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

 

Talented Futurist Celebrates a Birthday

Aug 30, 2007

Looking Up Feeling Good would like to wish the very talented and focused futurist, Sophie Barber a happy birthday today. Sophie’s amazing talent at suggesting the possible future for a positive outcome is a true inspiration and we look forward to many more insights as the complexity of challenges continues to test our understanding, commitment…

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Leading Sustainability through Corporate Real Estate Hypothetical

Aug 22, 2007

The CoreNet Global Melbourne 2007 Summit incorporated a thought provoking Hypothetical panel discussion on the future of corporate real estate and the drivers for sustainability. With an economic futures framework provided by Melbourne University Professor of Economics Neville Norman who moderated the discussion, the panel included Aggie Aitken, Head of Workplace Development at ANZ; Strategic…

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Innovation in Employee Engagement

Jul 17, 2007

Among other great articles, the winter 2007 edition of Fast Thinking magazine highlights the ‘8 Factor’ model for effective employee engagement, created by strategic futurist Marcus Barber. Using the model he shows how organisations can develop greater flexibility when it comes to providing incentives as a means for improving productivity and ensuring longevity for staff.…

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Housing Crisis and A Difference to a Difference of Opinion

Jul 3, 2007

Last night the ABC program ‘A Difference of Opinion’ looked at the issues of the housing affordability ciris. The panel provided some quality perspectives as to what was causing the challenge and what kind of actions might need to occur in order to address the issue with Ross Gittins’ early observation that the debate completely…

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Sustainability as a Source of Competitive Advantage

Jun 22, 2007

Dan Atkins, former manager of Environmental policy at Toyota and now Director of Sustainable Business Practises and Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will speak at the South East Networks / VicUrban Business Breakfast at the Sandown Racecourse on Wednesday the 27th of June. Both Dan (who’ll discuss how Toyota applies its Environmental Policy in order to…

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Future Alerts Subscription Service now Monthly

May 27, 2007

Looking Up Feeling Good’s advanced signals reporting service ‘Future Alerts’ is now available as a monthly subscription offering. Designed to provide your organisation with signals indicating potential change, each report comes with analysis of the signals and how they might impact your business. Applying some advanced Environmental Scanning process, including the ‘VSTEEP’ model, you can…

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Marcus Barber invited to attend World Water Week in Stockholm 2007

May 11, 2007

Futurist Marcus Barber has been invited to present at the Stockholm International Water Institute’s prestigious World Water Week conference to be held in Stockholm later this year. His abstract submission ‘Life versus Lifestyle: the emerging clash between consumer demands and water availability’ forms part of the key workshop item of ‘Managing Future Consumer Demands’ which…

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May Brainnovation Session now open

Apr 26, 2007

The May Brainnovation session is open for bookings. If you’d like to be invited to attend this highly focused, creative and thought provoking session please contact us. We’ll send you an invite and as these sessions are strictly limited to no more than 15 people, it’s ‘first in – best dressed’ for acceptances! You’ll be…

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Authenticity & the Craft of Brewing Beer

Mar 29, 2007

Every now and again you discover something well ahead of the general public that is worthy of further investigation. That is the key advantage of being a futurist – you get to spend a lot of your time just looking for signals of change. In this case it is the soon to be opened Barleycorn…

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Strategy and Game Shows

Feb 27, 2007

Marcus Barber joined Brigette Duclos on the Channel 10 program ‘9am with David & Kim’ to discuss strategy and the game show ‘Con-Test’ How do game shows reflect our approach to strategy and what does it mean for the business decisons we make? This will be the subject of an upcoming ‘Ideas Piece’ to appear…

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