About Richard Toker

Marketing consultant, trainer and facilitator

Milestones

There have been career milestones for Richard, like his stint as Marketing Director at Rogers Communications and his role as chair of the Education Committee for the Canadian Marketing Association.

Background

But they are each a dot in a bigger picture. Richard has worked with a diverse range of clients in food services, technology, financial services, automotive, telecom and B2B, while also acting as a leader in marketing education and training in Canada.

Career

You get to a stage in your career where you are no longer chasing opportunities; instead, you are connecting dots that hadn’t previously been connected. That’s the reward that comes from more than 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing.

Result

The result is that clients don’t hire one Richard, they hire them all.

Richard Toker marketing consulting, training and change facilitation

Richard’s career path isn’t a straight line; it forms a circle.

Richard Toker Marketing Consulting

Branding, Acquisition and Retention Marketing, Content Marketing

Independent Marketing Consultant

As an independent marketing consultant, Richard brings insight in consumer and B2B marketing from experience on brands such as:

CARA
American Express
CAA
CBC
Hewlett Packard
IBM
HSBC
Pitney Bowes
Fuji
Goodyear
Lexus
Bell
Rogers
Telus
Ontario Lottery
Scotiabank
SIR Corp

Branderos.ca

Richard works with Joel Sears at branderos.ca, helping small and medium-sized enterprises with branding, websites, email and content marketing.

Richard Toker Solution-Focused Facilitation

Applied creativity plus a unique approach to helping clients get unstuck

Education

Richard is a fully trained practitioner of the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving method of facilitating applied creativity, and is certified to deliver the FourSight® Thinking Profile assessment to individuals and teams.

Facilitation

Richard has facilitated innovation and applied creativity on behalf of the Institute of Communication Agencies, and for the Canadian Marketing Association where he also was chair of the Education Committee. Richard also is fully trained in Solution Focus, a well-researched and widely used change and facilitation toolbox.

Solution Focus

Solution Focus helps organizations, teams and individuals to create shared understanding, clarify desired outcomes, and gets people moving forward.

Teams and Stakeholders

He has facilitated team and stakeholder dialogue at a diverse range of organizations including:

Acklands-Grainger
Aon
CBC
CAA
BDC
Canada Post
CIBC
Foresters
Hamilton Health Sciences
Interac
Public Health Ontario
Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation
Ontario Public Sector
Tangerine

Richard Toker & Alan Kay train organizations on the Solution Focus model.

Betternxt.com

Richard works with Alan Kay at betternxt.com, to help teams and organizations across many industries who are stuck and need to make progress with change management, stakeholder dialogue, business planning, customer strategy, innovation, leadership training, collaboration and management skills.

Richard has been training Canadian marketers since 1991.

Richard Toker Training

Marketing Planning, Project Management, Creative Briefing, Agile Marketing

Marketing Training in Canada

For more than twenty years Richard has developed content and delivered training for many organizations in Canada, especially with the Canadian Marketing Association and the Institute of Communication Agencies. He has designed and taught programs for Amex, CAA, Capital One, CBC, Chase Card Services, CIBC, Enbridge, MBNA, Public Health Ontario, Shaw and TELUS.

Background

Prior to starting his own practice in 2008, Richard was Director, Direct & Digital Marketing at Rogers Communications. Prior to that, Richard spent almost 20 years in the advertising business at Ogilvy & Mather, McCann Erickson, Cossette, Draft, and Bimm.

Canadian Marketing Association
Direct Marketing Certificate, Project Management for Marketers, and Developing the Marketing Plan courses
Institute of Communication Agencies
CAAP program and creative briefing
York University
Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre

Can Do

If I haven’t done it, I know someone who has.

The beauty of a long career is that by time you get to 30 years, you have experienced an enormous range of scenarios and worked in a variety of functions with a broad spectrum of clients. But that doesn’t mean I’ve done it all – far from it. But it does mean that I know people who excel at doing the things that I would never attempt, like design.

It all begins with a conversation where a clients needs are defined and the best team is assembled to help solve the problem in the most effective and cost-efficient way possible.

Roles

My motto is: Do seven things and do them all well.

Brand strategy and design
Digital and content marketing strategy and execution
Flyer marketing planning and execution
Creative problem solving (brainstorming) facilitation and training
Change management facilitation
Marketing soft skills training
Project Management