Paul Higgins

Paul established Emergent Futures Pty Ltd as a consulting company combining his long experience in business with his training as a futurist to assist organisations and individuals in the creation of strategy. Paul believes that the application of foresight tools to the strategy process can give organisations a critical edge in a fast moving modern world.
He holds a First Class Honours Degree in Veterinary Science, a Bachelor of Animal Science, and a Masters Degree in Strategic Foresight. Paul is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Paul has been a dairy cattle veterinarian, an abattoir manager, a pork farmer, and an agribusiness consultant before becoming a futurist with Emergent Futures. He has also been involved in politics and agri-politics having been Chairman of the pork industry national body twice for a total of 10 years, and President of Country Labor in Victoria for 5 years. Paul recently retired from the board of Auspork after 16 years. Auspork is an unlisted public company that markets pork, beef, chicken and lamb, including branded retail ready packs of ready to eat meat products.
 
Paul is a graduate of the Leadership Victoria Program and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is also a guest lecturer at Victoria University on the disruptive effects of web technologies and a technology editor on Tumblr, the micro-blogging site sold to Yahoo in 2013 for US$1.1 billion. Paul is also a partner of Social Ventures Partners International (Melbourne Chapter) as well as being a member of their investment committee. Paul writes and presents regularly on future disruptions to business models, and consults to a range of organisations on how to think about the future.
Paul believes that the combination of his experience and his foresight training gives him a unique perspective on business strategy.
Paul's business experience has taught him that critical business decisions have as much impact on business success as long hours of focused execution. However he recognises that most people have little time to look around and think about what might be happening. Therefore the approaches that Emergent Futures uses align themselves to the reality of a fast moving, time critical modern world from quick scanning processes to longer strategic analysis.