Meet Babette
Executive Coach and Mentor
With my existing career in Competitive Intelligence and Strategy, I discovered a need that senior executives had when it came to their own personal development. Senior executives looking to advance their careers and development through coaching and mentoring were looking for a service that was positioned at their level with an understanding of the challenges and hurdles that they face.
It became obvious that the natural addition to the services we provide at MindShifts® was the coaching and mentoring. Since then I have been supporting senior management of organisations through facilitation, teaching, coaching executives and supporting leaders in their decision-making skills, providing inspiration to leaders, executives, and managers with a keen interest in business strategy and professional development.
I am a qualified counsellor and MBTI practitioner, with certification as a business coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching in the U.S.A. As an Accredited Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, I am also currently the only Australian certified in the Energy Leadership Index (ELI), a unique tool which is used to determine engagement, performance and success abilities in work and life.
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE (CI) EXPERT AND STRATEGIST
In my career, I have watched many organisations make the wrong decisions or simply miss the indicators that spell disaster for their business. With that moment goes all the intellectual property and the livelihoods of many, but most importantly – the potential for growth and innovations that are now no longer able to be fulfilled. In many cases the decisions were obvious.
I have built my career as an internationally recognised leader in the field of Competitive Intelligence (CI) and Strategy in both business and academically. I am an entrepreneur, a consultant, a company director, an author, an academic and a business coach as well as a corporate speaker on CI and Strategy.
I founded The MindShifts® Group in 1992, as a leading consulting company specialising in Competitive Intelligence, Strategy and Business Mentoring, in response to the number of organisations looking to interpret the landscape of business and make smarter decisions.
Since then I have led MindShifts® through over 350 projects with Australian and Fortune 500 companies. Utilising skills and principles of CI and Strategic Intelligence we have successfully guided a vast range of clients within industries such as aerospace, information technology, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and financial services companies to build greater businesses.
In 2006 I was honoured to receive the SCIP Meritorious Award, the world’s most prestigious award in the field of Competitive Intelligence. I was and still am the first female and only Australian recipient of this prize.
It has always been important for business to make the best decisions it can and with my extensive academic involvement I know the value of sharing knowledge and helping organisations understand the impacts of Competitive and Strategic Intelligence, so I co-authored five critically acclaimed and popular books on Competitive Intelligence and Strategy. Two of them, Analysis without Paralysis and Business and Competitive Analysis, remain the world’s number one and two best selling titles on Competitive Intelligence which shows the need for this sort of thinking within the areas of education and business.
I have held teaching positions at many of Australia’s leading universities and business schools and am currently an Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at the University of Technology, Sydney.
I offer the following services to executives, business owners and individuals:
- Leadership Coaching
- Business Coaching
- Entrepreneurial and Innovative Thinking
- Strategic Decision Making
- Business Mentoring
- Life Coaching
- Performance Coaching
- Leadership Development
- Competitive Intelligence Mentoring
- Corporate Strategy
Certifications and Qualifications
Babette holds a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology Sydney, and an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management. She is a qualified Counsellor and an Accredited and Certified Coach.
- Bachelor of Business (Majors in Marketing and Economics) (UTS)
- Master of Business Administration (MGSM)
- MBTI Accredited (ITD)
- Advanced Training for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (USA)
- Graduate Diploma in Counselling (ACAP)
- Certified Positive Psychology Coach (UTS)
- Certified Professional Coach, Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (USA)
- Master Practitioner – Energy Leadership Index, Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (USA)
- Professional Certified Coach (PCC) – International Coaching Federation
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
I was appointed a Fellow of SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) in 1997. In 2006, I was the recipient of the SCIP Meritorious Award and was the first Australian and first international female recipient to be honoured with this award.
The SCIP Meritorious Award is the most prestigious award within the international CI community. Awarded annually, it recognises a single individual for their significant contributions to the CI profession. These contributions are judged in terms of both the advances made within the industry practice and the publicity for CI that has resulted from this person’s achievements.
Over the years I have made the following contributions to the CI profession:
- In April 2002, co-authored with Craig Fleisher, the book ‘Strategic and Competitive Analysis’, that added significant intellectual capital to the practice of CI and business analysis in general – and became a business blockbuster. It became the first CI book to be adopted for use in courses such as consulting, entrepreneurship, health care, marketing, strategy and/or technology management, at top MBA programs in the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa and the UK, among others. Since its publication, it has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic.
- Delivered numerous workshops, speeches, and lectures to industry and government managers, as well as leaders in CI in countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, France, UK, Canada and the USA, aiding the intellectual capital development in the CI field.
- Taught Competitive Intelligence at the Sydney Graduate School of Management, University of Western Sydney both in Australia and China and at Bond University in the undergraduate business and MBA programs.
- Provide international rigour to the development of CI practices and processes and am tireless in my efforts to enrich the understanding of CI among organisational managers and executives.
I am the first Australian to receive an award for my work in Competitive Intelligence. Past Recipients of the SCIP Meritorious Award include Kirk Tyson, Leonard Fuld, Robert Galvin, Ben Gilad, Stevan Dedijer, Jan Herring, Liam Fahey and Michael Porter.
In recognition of my international awards and endeavours, I received the 2006 Alumni Award from Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM).
Appointments and Memberships
APPOINTMENTS
- Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, School of Business (2012 – current)
- Program Director, “Women in Leadership” Executive Program at Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) (2007 – 2009)
BOARD APPOINTMENTS
- Board Member, National Australia Day Council (1997 – 1999)
- Board Member, NSW Board of Adult and Community Education (2000 – 2003)
- Board Member, Eastside Community Radio (2015 – 2018
- Board Member, Volunteering Sunshine Coast (2019 – current )
CURRENT MEMBERSHIPS
- International Coaching Federation
- Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (USA)
- World Future Society (USA)
- Australian Institute of Company Directors
- MGSM Alumni
- Women on Boards
