Marcus Barber

Utilising a wealth of process methods, Marcus’ world class facilitation & consulting skills enable Boards, Senior Management teams and diverse stakeholder groups to gather insights aimed at answering a core question: ‘What do you want to achieve, and by when?’ Marcus is a Strategic Futurist and Value Systems specialist assisting clients in strategy, risk & innovation and employee engagement.

Multi Disciplinary Experience & Client Port Folio:

Government Clients:

International

OIC COMSTECH (Pakistan+); Ministry of Manpower (Singapore); FBI Futures Working Group (USA); Defence New Zealand; Asia Productivity Organisation (Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Malaysia, Philippines), Development Academy of the Philippines

Federal Level

Regional Development (Victoria); DEST; Centre for Defence & Strategic Studies (Department of Defence); ABC Radio; Australian Sports Commission; Department of Agriculture, Forests & Fisheries; Australian Defence Simulation and Training Centre

State Level

VicUrban; Sport & Recreation Victoria; DIIRD; Department of Planning & Community Development; Victoria Police, Victorian Managed Insurance Agency, Queensland Rail; Department of Health & Human Services;

Local Level

Yarra Valley City Council; South East Business Networks (CGD); Moonee Valley City Council; Gold Coast Water; Gold Coast City Council; City of Wangaratta; City of Greater Dandenong; Albury City Council; Melton City Council; Local Government Professionals Association, Knox City Council. Frankston City Council

 

Other

Victorian Water Association; CSIRO; Community Sector Services (WA); CaFNEC; Central Highlands Water; Western Water; South East Networks (SEM) City Deals Partnership

Manufacturing & Production Clients:

Young Dairy Network; Turners & Growers, New Zealand (ENZA); Pacific Brands (Grosby, Everlast); Hilton Manufacturing; Conductix-Wampfler (Delachaux Group); Barleycorn Brewers; General Motors; GMH; Fosters Australia; Newcrest;

Professional Services Clients:

AIMIA; The CEO Institute; Selection Partners; PageUp People; KMPG; Frontier Media; Employee Assistance Professionals Association of Australia; Asia Business Forum; Audiology Australia; Parenteral Drug Association; Ernst & Young; CPA Australia, Assure Programs; Centre for Organisational Development; Australian Organisation of Occupational Hygienists; Centre for Australian Foresight; The Australian Strategic Planning Institute; Swedish International Water Institute; Mayo Clinic (Mayo-In-Oz); Grant Thornton Australia

Associations & Not for Profit Clients:

Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA); GPN South Gippsland; South East Manufacturing & Marketing Alliance (SEMMA); Queensland Supply Chain & Logistics Council; Queensland Dairy Farmer’s Organisation; Parenteral Drug Association (Australia); Homeground Services; Brisbane Institute; Australian Toy Industry; Beacon Foundation; Australian Computer Society; Australian Podiatry Council; Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Australia (ANTOR); Audiology Australia; Australasian Institute of Occupational Hygienists; Australian General Practise Network (AGPN); RSCA; Association of Professional Futurists; Cairns & Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC), Dandenong Chamber of Commerce

Education Sector Clients:

Learn Local Metro; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Korowa Anglican Girls School; Australian Scholarships Group; Swinburne University; Adult Community & Further Education (Loddon Mallee); Deakin University; Teach the Future (USA); Association of School Administrators; Kambrya College; Association of School Business Administrators; Carwatha College; Dandenong Primary School; Bentleigh West Primary School; Sandringham East Primary School; Noble Park Secondary College; St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School, Caulfield Grammar, Brighton Secondary College, GO TAFE

Broad Portfolio Clients:

Telstra; Sportsmans Warehouse; Leightons Holdings; ESPN; ARRB Group Ltd; Insurance Australia Group; AP Touring; Panthers Entertainment Group; Kimberley Clark;

 

Reputation & Standing

He delivered the strategic futures block at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (Australian War College) in Canberra, the premiere management training program for the Department of Defence that brings military personnel from around the globe to a year long residential strategy training program for 15 years

An engaging and thought provoking speaker, his public forums include UNESCO’s ‘Committing Universities to Sustainability’ conference in Austria, ‘World Futures Conference’ in Vancouver and ‘World Water Week’ in Stockholm along with many others in Australia on behalf of Ernst & Young, Victorian Water Association, CaFNEC, VicUrban, City of Greater Dandenong, Young Dairy Farmers, RSCA and many more.

Marcus was co-presenter on the National Geographic Channel’s TV series ‘Future Matters’, author of ‘The Money Tree and How to Grow One – Creating Success in Your Business‘ and in 2012 finished ‘Getting Your Future Right. He is now finishing ‘Killing Trends: the Graceful Art of Innovation‘ and also ‘Recession Proof Marketing’ (being co authored with Tod O’Reilly); he is the founder of The Australian Strategic Planning Institute was an advisory board member of the Australian Bill of Rights Initiative and is part of the Lifeboat Foundation’s Futures advisory Board.

He was on the Board of the Association of Professional Futurists for almost five years and is one of the co founders of the Centre for Australian Foresight. Marcus has been published in a number of Journals around the world, is often interviewed on radio and for articles in newspapers and magazines discussing leadership, management and ‘the future of…’ and was a regular contributor to Australasia’s innovation magazine ‘Fast Thinking

Qualifications

Master of Science, Strategic Foresight; Swinburne University of Technology

Master Practitioner Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), International NLP Training Association

Multiple Certification in Human Values Systems; National Values Centre, USA

Graduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning; Napier University, Scotland / SUT

Certificate IV in Training & Assessment; Holmesglen

Applied Sustainability; Fanshawe College, Canada

Professional Memberships

Professional Life Member of the World Futures Society

Past Board Member of Association of Professional Futurists, Current Member

Previously on Board of Management, Dandenong Neighbourhood House

 

Need to Find a Futurist? Email us today

Key Note Speaking information, including copies of a number of presentations can be found in the Free Articles section

Will a Change in Greens Leadership make the Nationals Redundant?

May 5, 2015

With the moderately surprising news that Christine Milne had decided to step out of her current political life, Dr Richard Di Natale moved into the driver’s seat for the Greens. And I flag that this spells trouble for the National Party because this shift, this change in voice and style, connected to similar passions, will…

Read More >

Why most Strategic Plans are little more than wish-lists

Apr 21, 2015

In fact I’ll go one step further and say that many Strategic Plans are DELIBERATE methods for NOT Progressing. In far too many organisations, the process of Strategic Planning is about compliance to a process of ‘having a plan’ and typically it has nothing to do with achievement of the outcomes listed in the Strategic…

Read More >

Why Battery Technology will force Power Companies to embrace domestic supply

Mar 11, 2015

Around Australia and parts of the world like the USA, some governments and especially many large scale power utilities, are pursuing a campaign to prevent domestic solar from being fed back into (sold to) the grid. I’m assuming that the (fundamentally flawed) thinking is that by denying additional energy production points, they’ll prop up or…

Read More >

Men, What Will Your Legacy Be?

Feb 23, 2015

I’m male. You may like to take that into consideration with the rest of what you read as, a) I’m part of the problem b) Whatever I say cannot, no matter how well intentioned, be in anyway able to represent women     I’m prompted to write this particular piece following on from the ABC’s…

Read More >

The Future of Energy

Feb 19, 2015

  On a day when The Age front page ran a story of mass disconnections of householders struggling to pay their domestic electricity bill, Futurist Marcus Barber and ABC Goulburn Murray’s Joseph Thomsen discuss the future of energy – what’s happening now, what are we going to see in the future and what can consumers…

Read More >

Eat OR Extract? You CANNOT do Both

Feb 5, 2015

With Farmland across NSW, Queensland, & the Northern Territory under pressure from the mining sector, the quality of discussion as to which land use is of best outcome or most suitable seems to go astray. I’ve been flagging the ‘Eat’ OR ‘Extract’ challenge for a few years now and this radio interview is one example…

Read More >

2015 will be the International Year of Battery Technology

Dec 30, 2014

For the past few years I’ve decided to declare each year to be something I think the world needs or is likely to see. It’s not so much about the prediction but more about the likely focus that will benefit the world. So I’m declaring this year to be the International Year of Battery Technology…

Read More >

Why Uber is not part of the Sharing Economy

Dec 17, 2014

I keep reading posts that Uber is an example of the ‘sharing economy’, the one in which people freely share what they have with others. But it’s NOT – it is instead part of what I call the ‘Utilisation Economy’ which is about use of spare capacity. About 15 years ago I began writing about…

Read More >

Incumbent models are vulnerable to leapfrogging technology. Here’s why:

Nov 8, 2014

One of the reasons I founded The Australian Strategic Planning Institute was to ensure that high quality futures perspectives were included in the Strategic Planning process. Typically they were not which meant too many businesses and organisations were planning for futures that just would not exist as expected, meaning wasted resources and sometimes and marked…

Read More >

Down the Drain with a Four Minute Shower – redux

Oct 21, 2014

As Victorian edges its way into a new drought phase and plays catch up to other parts of the country, I’ve been pushed to remember an article I wrote about our then State Government’s push to get people to reduce the length of their showers. The Four Minute Shower was an attempt to highlight just…

Read More >