Urban Thinkers–Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett at the Future of Places conference

The on-going Future of Places III conference is a platform for discussion of the future of our cities and providing recommendations for The New Urban Agenda that will be decided at the Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016. This means the on-going event is a meeting for some of the greatest minds on urbanism today.

Yesterday Saskía Sassen, a Dutch-American sociologist of Columbia University and noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration, of which she has written numerous best-selling books. As I started in consulting on innovation environments in 2001, she was one of our early inspirations. In the speech below, she talks about who owns our cities today. Mrs Sassen is a great speaker so enjoy!

Saskia Sassen on Who Owns the City?

 

Following Saskia Sassen was Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Sennett has studied social ties in cities, and the effects of urban living on individuals in the modern world, and he made a brilliant speech about the new of a new charter for cities, where he argued the case that it is upon time to leave the rational Athens Charter formulated by Le Corbusier in 1933, for new ideas of more “porous” cities. I strongly recommend you to listen to this speech.

Richard Sennett on The Open City

 

After Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett’s talks, they answered questions from the world-known thinkers in the audience and some really interesting dialogue took place about the age of the knowledge workers and how this affects our cities, and also the need for counterbalance to closed communities.

Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett debate

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Introductions to the Future of Places Conference

The Future of Places Conference opened yesterday in Stockholm and it was an impressive experience to see how many attendants the conference has drawn from all over the World. The people participating comes from four sector, from Academia and Research, from Governments, from business companies and from Civil Society. In the opening session I sat next to Professor Ting Wei Zhang from University of Illinois at Chicago, who is born in Shanghai and now works in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy in the American University. We truly live in a globalised world.

The first session started with with three powerful speeches, by the conference founder Peter Elmlund, by Conny Wahlström from the Swedish Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and by Thomas Melin of United Nations Habitat. Below is a 30 minutes video of the introduction.

Future of Places–Introduction speeches

After the introductions, the conference continued with a dialogue and debate with the City Mayors of Seberang Perai in Malaysia, Maimunah Sharif, and the former City Mayor o San Fernando in the Philippines, Mary Jane Ortega. Both of them are urban planners by education and they gave very interesting insights into their growing cities challenges and needs.

Following on was three speeches on The City We Need by Christine Auclair from UN Habitat, Eugenie Birch from the World Urban Campaign and Inga Björk-Klevby, the former Deputy Director of UN Habitat. I will publish video recordings of their speeches later on this week.

The session before lunch included three presentations, about the Multiple Histories of Public Space by Jeffry Fleischer, The Rise of Innovation Districts by the Brookings Institute´s Bruce Katz and Bottom – Up development in the Netherlands by Eva de Klerk.

The afternoon contained presentations and interactive sessions in smaller groups, for the purpose of the conference, the joint authoring by the delegates of input to the Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016.

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3 Reasons to Push Past Your Fear and Become an Authority

It comes down to confidence. I was speaking with a new client in the advertising industry. He wants to grow his business and attract more clients. Focus on finding and getting in front of the decision maker. They are the ones that can hire you. That can write you the check. One recommendation I offered […]

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The Final Future of Places Conference

The final Future of Places Conference will be held in Stockholm from today, 29 June to 1 July. This is the final of a series of three international conferences and it will involve some of the world’s most profound minds and dedicated professionals in dialogue on the subject of public space, placemaking and place governance.

The conference includes plenary and parallel sessions, workshops, discussions, speed presentations, academic papers, networking and tours. Bearing will take part and we will document our impressions in articles on this blog.

The inauguration conference held in Stockholm in 2013 attracted over 200 people from more than 50 nations. The second conference was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1-3 September 2014 and attracted more than 350 people from 40 nations. For today´s conference, more than 400 people from 60 nations will participate and create a suggestion for a New Public Space Agenda that will be delivered to the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador 2016.

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Vucedol – New Growth From Ancient Culture

After Croatian accession to the EU in July 2013, the goal of achieving good growth rates and sustainable development, as well as reduction in income differences as compared to the EU average, will require overcoming socio-economic challenges, such as building a stable and competitive economy, positive demographic, lower socio-economic differences, a successful environmental policy, promoting energy efficiency, efficient spatial planning, building a positive business climate, employment growth, industrial production and exports.

As one of the most important industries at the national level, especially in the coastal counties, the tourism industry has huge potential for continued socio-economic growth and development.

The prehistoric site of Vučedol, by the Danube river in Eastern Slavonia, is a unique cultural heritage asset and it is a signature for the city of Vukovar, but also for the wider area of the region. We are currently working on a feasibility study for the Croatian Ministry of Culturefor the further development of the new Museum of Vučedol culture that has been built next to the site and which opens this summer.

The intention of our study is to make an in-depth analysis of the proposed Vučedol park project in order to prepare the city of Vukovar to apply for EU funding. We are helping to investigate and prepare the final documentation required, and then the Ministry can submit the application for project financing for culture – tourism from the EU Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). The study we do includes both a description of the socio-economic context and assets in detail, and also a cost-benefit analysis of the potential growth ignited by an EU investment.

The pot shown on the picture to the right, dated prior to 2600 BC, is an extraordinary archaeological discovery. It is one of the most important products of Vucedol Culture, as it is the oldest European calendar, and also the world’s oldest astral calendar.

Although evidence exists that solar or lunar positions were marked from the mid third millennium BC, true calendars (structures such as Stonehenge) were created later, hundreds of years after the Vucedol period.

The rich cultural and natural heritage of Vukovar-Srijem County, primarily the archaeological site Vučedol is opening opportunities for development and other activities that are related to culture and other socio-economic areas, which can contribute to their growth on the basis of sustainable development.

Sustainable restoration of cultural property encourages the development of entrepreneurship, trade, science, the environment and contributes to urban and regional progress, increasing employment and strengthening social cohesion.

Croatia Position Paper 2014-2020 highlights the need to strengthen the protection, evaluation and management of cultural resources with respect to their tourist and business potential. Strategy for the development of tourism in Croatia by 2020 provided the encouragement of the development of all types of tourism and culture, especially in counties with lower development index.

The project Archaeological-tourist park Vučedol was conceived as the backbone and driving force of a complex program of systematic, interdisciplinary research of the archaeological site Vučedol, led by Professor Aleksandar Durman, which expands the space Vučedol presented as archaeological and historical, but also as a tourist and sports-recreation centre.

This project is possible by the combined assets that this space offers: attractive natural conditions, the Danube River, which at this point is embraces a number of sandy islands, 20 meters above the Danube raised wood panel covered with vegetation and vineyards that offer aspect to the width of ten kilometres; lining the world famous archaeological site Vučedol which three plateaus of prehistoric settlement oriented in a semicircle facing the river Danube, then existing, devastated by the 1990s war, catering and tourism and sports and recreational facilities as part of a very popular excursion.

Vukovar is a part of Europe, and has a part in highlighting the richness of cultural diversity in Europe. Cultural diversity will be encouraged through capacity-building of cultural entrepreneurs, strengthening existing cultural industries, establishing new cultural industries, promoting the participation of the youth and marginalized groups in cultural industries and further development and implementation of cultural policies.

Culture must be understood as an excellent tool to show unity through diversity, to initiate a new consciousness of the cultural richness of Europe. This cultural asset is in the tightest relation with the tourism industry.

Archaeological Park and the Museum of Vučedol culture are the backbone of the Project and the driver of the complex program of systematic, interdisciplinary research of the archaeological site Vučedol, which expands the space Vučedol presented as archaeological and historical, but also as a tourist and sports-recreation centre.

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What led to the Revival of the Worlds Cities?

Cities are in revival as the centres of economic and political development, and they are more often now than before pleasant places, as we noted in an article last year.

Henri de Groot, Professor in Regional Economic Dynamics in Amsterdam, wrote a blog post on the World Economic Forums website this week, with an interesting article about What led to the Revival of the World´s Cities. Click on the picture below to get to the article.

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Hammarby Sjostad – Innovative Sustainable Re-development

For this week´s case study, we will present Hammarby Sjöstad, one of the biggest urban development projects in Stockholm in recent time, located at the perimeter of the inner city.

The old harbour and industrial area was aimed to be transformed into a modern neighbourhood, and because of the location the design was kept intentionally semi-urban rather than suburban. The unique opportunity emerged because of the proximity of a lake and a canal, and the focus of the design was kept interaction with water, enhanced through creation of plenty of quays and walkways along the water.

This area was known as Norra Hammarbyhamnen and Södra Hammarbyhamnen before this redevelopment project began. It was mostly industrial zone, centered around Lumafabriken, which now houses offices and a library. The neigbouring area called Lugnet was a run-down light industrial area, with an improvised trailer park. the north side of the lake was used as a harbour area.

The redevelopment of the area needed to include a thorough reconstruction of the infrastructure, removal of traffic barriers and a complete redevelopment or removal of old terminal and industrial areas. It was decided that all services and traffic will be concentrated along an avenue which links the area together, and which spans 3 kilometres from Skanstull to Danvikstull.

Investments in the public transport and traffic solutions were one of the main tasks, as a part of the concerted focus on the environment. Another major task was to achieve cooperation between two neighbouring municipalities, so that they could interact and develop the area together.

In the early 1990s the idea of the redevelopment of the entire area around the lake Hammarby Sjö had emerged, and the first plans for most of the Södermalm area were made. A masterplan, which included the extension of the Tvärbanan light rail link through the area, was presented.

The name of the project was inspired by the fact that the area is located on both sides of the lake Hammarby Sjö. Hammarby Sjöstad therefore means “the Hammarby town around the lake”. The area is a part of the Stockholm municipality, but it is also bordering Nacka municipality to the east. It is also a part of the districts Södra Hammarbyhamnen and Södermalm.

The solution was to combine a traditional inner city with modern open planning. Water areas in the centre are designed so that they create a park – “district´s blue eye”, and quays, parks and walkways are laid out in different styles.

There have been a lot of public services developed in the area, including high schools, schools and preschools, health clinics and a retirement home. Also, there are plenty commercial services like cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, hairdressers, tailors, dry cleaners, cobblers and florists. Sickla mall is also nearby, and there are a many good active leisure opportunities in the neighbourhood, from small boat moors and the proximity to jogging tracks and slalom slopes, to a planned sports hall and a potential construction of an outdoor sports facility. There are many cultural and educational activities in the district too, including a library, parish organised activities, theatrical venues, concert venues and workshops.

It was important to detect the influence of the project in all of the four sections, to put emphasis not only on the hard factors, but also on the soft factors of the project, mainly the effect it will have on the community.

In the graphic displayed below, we have mapped the vision of the project, through four main factors that we identified were relevant in all of the projects we analysed.

Most of the financing for this project came through private investment, while only 14% was public investment. In total, 41 developers and 29 architectural firms were included in the project.

The average income from age 16 in the area is almost 20% higher than the average income in the City, and the unemployment rate is 1.5%, compared to the City average of 3.3%.

Hammarby Sjöstad area has its own eco-cycle model – the Hammarby Model – which shows how energy, waste and water treatment can be integrated. This model is a part of an environmental programme to ensure a focus on environmental issues during both planning and implementation phases.

GlashusEtt is an environmental information centre, located at the heart of the district, and is an important element of the above mentioned extensive environmental programme. Residents can come to GlashusEtt for tips and advice on a wide range of environmental issues.

The scale of the area is 200 ha of which 40 ha is water, and 160 ha is land. By the end of the construction, it is expected that around 30,000 people will work and live in the area. In total, approximately 250,000 m2 for commercial use will be build, combining new offices, light industry and retail.

The design combines closed, traditional inner city with more modernistic and open planning, creating a modern, semi-open and block-based neighbourhood. The height of the buildings is limited, and the average is 24m (seven floors). One office building with around 30 floors is planned.

When looking at transport distribution in the area, we can see that 52% belongs to public transport, 27% to pedestrians / bicycles, and only 21% to private commuters.

Next week we will be presenting the Hudson Yards redevelopment project in New York, an innovative transformation project in which the harbour area is being transformed into a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented mixed-use district.

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Lessons from a Coffee Brand: Showing Your Important Clients the Love!

A couple of days ago I was downtown and had just finished up a small brainstorm and business meeting with a good friend of mine. Before heading home I stopped by a local department store to pick up a new suitcase and an interesting thing happened. You don’t have to go build them a million […]

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Stockholm Develops as Hub for Fintech Innovation

In a new report written by Stockholm School of Economics researchers Robin Teigland and Claire Ingram, the authors shows that investments in innovative Swedish financial technology companies increased sharply last year.

Fintech is transforming the global financial industry at a rapid speed and there is a strong interest from investors in the sector. The growing sector has attracted investments at an estimated USD 12.2 billion globally in 2014 as well as interest in a number of regional hubs, being Silicon Valley, New York, London, Stockholm, and Australia.

Stockholm is one of Europe’s largest hubs for the financial technology sector according to the report. We are not surprised. Ever since disruptive innovation through financial software technology was pioneered in Sweden by companies such as Front Capital Systems, Trema Treasure Management, Interbizz and ORC, the sector has been strong.

The pioneering companies nurtured a cluster of talented financial engineers, software developers and sales executives that has brought the innovations to the global financial industry. When I worked in Trema Treasury Management in the 1990s, we added a large number of the global Fortune 500 companies to our  client list. In those days fintech was very much about the institutional side of the financial industry.

In Trema, we developed the software that runs the European Central Bank, large trading departments and major asset management operations of banks like SEB and Citibank and such as ADIA Investment Authority. Today such backbone software is mainstream. Today new Fintech from Stockholm is more about retail solutions, with companies like Klarna, izettle and Trustly.

A recent report commissioned by Nasdaq OMX in Stockholm and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce titled “Growth Stockholm: The Financial Ecosystem as a Growth Engine” highlights how the Finance Sector contributes 5 percent of Sweden’s GDP and two percent of its employment but is the fourth largest sector in terms of value in the Swedish economy. Topped by only the Retail, Construction and Business Services sectors, the Swedish Finance and Insurance sector was valued at SEK 147 billion in 2013.

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1am second wind

Going on vacation tomorrow, but 2-3 things left to do. 130am.  Had a glass of red wine and now a beer.  It is the second wind.  Ugly but true. Photo from NYC hotel – last month.

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Medtech Innovation in the iPhone ecosystem

Last week I wrote a brief note about the thin service layer towards end customers, that at this moment in 2015 effectively facilitates internets breakthrough as the primary platform for commerce.

At the core of the customer interface today is not computers but smartphones and tablets. There are two essential product elements that have substantial influence and drive the customer value of a smartphone, and consequently the growth of the Google Android and Apple IOS ecosystems:

1. The smartphone itself, and
2. The innovative apps, services and contents on the smartphone

The first element is in Apple´s and Google’s and Android phone manufacturers hands, while the second element depends on developers and content and service providers and their innovations in form of apps and services. Also, to an increasing degree, new “killer apps” come as a combination of add-on hardware and software app.

The smartphone operating systems are designed for this purpose, focusing on two matters:

• To shape an effective and large scale pipeline from app and service production to app consumption and the smartphone, that organises on one end, millions of app developers and service providers who bring innovative apps and services to hundreds of millions of smartphone users who consume them and pay for it.
• To provide leverage for developers and service providers to effectively run their businesses within the ecosystem and to reduce their investment and risk while gaining reach to the full extent of the ecosystem platform.

The new app innovations comes as products for the mass market, and as niche products. I will give an example of both.

We all take pictures with our phones but some of us who remain used to more professional cameras may want to upgrade the experience. There is no shortage of companies that will sell us a way to do that, usually by attaching things like lenses that modify your phone’s own lens, like the Olloclip lenses. The problem with attaching an optical lens in front of the phones own lens is that the combination degrades the phone´s already mediocre image quality.

That’s where the new DxO One camera comes in. It is another take on strapping a separate camera sensor and lens system to your iPhone, and it is the best one yet. The add on camera is small and it attaches via the lightning port. Once it’s attached the camera can swivel up to 60 degrees forward and backward. The corresponding app launches immediately and photos taken with the camera’s shutter button appear instantly.

The sensor is 20.2 megapixel and pictures are saved directly in the iPhone. The DxO One is a good example of mass market innovation, built on the smartphone ecosystem with both an hardware add on and an app. The basic app is included and there are add on software apps for professional photographers that can be bought separately.

Then there are niche products that bring killer apps to the ecosystem. Today I read about one new, truly innovative product for the iPhone. The innovators of an iPhone based eye-examination kit have raised $6.1 million to bring eye care across the globe, by launching a combination of hardware device and software application that can replace the the equipment needed to carry out a proper eye examination, which typically costs $20-40,000.

Smart Vision Labs SVOne aims to reduce that cost to just $4,000 by using an iPhone as part of the kit. The iPhone takes a series of photos of the eye, while an app performs the analysis and generates a prescription, as can be seen in the video demo below. This is truly a good example of medtech innovation, combining hardware and software, and built on an existing technology ecosystem.

Smart Vision Labs demo

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Barcelona gains attractiveness and loses competitiveness

On March 25^th, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published an article titled: Barcelona gains international attractiveness. That same day, the newspaper Ara published another article titled “Barcelona falls 14 positions in two years in the competitiveness ranking”.

Barcelona gains attractiveness but loses competitiveness. How can this be explained? According to Miquel Barcelo, it is a matter of which factors are included in the comparative indexes, as he explains in this blog article on Innopro´s website.

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Stay Away from This Marketing Trap

Are you falling right into the marketer’s trap? Here’s how you can tell: Are you constantly reading books, attending seminars, jumping on webinars? Are you always looking for the latest strategy? Are you excited by new trends and technologies? Do you spend more time learning than you do applying what you learn? One of the […]

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Regional Manufacturing Hubs – A Path to Innovation

All across the World, policy makers are attempting to encourage innovation through public sector initiatives. In Europe and Asia, Science Parks and Incubators are tools for regional development projects, and in United States innovation districts and often privately run incubators in the cities fuel the development of the knowledge economy.

However in most nations, manufacturing is still a major part of the economy. In the United States, manufacturing accounts for roughly 12 percent of GDP, keeping the sector an important driver of the economy and job creation. In 2013, President Obama proposed the launch of “a network of manufacturing hubs” through which industry, universities, community colleges, and governments will work together to develop and deploy new manufacturing technologies.

The manufacturing hubs idea reflects an emerging consensus among a large number of industry leaders, technology analysts, and economic development professionals in United States, that regions are the place to work on technology-based development and that regions need to be anchored by hubs of collaborative R&D where industry can work with academia and government to innovate and implement technology gains.

Industries and the regions in which they are located profit from the presence of structured centres of excellence in which industry led consortia of firms, universities, community colleges, state and local governments, and other actors collaborate to solve innovation and technology deployment challenges of critical interest to advanced industries.  That is the point of innovation hubs.

As documented in the European Unions concept of Smart Specialisation, innovation, and its deployment, does not happen just anywhere. It happens in places and, most notably, within metropolitan regions where companies and workers tend to cluster in close geographic proximity, whether to tap local supplier networks, draw on a pool of skilled workers, or profit from formal and informal knowledge transfer.

If properly channelled, these co-location synergies ensures that value added through innovation spreads through and remains within the domestic manufacturing supply chain.  Nor is this only a “soft” benefit.  Such local synergies, accumulated region by region, can foster greater efficiency within and across manufacturing supply chains and add to a nation’s competitiveness.

On July 9, 2014, the Brookings Institute hosted a half-day conference focused on manufacturing expansion policies and their efficiency and impact on the future of U.S. innovation.  Panels focused on the impact of the Regional Manufacturing Hubs and other policy initiatives that aims to spur growth of the United States’ industrial economic base.  Below are a set of videos from the event, well worth watching.

Manufacturing–A Vital Part of Innovation

John White Jr. on Manufacturing is in my Blood

Jason Miller on Manufacturing in Context of Economy Overall

Jason Miller on Manufacturing Creates High-Quality Jobs Throughout Economy

Jason Miller on Manufacturing Punches Above Its Weight

Jason Miller on Manufacturing and Obama´s Four Pillars

A Path to Innovation–Keynote Address

A Path to Innovation–Panel 1

A Path to Innovation–Panel 2

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Handshake for Innovation

Handshake is the World Bank Group´s journal about private-public partnerships (PPPs). Handshake’s “Innovation” issue now online on a redesigned searchable website, which contains an archive of the 16 latest issues.

What does innovation mean in the context of PPPs? Handshake‘s “Innovation” issue offers insights from government officials and private sector partners alongside case studies of practical, replicable solutions from Barcelona to rural Africa.

The World Bank Group’s PPP journal has added several features, including a section that profiles PPP units across the globe, and a new column, “Master Class,” that provides a PPP 101-style lesson on a specific technical aspect of PPPs.

These and Handshake‘s other articles on innovation in PPPs explore real-world situations that PPP officials and advisors face every day, whether designing a partnership or wrapping up the final details after implementation.

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America´s Advanced Industries

The need for economic renewal in the United States remains urgent. Years of disappointing job growth and stagnant incomes for the majority of workers have left the nation shaken and frustrated.

At the same time, the advanced technology sector develops innovations that will shape our future. From advanced robotics and “3-D printing” to the “digitization of everything”, new innovations are provoking genuine excitement even as they make it hard to see where things are going.

Earlier this year, the Brookings Institute released a report on “America’s “advanced industries”. I read the report while waiting for a delayed flight earlier this week. In the report, the institute claims the advanced industries stand out as a vital component for the future of the U.S. economy.

Defined by their deep investment in R&D and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workers, these industries encompass the nation’s “tech” sector at its broadest and most consequential.

The advanced industries create good jobs in dozens of high-value, high-technology fields including auto making, medical device manufacturing, and energy generation.

Below is a video about the report, here is a link to the document, and interactive data can be found here.

America´s Advanced Industries

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Disrupting the Customer Interface

I read an article on Tech Crunch this morning, where the author made the point that Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.

Clearly, something interesting is happening with value chains, and it is that we finally see the internets breakthrough as the primary platform for commerce.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world has developed complex supply chains, from designers to manufacturers, from distributors to importers, wholesalers and retailers. It is what allowed billions of products to be made, shipped, bought and enjoyed in all corners of the world. In recent times  the power of the Internet, especially the mobile phone, has unleashed a movement that  is rapidly destroying these layers and moving power to new places.

The article on Tech Crunch makes the point that the balance of power between the different service layers in the value chain is a battle for control. Price-comparison sites first seemed to provide welcome traffic to airlines before airlines tried and failed to starve them of their business and promoted their own apps and websites as the preferred route. Last week Lufthansa announced a new service charge for third party internet retailers of flight tickets, to try to get sales to return to their own website.

In this age, the customer interface is everything. The new breed of companies are the fastest-growing in history. Uber, Amazon, Alibaba, Airbnb, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google and so on… These companies are independent, thin user interface layers that sit on top of vast and costly third party supply systems, and they interface with a huge number of people, channelling customers orders to suppliers for a margin or kick-back at close to zero cost per transaction.

There is no better business to be in. The user interface layer is today where all the value and profit is.

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10 Proven Marketing Tactics for Consultants and Coaches

“What type of marketing works best?” It’s a question I’m asked over and over again. Each year we run our Marketing for Consultants survey which provides insight into this question. I recently decided to ask some friends (who are consultants, coaches, and solo professionals) what type of marketing is working best for them. Especially what […]

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Matija Derk on the need for Innovation Environments

Matija Derk is a Senior Advisor with Bearing and has a background as Assistant Minister of Regional Development in Croatia. During his time in Government, he was responsible for preparation of all strategic documents necessary for the use of EU funds in the financial period 2007-2013, as well as in the period 2014-2020. This included preparation of National Strategic Reference Framework and four Operational Programmes (Transport, Environment, Human Resources Development and Regional Competitiveness) and the overall Croatia – EU Partnership Agreement.

During a study tour to Stockholm which we organised for senior delegates from Nairobi, Kenya, last week, Matija gave a speech about the need for innovation environments, which can be seen in the video below.

First part of speech

Matija Derk on the need for innovation environments

Second part of speech, starting with the challenge of urbanisation

Matija Derk on the need for innovation environments

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Return to Rail

Last Wednesday, we brought a delegation from the Kenya Railway Corporation to visit the Railway Museum in Gävle in Sweden, the national museum for Sweden’s railway history. The Swedish Railway Museum is tasked with acquiring, preserving and providing knowledge about Swedish railway history based on the national collection.

The Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) runs a railway museum in Nairobi, Kenya, adjacent to Nairobi railway station. The museum represents the historical growth of the country and narrates the tale of Kenya´s evolvement, as the railway was central to the development of the former British colony. The emergence of a new central business district in Nairobi will take place on the surroundings of the railway station and the museum.

The purpose of the visit to Gävle was experience exchange and to sign an agreement of intent, to share knowledge, ideas and professional networks in order to increase efficiency and value to both businesses.

The Managing Director of the Swedish Railway Museum, Robert Sjöö, gave a presentation which is captured in the video below.

In the audience we can see both the Chairman of KRC, General Jeremiah Kianga, and the Managing Director, Atanas Maina Kariuki.

The Swedish Railway Museum

I took some pictures from the Nairobi Railway Museum when I visited the site in March this year.

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The Networked Society is Happening Right Now

During the Kenyan study-tour to Stockholm last week, we had a presentation by the Swedish multinational provider of communication technology and services, Ericsson, on the networked society. Not only we humans but also all our devices and things will soon be “connected” to the internet, and as they are, the real power of big data will be available to develop smart systems. To prepare for this, we need to transform for innovation, as the illustration below shows.

The new solutions that are being developed by technology giants like Ericsson are very promising for the future management of cities, but for the emerging world and cities like the Kenyan capital Nairobi, I think they may sound like science fiction. for a society where potholes and lack of road repair is a major issue, smart technology for management of traffic is a problem quite high up on the needs ladder.

Anyway, the full smart city concept does not need to be implemented at once. Introduction of smart city concepts can start with pilot projects for water and power generation and distribution, and step by step upgrade a city. The illustration here below is quite telling about what the ambition is.

The presentation, which was given by Olle Isaksson, Head of Strategy for the Business Line Industry & Society at Ericsson, can be downloaded through the link here below, and watched on the video at the end of this article. The video is in three parts.

Municipal Finance – Kenya June 2015

Olle Isaksson on the networked society

 

Olle Isaksson part 2

 

Olle Isaksson part 3

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Power for Africa

Africa’s power sector is facing many challenges, mainly due to insufficient generation capacity which has limited electricity supply, resulting in low access and frequent power failures.

The main obstacle to the increase in electricity generation capacity is the high investment cost of developing power generation plants. Many such initiatives fail already in a reluctance to invest in competent feasibility studies, or with low cost feasibility studies resulting in low-quality assessments which are non-bankable with investors. Also, most power development initiatives work at the individual project level, leading to fragmentation and inconsistency between projects that discourage long term investors.

Last week, Bearing hosted a study tour and conference in Stockholm for a delegation from Kenya, and one of the conference sessions was a presentation by Lars Ekbom from Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery. Mr Ekbom gave a very interesting presentation, based on his 20+ years experience of working with power solutions for Africa.

Mr Ekbom started by explaining that Africa’s current energy consumption level equals that of New York State. That is, the 800 million people of the African continent currently does not use more power than the 19 million inhabitants of New York State, which clearly shows the needs for power generation development in Africa. Africa has an average electrification rate of 24%, while the rate in the rest of the developing world lies closer to 40%.

This article contains some facts from Mr Ekbom´s speech, and also facts we have gained knowledge of through work with project finance assignments over the past ten years. Then at the end of the article is a video of Mr Ekbom´s speech.

As can be seen in the chart on the right, power production in Asia and Latin America has developed substantially since 1990, while in comparison the capacity in Africa has risen very slowly.

Across Africa business people joke about living in a “bring-your-own-infrastructure” continent, in which business companies must provide independent generators, water purification and even sewage treatment when building a factory or a hotel.

Of these the costliest is often power. Nigeria, which has a population three times larger than South Africa’s, generates just a tenth as much electricity and a the central business districts in both Abuja and Lagos have power outages several times every day.

There is a large disparity in electricity cost levels between African countries. For example, while electricity tariffs in South Africa and Zambia are among the lowest in the world, prices in Djibouti and Gabon are among the highest globally. The average tariffs in Africa are also much higher than in other developing regions.

Power from private generators costs $0.35 per kilowatt-hour or more, ten times more than electricity from the grid in most other countries. Independent analysts reckon electricity cost accounts for 6% of costs at Nigeria’s retail banks, where each branch needs a generator, and 10% of the costs of telephone companies, where each cell phone mast must have its own power.

Here below is the first half hour of Lars Ekbom´s speech, and at the end of this article is a link to download the presentation.

Lars Ekbom from Siemens about the needs and solutions for power production in Africa

Siemens – How to convert fossile to energy

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Attract High-Paying Consulting Clients and Hit 400% Revenue Growth

Corrie Banks, President of Triskele Logistics and Consulting, has over 18 years of experience in the supply chain industry, which, along the way, is why she decided to start her own supply chain consulting firm. Triskele Logistics and Consulting focuses on continuous improvements and process improvements for supply chain companies, whether it’s a warehouse or […]

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Kenya Study Visit to Stockholm

Bearing Group have this week hosted a senior delegation from the City of Nairobi, the Kenyan Railway Corporation and the Kenyan Government to a study visit to Stockholm in Sweden. Following on from the successful conference at Naivasha Lakes during May 2015, the study visit to Stockholm focused on looking at how the Swedish transport infrastructure around the nation’s capital has been developed to ensure a seamless and efficient system of a high quality, and how former railway land has been successfully redeveloped.

The study visit also focused on a series of meetings with senior representatives from Jernhusen, SKL International, the Swedish Transport Administration, Swedish Incubators & Science Parks and White Architects.

Bearing Group are working with United Nations Habitat, the World Bank and the authorities in Kenya to develop a former piece of railway land in the centre of Nairobi to be developed as a new Central Business District (CBD).

Discussions are continuing on how the site can be best utilised in a sustainable and efficient manner, taking into consideration the challenges of this rapidly expanding East African city.

The week long study visit was a successful exchange of ideas and best practice and has led to agreements of greater collaboration between the City of Stockholm and the City of Nairobi.

The 29 delegates from Kenya are now returning home with new ideas and fresh insights into the possibilities of how the Nairobi site can be developed. Further workshops are planned over the summer in order to continue the momentum of this exciting project.

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Lars M. Andersson explains Municipal Finance

Mr. Andersson has a long record of working with finance in the public sector. After 10 years of experience as the head of finance in two Swedish cities, he initiated the formation of Kommuninvest, the Swedish Local Government Funding Agency, in 1986. Mr. Andersson became the agency’s first president and developed its operations until 2001, when he left to take on the responsibility of the public sector with the state-owned Swedish Export Credit Corporation.

He has during the last 20 years worked as an advisor to local authorities in many parts of the world. Lars M Andersson is currently member of the Supervisory Board of Agence France Locale and Chair of the Strategy Committee within the agency’s board. He is also advisor to the English Local Government Association in a project with the aim of creating a Municipal Bond Agency. 

With such massive experience of municipal funding best practise and challenges, he is a very interesting speaker, and in the video below are the first 15 minutes of his presentation to a delegation from Nairobi, Kenya on June 10th 2015.

Lars M. Andersson explains Municipal Finance

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