Mr. Upward is a pracademic – a practicing academic

As a practitioner, Mr. Upward is a Certified Management Consultant with 30 years of experience as a Sustainability Business Architect and Flourishing Enterprise Designer.  In his practice Mr. Upward empowers business leaders and entrepreneurs to design enterprises that are simply better: socially beneficial, environmentally regenerative and financially viable.

As an applied researcher he undertakes projects and publishes to support, enhance and share his practice. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University’s Faculty of Design, and in the Business Model Innovation group in the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning, Halmstad University, Sweden.  He has a Masters of Environmental Studies in Business Model Design and Sustainability; his thesis and subsequent practical work is the topic of an increasing number of well cited peer reviewed articles.

His graduate thesis research originated the concept of the Flourishing Business Canvas, being brought to market as part of the Flourishing Enterprise Innovation Toolkit (@FlourishingBiz).  Over 180 individuals and organizations around the world are helping with the development and testing of the Toolkit.  With this community he has led the creation of the Flourishing Enterprise Strategy Design Method** and the Lean for Flourishing Startups Method^†† that show how to use the canvas to create value for leaders and entrepreneurs.

Mr Upward co-founded the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group: a 1500+ strong growing global community of innovation practice (@StronglySustain) hosted by OCAD University’s Strategic Innovation Lab.  He is also the co-founder of the planetary wide-Flourishing Enterprise Institute @FlourishingInst) that has recieved initiall funding to co-create a research program roadmap with members of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group.

Applying the Flourishing Business Canvas in practice, he is the co-founder of Lean for Flourishing Startups Collaborative, a learning enabler for innovation in the startup ecosystem (@Lean4Flourish), and Better My Business, a future-fit enterprise design consultancy that unleashes innovation in established enterprises through co-creation (@BetterMyBiz)