Travels From Victoria

Speaker Topics

COUNTERINTUITIVE LEADERSHIP

Our brains have evolved over 2.5million years to deal primarily with hunter gathering, only in the last few thousand years, our brains have been required to deal with a different context to hunter gathering and in the last few hundred with a speed of change that we are biologically incapable of keeping up. This slow and incompatible biological evolution of our brains is entirely at odds with our current business environment and requires us to operate in what often seems a counter intuitive way. The Speed of biological evolution is slower than the speed of technological advancement. This poses a serious challenge to our species. Leadership in today’s business therefore requires us to behave counterintuitively…let me expand on this and show you how important being aware of this simple but powerful concept is. Read less

CULTURES OF TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Cultures of trust, psychological safety, autonomy and action. What does it take to treat everyone like an adult and feel responsible for change. The fabric of team building and how to achieve high performance. The leadership traits needed to harness the collective power of individuals and help them collaborate and cooperate in uncertain circumstances. The importance of understanding self and how businesses start with each individual. If we can hack the way our brain works and how we respond and behave we can change the culture of a place. After all, it is the sum of our behaviours and decisions that forms the performance of a business or a team. Read less

CUSTOMER FOCUS AND ACTIVATING INNOVATION

The importance of focusing on the customer and not business problems and the dangers of falling in love with your product and service. The power of simplifying innovation to its core: moving from an unsolved problem to a solved problem. Practical tools to help turn the often vague concept of innovation into immediate action and how to involve everyone across the business or industry in the process. - We all have a role to play. How our brain has evolved primarily to hunter-gather and not for current speed of advancement. We are at odds with our own instincts. Gus will help you love change and become aware of your instinctual rejection to change. Read less

FUTURE TRENDS

Gus is the “Alternative Futurist” The Futurist that instead of speculating prefers to focus the effort on improving your ability to adapt to anything. Discussing future trends with an emphasis on what we can do now rather than what we could do later. Spend less time guessing and more time doing something about the future. Talk is cheap, action difficult. Gus comes from the future which helps ;-) Read less

UNLOCKING AGILITY & ADAPTABILITY

The challenges of corporate momentum and how to break traditional, repetitive business processes in favor of agile and more entrepreneurial models. How to create structures and systems capable of supporting established AND emerging business models simultaneously. Transforming industries, businesses, departments, teams and individuals to become more adaptable and succeed in rapid changing markets. Read less

Gus Balbontin

Born and Bread in wild Patagonia, Gus never allowed his small town and humble beginnings to get in the way of his big dreams. A healthy disrespect for authority and a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) landed him in Australia at the young age of 17.

By the age of 22, he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few years and he was leading the company globally working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high performing teams.

Seeking a change from corporate life, he hung up his boots as Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet and decided to move back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor across the start-up ecosystem in Melbourne. He loves sharing a story, he loves even more knowing those stories make a difference to people and help in their own business and life.

Over the last 3 years, Gus has presented around the world. From audiences of 10 to that of 10,000, the simplicity of his message and his counterintuitive way of looking at the world, will motivate you to do things differently.

Often thought of as a futurist, not because he predicts the future, but because he helps you focus on what you can control to deal with any future. Still want to talk trends? Sure! He loves that as much as the next person trying to imagine a world run by AI. But he warns: “getting too distracted with future guesses will only take time away from you and your company to actually do something about the future”

He is involved in the start up scene as a founder, investor and advisor and is on the board of Startup Victoria and Director of Above All Human. He currently runs a small Creative Studio and Innovation agency called Roshambo, is the co-founder and partner at Atessa and is the Entrepreneur in Residence and Executive Director of VU Innovations at Victoria University which keeps him close to large public corporate challenges as well as small business puzzles.

Starting in the late 90's and continuing for over a decade, TV - Music - Movies - Newspapers - Magazines - Books and other Media Industry players endured a level of disruption and change that had not been seen since the industrial revolution a few centuries earlier. It’s very likely that your industry and business is muscling through similar challenges right now.

Let Gus Balbontin take you behind the scenes to understand what companies did right and wrong during these decades of unparalleled change. The lessons he shares can be applied to all modern business and individuals facing the digital revolution and the relentless pace of technology.

He is candid and full of energy. He will make you laugh hard and equally think deeply about the puzzles of running a business irrespective of size. His common sense will disarm you and his practical approach will get you moving on Monday first thing!

Testimonial

Gus Balbontin really brought an explosive vibe to the morning sessions. Particularly being virtual his energy really extended through the screen and into the viewers rooms at home. Feedback was very positive. Gus' antidotes and examples around human behavior were so on point, so real and engaging. We hope to engage Gus again.?

Eventful Meetings and Events

Gus Balbontin is also high energy and completely engaged the audience. He really challenges the mindset of the audience through his story telling and examples.

Cuscal