What do You want to Achieve & by when do You want to Achieve it?

Cutting to the Chase:

If you’d like an overview of clients and expertise click this link to the Expertise page

Here’s what will happen –

1st Working with your Executive and Leadership Groups I’ll help you identify emerging change and the Risks and Opportunities that change represents

2nd I’ll facilitate Your Decision Making: By taking your key team through critical processes that define what you need to do in order to prepare for the emerging future both to mitigate risk and prepare to grasp the opportunities;

3rd Your Forward Game Plan becomes clear: With a tailored engagement based on your desires and capabilities, you’ll end up with a specific and deliberate plan for action that sets a clear desired end target, the actions you’ll take and how you’ll know whether you are progressing as planned.  You will reduce the uncertainty for your organisation

Check out the Client Portfolio Page to see the multidisciplinary clients I’ve worked with. You’ll find that this means you’ll access exceptional experience to your organisation’s advantage.

 

If you need to become more aware of change, mitigate risks and develop an effective path forward then contact me today. But please note – it’s depth you’ll find, not sugar hits and pseudo corporate jargon! I’m interested in your organisation taking action for a future you want to create, starting now. All you have to do is contact me today to get started

A quick update: the previous ‘Free Articles and Papers‘ section is now called ‘The Future Of…‘ with articles moved under a theme such as ‘water’ or ‘people’ or ‘technology’ and so on. Some articles will also appear in multiple locations given the broad reach of some topics. They’ll all still be there and they are all still free!

Looking Up Feeling Good is a business that helps you to move towards Getting Your Future Right. If this is your first visit, below you’ll find an overview of where to look to find the information you need; and if you are a return visitor, welcome back:

Strategic Thinking: If you want ideas to kick start strategic thinking, go to The Future Of tab above, where you’ll find a whole series of free downloadable papers and thought starters on a range of topics. That might be sufficient for your needs. If you want something customised for your organisation’s specific needs or alternatively if you have any questions about the ideas in the articles and ways to use them in your business by all means contact us

Media Coverage: If you are looking for some of the media on topics where Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber has presented or provided comment, go to the Free Articles tab and you’ll see them listed in the first part of that section. If you are a journalist or media organisation looking for a comment about ‘the future’ please contact me directly via email or my ‘roving landline’ if you need an immediate comment for a story on the day

Facilitation, Consulting & Speaking Requirements: If you are looking to find a futurist for a key note speaker or require a consultant to assist you with Facilitation, Innovation, Strategy or Futures work then you’ll probably want to talk to us first. If you’re wanting to enhance your organisational strategy, we’d be more than happy to provide you with an obligation free, no cost one hour consultation to discuss your needs, to determine if we are the best ones to assist you and to find out exactly what you are wanting to achieve, or put you in contact with someone better suited. Call us on 61 422 553 o21

Client Feedback: Interested in reading what others have gained or said about our services? Go to the Great Client Feedback tab and find out for yourself the quality of the types of results of using our skills in your business

Products & Services: Whether you’re thinking about training, skills development, external sources of Environmental Scanning or more, you’ll find most of what you need listed in either the Products and Services tab. These fully customisable sessions and products are aimed at delivering to you an increased strategic awareness capability and have been used successfully in almost all industry sectors and by clients of varying sizes. Call us if you have any questions on 61 422 553 o21 or eMail 

Areas of Latest Focus and upcoming Events: If you’re interested in finding out what specific projects have our attention at the moment, or want to know some of the latest events on the horizon that we feel worthy of knowing more about, check out the Events tab or the Latest Focus tab

Understanding the Role of Feedback

Feedback plays an important role in the success of organisations of all sizes and can help us determine how our efforts are producing desired results or may need to be adjusted to achieve the goals we want.

Traditional forms of feedback are usually ‘echoes from the past’, just like trend spotting is nothing more than identifying things that are already happening, rather than things that could happen. We would like you to consider that an ‘echo from the future’ can be even more valuable feedback which is why businesses come to us to help them consider what their future might look like.

‘Getting Your Future Right’ ™

Check the following questions and see if they fit the kind you want an answer to. If so, we can probably help you. I have an extensive network of content experts and specialists, an am able to put you in the right direction with someone who can assist

“What does the future hold for our Industry and what should do about it?”

“How do we ensure we get the type of future we want?”

“Where should we be looking to maximise our opportunities and minimise our potential risks?”

“How can we build our organisation’s capacity for Innovation to ensure continued success?”

“Is it possible to get a jump on our major competitors?”

If you’ve ever asked yourself those questions or ones like them then we have a sense for what you want to achieve

On this site you will find enough information to be able to make the kind of smart decision that will deliver what you want and greatly benefit your business. And you’ll still probably want to talk to us – we’d be happy to hear from you and to answer those questions you have about what you need from us.

And YOU have to take action and MAKE THE CALL today!

It is likely you are an organisation looking to answer some key questions for your future. You may have a changing marketplace, emerging supply chain issues or you may be witnessing a shift away from your traditional products and to alternative competitor offerings. You may be aware of managerial challenges to available employee numbers or sense that ‘times are changing’ and want to know what those changes mean for you.

Potentially your senior management group or business unit has grappled with the idea of change and has explored some strategic plays and thinking – but the choices are uncertain. This level of uncertainty needs addressing because ‘we had good intentions’ is not a satisfactory response to the questionWhat went wrong?And potentially, your business is not yet satisfied with the answers it has generated to the strategic questions it is trying to answer.

For Looking Up Feeling Good the various issues (whatever they may be) indicate opportunities for growth and possibilities for collapse. None of our clients have considered ‘collapse’ an option and we doubt you do either, which is why you are here.

Companies like yours come to us for a number of reasons and those reasons tend to fall into two main areas:

1. Your company is aware that the old way of doing business and textbook 101 answers are no longer providing the desired level of ‘payback’ to the organisation and you are being (proactive) at creating the future you want

and also common –

2. Your company has reached a crisis point and is looking to rescue itself (reactive)

So you know we can help. On these pages you’ll see some of the services we make available to you, from strategy development, innovation processes, various training sessions and presentations to high end strategic information services. And at the end of the day, I deliver the outcome: ‘Getting Your Future Right’ ™ So – ask away!

Send us an email or call the Highett office: 613 422 553 o21

 

Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report goes ‘live’ tomorrow

Apr 17, 2008

Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten…

Read More >

Marcus Barber to join Jon Faine for the Conversation Hour on ABC Melbourne

Apr 14, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will meet with eminent ABC radio presenter Jon Faine on Wednesday the 16th of April to discuss the outcomes of the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra on the weekend With a focus on the future of Australia it would be only natural…

Read More >

2020 Australia – Futurist’s Report

Mar 3, 2008

A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a…

Read More >

Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report

Feb 25, 2008

As preparations continue for the Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘1000 heads’ ideas summit in Canberra in April, a group of Australia’s leading futurists are gathering in Melbourne this weekend for the ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’. The futurists attending the summit work across Australia, in corporate, not for profit and Government agencies in a variety of fields…

Read More >

Are Interest Rate Rises Too Clumsy to Help a Teetering Economy?

Feb 21, 2008

A few thoughts on what steps could be taken to overcome the ‘treat everyone like a nail’ approach that Interest Rate rises seems to do. Check out the idea under the ‘Latest Focus’ section Interest Rate Rises are going to penalise too many people who don’t deserve to lose their homes

Read More >

How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks

Feb 7, 2008

Marcus Barber offers his thoughts on How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks and suggests that raiding boats won’t do the job. Instead he suggests that the key to negotiating with the Japanese is to have the Japanese people do the work. And to encourage them to do so we must begin to talk…

Read More >

Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Blanketed by Dust Storm

Jan 17, 2008

If an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ raised the profile of global warming to the general population, it appears that a willingness by political leaders to take appropriate action to mitigate the possible ramifications is still very much lacking. It is such a pity. No one who holds the Global Warming scenario close to heart wants to be…

Read More >

Marcus Barber to be Interviewed on 774 ABC

Dec 6, 2007

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will join Tim Cox on 774 ABC as part of the conversation hour next week Tim is filling in for Jon Faine whilst he takes a well deserved break and Marcus will join him for the conversation hour kicking off at 11am on Thursday the 13th of December, where they’ll discuss…

Read More >

From Foresight Foreplay to Corporate Consummation

Nov 14, 2007

At the AustForesight 2007 Conference, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber and fellow Futurist Steve Tighe presented their take on what is required to enable futurists to be seen as more relevant to the Corporate world. Drawing on their shared experience as facilitator and client, they detailed the journey of foresight and futures across the past 50…

Read More >

Melbourne Cup Predictions

Nov 5, 2007

Futurists often get asked things like ‘Okay then – who’s going to win the ‘flag’ this year’. In Melbourne Cup time most of my friends ring me asking for a hot tip. Given my consistent poor form at selecting a winner, why they would ask me is anyone’s guess (unless they are working out who…

Read More >