andrew davies and lars frederiksen innovation & entrepreneurship group aom 2010 cross-divisional...

Andrew Davies and Lars Frederiksen

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group

AOM 2010 Cross-divisional PDWManagement at the public-private interface: insights from the world of

infrastructure

LEARNING TO DELIVER ECOCITIES: RENEWAL, REUSE AND REINFORCEMENT CAPABILITIES

Overview

• Research context• Theory and methods• Findings and analysis: renew, reuse and reinforce

© Imperial College Business School

Challenge: Climate Change and Chinese cities

• “China is searching for novel ways to expand urban areas while conserving natural resources”, Science, 2008

• “China’s current development is ecologically unsustainable, and the damage will not be reversible once higher GDP has been achieved”, Zhenhua Xie, Minister of State Environmental Protection Agency

Rapid Chinese urbanisation

2050

China’s urban population is expected to reach 1.12bn people

600m people are expected move from rural to urban areas

One response to these challenges: Ecocities

• Ecocity - radically new form of urban design• New build and new build/retrofit projects• Promote sustainable living and low carbon society• Less use of non-renewable resources• Adapt to climate change

• Pioneering examples: • Dongtan in China• Masdar in Abu Dhabi • Thames Gateway and ecotowns in the UK


Dongtan ecocity – key objectives and features

• Client: Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC)

• Consultant masterplanner: Arup (UK design consultancy)


• Sustainable ‘demonstrator city’ – cutting carbon emissions shapes urban design

• 40 min travel time to central Shanghai• Population 500,000 in 2050• Site: 84 square km• 3 distinct towns amid parkland and canals• Population density similar to London

Outcome of Arup’s design project

• Project delivered three months early

• Met client’s request’s for “close” to 100% zero carbon solution

• Uses proven technology to reduce risks

• Innovation lies in the integration of technology and environment, cultural and social components

• ‘Dongtan is not a rigid blueprint for a city for the future’…other projects must be guided by unique local environment (Peter Head, Arup)


Overview



Research motivation: managing innovation

• New performance requirements for cities: zero-carbon and sustainability objectives

• Initiated by breakthrough projects in design, build or operations

• How is knowledge created and combined in a breakthrough (or vanguard) project in a new market?

• How is knowledge transferred from a breakthrough project to the next project?


Market basenew

new

existing

Technology base

New projects

New pro

jects

New projects

• Business as usual

• Traditional capabilities

existing

Theory: Capability development as innovation

• A capability is the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to perform a set of specialized industrial activities• “…the discovery and estimation of future wants, to research, development

and design, to the execution and co-ordination of processes of physical transformation, the marketing of goods and so on. (Richardson 1972)”

• These activities create a competitive advantage• Capabilities are developed through knowledge integration and transfer

(Grant 1996)

• Yet, we know little relative about:• The process through with this is done, especially: • The role of key individuals in the process• How does activities of institutional transition play a role?

Research design and methods

• Case study - real time (January 2007- June 2010)• Identified as prestigious world-first project – opportunity to study a ‘talking

pig’ extreme case (Siggelkow 2007)

• Process study (Langley 1999)

• > 60 interviews (snowballed sample: cross functional , cross-hierarchy but mainly managerial level involved in Dongtan: Arup, SIIC, Chongming Island local authorities, SDCL (Sustainable Capital investor), HSBC bank)

• 3 visits to Dongtan site, Shanghai project office and client• Primary source documents (internal presentations, reports, diagrams and material for

project bid and external public documents)• 2 workshops for validation and further specification of findings – in China and UK• Non-participant observation in Arup office - London and Shanghai; Dongtan Project

office in Shanghai

• Data processing: • Open coding (manually) then axial and selective coding in Nvivo

Capabilities: 3Rs


RenewIncremental/radical

Reuse

Tacit/Explicit

ReinforceInternal/external

Overview



Renewal: innovation in urban design

• Dongtan project started as a ‘skunkworks’ organisation within Arup

• New concept of multi-functional project team called ‘total serial innovation’ (Peter Head, Arup)

• Led by architects• 30 specialists each with a team of 3-4 members• New positions occurred: Cultural planner• Developed new tools on the project to support integrated

urban design• Integrated Resource Model (IRM)

• SPEAR© Imperial College Business School

Arup’s new approach: ‘Integrated Urbanism’

Source: ‘Making Places in the Ecological Age’, Arup Urban Design

Tools for integrated urban design

Traditional approach to masterplanning


Traditional linear process

Client BC REC MP ENG

Business Consultant

Real Estate Consultant

Master Planner Engineer

‘We couldn’t do it in a simple linear way. It would take four years to achieve an outcome. We had to develop a new approach’ (Guiterrez, Interview, 2008)

Arup created a new approach: non-linear design


‘We did what normally takes four years in one year’ (Guiterrez, Interview, 2008)

BCBusiness

Consultant

Real Estate Consultant

Master Planner

Engineer

Arup

ENG

MP

REC

Renewal: the Dongtan project team

• The project was risky for Arup • Foreign architects can lose control of their Chinese

projects when clients seek to cut costs and redesign using cheaper options

• Was the client really committed?

• Origins LSE connection• Core team of 5 builds (six months) up to 150 specialists in

less than one year (mainly inhouse)


Reuse: codification, routines and tools

• From outset: transfer knowledge and develop replicable capabilities on subsequent (ecocity) projects

• Partnership with SIIC on 4 ecocity projects in China – client wants to take one systems integrator role

• Partnership with HSBC• Creation of new unit in Arup: Integrated Urbanism (Spring 2009 =75

employees)• Group ‘born out of Dongtan’ (Guiterrez, 2008, interview)

• Transfer of core Dongtan project members

• Mentoring on new projects

• Refinement of project tools – IRM and SPEAR

• Create new tool: Integrated Methodology – sequence of design processes


Reinforcement: Market position and internal positioning• Development of a nascent market

• Shaped and promoted by charismatic project members: Peter Head, Alejandro Guiterrez and Malcolm Smith• Advance the concept of ecocity at international conferences: Clinton C40• Collaboration with universities – e.g. EPSRC - Ecocit networks www.ecocit.org• Creation of Institutes for Sustainability – China and UK

• Develop internal support for the Dongtan project and the strategic potential in sustainable integrated urban development

• Data: Dongtan and iconic project members: focus of more than 300 articles in major Chinese, UK and US newspapers


Theory into practice



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andrew davies and lars frederiksen innovation & entrepreneurship group aom 2010 cross-divisional...

Documents

london slide

new market

new buildretrofit projects

breakthrough projects

urban areas

chinas urban population

research motivation

methods findings