkable new products that wow customers; Launch marketing and advertising campaigns that will mesmerize “aspirationals”; Make dazzling sales presentations; Resolve seemingly unsolvable business dilemmas; Inspire teams with resilient change leadership in which the “status quo” is never acceptable and each year the organization incorporates new “tricks” into its act

Business magic: Specifically designed for companies seeking to achieve the transformative, innovative results of the authors’ illustrious corporate and political clientele―GE, Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, Microsoft, Google, NBC, five Nobel Prize winners, and even President Barack Obama―Creating Business Magic is both an authoritative business management book and a spectacular, entertaining read.