Alexander Manu | Speaker Profile
Alexander Manu is a strategic foresight practitioner, innovation advisor, international lecturer, and author. He is a Senior Partner at Equilibrant, a boutique consultancy that provides strategic counsel and future-based advisory to executive teams in Fortune 500 companies in industries as diverse as consumer packaged goods, media, logistics, advertising, communications, and manufacturing.
He is a Professor at OCADU University in Toronto, and since 2007 on the faculty of the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) at the Schulich School of Business. In 2018 Alexander became the Global Innovation Steward at Holofy, a vibrant London (UK) based organization that builds technology that creates authentic connections between businesses and their customers.
Speaker profile
Alexander Manu has an exceptional and sustained activity as an international lecturer, being invited to give over 600 keynote lectures in 27 countries. A past president of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario, he was elected twice on the board of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). A past member of various advisory boards active at government levels in Canada and the Far East, he has consulted on foresight strategies for the Department of Canadian Heritage, the China External Trade Development Council, Taiwan Design Centre, Korea Institute of Design Promotion and is a founding member of Design for the World (Barcelona), an international NGO that provides and promotes humanitarian design solutions.
Alexander has been a guest lecturer at over 45 distinguished post secondary institutions around the world. He was elected in 1994 to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in recognition of his contribution to the development of design and visual arts in Canada.
Recent speaking topics
Foresight, Change, and Transformational Leadership
Digital Transformation: Future-proofing Luxury Retail
Challenges and Opportunities in an Emerging Landscape
The Richly Augmented Future of Communications
Future Proofing in Times of Change
The Future of Retail – Take 2
Career overview
Alexander Manu is a Professor at OCADU University in Toronto, and since 2007 on the faculty of the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) at the Schulich School of Business. In 2018 Alexander became the Global Innovation Steward at Holofy, a vibrant London (UK) based organization that builds technology that creates authentic connections between businesses and their customers.
Between 2007-2019 Alexander was an Adjunct Professor at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, where he introduced Innovation, Foresight and Business Design in the MBA curricula. Since 2021 Alexander Manu teaches Innovation, Value Creation, and Foresight Methods in the MBA in Entrepreneurship Program at the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (YEDI) at York University in Toronto.
In his client and research work, Alexander is involved in transforming organizations by integrating disruption in everyday business and defining new competitive spaces, the development of new strategic business competencies and creation of imaginative innovation methods. He believes that the exploration of possibility requires imagination as a prerequisite for strategic change and innovation. For over 30 years, he has enabled global companies as diverse as Motorola, LEGO, Whirlpool, Nokia, Navteq and Unilever, to develop policies and strategies that address emerging issues through strategic foresight and pre-competitive business models.
Alexander Manu was the Founder (2005) and Director of the Beal Centre for Strategic Creativity, a non-profit research think tank operating in Toronto, where he developed new methodologies in strategic foresight, focusing on the intersection of behavior, technology, and business capability.
Author of “Dynamic Future-Proofing: Integrating Disruption in Everyday Business”, 2021, Transforming Organizations for the Subscription Economy: Starting from Scratch”2017 “Value Creation and the Internet of Things” 2015, “Behaviour Space: Play, Pleasure, and Discovery as a Model for Business Value” 2012, “Disruptive Business”, 2010, “Everything 2.0: Redesign your Business Through Foresight and Brand Innovation”, 2008, “The Imagination Challenge: Strategic Foresight and Innovation for the Global Economy,” 2006″ ToolToys: Tools with an Element of Play”, 1995, and “The Big Idea of Design”, 1998, as well as of numerous articles published in national and international periodicals.
His most recent book,” The Philosophy of Disruption” was released in July 2022 both in hardcover and electronically by Emerald Publishing Group.
Organizations and event organizers can confidently hire this speaker to conduct keynotes and workshops about future trends across a diverse range of topics and in the following formats:
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| Advisory calls | Discussion with your executives to answer specific questions on a topic, project or subject of choice. |
| Executive coaching | One-to-one coaching and mentoring session between an executive and the selected speaker. Topics are mutually agreed upon. |
| Topic presentation (Internal) | A presentation for your internal team based on a mutually agreed topic with content supplied by the speaker. This format is designed specifically for internal team meetings. Maximum 25 participants. |
| Webinar presentation (Internal) | Webinar presentation for your team members on a mutually agreed topic, including question time. Internal replay rights included. Maximum 100 participants. |
| Webinar presentation (External) | Webinar presentation for your team and external attendees on a mutually agreed topic. Question time and external replay rights included. Maximum 500 participants. |
| Event keynote presentation | Keynote or speaking engagement for your corporate event. Topic and content can be customized to event themes. Includes one-on-one question time and participation in other event sessions if required. |
Book this speaker
Contact us to inquire about booking this speaker for a keynote, panel, or workshop, or contact Kaelah Shimonov at kaelah.s@quantumrun.com
