- Toronto: 416.420.4525
- Ottawa: 613.860.4525
- Vancouver: 604.420.4545
- printer friendly version
- e-mail this page
- view Alexander Manu video
- find another speaker
- contact prospeakers.com
check availability
speaker topics
Alexander Manu
Author and International lecturer on strategic innovation
Alexander Manu is a strategic innovation practitioner, international lecturer and author. He works with executive teams in Fortune 500 companies in industries as diverse as consumer packaged goods, media, advertising, mobile communications and manufacturing. Alexander lectures around the world on innovation, imagination, change agents and strategic foresight. He is a Senior Partner and Chief Imaginator at InnoSpa International Partners, teaches "Innovation, Foresight and Business Design" at the Rotman School of Management, is a Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design and in Toronto and a visiting lecturer at the Wallace McCain Institute.
In his client and research work, Alexander is involved in transforming organizations by exploring 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 20 years Alexander 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.
Author of 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, 1999 , as well as of numerous articles published in national and international periodicals. His most recent book, Disruptive Business: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business is scheduled for release in June of 2010 by Gower Publishing. His writings have been translated and published in 11 languages. Alexander has an exceptional and sustained activity as an international lecturer, being invited to give over 350 keynote lectures in 23 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. A graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts of Bucharest, Romania. (MDA - Industrial Design 1978), he was elected in 1994 an Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in recognition to his contribution to the development of design and the visual arts in Canada.
Topics:
- Innovation and Imagination
- Strategic Foresight
References:
"Blown away by Alexander Manu this morning on everything 2.0. Brain is reeling from it. So good". VP, Proximity.
"Tonight I attended a lecture by Alexander Manu... it was by far the best presentation of the lecture series this quarter. He was simply an inspirational speaker who obviously had done his homework when it comes to human/technology interaction." University of California, Santa Barbara.
"Alexander Manu shared ways to get clients and designers to access the most important ingredient for thinking innovatively: the imagination... and reclaim play as an "ageless and indispensable condition of every human being," IDSA, DesignAbout, New York City.
"Keynote speaker Alexander Manu was inspiring and charming... I learned that the questions are more important than the answers... that you must create a space for the organized exploration of possibility... getting the job done doesn't leave much time for imagining what the job could be... and much more." Isummit. Toronto.
"...I was moved by the presentation of Alexander Manu in the service design afternoon... moved to the point that the final collage of pictures and music of war, and then about people and love brought tears to my eyes - like to almost all other eyes present". Helsinki, Finland.
"Alexander Manu's presentation was amazing... gave the Toronto seminar attendees new insight into how fresh ideas are shaped. He explained that corporations are a moving stream of concepts, which need creativity to engage with the world around them. As he gave a demonstration of the value of toys and play to the adult imaginative process, the audience was inspired to 'allow themselves to explore their intellectual curiosity' and set a 'target for creativity'". Zolos.
"I caught the keynote by Alexander Manu and was really impressed. Alexander was super enthusiastic and talked a lot about play, and how it is central to human being but so often marginalized in our society." Hogtown Consulting.
"Alexander Manu is holding forth on imagination, the interfaces of the future, and all kinds of wonderful stuff. He's a terrific, entertaining, whip-smart presenter." Isummit. Toronto.
"A couple of weeks ago, you gave a very insightful presentation to our Board of Directors. I wanted to take a few minutes to thank you sincerely. Our directors were most impressed and you gave us all a lot to think about as we think about the future and what it means for lottery and gaming. Thank you again for a highly stimulating and thought-provoking presentation." Interprovincial Lottery Corporation
"Alexander's perspective on innovation, consumer behavior, and change in general were not only insightful, but they inspired me to re-think many of the projects I am working on in my career. As a person who works with innovators and is an innovator myself, I believe Alexander's presentation will help me better understand the behaviors, not the processes, that allow us to change the world in which we live." Kevin Dahl - Calgary Technology company
"Alexander Manu is brilliant and wants the audience to be too. HE was very good about conveying the causes and prohibitors to innovation and "real disruptive items" rather than "interrupting events". Fabulous. One of the best speakers/experts at any Impact I've been at."
Follow us:
