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About UGM

Why we exist

OUR PURPOSE

We help businesses and their people thrive, using our broad and deep knowledge and experience.

We believe that organisations and individuals have great potential, often under-utilised. Importantly, organisational performance (results) and organisational health are both vital elements.

We thrive on helping organisations and individuals within them deliver high performance outcomes. Organisational health and performance is our passion!

We work at the intersection of strategy, change, leadership and culture, frequently customising our evidence-based advisory and development services to our clients' context for high quality outcomes.

Work We've Done
UGM Consulting services

Featured Modules

A few example modules you may like

Our Services

Domains of expertise

Leader-Manager Development

Tailor leader-manager development to your unique business context using a strong behaviour-based approach. The true test of leading and managing is based on what your people in these positions do and the outcomes they achieve for your organisation.

Strategy & Change Facilitation

Get fit-for-purpose strategic tools (from over 200 in our treasure chest) and tailored strategy development / change support that suits your specific needs. UGM's substantial executive and facilitation experience ensures you'll get high quality outcomes.

High Performance Team Building

Develop skills and behaviours in your teams that result in healthy high performance. Benefit from cutting edge research and deep experience as well as our major emphasis on skills and behaviours important in your context.

Inclusive Culture Development

Develop an inclusive culture where individuals and teams feel they can not only contribute and belong but also thrive! Diversity can cause problems in an organisation without the skills to make it work, so manage this proactively.

Cultural Risk Mitigation

Understand cultural difference, mitigate cultural risk and even turn it into competitive advantage. Increasingly multicultural organisations can deliver benefits. However, these cultural changes add complexity and demand skilled management for success.

Executive Coaching & Career Transitioning

Get support to work proactively in challenging times. As experienced executives and business coaches ourselves, we'll support you in stepping up a level or changing direction altogether. We're in your corner.

Satisfied Customers

Feedback We've Received

Client Support

Case Study examples

aquisition by global business

Acquisition by global business – Making it Work

multi-national project team

Multinational Project Team in the engineering sector

changing evaluation to boost implementation

Changing evaluation methods to boost strategy implementation

review of strategic change project

Review of strategic change project to assess its lack of progress

leadership development for high potentials

Leadership Development for High Potentials

building a strong senior team

Building a strong senior team

business transformation through leadership development

Achieving business transformation through leadership development

Being inclusive to resolve a divisional training challenge

Being inclusive to resolve a divisional training challenge

Helping a key team work together more effectively

Helping a key team work together more effectively

Inclusive leadership development for rank and file

Inclusive leadership development for rank and file

Empowering middle managers - Working while Learning

Empowering middle managers - Working while Learning

Leadership pipeline - development for early- to mid-career women

Leadership pipeline: development for early- to mid-career women

Our Team

Keep in touch

team member
Margaret Byrne

Dr Margaret Byrne - Principal

Margaret has a BA and MA from Oxford, and postgraduate qualifications in adult learning from Bristol University. In 2005, she completed her PhD, exploring how leadership potential is identified in meetings, including meetings involving Australians working in Asia. Margaret holds three awards for innovation in the design of executive development and change management programs. She is known for the way she balances intellectual rigour with a passion for practical outcomes that make a measurable difference to leaders and their organisations. Clients value her ability to stimulate strategic thinking and change at all levels. In 2004, Wollongong University appointed her Honorary Advisor on Leadership and Change. Outside Australia, Margaret has worked and consulted in China, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, India, UK, USA, New Zealand, France, Germany and Italy, as well as in four Pacific nations. She is a qualified and highly experienced executive coach. In 2007, Margaret was a winner of the Telstra Business Women’s Awards in the Corporate Sector Category and a National Finalist. As well as consulting across the region, Margaret also conducts research, particularly in the area she’s passionate about: international meetings where counterparts from different national cultures must work together to solve problems and make decisions. Three of Margaret’s films on this topic have been shown six times now on Australian television and sold with an accompanying book which Margaret authored. Her resources on cultural competence in print, film and online formats are widely used by consultants in Australia and internationally, as well as being used as texts in Masters Programs in universities in Australia and Europe.

team member
Dr Grant Robertson

Dr Grant Robertson - Principal

Grant has a PhD in leadership, having focussed his thesis on distributed leadership. He also holds an MBA and Master of Electronic Commerce, and initially completed a Bachelor of Social Science, as well as an Honours Degree in Psychology. Grant was born in South Africa, where he held a wide range of positions in the corporate, public and education sectors. In each, he envisioned, championed and led strategic projects that resulted in significant organisational change. He is also deeply interested in strategic thinking and complexity and consults in these fields. His capacity to solve problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective, drawn from his diverse business experience, is a key strength that Grant brings to client assignments. This capacity is particularly valuable to UGM's active research program as well as to the many clients who rely on UGM to accurately diagnose and address organisational health and performance challenges. These regularly include a cultural dimension. Grant also has extensive experience in designing and delivering development programs for executives and high potential leaders. He is known for his energetic and engaging presentation style. He is an experienced executive coach.

Carmel Macpherson
Carmel Macpherson

Carmel Macpherson - Senior Consultant

Carmel has a BA and an MEd, together with exceptional experience in strategic and operational human capital management. She has held the most senior Human Resources role in a number of Australia’s pre-eminent organisations, including the AFP and the CSIRO. Career highlights include being invited by PwC to manage its first HR Business Process Outsourcing entity: HR Services. Three years later, Carmel was headhunted by Qantas to establish and then manage the Qantas Group’s first People Shared Services Centre. Carmel took on this challenge and was recognised for her achievements, when Qantas won the Asia Pacific Shared Services Award in 2006. Carmel herself was named as ‘Thought Leader in Shared Services’. In working with clients, Carmel’s focus is on providing strategic and operational advice on all aspects of their people and talent challenges, from attracting the right people to managing them effectively in the right roles. To each engagement, she brings her commitment to accessing diverse talent and celebrating difference.

team member
Ingrid Bayer

Ingrid Bayer - Client Relations Manager

Ingrid has formal qualifications in Business Management and Administration, as well as in Workplace Training and Assessment. She has worked for many years in small business administration, with a focus on the legal and services sectors. Ingrid brings this broad-based expertise to her team support role at UGM. Clients and colleagues alike highly value both her well-honed skills and the genuine pleasure she takes in helping others achieve their goals. One of Ingrid’s particular responsibilities is managing the regular events UGM holds to keep our clients up-to-date on new ideas of special relevance to the challenges they face. Ingrid has become known for her efficiency, warmth and attention to all those little details that contribute to a great client experience.

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