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Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2024 61:28

In this week's episode, Riccardo Cosentino and guest co-host, Corail Bourrelier Fabiani, sit down with fellow alumnus Brandon de León to discuss his Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on electric aviation.Brandon emphasizes the importance of public perception in adopting new technologies and explores the potential of electric aviation to transform urban mobility. The discussion covers technical advancements, regulatory challenges, and the necessary societal embrace for successful integration of electric aircraft into daily transportation. Brandon's insights highlight the intersection of technology, society, and the future of urban air mobility.“But what really validated my research was that social acceptance came up as an interesting issue already, before the first vehicle flies. And like I mentioned before, the next plans are also around big events, the World Expo in Osaka. Next year in 2025, this was to be flights. And in 2028 in Los Angeles for the Olympics there. Other companies from the US are also planning to fly. So yeah, social acceptance is already showing itself as a key risk.” – Brandon de León Key Takeaways:Defining the pre-commercialization of electric aviationThe critical role of societal acceptance in the adoption of electric aviationThe potential impact of electric aviation on urban infrastructureInsights into the interplay of technological advancements and regulatory frameworksDistributed and decentralized mega projects If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our LinkedIn community: Follow Brandon de León on LinkedInFollow Corail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedInFollow Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInFollow Navigating Major Programmes on LinkedInRead Riccardo's latest at wwww.riccardocosentino.com Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 0:05 You're listening to Navigating Major Programmes, a podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino. I bring over 20 years of Major Programme Management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University Saïd Business School, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major programmes. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode as I press the industry experts about the complexity of Major Programme Management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Riccardo Cosentino 0:54 Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Navigating Major Programmes. I'm here today with my co-host, Corail, and we have a special guest, a good old friend of ours joining us today on the podcast. I will pass the mic to Corail who's gonna co-host the podcast today and help me asking questions to this really great guest that has agreed to join us today. How are you doing, Corail? Corail 1:19 Hi, Riccardo, I'm doing really good. Thank you for having me co-hosting this great episode. And I'm excited to talk to Brandon. So maybe a little bit of background, we met doing a major programme management master in Oxford. And during that two years of our lives we met Brandon who was a superstar in our cohort because at the time, he was working for Tesla. And he was talking to us about this really exciting industry and how he's been part of the founders of Tesla. And he's been part of the team that made it a great company that we know today or the big adventure. And then he moved on to work for Rizwan and developing this into a great new enterprise that goes beyond Tesla by working on all different types of trucks and other things that I don't know enough about. But so I'm really excited to hear the story of Brandon. And I think Brandon, it would be great to start with you maybe introducing yourself telling us a little bit about how you ended up in the electric car industry and what drove you to that really expanding field. And yeah, to know a bit more about your background. Brandon de León 2:37 Wow, what an introduction. Thank you guys so much for having me here on the podcast with you. It's been incredible to see what you guys have produced after the Master's course and hard to follow what you shared Corail. But I think, generally speaking, it's been an amazing learning experience. The Oxford Masters in Major Program Management, learned a lot from you guys, as well as the content. So happy to be here and share a little bit of what I've been working on and some of my background. It's been about 12 years since I've been in the electric car space, but maybe just a step back and give a little personal context about how I even ended up in that. I, my voice betrays me, I'm from the States originally, even though I'm coming to you from Holland today, I'm living in Rotterdam and working in Amsterdam. I grew up on the east coast of the U.S. mainly in Georgia in Florida. And then that's where I connected with Tesla. And what brought me down to Florida originally was my pursuit of International Business Studies. I wanted to study that because I had grown up hearing about how my parents met in Germany, in the army, and so early on, I was ingrained with these ideas of a world beyond the bubble that I lived in. So even though I grew up in small town, Georgia, I knew that I wanted to go and at least traveled to these places maybe even work in these places, if that were possible. And so in high school, when I discovered international business classes, I couldn't get enough. I also learned in those classes that there's a lot of ways society progresses, and probably the fastest mechanism to make that happen is commerce. So you know, regulation and government takes a long time. Nonprofits are phenomenal. But also some of them have limited impact. So it wasn't really clear what the best path was. But having parents that had done service for the country, as it were, and then pursued their careers and more local service type of roles and social worker and studying pre-med and things like that, I knew that I wanted to find a way to make the world a better place in my own little way. Right? So international business was my chosen vessel that brought me to Miami to study undergrad. And then in university there I had a chance to actually work in a company that I had admired for what I would consider a great engineering design and that was BMW their local retailer in the south Florida area. I persuaded them to let me take an entry level job that they didn't have at the time. But I was really eager to get out of the department store I was working at, and to go work in the company that I admired so much down the street and regularly saw the employees from that office. And so thanks to some persuasion and friendliness on their side, I was able to take a very administrative basic role. And I spent two years with BMW, but I realized that 18, 19, 20, there wasn't a lot of career options for someone that young, in the automotive retail space, at least not the traditional automotive, even with really innovative products like BMW. So I went on the search for career path, and I ended up in a bank and I thought, wow, this is terrific, financial district, maybe I peaked early, there's a career advancement ladder, it's all planned out, pension, etc, all the trappings of a great career, but then my interest in engineering and technology kind of clashed at a certain point, because new payment technologies came out into the market. And some people will be familiar with these dongles that you'd plug into an iPhone, which is relatively new back then. And you could swipe credit cards, and it was a revolution for small merchants and mom and pop shops, and I thought, this is wonderful, it's gonna be great for getting them better cash flow, they'll grow faster, it'll really helped a lot of small businesses out. But banking is a very conservative culture and does not run to embrace new technology. So at the time, we were working on a laptop that had an operating system that was three generations old, because the security patches were all well-developed and stuff, there was a clash there. And I figured, okay, I need to find a career path that's also aligned with my interest in technology or automotive or something along those lines. And after a lot of soul searching, and job board searching, I came across Tesla, and they were starting a store locally in South Florida. And through a lot of discussions for different roles. I ended up joining the launch team for the Model S, which was the car that really established the brand as a large volume producer of vehicles. And of course, its focus was electric cars. So that was 2012. I joined right after the vehicle launched. And it's been a wild ride since then. But at that time, because of my international orientation, I thought the wildest dream I have right now is that Tesla will do great. And then we'll get the chance to go and launch in other countries. And maybe I can be part of that. Happily, I had that chance. So although I started in California, and then after we launched the vehicle there, and I gained a lot of experience integrating, delivering the vehicles, the first vehicles and integrating it directly into the lives of people and families across California, I had the chance to bring that back to the East Coast. And then there was an opportunity to join a different department back at headquarters in California. And I jumped at that, because I knew if international opportunities emerge, there'll be people from there, they're good to go. And so that was a strategic step, it was not clear that it would work out. But happily, I was in the right place at the right time, there was an assignment to go help the team in Canada kind of get find their feet, if you will. And then after doing that a couple of times going out to Toronto, and doing what I would call international, but doesn't necessarily appear to be very international experiences going from California to Canada, I also had the chance to join a very small team of four or five that came out to Europe for a few months to do the same, essentially to help train the first model as launch teams here. And that was quite a privilege. When I came home to San Francisco, I thought oh, wow, this is it. Everything I could dream has happened. This is fantastic. What do I do now? And I didn't have to wait long for an answer because being at the headquarters in the beehive of activity, there was an opportunity that was presented to me to come over and help build critical partnership networks because we were starting to deliver vehicles but didn't really have solutions in place for if people were driving from the Netherlands or Norway down to Spain for holiday, what happens if they run out of charge or if the car breaks, and we had a very small footprint in Europe, within three weeks, I was on a one-way flight back to Europe. And I haven't looked back since. So that's a little bit about me in a very long-winded way and how I've gotten here to you. Corail 8:58 No, that was fantastic. Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your passion. It's really fascinating how you're constantly growing, reinventing yourself, but yet you seem to have such a drive. And that brings me to something a little picture that you shared of yourself recently that was you, yourself. I don't know how old you were maybe five or six. And you were in this beautiful little plane. And I think we talked about how you progressed from different career paths, but always with a certain drive and in that journey now I feel like you also have great interest into the future of electric aviation. And you decided to write your dissertation on this specific topic, and the social acceptance of electric aviation. Can you tell us a little bit more about this interest of yours and how you came to write about this in your dissertation in Oxford? Brandon de León 10:00 Yeah, sure. Thanks for reminding me of that picture. It's my haircut was terrible. But yeah, I was very young. And that was, it was a fun picture of me as a very small child in this mock-up of what must have been like a pretend F-16 for children at an Air Force stand at some air show in the U.S. So that was quite a throwback. Thanks for that. The, that picture I think really reflects my interest from the earliest of memories. And I call it transport now because it seems more appropriate. But it's really cars, planes, things that move fast. They're exciting, or have always been exciting to me. And I know that's sometimes cliche and certainly not exclusive to me. But that's where my fascinations were as a kid and that really hasn't died. But my career being mainly in automotive and electric automotive for more recent decade or so, maybe it's worth sharing, it's quick middle steps. So after about 10 years at Tesla, scaling the core product and ecosystems around it in North America and Europe, I thought, okay, what do I, the recipe is pretty much set at Tesla. So we have gigafactories opening, launched four or five different vehicle programs, how can I best use all this wonderful experience? And in 2021, I joined a company called Rivian, which essentially, is, for those who don't know, it a lot like Tesla in that it's a new company that makes cars. But their plan was to electrify totally new vehicle types, still ground vehicles, right? So trucks, which are hugely popular in North America, also SUVs, which are growing in popularity globally. Perhaps, if you look at the Tesla Model Y, the best selling car globally, right now in 2023, I think it was. And then for me sitting in Europe, perhaps most importantly, commercial vans, so they have or we have a huge order with Amazon for 100,000 delivery vans. And that was super exciting to me, because being in Europe, I know that trucks are not a big deal here. SUVs are typically on the smaller side or middle size, definitely not the large American scale. But I knew that if they produced the vans, then we would have a tremendous success on our hands. And that's gone really well. We've delivered over 16,000 vans now it's super exciting to see that happening. So essentially, why join Rivian was to extend electrification. So when looking for a dissertation topic, during our master's degree, I really wanted to take that opportunity to explore the other side of my fascination. One, because there wouldn't be any conflict of interest. So it was a lot cleaner to not do electric vehicles. And then the other side is there was a really interesting ecosystem emerging that was ripe for research. And that's electric aviation. It obviously aligns with my fascinations, but also super timely. Brandon de León 12:32 So when I started looking into how can I use a dissertation to add some value, however minuscule to what's going on in this ecosystem that fascinated me so much, I started to reach out to people and one of the people I reached out to was someone I would consider a founding father, a modern time founding father in electric aviation. And he had spent three or four decades at NASA researching electric propulsion. And it really caught on towards the 2010s. And we'll get into that later. But essentially, I was asking people like him who are highly technical, unlike me, who's a non engineer, how can a non-engineer contribute to the conversation into the development of this space, and in our discussions that came out that acceptance is really interesting, because it is a known concern. But it's kind of a fuzzy topic, a fluffy topic, it's ambiguous, people aren't really quite sure what to make of it, how to define it, how to grapple with it. And there's not a unified message around it. That's, that seems ripe for Social Sciences dissertation. And that's what led me into it because there weren't any other spaces that weren't mostly other parts, or aspects of the ecosystem today, are highly technical, or regulation-oriented. And this was a space where someone coming from social sciences point of view could really add value. So that's what led me into it, happy to document it more. But that's the background and how I got there. Corail 13:51 I think it's so interesting that you're bringing, as you say, a non-engineer background into a field that is highly engineering-heavy. And we see in Oxford, we talk a lot about the work of Kahneman, for example, and how it mixes psychology and economy and what amazing ideas that created and I feel you coming from a different background is also generating discussion that we don't think the regular engineer doesn't necessarily think about. And I think it's quite beautiful. You talked about the social interest of your parents early on that kind of inspired you. And it's interesting that you went into social acceptance and which encompasses I think many things but also the how people receive what we're producing. Right? And I wanted to ask you a bit more about this because when I think about social acceptance of electric vehicles or electric planes, as of, I don't know, kind of French bias, (inaudible) we talk about how planes are terrible for the environment and we are always thinking about shaming each other in France for how much we travel? I know my aunt for example, is constantly telling me you shouldn't take the plane so often, etc. And so for me, I only see positive outcome, right, for electrifying planes. So why did you, how did you identify social acceptance as a risk? How is it perceived in the industry? Brandon de León 15:19 Yes, it's a great question. And actually, thanks for the chance to add more background because it's not, it wasn't something I was able to include in the dissertation itself, I had to really shrink down that context and generally referred to the study as a study into the acceptance of electric aviation without giving a lot of detail and color. So essentially, in order to understand that better, it's helpful to describe the 2010s and the emergence of the ideas around electric aviation and how it was going to look and feel what the vision was, and who was articulating it. So although there have been decades of research at NASA, in particular from the guy, Mark Moore, is the gentleman I talked to and brainstormed with around ideas, potentially, that could be useful to the ecosystem. So there was quite a lot of work done on the physics and the engineering aspect. But what was interesting is that it didn't come from a lot of technology seemed to come from the defense side, right, where you have the internet, GPS, other things that are developed for military or defense purposes, and then they become commercialized. This is a rare instance where, even though NASA had done prior work, and really help manifest the technology, or the idea around how to use it, it was actually technology, commercial minds, technology and commercial minds that were leading the development of this vision, a particular vision of electric aviation, and they called it urban air mobility, mostly. There were many different names and the names of all the increase since then, in the early 2010s, essentially, you had Google printing tons of money and so just to pick, cherry-pick a specific example, this is not the origin story for the whole ecosystem, but it's a major part of the background. So Google is just minting money, right? And Larry Page starts to make bets. And they're called Alphabet. Now, there's a play on words there. But essentially, Silicon Valley companies that make it that big start to then have to find new avenues to create growth. And these are the bets that they're making. And one of them was autonomous vehicles, right? And today, that's Waymo. And another one that was backed by Larry Page in particular was a company called Kitty Hawk. And it had different names, as in its predecessor phases, but essentially, they were making a two/four passenger air vehicle, and it was all electric. And it looked like nothing you've ever seen before. If I had to describe the inspiration, I think that in many cases, these air vehicles developed by the organization he was backing, or Google was backing. I guess it's more him than Google to be honest, on the on the electric aviation side. And other pioneers of electric aviation in the same timeframe, they kind of looked like scaled up drones, toys, essentially, they're called multicopters in that format. But essentially, the vision was that these were going to be flying taxis. And they were going to be in cities. Now I'm not old enough to remember this in person. But I've read stories about how Delta and United used to have these phenomenal helicopter services where you could catch a helicopter from the top of the Pan Am building in downtown Manhattan, or Midtown and then fly over to JFK, or whatever airport. And that was the heyday of aviation, right when it was really a VIP experience. And this wasn't just New York City, this was San Francisco, tons of other cities have this helicopter service. And it's not really the case anymore outside of a couple non-airline, independent helicopter services in, let's say, New York City for example. And enter Uber, another emerging tech company, who was really ambitious and wanting to really reinvent mobility, not just on the ground, but they also saw an opportunity to play a role in this airspace as well, if you will. And so they took what they knew about ride-hailing and the app and the data that they had seen, all the trips people were taking around urban areas like L.A. and New York and probably better than anyone they fully understood and had the data and the data orientation that a Silicon Valley company would do to understand how there's a huge amount of traffic between this origin and destination. And so airport, if we look back at this helicopter services presents an interesting option. And so they started to, they started a sub-organization or department called Uber Elevate, and they issued a white paper, I think it was 2016, maybe 2017. But the white paper basically articulated a really grand vision for all these air vehicles doing thousands of movements in urban areas a year. So it's a whole new kind of flying, not the wing and tube that we're used to going between over long distances or medium range distances. Brandon de León 19:49 This was a whole different layer of air transport that hadn't been seen before, because presumably, existing small airplanes were, with the capacity of a ground taxi, four, five, six seats or whatever, were too noisy, not comfortable and outdated designs and they couldn't vertically take off. And that's a big difference too is that these new vehicles were supposed to take off and land like a helicopter. So that then unlocked a lot of opportunities to land in urban areas without a massive airfield and runway. And so that was the lower end division in that Uber Elevate white paper. These days, that evolution of that vision has evolved quite a lot and become a lot more mild. To give you one example, there were images circulating around the time of that white paper, where you would imagine a high-rise tower and different levels that would have open bays that the small car-sized air vehicle could fly into horizontally and land or land at a top and then the elevator would move it around. But essentially, it was beehive for these. And that's where social acceptance really became a question. Because if you have that many vehicles flying around in the airspace that's not really used today and they're potentially making a lot of noise because helicopters are super noisy. And that's the best benchmark that we have, even if they're electric and quieter, they're not going to be in silent, then how are people going to react to the noise? How are people going to react to the visual pollution or obstruction to whatever view they have, if you enjoy the city view of Manhattan, it's now going to have a lot of air vehicles in it. If you enjoy the Coastal View, perhaps you'll see a lot of vehicles above the beach, that sort of thing. Social acceptance was early on identified as a risk, something that needed to be dealt with. But how to deal with that wasn't really clear. Riccardo Cosentino 21:29 Brandon, I have a quick follow-up on that. Because it's very interesting how this was a dissertation. So was the final project for the master's degree or for a master in major program management. Can you articulate how you end up picking an industry as a major programme? I'm assuming, I'm paraphrasing a little bit because your study is not about one particular project, one particular company, it's really just societal, and how society is going to who's going to embrace this new technology or not. And so when you were discussing with your supervisor about this topic, how was it received from the academic side because we're all educated, and we're all told my major project is a project about 1 billion dollar/pounds, whatever. But I'm not a believer in that metric. To me, it's, major programmes are about complexity and I think your dissertation fits perfectly that definition, but you must have had some back and forth with your supervisor, or even with some other academics. Brandon de León 22:38 Yeah, it's a great question. And I really thought this was a risk to my dissertation to be fair open to the point of marking, I didn't know if it was going to be received well, that how to articulate this as a mega project or giga project, as I called it. But basically, I think that if we look at the way we presented this content in the course, just to give the listeners an idea, that for most of history, or let's say the last century, there has been increasing focus on these growing, the projects of growing scale and complexity, and cost getting into the billions getting into this, they totally changed traffic patterns in the city or they, if there are huge new bridge or something like that and it's just visually imposing huge civil infrastructure or digital systems that cost a ton or aerospace programs like an A380 Airbus, which is just a mega behemoth of an airplane, right? And if the complexity is clear, super tangible. But I think that's the school of thought that are when we had the great fortune of I think straddling two eras of the faculty at Oxford. And the first chair that we encountered was Bent Flyvbjerg. And he literally wrote the book on this stuff. And so far as the Oxford Handbook for Major or Mega Project Management, and in that, through that lens, or what he helped us understand, it was this more centralized type of project. And then later, we actually had another generation of leadership for the faculty come in with the new chair, Daniel Armanios, and he was very interesting in that he introduced the concept of it not necessarily having to be a centralized, that's a singular entity, the mega project could be distributed, decentralized, even. Right? And so after reading both of their research, I'd actually found that Flyvbjerg and contemporary said, coined the phrase of an array of projects. And I thought that fits this. This is actually exactly what I need to articulate how this is a large, complex project, although it's effectively being built in a decentralized manner and actually, quite extremely decentralized manner. There are over 800 different organizations that have released a concept for an electric aviation or electric air vehicle of some kind or another. There's this nonprofit that tracks the industry and most of the funding is with a handful and most ofthe technical progress is at a handful, but the reality is that there is a massive number of companies that intend to enter this space. And essentially, by building these vehicles, they're having to also engage regulators and build the regulatory envelope for this to actually happen. And then also go out and entertain cities and get them on side. They even let it fly. So ultimately, what they're all building towards is a central vision, even though it's moderated a bit since the over white paper in the beehive towers in the city, what they're actually when you step back and look at it all, what's actually being constructed, is something quite central. And that is a layer of air transportation, a new air transportation system that doesn't exist today. Because electrics, there's no charging out there. It's also and this is the part I didn't really get to yet is that a lot of the companies want to get towards autonomy. Some people might know already, there's a pilot shortage historically, pilots are now being paid very well, after having years and years of declining. That's not the case anymore. There's a vast shortage of pilots today. But also, if you're looking at technically looking at these vehicles through a technical lens, from a physics point of view, the energy density in lithium ion batteries or automotive grade, especially. But even research batteries, they're still limited compared to typical combustion fuels, hydrocarbon fuels, in so much in how much energy they can carry per kilogram. And if you're in aerospace where every gram matters, it's critical that you lighten the vehicle, because it's a trade-off for payload and revenue. And so although electric vehicles have started to scale up the production of lithium-ion batteries and automotive grade electric batteries have really gotten cheaper and better energy density so they're improving every day, in labs across the world they're still just crossing the threshold where they're useful in the air and just unlocking short-range missions. So this is a new, this is a new transport layer that is just becoming feasible in the late 2010s and still in development. So that's where I basically come back to your point, which is it's not a central program, it's definitely super distributed and decentralized, but they're all building in essentially a common vision of electric air transport that doesn't exist today. Riccardo Cosentino 27:21 Okay, one more question that on that note, and then I'll pass it back to Corail. As an industry, I mean, where would you position it in the developmental phases of an industry? And maybe, if you could make a comparison, we always go back to the internet, right? So every time there's a new revolutionary technology, we always say, yeah, think of the internet in 1995 or finger the internet in the 2000. On that basis, so with that in mind, where would you place this industry in the developmental arch? Brandon de León 27:59 Yeah, maybe if I could go a few years before the internet just for a comparison that rings harder in my mind is mobile phones. I think we're at the place, there's a famous study from McKinsey that I'll get the number wrong slightly. But I think that they hint here McKinsey did a study for AT&T, I think it was where they predicted in the early 90s roundabout then that the maximum total addressable market for mobile phones is 900,000 Americans. I think we're at that stage with electric aviation. And I don't mean that in the, to poke fun at our friends at McKinsey, I know we all have some, anyway, consulting generally. But I think that it is impossible to anticipate the actual scale that this will be deployed at over time. And I say that because if you look at this technology, the business model for many companies is not clear yet. So I think that's, once the technology is ready, we're at the point where the technology is only just becoming certified. And even with helping hands from governments that are eager to be technology leaders in Q4, right about Q4 last year, the first electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle certified anywhere in the world was certified in China. And just this month, the first one was transacted to a Japanese customer from another company in China for demonstration flights at the upcoming expo, World Expo in Osaka. Nothing's actually, there's no revenue yet. Unless you talk about small revenue regimes from Defense Departments and things like that to help with the testing and helping R&D funds. So we're really pre-commercialization. And that's precisely why I wanted to jump in for the dissertation into this space. And I thought it was really rich picking for that study-wise because what we hear in the program and all the things we've learned about mega project management and so on, is that when did they go wrong, if not in execution mostly in the planning phases in the earliest phases. So this was a huge opportunity to talk to people across the G7 really across OEMs, regulators, infrastructure companies and so on. Even NGOs. And to get a sense for okay, where's everyone's head at individually and collectively. What's the sense for how they're all thinking about this particular aspect? Social acceptance of a new technology? Yeah. And so that's, I think lends itself to the study, but super early is the answer to the question in a couple of words. Riccardo Cosentino 30:19 Thank you. Corail 30:20 Brandon, that's really interesting. And to go back to your dissertation, I think you were planning to interview 10 leaders and you ended up with 29 interviews. I think it shows the real interest that it sparked amongst the leader in that industry. And do you feel like they got interested because this is a topic that they didn't necessarily so much sought about? And they wanted to discuss more with you? Or was it very much a risk that was very present in their minds? And you just found that they had already thought about a lot of solutions to raising social acceptance? Brandon de León 30:59 Yeah, it's a fair question. You're absolutely right. My ambition was 10. I accidentally overshot that by three times. I paid for that on the back end, when it came to actually giving the proper level of attention to the data analysis and cleaning the data from the interviews. Yeah, that was, it was quite a heavy fall. But it was really a pleasure to, because once I started to talk to people in the space, Dr. Mark Moore and I had engaged over LinkedIn, of course, and email and then had a call. But I think that really, I realized early on, and one of the things that I picked up on from one of the faculty members, Dr. Harvey Mahler, was that observation can actually be a part of your research. And I thought, let me, let me go to at least one event where these people gather and just see what's the level of discourse? Is this really a risk? Or is it just something that I see in their social media content or things like that, and I was really lucky, because there were three major industry events, if I can call them that, that were happening right around the time I was doing my dissertation and or the early stages of it. And so I went to London to eVTOL Insights London Conference and it was very much inside baseball, you had the top leaders from the companies that were trying to develop and certify these air vehicles. But you also had the leading regulators, globally for aerospace were there, it was really interesting to just, fascinating to hear the conversation between them. But what I picked up on was that acceptance came up, it was, in some cases a footnote. In other cases, it was a panel topic. But it was never, there was only such a limited depth that could be accomplished in that format. And having chatted with Dr. Mark Moore, having seen that in person in London, but also at Revolution Aero, which is another major event in Dublin, I realized that there, there's not a lot of exploration of this topic, if this is essentially the limit of it. And there are other podcasts in the industry too, that I've listened to where it maybe it gets explored a little bit more, but usually, it's pretty, pretty limited how much people can talk about this, because the overwhelming focus right now is to use every dollar of investment. And right now there's over $15 billion, I think it's over 18 at last count, invested in this space, mainly in the vehicle developers, that will in the future produce these electric air vehicles, essentially, the ones that are just planning to actually produce the vehicles, a lot of them aren't necessarily interested in acceptance, that's something they consider a responsibility of the operator to go out and develop acceptance wherever they plan to operate the vehicles. The operator meaning like airline, essentially. And then the other case, some vehicle developers or pureplay operators, they see the acceptance risk a lot more clearly. And in some cases, they've experienced it before with their traditional air vehicles. Brandon de León 33:42 So I think, for me, it became clearer and clearer that this was both interesting for me, and potentially helpful for them to have a longer form conversation, the average interview was something like 45 minutes to an hour, someone as long as two hours a couple of them, when as long as two hours, I made the coding quite a long process. But it was super insightful for me. And I felt really privileged. As I was reaching out to people, the reception I was getting was quite strong. I thought 10 was going to be the high end and also a significant enough sample that would make the research worthwhile and meaningful. But then actually, I started to realize that if there's greater interest, I'm happy to expand that to a larger number, especially if it allows me to get perspectives from multiple people representing the different sides of the ecosystem. So like I mentioned, regulators, not just in Europe, but also in North America. And also OEMs, not just in Europe, but from North America as well. So a lot of the funding sits in North America right now. And depending on who you ask the technological leaders, some of them are in Germany, some of them are also in California and Silicon Valley, and so on. So I didn't want to represent just one small pocket of the ecosystem because again, it's a larger array globally. If I could do a better job of capturing those points of view from a European point of view as well as an American point of view, I wanted to do that. And so that ended up getting me to nearly 30 interviews pretty quickly. That's how it grew so fast. Corail 33:44 I think it's fantastic. And there must have been so much work to just code this amount of interview, I just cannot imagine in the limited amount of time we have to do this dissertation. It's a lot. So congratulations. Brandon de León 35:26 Thank you. Corail 35:27 So can you share with us then how so I wanted to ask you, Brandon, how did this leader define the risk? And what were the solution that they were putting forward? Brandon de León 35:39 It's a great question. I think maybe the step back as a precursor, or the best example of what they were trying to do before was helicopter services from decades ago. And if you live in New York City, or Sao Paulo, or Hong Kong, helicopter services are not an infrequent site. So there are places in the world where it's still quite common. It's just that in the U.S. we, being American, that's sort of my bias, those services had dwindled. After there was a famous incident in New York City at the top of the Pan Am building, I think it was bad weather that affected the helicopter landing. Long story short, one helicopter did a particularly bad job landing, and crashed onto the rooftop. And when it did, a propeller went this way. Another one fell to the ground, I believe it was or some debris fell to the ground and killed the young lady. The other one might have injured someone when it flew into a nearby building. This was, I didn't read the entire history of this industry, the helicopter service industry. But what I can tell you is that if you look at the old timetables and the brochures, being a historical geek and an aviation geek have done more than my fair share that there are very clearly helicopter services advertised in most, in a lot of major metropolitan areas from these mainstream airline names we all know and love today, or despise today, depending on what you think of it. But anyways, the reality is that those services dwindling, I think, in part happened, because there were restrictions put in place, when you had an incident like that it captured the attention of the public around, probably not just that city, probably not just the U.S., perhaps major cities around the world, especially as news could spread wherever the American newspapers are read. So I think that that put a little bit of ice on helicopter services. And so today, if you look at Blade, which is an operator that works does fly from Manhattan over to JFK, for example, to do the airport shuttle type use case, I believe they take off on the perimeter of Manhattan, they're not, they're just off on those waterfront, they're not on top of some building in the middle of the city. So things have definitely changed. And so when it came to acceptance and how they view it, one was, there was this precedent for things going wrong. And if things go wrong, it can really pause an industry. So making sure perceptions are warmed up to the idea of this happening again, because what they're talking about doing is literally lending in many different places across downtown Manhattan, for example of the island of Manhattan, actually being able to pop down on different buildings, but also perhaps green spaces or whatever, wherever they can place what they call a vertiport, which looks a lot to normal person, like a heliport, small helipad with a V instead of an H. There are other things there. The industry insiders will tell you, there's a lot more to it. And there is charging equipment and storage and things like that. But all that to say what the vision was in 2016-17, when Uber was hosting these huge industry segments with 72 experts one year and hundreds the next year to try and really build steam around this vision of urban air mobility. They knew they had an uphill battle. And then on top of that helicopters are famously extremely noisy. That's part of why they have limited routes that they can fly. The other part, of course, is safety and things like that there. If you look at London, I think there's one main helicopter route through the whole of London that goes, basically follows the river, for the most part. And then I think the only operational heliport inside core London, that's not a hospital for an air ambulance is essentially on the reverse side, too. So helicopters are really limited in where they could go, partly because of the noise, but other you know, fears, safety and things like that. And so that's essentially, what captivated the interests of the industry participants most was how do we reduce noise through technical innovation, better propeller design, electric motors are inherently quiet, they're not jet engines. Even if you hear things build as for marketing purposes, and electric jet, it's quite different. It's more of a fan. So I think that they saw an opportunity with electric propulsion to be much quieter, and also more safer, ironically, because you can put many more electric motors and propellers. So if one goes down, you're not worried about that you can still safely land the vehicle and then yes, I think basically centered around noise primarily because the industry insiders knew that, fundamentally, the vehicle was safer, more resilient, more robust, more redundant, if you will, with different electric motors and propellers, a higher number, some have six, some have eight, some have 12 propellers built into the vehicle design. So if one fails, it's really not a major issue for most of the format's of these electric air vehicles. But getting people to warm up to the idea of it was a real risk the way they see it. Riccardo Cosentino 40:29 So Brandon, obviously, this is a podcast about your dissertation. And you wouldn't, you wouldn't have a dissertation without a conclusion and some findings. What were your key findings? Brandon de León 40:40 It's a good, I think that so if I, my research question largely centered around how do these executives from all over the ecosystem, all sides of it, essentially define social acceptance? Who and what do they think drives it? And then also, effectively how they plan to approach it? Right? So how do they think that they can maximize social acceptance and minimize social rejection? And the primary finding I found in the case of the first question was, there is no single definition for acceptance. People describe it differently. You'll hear things like regulatory acceptance, social acceptance, of course, public acceptance, community acceptance, market acceptance. So it depends on the mentality of the person and what they're responsible for, and what they're interested in. So if you're looking holistically, you could argue that it's social acceptance, but some of them, a lot of them necessarily focus in on the stakeholders that are closest to the activities that are proposed. And first and foremost, these vehicles have to be certified in a very rigorous process, the organization's have to, as well. So regulators are front of mind. And then market acceptance, of course, they think there has to be some demand, whatever their chosen business model, whether it's airport shuttles or other things. So they look at it through those different lenses. But when you're at a conference, those are sometimes thrown around as synonyms. And people innately understand the acceptance, that means other people being okay with this, but who they're concerned with. And the degree of embrace is something that I found varies quite broadly. And I think what's interesting is, even with that said, it's kind of there's a structure, there's always a question of who are they talking about we're concerned with, and then what's the degree of embrace, and that was a common thread, and their different phraseology, if I can call it that. And then so far as who and what drives it, if you look at a template stakeholder map, this is a lot of the literature around stakeholder management is written by Dr. Friedman. And Dr. Friedman has multiple books on the topic, he's the most cited guy in the field. And I tried to stick to these bedrock, most cited folks in these different disciplines because I felt like you said, this is quite an ambiguous space I'm diving into, I need to anchor myself to really key literature here. And so there's a beautiful map of stakeholders, and he breaks them into primary and secondary. So we call primary stakeholders, essentially, everyone who's in the value chain, plus government and community. So the people, we're directly interfacing with whatever you're doing, plus the people helping you produce it, and finance essentially. So most of the industry is focused on primary stakeholders. And I think operators are a little bit more aware of the secondary stakeholders, but through the interviews, the 29 different executives, we touched on every one of them got covered at least once. So although there was an overwhelming focus on primary stakeholders, naturally, there was an awareness of an interest in getting all stakeholders on board. And so they defined it very differently. But when you ask them who they needed to actually get to accept, it was pretty comprehensive. So no surprise, these people were executives in this industry, or in adjacent industries that made them relevant for joining these jobs for decades, right? They have, I think, on average, almost two decades of experience, many have masters and doctorates. They've done this before, or at least led businesses before and are aware of the spectrum of stakeholders that they need to talk to. What I had hoped to get into, and maybe this is because I was just coming out of academia with that hat on was the nuts and bolts of human thinking and decision making around taking this vehicle or this airport shuttle or not. We didn't quite get into that. I think that what I quickly understood was that the level of discourse didn't go that deep yet. And so I was asking you about which bias do you think plays a role in the decision to take this air shuttle or not to the airport? And after a couple of interviews, I realized, okay, let me bring it back up a level and further define, really who's involved and who's being mentioned the most, who's most important or seen as most important? And that's about as far as I could go in that space. There was a fourth question, I omitted it earlier, but essentially it was to what degree is acceptance a risk and simple to say most of them surprisingly, there was a lot of actual alignment here, social acceptance was considered a risk but also a high risk, I think partly because of the helicopter service example, in Manhattan. And also just generally helicopter services being so restricted over decades that they, everyone in this space has seen, made it really clear that they need to do a lot of work on the side. But what was interesting to me is a few of them went further and said it was existential to the industry. And again, thinking back to that Manhattan rooftop, you can imagine why they might think that because if public opinion turns against the industry, there's no writers, there's no financing. And then it's not a great day for the participants in the industry. So that one was pretty clear. And then the other one was sort of how to maximize social acceptance. And that was really fascinating for me to hear. Because again, I was talking to people on all sides, there were some people who were in marketing, communications, leadership roles. There were other people that were in, essentially engineering leadership roles. What was fascinating is that, essentially, they all largely saw the demonstration flights as a major win that were happening. There were limited demonstration flights happening by a couple of companies that were making sure that they were being seen as leaders in this space, and then also taking advantage of being first mover at certain major events. So for example, last was it, I forget the month, I think it was June, I was able to go to the Paris Air Show. And there was a company from Germany called Volocopter, who was led by a former Airbus executive. And they were flying their two seater prototype called the VoloCity. And this is the one that's supposed to appear during the Olympic Games this year and do some flights over Paris as well. On this day, it was flying over the airfield Le Bourget in north of Paris, which is in aviation history, it's a fascinating place tons of history, museums there, Charles Lindbergh landed there when he did this transatlantic flight. Anyways, long story short, to see this electric multicopter. Aircraft take off and fly over the airfield was really cool for me, because of my research. But also, it was stunning, because even though I have worked for decade-plus in electric vehicles, and I know just how quiet electric transport can be, I was shocked that I couldn't hear it, it was inaudible, from a very short distance away. Doesn't make any sense in the mind. It doesn't compute, it should be audible. It's not once it's maybe a football field away, in my personal sense. And so I think that what, what they were getting on to is what I experienced at Tesla, which is the technology, if it's really good, is convincing on its own, all you have to do is show people allow them to drive an electric car allow them to go to an air show and see this thing flying. And understand that it's, it feels silent from most places. And I think they're definitely onto something with that. Others went further to say we need to do education campaigns, I think that generally the spirit is roughly the same. But when asked to diagnose the state of acceptance building, most of them agreed that not much has been done or not enough has been done there. Some companies have gone on like 60 minutes and other major news shows for a segment to talk about flying cars, or flying taxis and these sorts of things. Because it's interesting and cool that there's some new innovative air vehicle. But other than that, and social media content, which really only gets to their followers, few had gone out of those. And more is happening now happy to talk about that in a minute. But essentially, that those were the four areas that I asked about, and was able to get concrete answers and learn what their perspectives were. Corail 48:32 That's great. Brandon, I wanted to ask you, like you said that a lot of them flagged this risk as a critical risk. And yet one of your one of your notes in your dissertation is that yeah, there is very little that is done about it. And as you're saying it's starting to increase, and we have the Olympic Games coming in Paris, and potentially, I'd love you to talk more about this and what will happen during the games. But first, why do you think so little is done if it's seen as this important risk that needs to be managed early on? Brandon de León 49:07 Yeah, it's a fair one. And also, it was the thing that perplex me coming out of the dissertation. Obviously, in the month since doing the dissertation. I've had more time to digest it and think about it. And to factor in more of their point of view, I think. But essentially, and also last week I was able to join one last conference in my roadshow, if you will, to see what had changed since I had done the conferences about a year ago. And I think the short answer, if I were to speak for them, what they would say is that acceptance is important, valuable, meaningful and critical when we get to commercialization. But right now, the reality is that most companies don't have enough money to make it to commercialization. They're staring down their coffers and they don't see enough financial runway and funding left to potentially even get through certification. Some of them have just enough to get there. But it's very clear that almost all them if not all of them are going to have to go back and raise more funds. So when the funds are that precious, they're looking at how do we maximize every dollar, or euro or pound, right? And in those cases, essentially the critical milestone they need to get to to show that they have a viable product and business insofar as at least producing these vehicles, if not, to operate themselves to sell to someone else to operate, is to get certification, or to show meaningful certification path progress, and it's no small task. So just to give you a taste, they have to prove that they can, they're certified design organization, that they have a production method that can make exact copies over and over again, and this has to be signed off by the regulator, this is not something they can self certify, like in much of the automotive space, which is also highly regulated, it's still a fraction of the regulation level of aviation. And then even once they get the design, organization approval, and the production organization approval, and I might be getting my words a little bit wrong here. So aviation experts don't scare me. But essentially, they also have to be able to get an approval that they have processes in place that are certified for maintenance, repair, and overhaul, just to name a few. There's other things that they actually have to get certified for. But essentially, getting those things, those ducks in a row is billions of dollars. And again, if the whole industry has, let's call it 18 billion and counting, and there's over 800 players, you can imagine most of them aren't going to make that. And even the ones that have raised money, they've burned billions in many cases already. There are major, let's say, some of the companies that have raised the most funds in Europe, for example, have about 12 months of runway, but they still have more than 12 months to get to certification potentially. So I think that they're resource-constrained and focused on the core next milestone but, to your point, I think it's also because it's a fuzzy topic. It's not really clear who's responsible for it and then who should be spending money on it, and if one company alone can do it. And there's other interesting things that I uncovered into the research in the financial filings of some of the companies that have gone public through IPOs, or specs in recent years. Some of them consider developing public acceptance as a potential risk to their first mover advantage, because it'll benefit the whole industry and their competitors too, in that subset, right or in that collective. So while they see it as a good thing to do, from a social point of view. And maybe even from a business point of view, they can appreciate that it would be helpful to reduce some friction in the future. I think they're betting that it's overcomable. And they're biasing towards maintaining a first mover advantage if they can do. Our research from literature and social sciences would argue that maybe that's not the best balance, happy to talk about that more. But essentially, they're taking a pretty big bet there that they're going to launch. And then be able to build awareness, convert people to believers, and interested customers, at least as fast as they can produce vehicles and put them into servers and build capacity. So I think that's where it's a bit of a risk is that if they don't start to build awareness, early, the lag, there's a time lag between building awareness and first awareness and actually being willing to use a service. Not everyone's an innovator, early adopter. And I think they're counting on the fact that they're going to have a slow ramp. So they're not going to be over capacity. They're going to have more than enough innovators and early adopters that are willing to take their services, or use these vehicles. And they rather maintain the first mover advantage, largely not everyone, but most people seem to be acting in that way. Corail 53:40 Okay, I guess I have one final question. I'm really intrigued about what you're thinking about the opportunity that the Olympic Games are representing in Paris for this industry? Are you excited to see something in the air at that time? Please, tell me what are your thoughts on the games coming? Brandon de León 54:01 Oh, yes, sorry. I missed that point entirely. Thanks for making sure I answered. So I think, yeah, it's a fantastic point. Because, for better or for worse, you can hate or love the Olympics, right? There's a lot of debate around that. But I think that the reality is major sporting events of other types, and just major events generally, whether it's a Swiftie concert, or whatever, that is a prime opportunity to build awareness and plant those seeds if you can get your product in front of that audience. It's massive for any business, right? This is why in the U.S., you see companies paying millions and millions and millions for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, which is our American Football Championship, right? Every year. And it's the same thing is at play here. And so, the Paris Olympics are very interesting because Paris as of late, especially, has been a city that is very intent, with the city leadership on improving quality of life, introducing better transport, a lot more biking paths and making it just easier to use, to a more livable city, let's say it that way., I'm living here in the Netherlands bicycles are a way of life. And the people who are pushing the bicycle culture and infrastructure and urban planning from the Netherlands point of view at the universities and Amsterdam and other places, Paris is one of their favorite cases to point to. I think more people this week or this month, it was reported, more people were biking than driving in Paris for the first time in known history since I guess the advent of automotive. So I think it's really exciting time in Paris, but also Paris is also known for and France, too, for being unabashed in protecting their culture and also making sure that their perspectives are respected. And so you see a lot of this in sort of the way from the space I work in. Now with SUVs, one of the things I've noticed and seen is a policy around SUVs, where I think it's a proposal or it's gone into effect now, where SUVs will pay more for parking in the city. So what happens and where this comes into play with the Olympics is that for years, people have been in the industry targeting the Paris Olympics as a launch point some other some companies that were planning on doing flights at the Paris Olympics in this summer in 2024 realize they weren't going to make it in time technically, to be ready to fly. But this particular company called Volocopter, that I've mentioned before, out of Germany, they're very keen on demonstrating again, they were the ones that flew the Paris Air Show last time, and they've since done a massive amount of flights in the U.S. going around different cities and stuff on a roadshow. So they're very eager to build awareness, which results from this researcher's point of view, of course, and they see the Olympics as an iconic moment, because they're European company. They're very much proud of that. And also, if you look at the history of Airbus, Airbus was a European project, Pan European right parts come from all over Europe to build those planes. And this is maybe a second coming of Airbus in so many ways, in this new air transport world. And so it's super symbolic to be able to fly at Paris, in front of the crowds of Olympic spectators, not just at Paris airshow where you have a lot of aviation, aware or interested or geeky type folks, or people who work in the industry. It's a home field advantage when you're flying above that crowd. But when you put it in front of the Olympic audience, that's a whole nother level of magnitude and exposure and media coverage. And so that can do wonders for the company and change its fundraising prospects, it's runway and its ability to develop future products and launch into other markets and really, potentially accelerated and develop its first mover advantage, too. So it's huge. What's interesting is in September, the Paris city council acting on complaints from citizens about this plan of that air vehicle flying there now, I would say negotiations is not very clear what conversations are happening. But it was brought into question whether they're actually going to be allowed to fly over the city, whether or not they can get certified in time to do it. And that last check, I believe the CEO was reported as saying that they might not launch in July as originally hoped if the certification doesn't come on time. But they're hoping at least to be able to do it in August for the Paralympics. So there's a nonzero chance that they don't get to fly. That could happen. And that would be for them, I think they would class that as a really big disappointment, a missed opportunity, and so on. And also an opportunity for Europe and Paris, the show itself as a showcase for innovation in the space and air transport. So I think it's really interesting when you look at these big events, because they present such an opportunity. It's clear to the commercial side that they're chasing it. But what really validated my research was that social acceptance came up as an interesting issue already, before the first vehicle flies. And like I mentioned before, the next plans are also around big events, the World Expo in Osaka. Next year in 2025, this was to be flights. And in 2028 in Los Angeles for the Olympics there. Other companies from the US are also planning to fly. So yeah, social acceptance is already showing itself as a key risk. Corail 58:58 Yeah, that's crazy. It's kind of a live case study. For your (inaudible). The images you put in your executive summary of this electric planes flying were incredible. I have to admit, I didn't even know that it was already existing. and they were already flying planes, electric flying planes. So that was great. And I will be in Paris this summer, and I crossed all my fingers, that social acceptance is not blocking this line from playing because I want to be there and look at them. Brandon de León 59:34 Same here. Corail 59:35 Well, thank you so much, Brandon. I think I don't know Riccardo, if you have a closing question, or, but I think... Riccardo Cosentino 59:42 No, that's no, I think no, I'll leave it with you. Close. Corail 59:46 Yeah. I think Brandon, that was fantastic. We learned so much. Although I read your entire dissertation. It was super interesting and fascinating. And I feel that you gave us even more explanations and stories in thepodcast. So thank you so much for being generous with all your knowledge. And yeah, I wish you the best in your career, really. Brandon de León 1:00:07 Thank you guys. Thanks for having me. Riccardo Cosentino 1:00:08 Thank you, Brandon. And thank you, Corail, for co-hosting the episode today. It's always an honor having you as my co-host, and there'll be hopefully more opportunities. And Brandon it's always a pleasure chatting with you. Brandon de León 1:00:21 Likewise. Take care, guys. Riccardo Co

So You Want to Do an MBA Outside the U.S. [Episode 572]

Admissions Straight Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2024 50:07

Show Summary In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Linda Abraham interviews admissions directors from MBA programs outside the United States to find out if there are any common threads among them. The guests on the show include representatives from Oxford Saïd Business School, INSEAD, NYU Abu Dhabi, and HEC Paris. The interviews cover various topics such as program overviews, admissions processes, and common applicant mistakes. The interviews also touch on language requirements, the role of the video interview in the evaluation process, and the importance of holistic review in admissions decisions. Overall, this interview provides valuable insights into the unique aspects of these MBA programs and shed light on the similarities and differences among them. Show Notes Welcome to the 572nd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Before I turn to today's show, I have a question for you. Are you ready to apply to your Dream MBA programs? Are you competitive at your target schools? Accepted's MBA admissions quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/mbaquiz, complete the quiz, and you'll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your qualifications. Plus, it's all free. . If you are a regular listener, you know that during most episodes of Admissions Straight Talk, I interview a guest, frequently, an admissions director or dean. Usually, our guests are leaders at a US graduate program. However, within the last couple of years, I have had the privilege of interviewing several deans or directors from programs outside the United States. Today we're going to take specific excerpts from four of those episodes and let you determine if there are some common threads and of course, how they differ. Today's episode is a collection of their answers to admissions questions as well as insight into their programs. The guests on this program are: Hannah Griffiths, MBA Recruitment and Admissions Director at Oxford Saïd Business School Teresa Peiro, Associate Global Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at INSEAD Dr. Robert Salomon, Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi Sara Vanos, Executive Director of Marketing and Admissions at HEC Paris. I've asked some questions of almost every admissions director I've spoken to, so the responses that you're going to see, again, represent a sample. In any case. Let's start with Hannah Griffith of Oxford Saïd Business School. Oxford Saïd Business School While Saïd is a fairly new and very innovative MBA program, Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and Hannah provides the following: An overview of the Oxford Saïd MBA program, focusing on its more distinctive elements; insights into the program's admissions process, and a review of common misconceptions about Oxford Saïd.Can you give us an overview of the Oxford Saïd MBA program for those listeners who aren't that familiar with it, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [2:32] [HG] Yes, absolutely. So the Saïd Business School is a business school that is embedded within Oxford University. Our MBA program is a one-year MBA program, and given that the business school is embedded within a world-class university, that does impact the MBA experience in a number of different ways. One of those ways being that the students can expect, in the one-year program, a lot of academic rigor. Our program is an intensive one-year MBA, it aims to include everything that a candidate would maybe anticipate finding on a two-year program, but packed into a 12-month period. The main aim of the business school and of the MBA program is to prepare our students to be responsible business leaders and individuals who, as they move through their career in the future, are prepared to tackle world scale problems, challenges, and to really see business as a vehicle to drive change. And be that within the organizations that they work in,

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Rethinking project delivery with Ali Mafi

The Infrastructure Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 33:21

In today's podcast we will delve into the knotty and, it seems, unending challenge of controlling and reducing the cost and the time spent delivering our major infrastructure projects. As we a constantly reminded by politicians, the public and our colleagues, the track record of global major project delivery is not good. I have referenced the findings of Oxford University professor Bent Flyvbjerg's book How Big Things Get Done many times on this podcast before – specifically his findings that globally over the last 30 years, just 8.5% of projects met cost and schedule targets while just 0.5% satisfied all benefit goals.It's a pretty shocking set of findings. And we don't have to look far in the UK to see evidence – I give you HS2, Hinkley Point C, Crossrail, etc etc. But given that the UK government just published its £800bn pipeline of infrastructure aspiration in the face of an increasing public finance black hole, the pressure is growing to turn this around.So what is going wrong? Well my guest today is Ali Mafi, an engineer who has spent a career, largely in the shadows, trying to drive change across the sector. In fact he is currently collaborating with Bent Flyvbjerg and Alex Budzier of the Oxford Saïd Business school under their Oxford Global Projects consultancy to try to bring some new thinking to the sector.And the focus for this work, is the Timist programme, which he founded last year and, as he will explain now I hope, he defines as a next generation project delivery system – a new approach major projects that he reckons could see teams deliver better outcomes in a shorter time and at lower cost than any other systems available. He believes – as the name of his approach suggests – that most problems really stem from our inability to focus on time. As a result projects lose on average 2.5 days per week which means that the output and productivity is half of what it should be. That's the diagnosis – so what's the cure?ResourcesTimist websiteThe Latham Review - Constructing the TeamThe Egan Review - Rethinking Construction Association for Project Management article on ward rounds

business uk rethinking oxford university project management hs2 mafi crossrail project delivery bent flyvbjerg oxford sa

Hva du må vite om digitale penger og hvordan det kan innvirke på ditt liv med Lasse Meholm

Mentaltrener Podcasten

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2024 73:47

Hva nøyaktig er digitale penger? Forestill deg et pengesystem som kan programmeres for spesifikke bruk – er det mulig? Om du ikke ønsker å vaksinere deg i fremtiden, kan du da miste tilgangen til pengene dine? Og hvor mye makt har egentlig Norges Bank over disse digitale valutaene? Bli med oss i denne episoden hvor vi dykker dypt inn i verden av digitale valutaer, utforsker deres potensiale, og avdekker hvilke roller sentralbanker kan spille i denne digitale revolusjonen. I denne episoden har vi æren av å presentere Lasse Meholm. Med en bakgrunn som spenner fra dataingeniør til en imponerende bachelorgrad i internasjonal finans, er Meholm ikke fremmed for akademiaens utfordringer. Hans akademiske reise har ført ham gjennom prestisjetunge institusjoner som Oxford Saïd Business School og MIT Sloan School of Management, berikende hans kunnskap og skjerpende hans innsikt. Meholms profesjonelle karriere er like imponerende, med nøkkelroller innen digital innovasjon og strategi hos Nordea, DNB, og advokatselskapet EY Tax & Law, hvor han har ledet vei for digitale aktiva, kryptospørsmål, og blokkjedeteknologi. Men det stopper ikke der; Lasse har også vært hjernen bak flere suksessrike fintech-startups, med en imponerende historikk av salg til store nordiske konsern. Som en ettertraktet foredragsholder har Meholm delt sin dyptgående ekspertise om Bitcoin, blokkjedeteknologi, og den fremvoksende verden av smarte penger med et globalt publikum. Hans bidrag til litteraturen inkluderer flere bøker publisert av Hegnar Medias bokforlag, som har belyst kryptovaluta og blokkjedeteknologi for et bredere publikum. Gjør deg klar for en fascinerende samtale med Lasse Meholm, hvor vi utforsker de siste trendene og innovasjonene som former fremtiden for finans. Vi er innom: 00:00 Byttehandel, rød tråd gjennom historien, pyramidene i Egypt. 06:35 Innføring av mynter som globalt betalingsmiddel. 14:33 "Internasjonal institusjon som regulerer bankenes egenkapital." 21:30 Teknologiens bruk i kampen mot kriminalitet. 24:20 Bekymring for vanlige folk og betalingsproblemer. 30:16 Bekymring for personvern og datainnsamling fra BankID. 34:12 Mye manuelt arbeid, teknologi kan hjelpe. 46:23 Overvåkning av banktransaksjoner skaper skepsis og bekymring. 49:57 Teknologisk utvikling, kryptovaluta og hvitvasking regulert. 57:02 Bankenes stabilitet bekymrer både i tradisjonell og digital verden. 01:08:27 Frykt for digital styring av pandemilover.

Episode 220: Andy Bass, Start With What Works

Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2024 24:16

This week, we interviewed Andy Bass, who is a consultant, author, and speaker who works with businesses to find and exploit their hidden assets. He has worked with organizations in the UK, US and Far East including International Automotive Component Group, Rolls Royce, L'Oreal, Trimas, Deutsche Bank and The Advanced Propulsion Centre. Prior to his consulting career, Andy was a lecturer at Aston Business School and has also taught at Oxford Saïd, Warwick and Strathclyde Business Schools. Andy has a PhD in Software Engineering and describes himself as a geek who learned to wear a suit (to the point where he can pass undetected in the C-suite - usually). He is author of Start With What Works: a faster way to grow your business, Committed Action: The three-step method to inspire your people to take action, and The Performance Papers: Incisive Briefings for Busy Leaders. Outside work, he played lead guitar in a Rush tribute band, and is a failed standup comedian. For free book chapters and presentations, visit: bassclusker.com.

uk phd rush bass warwick rolls royce deutsche bank far east software engineering oxford sa

Ep35 “Does Common Ownership Affect Product Market Outcomes?” with Martin Schmalz

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2023 27:39

It turns out your airline ticket prices might be affected by common ownership in mutual and index funds, but how? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Martin Schmalz, Professor of Finance and Economics at Oxford Saïd and Academic Area Head for the FAME faculty group (Finance, Accounting, Managerial Science, and Economics) for a discussion about Common Ownership, and the unseen power it holds in asset management for the corporate world. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.RELEVANT LINKS:Common Ownership, Competition and Top Management IncentivesAnticompetitive Effects of Common OwnershipSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Cost of Bad Leadership in Major Programmes with Riccardo Cosentino | S1 EP 12

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2023 32:45

In this episode, Riccardo Cosentino takes us behind the scenes of developing the Navigating Major Programmes podcast and shares why he started this podcast—well before he was ready. Taking us through his career in infrastructure (and the brief moment he almost became restaurateur), Riccardo highlights his leadership learnings and how graduating from Oxford Saïd Business School's MSc Major Programme Management dismantled his imposter syndrome, a necessity in becoming an effective leader. You're going to want to grab a pen and paper for one because Riccardo shares practical leadership tips that will help you get your team's performance to the highest level. “Ultimately, the cost of leadership training is insignificant compared to the cost overruns or schedule overruns major programmes encounter every day.” Key Takeaways: Imposter syndrome and why starting a podcast helped Riccardo overcome itDoes a personal brand have a place in major programmes? How to successfully use LinkedIn within the infrastructure industry Why leadership training should be required in major projects If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInRiccardo Cosentino's Leadership Articles on LinkedInNavigating Major Programmes on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05You're listening to navigate the major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino I brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of navigating major programs. Today will be my first solo podcast, I will have no guests today. So you will be listening to me rambling away hopefully won't be rambling it will be interesting, interesting topics that we cover in this podcast. I started. I started this podcast very recently, and I have no previous experience in podcasting. I'm an avid listener, but I never, never led or recorded podcasts before. Reason why I started this podcast. Mostly I wanted to elevate the conversation about major programs, I wanted to have a platform where we can think through major programs, we can think through issues associated with major programs. I also wanted to give an opportunity to some of my classmates and future classmates and past classmates to have a platform where they could present the research. As many of you know and carried out I finished a master's degree Oxford called MMPM mastering major program management. And while I was doing my dissertation, it occurred to me that many of my classmates were also doing very valuable research. But unlike a PhD, this research doesn't really get published, some of the dissertation are about the quality that can be can be published in in journals. However, a lot of the dissertations don't quite meet that threshold. However, it's very, very interesting research that should have a platform to be presented. Rather than just ending up on a shelf on somebody's on somebody's bedroom or living room. This is why I started the podcast. Starting the podcasts was very nerve racking for me. It took me it took me almost a year to find the courage to actually record the first series, the first five episodes, I actually recorded the very first episode two years ago, but then never had the never had the courage I guess, to follow through with the rest of the episodes. So I sat sat on this project for a very long time, it was very nerve wracking for me, I procrastinated, I postponed the recording until I was really what would happen is what was at Oxford graduating from my, from a master's degree. A lot of my colleagues and classmates were congratulating me for having a strong presence on LinkedIn and to for having a strong voice on LinkedIn. And they told me they were very enthusiastic about the material I was publishing. And that kind of gave me the gave me the strength to overcome my imposter syndrome, where I didn't think anybody would listen to my podcast. So that's that's why it took me two years, I was really suffering from impostor syndrome, I didn't think I had anything valuable to say, and I really needed to get that boost from my graduation. And you know, from achieving that major milestone in my life of getting a degree from Oxford University to gain and that gave me the strength to overcome my fears, and get going with a podcast. So the journey of the podcast really started with with my LinkedIn profile, I realized that I wanted to have my own voice on LinkedIn, and realize that the conversation that people were having on LinkedIn, were not deep enough. And I wanted to bring my voice, as I said before, and so I started very slowly, I started by just updating my profile, I then developed a bit of a personal brand strategy. And I found a front sort of the path that I wanted to follow on LinkedIn. And I just started publishing my own opinions and my own views on major programs. And that wasn't an easy journey. As I said, I remember I remember when I first started using LinkedIn properly. So I've been using LinkedIn obviously from from when he started back in the late 2000s. However, I was just, I was just a passive user, I was not somebody that would engage. And I remember being on the platform and reading reading posts and having really strong views about the post, but not having the courage to actually put a comment, or publish a comment. And I remember always writing in the comment box and then deleted it and then moving on. So for me, even just engaging in the conversation was very difficult. And again, back to impostor syndrome, I was, I was afraid that my contribution was not valuable, I was afraid of saying the wrong thing I was, I wasn't sure that people would appreciate what I had to say. So I had to overcome that in order to be active on LinkedIn. And it is like everything else, it's really a journeys, it's training, you're almost have to train yourself to engage and you start small, we start with comments, liking, and then you start, you know, resharing, maybe somebody's else experienced that someone else post. And eventually you start writing your own post, and you start creating your own voice. That has been my journey on on LinkedIn. And but it started with a strategy. And maybe that's a little bit over the top, but I wanted, I wanted to our strategy, so that I knew what topics I would cover, and what will my message would be. And that's what I recommend for people that are not engaging with LinkedIn, start small start by just comment this start by engaging the conversation and then see what that takes you. And if that becomes enjoyable, start posting your material, we all have interesting things to say. And don't be trapped in imposter syndrome like I was, you definitely have something valuable to say. So say, and engaging the platform. So as some of you might be aware, I started, I started posting on LinkedIn, and almost two years ago, and at the beginning, my posts were very technical, I was actually publishing some of my papers from my master's degree. And these were very technical papers that would look at various issues of affecting major programs, complexity, organizational structure, risk, governance. And however as as I started engaging with the platform and publishing my own content, I realize that at the end of the day, major programs are delivered by people. And people require leadership. So at the end of the day, at the core of major programs, we have people so when you whenever you have people, you need to create a conducive environment for these people to deliver their best work. And that's where leadership came in. So I started realizing that yes, the technical content is important. So looking at complexity, looking at major programmes as temporary organization is very important. But at the end of the day, we need to motivate people, we need to empower people to do their best work. So I decided to shift a little bit the content, I was publishing on LinkedIn and started to publish leadership pieces and leadership pieces started with me, I started sharing my my stories. And I started sharing my experiences, my mistakes, because I think in order to have successful major programs, we need to have strong leadership, and we need to have a conducive environment that brings out the best or the people of the people working on major programs. The other thing that I realized when I started publishing on LinkedIn is that major programs are very unique and diverse and requires specific training. And different jurisdictions are a different level of maturity. And the UK specifically, is very well advanced in understanding the complexity and the difficulties, surrondings major programs if they develop the training to form and grow future major program leaders. The perfect example is the master that I did, which is the major the master in major pprogramme management, which was really created out of a different program called major program Leadership Academy, a program that was developed for the UK Government to train all of the people within the UK government that had responsibility for delivery of major programs. Oxford developed this for Cabinet Office in the UK and then decided to commercialize it through the SAID business school and make it available as a Master, Master of Science in major program management. So part of that master degree is obviously leadership is one of the core modules of that master. And it looks at leadership as a way of empowering people in a way to overcome the significant challenges that major programs have in terms of being on time and on budget. I mean, when we think of major programs, we always think of the failures, we all are aware of, of different projects across the globe, that were late and over budget, and they were not meeting the benefits expectation that the government sponsor was hoping to achieve. And so having a very specific education, that train people are looking at major program through a different lens, not looking at measure progress through the lens of a project, because projects are different from major project. And by the way, they the way that we define major projects is any any capital program, bigger than a billion pound dollars, I mean, it's almost semantic, but something big, bigger than your typical, how's your innovation project or, you know, small highway projects. Because leadership is at the center of successful major programs, I wanted to have a personal journey in my leadership career, or in the way I've approached leadership in my career. And so I started looking at what were my biggest leadership mistakes, because obviously, you can learn a lot from your own mistakes, and you should learn a lot from your mistakes. So I started looking at what were my leadership mistakes. But I guess before we talk about my leadership mistakes, it's important that we understand my personal journey and infrastructure and how I personally burnt out early in my career, because I was taking too much on. And I was obviously, as I said before, I always suffer from imposter syndrome. And therefore, the imposter syndrome led me to have a really, really high work ethics, sometimes not healthy, because as an imposter, when you suffer from imposter syndrome, you feel that you never doing enough. And you always try not to get discovered as an imposter. So you're always overworking yourself. So as I said, back in early my career back in 2003, you know, three years after university, I was working on a very high profile project on the West Coast Main Line in the UK, I was working, you know, 10/12 hours a day. This was railway work. So it involved a lot of nights and weekends, because obviously, that work, the work on the railway happens when the railways know running. So for about a year, I was working 10 hours a day, I went out on a Friday, I would not work because I would then work out to the night or during blockades. I was working, you know, seven days a week for about four or five weeks at a time in order to complete a very challenging project. And, you know, this caused me to burn out. Eventually I actually quit my job and was so burnt out that not only I quit my job, I actually left the UK, went back home to my own country, Italy, hoping that would help me find a better work life balance. But ultimately, I think I was so burnt out that I needed a change of not professional job, and scenery in a sense that I needed, I really needed to cut all ties with a situation that really put me in a difficult position in a position where I wasn't happy anymore. And sadly, that was not the only time I burnt out. I mean, back if we now fast forward from 2003 to 2015 or 2014/15. I then again burned out in a different way. And I was this time my burnt out had a different impact. Back in 2003 i was the most junior person on the project. So my burnout just affected me. But in 2015. My burnt out because I was a leader and I was managing a team. My burnout ended up affecting other people. So not only I was driving myself to the ground in 2015 to a point where almost again, instead of leaving the job and the country I wanted to leave the job and the profession, that's how serious this burnout was. But as I was saying, because I was a leader, because I was a managing theme, it was not only just me suffering from the burnout, but I was transferring my burnout, I was learning how other people, and I cause these other people to either have been unhappy or one particular individual actually drove their individual to quit the organization. That was, there was a key turning point for me. In the end, you know, since I'm here today, talking about my past, I didn't leave the industry, I decided to stay in industry. But then I started the journey that created a change in the way that I approach the day to day. And I started this growth journey that I'm still continuing today. I mean, it's, you know, leadership growth is not something that you do for a period of time is a continuous improvement process. And, you know, it's been eight years since I started it about revolve as a leader, becoming a senior leader, and managing bigger teams and trying not to repeat the mistakes that I made in the past. Most of the time, I'm successful, at not repeating those mistakes, but we're all human. And, you know, sometimes, when stress gets to me, I fall back into my old patterns. So back in 2015, when I was almost completely burnt out, you know, and I decided that I wanted to leave the industry, I always try to learn from my mistakes. So the mistakes I made in 2003, was that I was too hasty in my decision making process. You know, I quit my job left the country. And that was probably too radical of a move. And I've learned from that I learned that maybe you need to ponder, you need to clear your head, trying to make decision after you've had some time to recover from the burnout rather than making a decision while you are in the burn out. And so somehow, I ended up picking up a passion, which was cooking and restaurants and I developed this idea that I would quit infrastructure and become a chef, and or a restaurant owner or restaurant or entrapreneur. However, in order not to repeat the mistakes I made in 2003, I decided to keep my job and take evening classes at the local college, George Brown College in Toronto, and I joined the culinary school in the evening. So as I was burning out on my, on my day to day job on infrastructure, I was taking on more responsibility at night trying to learn how to become a chef and now trying to learn how to become a restauranteur or entrepreneur. So I spent several months training and, you know, I started to realize that maybe that was not the answer. You know, the restaurant industry is a really difficult industry very competitive. You know, I think the stats is the one in three restaurants and your restaurant fail. So I started to realize that maybe the grass wasn't greener on the other side. So instead of parcking my job in I decided that I needed to reshape the way I was approaching my career and infrastructure. And I kept my passion for food and my passion for cooking. But that's as a hobby rather than as a career. That's what it should be for me. And instead, I started focusing on how do I make my career and infrastructure more meaningful? What do I have to change in terms of my approach, to the day to day work, my approach to the people I work with, and my approach to life in general. So that was my journey in applying what I learned in 2003. And trying to reshape my career in a way that would allow me not to burn out on a regular basis. One of the reason I am doing this podcast is also to share my personal experiences and my learning. So I have some advice for young professional that are either starting a career in infrastructure, or they are, you know, the beginning of their career, early years of their career. And, you know, my advice is, you know, first of all trying to understand if you suffer from imposter syndrome, because for me, a lot of my burned out a lot of my troubles were caused by the fact that I never felt that I was good enough. And therefore I was trying always extra hard, because I felt I had to compensate for my weaknesses. So always trying to have self assessment, and sense checking, a reality testing of what you actually bring to the table. You might be bringing in more than you think. So always, always trying to balance your perception of your work with the feedback that you are getting from other people. So if you're getting really positive feedback from your peers and from your former leaders take that for what it is, I mean, one of the mistakes I used to make and probably still make nowadays, in to a lesser degree is discounting the positive feedback I was receiving from from, from my peers and my leaders, I always felt that it was, it was just lip service, that didn't really mean it, and that my contribution wasn't really good enough. And they were just being polite. You know, that if I could wind back the clock, I would try to avoid that mistake, trying to get out of the imposter syndrome rut and trying to have, you know, the other advice I give to young professional try to have work life balance. I know it's a generic words that we say to our work life balance, but ultimately, if you are burned out, you're gonna burn other people out, you're not going to be effective as a leader, and you're not going to be able to accomplish what you need to accomplish. So to have a leader that has a good work, life balance not only sets the right example, but also sets the right environment for a productive team. Yeah, I mean, the other piece of advice I give to people is trying to understand early on what what a leader is, again, when I was young and naive, I felt that being a leader was delivering what I was asked to deliver at all costs. I was you know, they I never envisioned that. My team was there to support me, and to work with me in delivering my objectives as my my work objective or the objective that my leader have given me. And I always felt that my team was dispensable. And always felt that we need to work hard. And if you know, we, we shouldn't worry about the consequences. And always as i said of the biggest mistake was probably feeling that my team was dispensable and I could be headed out and there will be no, no repercussion, for me or for the work I was doing. So I've learned a lot from my mistakes, or like I said before, and you know, my misunderstanding where the leader is or supposed to be, is now being rectified. As far as I can rectify, I mean, I'm still I'm still not an expert in leadership, I'm still learning I'm going to continue to learn until forever. What I do now know is what a leader should look like any leader is somebody that empowers people. And I've done I've done a lot of growing up over the last few years, and I've done it using tools available to every professional. So I focus a lot on on emotional intelligence, because ultimately, you're dealing with people. So you're dealing with different personality, and you need to be able to understand through emotional intelligence, how people react to your actions. And so, in my mind today, an effective leader must have three major things. An effective leader needs to be self aware, willing to admit when they're wrong, and never be too prideful to learn. An effective leader needs to be observant. The leader needs to create trust within the team, by developing a deep understanding of individuals and their motivation. And then finally, I believe a leader today needs to be authentic, consistently showing up with the same values in every situation and environment. And the reason a leader must have these characteristics is because again, major programs are delivered by people. And in order to get the best out of the people you have, you need to have a high level of emotional intelligence. And these three things I've just talked about, are at the core of emotional intelligence. But ultimately, you know, we're all human beings. And I think we can all relate. Let me give you the example a sports analogy. You know, if you go into if you go into a changing room at halftime, and you're losing badly against an opponent, and all you get from your leader is the coach is aggressive feedback on how poorly you're performing, you might not get the right motivation to get out there in the second period or for a period to do a better job. So it is important for a leader to motivate their team to empower their team to make sure that the team performed to the highest level possible. And you only can achieve that when the team trust you believes you and is willing to follow it you, because ultimately, a single individual is never going to be able to deliver major programs, a major program will be delivered by a team of people. And the team of people need to be motivated, needs to be empowered needs to be supported, and needs to be feeling indispensable for the task on hand. And leadership is fundamental to success of any endeavor, but specifically very important for the success of major programs. And ultimately, without strong leadership at every level, because the leadership is not something that just happens on the top. Right, it's almost stratified leadership, we have different layers of of a team. And each layer needs to have an amount of leadership. This is almost like a pyramid. It's paramount, that organization invest in leadership training, because if you only invest in the leadership training or leadership development of the top leader, so the point of the of the pyramid, you then end up with a really strong leader at the top, but a lot of weak links underneath. So the leadership training has to happen at every level of the organization at every level of our major programs. Now that we're looking at major programs, it I mean, it has been proven that leadership training leads to better results. I think the tons of literature out there that prove how effective leadership brings effective results and good results and therefore a positive return on investment. So I think, anecdotally, I can say that an investment in leadership will yield a very high return on investment, which could translate in the world of major programs, programs being delivered on time and on budget. You know, I think at the end of the day, we're here to talk about major programs. And we want to have successful major programs. And the way you measure success in major programs is your time and on budget delivery. And ultimately, the cost of leadership training is insignificant compared to the cost overruns, or the schedule overruns and major programs encounter every day. So if you're interested in learning more about my journey, and see what what I did in the past to grow as a leader, I mean, obviously, I've posted several article that talk about my story. And my experiences, I also published three reading list. A lot of the not all of them, but a lot of the books in my on my reading lists are about leadership. So if you are looking to start your own leadership journey to continue you leadership journey and you want find some inspiration, maybe the reading list is a good starting point. I'm also going to publish more about my personal journey. But as I said, my personal journey is ongoing is not finished. So as I reflect on where I got to, I tend to write about it. So there are more articles coming out in coming weeks, that talks about different parts of leadership, different aspects of leadership. And, you know, the guiding thread for me is emotional intelligence. And, you know, I've self assess myself. I also done a 360 asking other people to assess my emotional intelligence. Some of that will be published in an article coming soon, depending on timing it might be or when this podcast is posted, my already been posted. And yeah, I mean, please also reach out if you want to have a conversation about my personal journey, I'd be more than happy to engage in conversation or one on one. So as as I, as I conclude this podcast, which is my very first solo podcast, this is in itself is part of my leadership journey. This is part of me conquering some of my fears, some of my fear, of not being be good enough, some of my public speaking fears. And it's been, you know, it's been an interesting journey. For me being able to actually be here, talking to a microphone and a blank wall is certainly something that I dreaded, dreaded for many, many years. I never felt that I was going to be able to do it. And however, because of every other leadership training every other thing that I've done over the last few years, I'm now in a position where step by Step I conquered all my fears, and to a point where I can now actually sit here, and hopefully give you an interesting solo podcast. So the same way I, I overcome my fears, and I started my journey in being a thought leader in major programs, I think everybody can do it, it's not something that is going to happen overnight, I encourage everybody to start somewhere, that's typically the most difficult part, showing up is typically the most difficult part. So start and and go from there, I mean, you will be extremely rewarding, like it is for me, where I have now against all my expectation now published over 10 episodes of my on my podcast. And it all started with me liking a LinkedIn post two and a half years ago. So trust the process, don't get overwhelmed by the outcome, just focus on the small steps that you can undertake, and you probably gonna have the same positive experience of growth they've ever had. And, you know, I'm hoping that you're gonna continue to follow this. This is a no always gonna have solo podcasts are gonna resume having guests, but I will have solo podcasts because for me is a way of sharing my stories. And there's also a way for me to grow personally and to overcome some of my fears. And with that, I hope you gonna join me soon on the next episode of navigate virtual programs. And please follow me on LinkedIn where I'm regularly posting content that you hopefully find interesting stimulating. That's it for this episode, we'll navigate the major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

Watts up with EV charging: An entrepreneur's view from ground zero

business entrepreneur mba economy climate change feature ev fast company watts electric vehicles electric cars ground zero ev charging climatetech oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2023 32:22

Leye (Cornelius) Makanjuola, Oxford Saïd MBA and host discusses the EV charging market with Folasade Ayoola, a fellow student and entrepreneur. In this episode, Fola Ayoola delves into her experience co-building ElectricFish, a climate tech company building distributed energy storage in the US. She discusses the technological challenges associated with the EV charging landscape in the US and how ElectricFish put energy equity front and centre in their plans. Featuring: Folasade Ayoola - https://www.linkedin.com/in/folasadeayoola/ Leye Makanjuola - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leyemakanjuola/ Link to ElectricFish's website: https://www.electricfish.co/ Feature in Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/90704698/electricfish-ev-chargers-can-plug-in-anywhere-and-double-as-electricity-storage Link to the school website - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Link to the podcast - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/future-business-podcast/season-five

Implementing IPD in Nuclear Mega Projects with Carol Tansley | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford | S1 EP 11

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2023 39:46

In this week's episode, Riccardo and guest co-host, Corail, sit down with fellow alumna, Carol Tansley to discuss her Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on the institutional barriers to adopting integrated project delivery (IPD) on a nuclear mega project. Carol's impressive career, spanning two decades, is rooted in executing major programs for the UK Government Department for Work, HMRC, and DTI. As a recognized authority in large-scale IT and business transformations, her expertise took her to the Middle East, notably participating in the groundbreaking nuclear project in Abu Dhabi, marking the inauguration of the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. Ninety-seven percent of nuclear major programmes go over time and over budget, so how did Carol (with no nuclear background) participate in delivering one two days early? This is a conversation you won't want to miss.“IPD may represent a methodology that would work has been proven to work in first of a kind environments. And while we have the field conditions now to embrace that, we need people that are willing to go out and embrace these new ways of working and seek to implement them.” Key Takeaways: The role Eternal Beginner Syndrome plays in complex nuclear programmes.The perceived barriers against adopting new models and how cultural and cognitive biases can masquerade as genuine obstacles.Carol's experience at Nuclear Week in the UK parliament and the future trends of the nuclear industry—energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change.Attracting the younger generation to the nuclear sector to support climate solutions and the expected 40 percent growth rate. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Carol Tansley on LinkedInCorail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedInRiccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05You're listening to navigate the major programes, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's Day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Carol Tansley was appointed Vice President X energy UK new build projects in September 2022. In this role, she oversees all x-energy's activities towards establishing the XE 100 as the prominent I temperature gas reactor technology in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining IX energy, Carol served as the operational readiness Control Center Director for the early successful Emirates nuclear energy cooperation startup of the Barakah nuclear plant in the UAE. She was also the new Newa energy company director of strategic programs. Prior to this, she served as a senior director for PwC in the UK and UAE, as well as working at Accenture delivering some of the UK is largest public sector change programs. She recently graduated with distinction from the University of Oxford, with an MSc in major program management. Carol's research focuses on causes of poor performance on nuclear mega project, and potential benefits of adopting relational contracting models. Corail 02:05Hello, Carol Heller, Ricardo, I'm super happy to talk to you today. And thank you so much for the opportunity to interview Carol on your podcast, Ricardo, I think we all met in Oxford during the MMPMcourse. And it was wonderful to learn about Carol's experience about the nuclear industry, which is one of the most complex industries, you can find say, I think the listener will be so happy to hear about Carol's story and what you have to say are all about the future of this industry. First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about your background and how you fell into the nuclear sector. I know that there is a little value at the start of this episode to talk about your career, but it would be great to hear from your words how how you got into that very complex industry. Carol Tansley 03:05Okay, thank you very much corral. And thank you, Riccardo. I really appreciate the opportunity. One to both be back together again, because we haven't seen each other for a little while and to to talk on your podcast. So thank you very much. And just in terms of my background, my professional career has all been in delivering major projects and programs. The first I'll call it almost 20 years was in the UK, delivering major programs for the UK Government Department for Work in pensions HMRC. What was DTI. A lot of the large transformation programs that came with large scale it development programs and the business transformation that sat around that in around 2010. I moved to work on a project in the Middle East. It was for the Ministry of Interior in Abu Dhabi, a large transformation program that we're doing now it was a joint Middle East UK project and it covered the police Abu Dhabi police that covered Civil Defense prisons borders. And I was there for a couple of years. I then went to Saudi Arabia and worked for on a big transformation program for Ministry of Labor. And it was when I'd been there for a couple of years that I was asked to join the nuclear project that they were delivering in Abu Dhabi, you may be aware that they are they've delivered the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. It was a new to nuclear country, what they've achieved there is quite phenomenal with the vision of the leaders of that country. So they pass their legislation to become a nuclear country and to get my program moving in 2009 They broke ground if you like so poured first concrete and 2012 and they got their first unit online by loading fuel for the first unit right before COVID Hit actually And two days ahead of schedule on the 17th of February 2020. And I was privileged to be part of that program, I was asked to join that program because of my background in major program delivery, not because I had anything to do with nuclear. So it was really, it was an amazing journey, great learning curve, an amazing sector to be part of, particularly now that it is going to play such an important role in the energy transition, the drive to net zero and energy security goals for countries around the world. Corail 05:33Absolutely is really impressive as well that you delivered two days early this project, which is so unusual in I think, in your research somewhere, you said that there is a study that said that over 97% of nuclear major projects are delayed, that cost overruns, etc, all across the globe. So it's quite unusual. Isn't that very unusual in that industry? How on earth did you make this happen? Like how did you manage to deliver early such a complex program? Carol Tansley 06:08Yeah, well, you're absolutely right about what you say its nuclear mega projects, I'll call them particularly nuclear new builds are recognized as being one of the most complex type of program to deliver. In fact, there are people who say Charles Perot, for example, in his textbook says that nuclear mega projects are the hardest to deliver harder and more complex than something like the International Space Station. And you're also right in what you said that one of the datasets I looked at 97% of the nuclear new build projects had gone over time and over budget. So in terms of what happened at Baraccah, it certainly wasn't me alone, it was a huge effort by a huge number of people working together over many years to achieve this. I think a lot of it came from the vision and the determination of the leaders in Abu Dhabi, they were determined to be at the forefront of clean energy. And they saw the drive for nuclear. As a critical part of that. I think we the fact that we chose a design that was in Nth of a kind if you like, so what that means is multiple units have been delivered before. So the South Koreans Catco, who delivered the units, it was proven reactor design had been delivered before, albeitin a different environment. So that created with a very experienced team. So that was a big foundation. There were many, I'll call it first of a kind variables, as we've already said, new to nuclear country, new elements of the supply chain. But the critical thing was having a really important integration function that sat across all of the teams, including the supply chain, that worked very closely with all of the internal and external stakeholders, including the regulator, that was a critically important part of what we did, and making sure that we had a schedule that was fully scoped, that we did our best to make sure it was realistic from the start, we kept assessing our past performance as we were moving forward to make sure that the schedule took account of that. And we tried to eliminate any optimism bias in our forward forecasting. It wasn't always a smooth journey. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, as you'd expect with something that complex over so many years. But I think, as I've said already the the drive and the passion of the leadership there. And you know, quite honestly, the the work ethic of all the teams that were involved, because everybody realized quite what was at stake here that just kept driving to deliver. Corail 08:49Yeah, that's, that's amazing. And so I read your paper recently that you published in nuclear industry, congratulations. Carol Tansley 08:57Okay. Thank you very much. Corail 09:00And in there, you talk a lot about this, first of a kind issue in the in the nuclear industry. Can you explain to us what are the complexities associated with this first of a kind? Program? Carol Tansley 09:17Yeah, I think so. Yes. Thank you for the question. So, on a nuclear new build program, you have so many elements of complexity uncertainty at the beginning. So you have the technology, the reactor itself, which is obviously highly technically complex, you've got all of the support systems that sit around that they delivered in highly complex institutional frameworks, I'll call them within, you know, in any particular country in any particular location, because of all of the safety levels that you have to achieve. And all of the environmental levels that you have to achieve to make sure that you're safe in that environment that you're not disturbing that environment and all So the regulation that sits around it, so lots of stakeholders that have to be engaged in that. So all of that every time you go and deliver one of these in a new environment, you have all of that complexity. And if you are using a new reactor design, in the middle of all of that, you've got all of the technical complexity as well. So first of a kind refers to any of those variables that have never been used on the delivery of a project, whether it's a nuclear project or any project in the past. And typically, because a lot of these reactors, the nuclear power plants that have been delivered over the last sort of two decades, we haven't actually done that many of them that and they take so long that it's very difficult to keep the learning on a project that's that big and takes so long. And then if the next one happens in a totally different environment, in a different country, it's very difficult to replicate what you've had in a different environment with a different supply chain with different stakeholders. So it almost means that you permanently into eternal beginner syndrome. And I think this is why, you know, in places like China, in South Korea, they've done a really good job because they have kept building their power plants. So they have very exercised andexperienced supply chains, they have stable reactor designs, they have a stable regulatory system. And all of that means that you've got a lot fewer first of a kind variables, and the fewer of those variables you have, the easier it is to deliver your project. Riccardo Cosentino 11:35So Carol, as Carell mentioned earlier, you you know, we met at Oxford, during the master image of program management, and a lot of your research was connected to the dissertation that you picked. And so my my I'm curious to know what why did you pick that topic? What what I mean, obviously, you were involved in the project, but why did you specifically wanted to research that topic? I mean, maybe introduced the topic, we don't actually have introduced the topic up to now. Carol Tansley 12:08Okay. All right. Thank you, Riccardo for the question. So my dissertation title was institutional barriers to adopting integrated project delivery on a nuclear mega project. And just to unpack that a little bit. So my experience coming as a non Nuke, shall we say, somebody with no nuclear background into the nuclear sector. One of my observations is that many people have been in that sector for many years, and very familiar with ways of working. And in some respects, not everybody, but in some respects, I find some reluctance in people to adopt new ways of thinking and different approaches to doing things. And that sort of from a theoretical point of view is looked through institutional theory. So looking at things from a regulative. So what are the rules around things, obviously, highly regulated environment in nuclear looks at the laws and the specific safety regulations. So that's one lens, looking at through normative lens. And that really is about your traditional practices, your typical work practices, the way you you do business on a daily basis, and the way people get used to it. And then the cultural cognitive piece, which is about how people perceive change, at what the mindset is generally how people look at things and think about adopting changes. So institutional theory, the institutional lens was regulative, normative and cultural cognitive. So I was interested in looking at if I brought a new idea, a new way that I thought might help to improve performance on nuclear mega projects. What would people think about that? And if they perceived barriers, which lens would they perceive it through? So that was part of it, coming back to the integrated project delivery. So this was a project delivery methodology and commercial approach that was founded, if you like, in the US in the civil construction sector, after decades of poor performance on large infrastructure projects, and what it has proven where it was adopted there, that it did improve performance. And it did this through driving inter party collaboration and using relational contracting approaches. So it wasn't the traditional contracting adversarial contracting approach. And they found that adopting integrated project delivery really did improve performance, particularly where it was a complex one off of a one of a kind project. However, I also found that that approach had never been used on a nuclear mega project. And I thought it would be really interesting to say, well, if it's improved, project performance on those kinds of projects, why I couldn't we use that in the nuclear sector. So I started to look at, you know, what, what are the facets of IPD integrated project delivery? And how do they map onto the problems that the root causes, if you like, of poor performance within nuclear mega projects, and I found there was quite a lot of symmetry there. So so what I mean by that is the root cause of poor performance, and the the items or the challenges, if you like that IPD was proven to improve. So I found a lot of overlap there. So the way I did my research was to take that case, if you like to a whole load of executives from the nuclear sector, explained to them about IPD. And get them to explain to me the challenges they'd had in delivering nuclear mega projects to sort of bring the whole concept to life, and then ask them what they foresawas potential barriers to its adoption. So a bit of a long winded answer, but that was the the underpinning of my dissertation research. Corail 16:03Yeah, thank you, Carol. I thought it was fantastic. The way you showed that exactly. The issues were potentially all resolved by the IPD. And I was wondering, now, you recently came back to the UK? Also now Modular Reactor today? Are you trying to implement IPD? In the way you're going to deliver this reactors? Carol Tansley 16:29Well, it's a great question. And the reason or one of the reasons I was asked to join extended GE, where I work now, and you're right, it's a Advanced Small Modular Reactor company, we design and develop the reactors, as well as the fuel that powers those reactors. It was actually through my dissertation research, because I contacted one of the executives who actually works the text energy. And I was trying to explain a little bit about the basis from a research to see if you'd be interested. And as I was explaining that, so he said to me, you're not talking about IP are you. And, and I was astonished because nobody else I've spoken to, I'd heard of it. And he said, Oh, he said, were trying to implement it here because and the background to it was one of their customers in North America had wanted to have an active role in the project, and asked X energy to go away and research commercial models that would enable them to do that in a collaborative way. And in going and doing that research, they'd come across IPD, and we're then implementing it with that client. And and it actually reached a point where they decided they were going to mandate it on their projects. So it was through the research and that contact that I actually ended up coming to extend ng so again, a bit of a long winded answer, but that that is what we're trying to do. Not on all of our projects, but on some of our projects within X energy. Corail 17:53That's amazing. And I'm sure your research, like looking at what would be the barriers to implementing IPD on these programs is really helpful in your work today. Are there any barriers? Actually? Are there any issues that you foresee? Or do you think it's it's simply a cultural shift to make? Carol Tansley 18:13I think it's a number of things? Um, my, I think most of them are actually fall in the cultural cognitive arm if you like, and I think but I think what happens is people express reasons that give you potential barriers that are not real, if you see what I mean. So I get I got feedback about, you know, I don't think the regulator would like it, or, you know, I don't think we'd be able to find insurance to underpin this model, or I'm not sure the procurement rules, you know, the public sector procurement rules would allow it. But when I sort of unpicked that I found out, you know, that a lot of it stemmed from the way of thinking that people had just got used to, you know, and again, just some some normative ones that came up about, again, people not they're so familiar with the the traditional contractual models that they'd rather use that even if they don't think it's going to work, or they know it doesn't work, then pick something new that they're not familiar with. Yeah. So I think it's, you know, kind of change management issue or cultural cognitive issue if you like. Corail 19:25Absolutely. I think it's also super interesting that you're working on Modular Reactor now because obviously next fall, we talk a lot about how modularity improves the performance of the complex programs. And you're right there with the with the nuclear and it's fascinating because it's, it's, we've always thought of nuclear does be the reactor that takes so many years to build, and you're trying to do it completely in a new way by creating something that can be almost like the solar panels atSome points, you know, you installed. Carol Tansley 20:01Yeah, absolutely. Corail 20:03Can you tell us a little bit more about this? And this this new technology? And how you, you, you came to get interested in that field as well? Carol Tansley 20:12Yeah. Yes. So thank you for the question. And you're absolutely right. And what I will say is the big Giga watt reactors absolutely have their place. And as I said at the beginning, they are successful, where they can be replicated and are delivered as a series. The issue is, particularly in the West, we haven't built many reactors over the past two decades. And if you think about what I was saying earlier about trying to drive out first of a kind variables and get to Nth of a kind. So that means once typically, once you get past four, or sorry, four or fifth of a kind, you've started to drive out those first time variables, and you get, you get the benefits of replication and learning by doing that if, and that's where the series effect becomes important for performance improvement, as you see in China, as you see in South Korea. But the thinking is that these small modular reactors, the kind of modular from two perspectives, they're modular in the fact that they're small. So in our example, our XC 100 reactor is an 80 megawatt reactor. And we can modularize those so that you could have a four pack, which is the ideal size of a power plant, that gives you 380 megawatts, or if it was a remote location, you might just have one, or if you wanted 12 of them together. So the idea is that you can increase capacity based on local needs. So the modular from that perspective, they're also modularized, from the perspective of the intention is that we build them so that they're built in units, that you will effect you making a factory and then you click them together, you assemble them on the site. So they're not the traditional, huge, what they call stick build, that you build a piece at a time from the ground up actually, on a on a site. So they are two benefits of it. But also, the critical benefit is because they're smaller, and simpler to construct, you get from the first of a kind to the ends of a kind a lot faster. And therefore you gain the efficiencies of the replication, the learning by doing, which means you build them faster, they're cheaper, and you can get them on the grid a lot faster. For both the power and it, like in ours, the high temperature heat and steam to decarbonize heavy industry. Corail 22:31Yes, that's amazing. And I think during with the issue with we've been through recently, with power supply, etc, we could see that the nuclear industry, I think, you know, sort of regaining funding, and people were more and more thinking that this was so important for the environment and what we're trying to achieve and reduce our carbon emission, etc. So you're definitely working on on an amazing program. You just you've just been at the Nuclear week in Parliament. So I imagine you, you, you werethere to talk about the trends in nuclear, did you see that this type of modular reactor are coming up in different ways, or is your industry still quite niche? With what? You know? Carol Tansley 23:28It's a great question. And I don't think it is considered niche anymore. I mean, you mentioned solar panels a little while ago. And obviously, one of the things that we've seen in terms of the benefits of renewables is the fact that they are easy to construct, you know, your solar panels, your wind farms. But that's where we're now getting to with nuclear. And I think there's a lot of recognition now that the scale of the challenge is so big, to help us with energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change, that there's a role for everybody, you know, that we've got, we need the wind, we, you know, renewables we have to have, but we need nuclear as well, to give us that reliable 24 hour a day baseload and that also can keep the grid stable alongside the renewables. And certainly from nuclear week in Parliament. You may be aware that we've now got our first minister for nuclear in the UK. He was appointed back in February, very energetic, Andrew Bowery and is very passionate about the sector very committed. And we've seen a huge increase in I would call it confidence and optimism in the in the sector this year. A lot of excitement at nuclear week this week, a lot of Parliamentarians so members of parliament and members of the House of Lords fully engaged in understanding what's happening, but an awful lot of vendor technologies there such as x energy ourselves alongside other large scale people are developing micro reactors people are developing small modular reactors as well as our advanced Modular Reactors. So I think there's recognition that we can't achieve Net Zero without nuclear. And it's got to be part of the mix. And I think we're, you know, we're starting to get the message out there. And we're starting to get a lot of traction in the UK with delivering more projects. And I think there's gonna be some announcements in the next sort of six to 12 months around that in the UK. Riccardo Cosentino 25:25Yeah, that's interesting. And just to give the North American perspective, like, you know, we are in Canada, Ontario, where I'm from, we also seeing a resurgence of nuclear, in parliament in Canada is now not a swear words, it used to be something you couldn't say out loud when you were in, in Parliament. And it's, you know, in the last 12 to 18 months, we see that the pendulum has swung the other way. Yeah. Now, it's all about nuclear. And it's, how fast can we do it? And, you know, something that was even pause, as you said, there's been decades since we built up a brand new reactor in the West. And now we're talking about new new reactors. Yeah. Beyond small modular, but even just standard nuclear reactors is something that has been contemplated, which is, which is refreshing? Carol Tansley 26:23And, yeah, yeah, I think it's good that you mentioned Canada, that because you've got a another tradition of building the CANDU reactors, I think you've built 22. All together, I mean, it's got one of the cheapest electricity prices in the world because of the amount of nuclear power that you've got in Canada. And I know that one of the things that's supporting this is regulatory harmonization between countries to try to make sure that we can bring nuclear effectively and efficiently to the market. And in terms of new builds, we've we've got four of our reactors, working with Dao, at their Seadrift site in Texas, that we're underway with constructing now. And so people are genuinely interested and, and heavy industry as well coming because they recognize that they've gotten the very hard to abate sector challenges that need nuclear to help them, you know, and these advanced technologies will also helpus with hydrogen production, and with also production of clean fuels for aviation and maritime, if you look at where all of the greenhouse gases are coming from 20% is coming from electricity, but 25% comes from transportation, and 55% comes from heating, and processes, industrial processes. So I think this combination of nuclear, with the renewables is exactly where we need to go. And I think Canada is one of the countries that's at the forefront of this alongside US, UK, France, UAE and the the Asian countries. Riccardo Cosentino 28:02Yeah. And it's, it's interesting that, you know, because obviously, if you fully understand power, you know, nuclear provides the base load. And I think what we're seeing with the renewable is that it's great. However, the renewable puts a lot of strain on the network, and the distribution network. And so, you know, I think I was researching a couple of weeks ago, about how long does it take to get a connection into renewable touring into a renewable cluster of generation. And it takes years. And, in fact, I was actually, I saw last week that there was a the auction for the contract for difference. Were in the UK. There were no bidders for, which is now correct. Yeah. So it's because it's really I'm assuming, and among might be wrong, but I'm assuming is just difficult to get the connect the connector into into the grid? Carol Tansley 29:03Yeah. And I think you Yeah, yes, that is correct. And you raise a great point, because we all need the grids upgrading as well. Because the volume of electricity we're going to need, it's not as though that staying stable was a doubling of that over the next couple of decades. And we have to be able to meet that demand. And certainly, you know, we believe that nuclear is the way to achieving that to get the base load, the stable base load that we're all going to need. And it's not just about Western societies, you know, we have to remember that democratizing energy is really important for quality of life. You know, power and energy are really important for remote communities, for countries that, you know, not maybe as privileged as ours at the moment in having readily accessible electricity and we have to help those countries as well. So that that's something we're also looking at, you know, in places like Africa that we have to allow those communities to come up and enjoy the standard of living that we all enjoy through, you know, cheaper electricity. Riccardo Cosentino 30:03It's interesting. You mentioned that because you know, you think of you don't you don't think of Canada as a place where democratization of energy is a big issue, but it's actually a very big issue in Canada, because we have remote communities in the North. The majority of these remote communities are on diesel generators. Corail 30:22Yes, no, that's absolutely right. And I think, yeah, and going back to what Corail asked a few minutes ago, I think this is another reason why these small modular reactors are so so attractive, because they can be put in those remote locations and help those communities. So they don't have to have these diesel generators anymore. Yeah, absolutely. I think in France, in my home country, we've been being a nuclear force. That unfortunately, we work very hard on developing what you said, dispatch, first of a kind, very large reactor, and then I feel for a while, we didn't really maintain or build a new one. And I feel like the capability has been lost in the in the process, you know, and I'm quite worried about thefuture of nuclear in France, and they feel like the smaller reactor as would be so amazing, because then you can build back also the capability much more quickly. Also, you don't lose it, because every time you're building very fast, and yeah, I'd love to see our government invest a lot more into that type of type of reactor, although I completely understand that all of them are very, you know, can support the future of power in our countries. Carol Tansley 31:42Yeah, so and I know France is well underway with having its own small modular reactors as well. But the point you make is really good one about the supply chain. And I mean, that in terms of the people that provide the the capability to build these nuclear reactors on all levels, and one of the things that's happened across the West, because we haven't built that many, or in some cases any, that supply chain has gradually dwindled. And now we're having to stand it back up quickly. So countries are trying to work together to invest to do that. We've got now the nuclear skills task force in the UK, we've got joint agreements between the UK and France, to leverage experience and to build that supply chain and across different countries, because I think we recognize that it's a multinational challenge, and we've got to work at it collaboratively. Corail 32:30Yeah. On the on the personal note, would you recommend people to join this industry, like, exciting for, you know, we should encourage the younger generation T's to join in? Carol Tansley 32:44Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, I heard something the other day that said, if the younger generation now was in charge of nuclear, it would be everywhere. They're not the people blocking this, a lot of young people recognize the challenge that we're facing from a climate emergency point of view, and are really behind nuclear. They're some of the most passionate advocates. But I think nuclear is a fantastic sector to get into. And it's not, of course, there are engineers here. But it's not all about engineering and physics. And one of the things that we're launching, I think a bit later this year, early next year, is a campaign to attract more people into the sector. Because yes, attracting young people in to develop the pipeline for the future is really important. But that doesn't solve the situation we're in now. I heard a statistic the other day that said, we've got 91,000 People in the nuclear sector in the UK, and I believe that's across civil and defense, and that needs to grow by 40%. Over the next few years, well, you can't achieve that just with the young people coming in. As important as that are, we need to attract people in from other sectors across all disciplines. So that's what we're really working to try and encourage and I will just put a plug in, it's a fantastic sector to work in. I've had a brilliant time here. And I'm just encourage anybody to join. Riccardo Cosentino 34:02Second, a second day, we you know, even in Canada, it's there was a resurgence. And I think we're a bit more lucky in Canada, especially in Ontario, where, because we've been refurbishing reactors, we can look at the supply chain, and be more engaged. So we're not starting from scratch. But you know, going from a refurbishment to a new build of either traditional nuclear or more modular is going to require an injection of workforce in the in the supply chain. But as we teased the listener with your with your research, and with the dissertation, the paper that you published, and I think you covered most of the conclusion, but maybe just to reiterate, what were you find when we will what were your findings inthe from the research that you conducted in terms of implementing IPD nuclear, any any insight that you can offer? Yeah, so my overall conclusions were that Carol Tansley 35:00You know, the the root causes of poor performance traditionally, or nuclear mega projects are very complex, you know, is technical is technological, its environmental, its organizational, its institutional. But one of the things I found was that first of a kind, projects have got the worst performance. And that might sound like a statement of the blindingly obvious. But what I found, the real conclusion I drew was it wasn't the first of a kind variables per se, it was the fact that we were choosing Commercial, contractual and project delivery models that were not resilient in a first of a kind environment. So they didn't cope well, where there was a lot of emergence and uncertainty. And that was where when I looked at IPD, integrated project delivery, I found that it did perform better in environments where there was uncertainty and emergent change. And hence, as Corail mentioned earlier, that mapping between the challenges and the root causes of poor performance on nucleon mega projects, and the challenges if you like, the benefits that IPD can bring, in terms of what I found about resistance to IPD. In the sector. I found that while people raised barriers, there was one example, the one I gave earlier with the company, I now work for, where they'd gone off and, and found that the client had actually come to them, none of those barriers emerged in practice. There were sort of theoretical barriers, not realistic barriers or barriers in reality, but of course, that was only one data point. So while I think IPD can, you know, may help to improve performance on nuclear mega projects, it still needs to be proven. And I think the final piece about the institutional barriers, one of the things I discovered was that even if the field level conditions, I'll call it change, to enable new ideas to be embraced. And I'll give an example of that in the nuclear sector. Now, the climate change emergency would be considered a change in field level conditions, because everybody's interested in nuclear again. And that might be sufficient of a driver to get people to consider new approaches. And that in itself is not sufficient. What you need is what the academics was called institutional entrepreneurs. So that means people that are willing to go out and find new ways of working to solve traditional problems in new ways and actually implement those changes. So they were the conclusions it was, first of a kind, but because we choose project delivering contractual models that don't work in first of a kind environments, IPD may represent a methodology that would work has been proven to work in first of a kind environments. And while we have the field conditions now to embrace that, we need people that are willing to go out and embrace these new ways of working and seek to implement them. Corail 38:05Thank you so much, Carol, that was so fascinating. So interesting. And thank you for keeping us at the top of the trends in your sector. That's a really amazing, Carol Tansley 38:15no, it's a pleasure talking to you and and getting your perspectives as well. Riccardo Cosentino 38:20Yeah, thank you very much, Carol, this this has been fascinating. I mean, I read, I read both your dissertation, the paper that you published, and I still learn something today from you. So I'm really lightening conversation and, you know, there's going to be other opportunities. I hope to have you on the po Carol Tansley 38:44Fantastic. Well, thank you, as I say for the opportunity. It's a pleasure seeing you both again, and to have the opportunity to talk on your podcast. Riccardo Cosentino 38:52That's it for this episode on navigating major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

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Can PPPs incorporate collaborative contracting? | With Riccardo Cosentino and Jim Bernard | S1 EP 10

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2023 38:27

In this week's episode, Riccardo switches chairs and guest host, Jim Barnard, asks all the questions. Riccardo shares insights from his Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on the use of collaborative contracting into major programmes, specifically PPP structures. Riccardo and Jim delve into the complications and complexities of risk management, adversarial situations, stakeholders and shareholders and private financing. “When you have collaborative contracting, you almost waive your legal rights or your rights to pursue legal remedies. And so, all of the parties are around the table. There are many advantages of collaborative contracting, but the simplest one is, instead of hiring lawyers to sort out disputes, you're redeploying those resources to actually solving project problems.” Key Takeaways: The price of winning contracts in the PPP market and how the public sector entity comes into playWhy collaborative contracting provides better odds for finishing on time and on budget, but equity has to take more riskPPP and politics, how do we navigate it? If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInJim Bernard on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05You're listening to navigate the major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversationshappening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'myour host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Mostrecently, I graduated from Oxford University Said business school, which shook my belief when itcomes to navigating major problems. Now, it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I pressthe industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends andthe critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see what theconversation takes us. Hello, and welcome to a new episode of navigating major programs. Todaywe're going to be doing things a little bit differently. My friend, and one point guest of the show asagreed kindly to be hosting this podcast. And we'll do a role reversal where I'm going to be doing thepresenting and Jim Barnard is going to co-host the show. And today we're going to talk about a topicthat is very close to my heart, which is the use of collaborative contracting into major programs,especially into PPP structures. I've done a full dissertation at Oxford as part of my master, majorprogram management, and I decided that it'd be good to walk you through my findings and myconclusion. Anyway, let me introduce the host for today. Jim Bernard. How you doing? Jim?Jim 02:00I'm great. Riccardo, thanks for having me. Big fan of the podcast, obviously had the chance to be on apreviously so very much appreciate the opportunity to be host this time.Riccardo Cosentino 02:11So today, as I said, I'll be a be doing the talking. And you'll be doing the asking. Maybe I can start? I'lljump right into it unless you have a specific question for me. And maybe I can give a bit of a bit of anoverview of my research thesis and some of my findings and some of my conclusions.Jim 02:34 2Transcribed by https://otter.aiYes, summary will be great, a perfect place to start. But some of our folks listening may not becompletely familiar with even the concept of collaboration. And I know having read your dissertationthat you get into some fairly technical and detailed topics relative to finance and how structures are setup and that type of thing. So for those of us either less familiar or kind of new to the topic, if you don'tmind, let's start as basic as possible.Riccardo Cosentino 03:03Okay, well, let's start with, let's start with what prompted me to research this specific topic, the probablya good place to start here. I you know, I'm a professional the work in public private partnership over thelast 20 years. So again, a lot of knowledge about the topic, I have structured and finance manytransactions that use non recourse financing. And a couple of years ago, my company decided to exitthe what we call the lump sum turnkey business, which is the type of contracting where a private sectorentity commits to deliver a project on time and on budget and every any cost overruns. And at any cost,and any time overruns are absorbed by the entity that has committed to deliver the project. So mycompany has been losing a lot of money with the stock form a contract. So in 2018, we decided toexited. However, this type of contract is the cornerstone of non recourse financing, recourse financingis financing that doesn't, doesn't lean on the asset of the parent company, but the only leans on theasset of the other special purpose vehicle that is delivering the project,Jim 04:26basically. Project.Riccardo Cosentino 04:29Yes. Right. So it's basically the future revenues, that that's the only recourse available to lenders debtand equity lenders is access to, to project revenues rather than corporate revenue associated with theentity that is delivered project.Jim 04:49Right.Riccardo Cosentino 04:50And because my company exited this business lumpsum turnkey, indirectly we also exited theconstruction portion of public private partnerships were where entities or companies, contractors arehired to deliver the project under the structure. However, we still wanted to stay involved in contracting.So what we started researching is different types of contracts and collaborative contracting, came upalliances IPD all forms of contract that they include a large component of collaboration. In this type ofcontracts, the risk is not transferred to the product to the contracting entity is the risk of on timecompletion and on budget completion stays within the project sponsor. There is a Pain Gain sharingmechanism, where the contracting entity, the contractor that is delivering the project puts their fee risk,but they're not taking on the cost of around burden that is typical of lump sum turnkey. So once westarted researching this, the question that I was asked many, many times, being the expert in publicprivate partnership is can we convince clients and lenders to use collaborative contracting within thenon recourse PPP structure? And intuitively, I didn't think it was possible, I did some preliminary 3Transcribed by https://otter.airesearch as part of my job. But I couldn't really find conclusive answers of why collaborativelycontracting could or could not be used within a PPP structure,Jim 06:45where I take a step back down, how did you do your preliminary research was at a qualitative research,quantitative research and kind of benefits of both detriments of both How did you choose what methoddid you use and how did you choose it.Riccardo Cosentino 06:58So during what while I was still working, so before I use an academic method, I, I just looked at thecommercial parameters, I just look at the commercial framework and in the legal framework, and I justtried to see if the economic principle of the commercial principle would support these type ofcommercial and legal structure, right. And based on my understanding of the commercial principle, nonrecourse financing, where risk has to be transferred, and where lenders that especially debt lenders,needs to be kept whole in the PPP structure, the only entity that can keep the lenders or is thecontractor delivering the work? I mean, no, it's not the only way. But it's the most economical way. Andthe cheapest way of implementing a project finance structure is to have the contractor guaranteeing thedelivery of the project by putting up the balance sheet and by taking on the cost of Iran in a lump sumturnkey model,Jim 08:07but the fee, the fees at that point are fixed, right. So you're really talking all downside, fixed upside inthat structure. I mean, it sounds not just unpalatable, but somewhat dangerous for the contractor to getinto that arrangement.Riccardo Cosentino 08:23It is and they think he has worked in the past to a certain degree where Contractor have been able tomanage that risk the took on. But I think over the last 15 years, the market got so competitive, thatcontractors have been racing to the bottom sometimes fixing the cost of the project to a level too low toactual deliver and then end up absorbing all of the losses at the back end or the contraction period. Imean, that's definitely what happened to our company we overcommitted in order to win the contract,and then we ended up with a lot of the losses. However, there are instances where the model works.It's just you know, I think you the model can work if you have a healthy competitive process, if you havean unhealthy race to the bottom is probably dangerous, dangerous territoryJim 09:23that can open up even getting into different ways of gaming. Bidding processes itself is a massive topic,I'm sure that gets into behavioral economics and how people bid and upsides and downsides andpsychology and all this other stuff. So we probably want to table that for a future episode because wecould spend hours just on that aspect of it. I'm sure. So, but I guess the conclusion is at some point inthe market, the bids got so tight in the market, the fees got compressed, so low that the people who arewinning the bids were just really behind the eight ball at the beginning. I mean, it was it was almost Iwant to say it was, you know, failure was baked into the to the process. But it sounds like you're in areally tight spot straight out of the gate. 4Transcribed by https://otter.aiRiccardo Cosentino 10:13That's correct. And it's not unlikely It's not unlike the, you know, bid low claim high model that westudied in, at Oxford, right, I think there was a case about how the it's, we live in an industry wherethere's a lot of, you know, contractors make their money through the claims. And then and I think that'swhere the PPP market got to where, you know, companies bid low in order to secure the contract, andthen then trying to deal with the consequences afterwards,Jim 10:46by claim process, you're talking going to court litigation,Riccardo Cosentino 10:50eventually. Yeah, that's where he ends up. I mean, you can try and settle. I mean, there are settlementalong the way that you can do there are but you know, ultimately, yeah, you go to court, and, you know,20 to 30 cents on the dollars if you're lucky when you play.Jim 11:05So that whole system sounded like from the day that they decided to race to the bottom of the wholesystem seems like it's building upon a weak foundation to start. And it's crumbling from there. I mean, ifyou're going to court to deal with inevitable complexity of a major program seems like somethingstarted wrong. I mean, it's not in it's not within the project itself, which obviously has its own complexityfrom a cost standpoint, engineering standpoint, and construction execution stakeholders, and then wehave this whole network of influencers within any major program. But this is like on top of that, this is awhole kind of external integration challenge. That, before you even get to the complexity of the project,you're kind of off off center to begin with that fair.Riccardo Cosentino 11:58That's, that's very fair. And, and but that's probably not something caused by the PPP structure or thenon recourse financing structure is more caused by, you know, public sector entity, especially beingsubjected to optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation in order to get these projects off the ground.And I think we PPP that problem is accentuated by the fact that there's a bit of heuristics, which is theprivate sector can do it better. So we don't have to develop the project to you know, 50% 60% design,in order to get to get bids in, we're gonna put out a 5% design, the private sector will take a developergive us a fixed price. And, and we'll go from there, which breeds a situation where you have contractorcommitting to a fixed price contract with only 15 20% design done. Because that's the nature of PPPwhere, you know, the government or the public sector doesn't want to develop the project, becausethey don't want to stifle the innovation that the private sector could bring. But on the other hand, theydon't really give a lot of opportunity to the private sector, to develop the design, to you know, 60 70%,which is what you need to have certainty, and then an ability to commit to a fixed price.Jim 13:28So are sort of back to that master, the opposite of the master builder heuristic. We're not planning longand or planning slow and building quickly, we're planning quickly and just accumulating delays and costoverruns. 5Transcribed by https://otter.aiRiccardo Cosentino 13:41Absolutely, absolutely. And then, you know, and you know, we seen this, because these projects are solong. And by the time that all the problems actually materialize, it's probably six, seven years down theline. So nobody worries about that at the beginning, and you will worry about that at the end. And youalways people somehow scratch their heads is that how do we get here, but pretty simple how we gothere.Jim 14:07So not to not to necessarily prompt a sales pitch for collaborative contracting. But how do you see orhow what did your research determine the benefits of collaborative contracting? We're, and then howlikely is it that it's going to become part of part of the industry?Riccardo Cosentino 14:31So my research was wasn't so much about collaborative contracting. So I took I took the benefit ofcollaborative contracting as a given and I said, you know, if collaborative contracting is such a goodway of delivering projects, How come is not used in PPP structures? What are the limiting factors thatdon't allow the implementation of collaborative contracting into PPP P. So my starting premises wascollaborative contracting is good. It is the way forward, and how do we how do we roll it out in differentparts of the industry?Jim 15:12Can we explore that just for a second? What is it about collaborative contract? And what benefits? Doyou believe that delivers to the industry?Riccardo Cosentino 15:21Well look, to me, just the fundamental principle that when you have collaborative contracting, youalmost you're almost waive your legal rights or your rights to pursue legal remedies. And so all of theparties are around the table. So the, you know, there are many advantages of collaborative contractcontracting, but the simplest one is, instead of hiring lawyer to sorting out disputes, you redeployingthose resources to actually solving project problems. So if you think of the litigation costs in thesemajor, major programs, if you just take those costs, and you were to use that financial resource toactually solve actual problems on the project, I mean, it doesn't take a lot of research to know thatanecdotally, that that's a good thing. Developed with all due respect to our attorney friends out there,your role may not best to be solving problems after the fact. Right? I mean, that's kind of the idea.Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, a claim against the client doesn't get concrete poured faster. Right. Okay.Fair point. You know, a few extra engineers and a few extra project resources could get that concretepoured faster, or figure out a way to pour the concrete faster.Jim 16:56Yeah, have the magic communications better to when you're not having to run it through attorneys andlegal filings?Riccardo Cosentino 17:02 6Transcribed by https://otter.aiYeah, I mean, I use I use that example. Because it's, you know, we just talked about claims we justtalked about, you know, ended up in court. So that's, that's the thing that comes to mind. But, you know,in general, I think we can all agree that a non antagonistic environment is more conducive to betterworking relation and better outputs. It's just anecdotally, we intuitively we can all see thatJim 17:34Sure.Riccardo Cosentino 17:35That we all want to work in a collaborative space, because, you know, when you bring the intellect ormultiple people together, and you foster that, you definitely want to get a better outcome.Jim 17:47Right, more rewarding toRiccardo Cosentino 17:48Yes. So that's, that's why I've took that I took it as a dogma, I said, collaborative contracting, is the rightway forward,Jim 17:58okay.Riccardo Cosentino 17:59So, okay, so why can we use that in PPP structures. And so, this is where it gets a little bit technical.Where, you know, PPP are really know nothing more than non recourse financing or project financing.That was it was a financing mechanism that was developed in the 70s. for oil exploration in the NorthSea, there weren't enough oil and gas company, there wasn't a big enough oil and gas company toabsorb the risk of oil exploration in the North Sea. So, they came together and came up with thestructure, which basically insulate the parent companies for the loss from the losses of the project. Andso, you know, if you take all exploration, and you lend him money into oil exploration Norh sea lenderscan only go after the asset to the oil platform or the future revenues associated with the asset. And thatbasically insulate the parent company for wo po things go really wrong,Jim 19:11but is there is there a completion guarantee built into this? I mean, the contractor can't just walk awaywithout recourse, can they?Riccardo Cosentino 19:18So, sorry, what I was describing is the is the is the structure or the client level? Yes.Jim 19:25Got it.Riccardo Cosentino 19:26 7Transcribed by https://otter.aiSo at the at the contractor level, yeah, absolutely the contractor. So that's what I was saying that inthese non recourse structures, the completion guarantee comes from the contractor. So ultimately, theback so although the project itself is non recourse, the contractor does put up guarantees becauseultimately the guarantees are in favor of the project sponsor and the project lenders right debt thatlenders, right? So the equity lenders is typically the developers, obviously they take equity risk, so Theyhave high amounts of risk or high amount of returns. So the first one, they get wiped out if the projectdoesn't do well. However, the debt lender has less, you know, these are big institution, they don't likerisk, they want to be insulated. So if the project was in to reach substantial completion, the contractorwould keep the lenders whole up to a point. And there's this is, this is why collaborative contracting isnot quite easy to implement in the structure, because the debt lenders always looking to recover themoney, right? And if the risk hasn't been transferred to a contractor, where the lender is going torecover the money for right,Jim 20:47where does it go, because it doesn't leave the project, just because nobody raised their hand to take it,it's not going away.Riccardo Cosentino 20:55So it's a Series is brought by non recourse financing PPP, these a zero sum games, where either thecontractor loses money, or the client loses money. And so that that creates the adversarial situation,especially if you haven't bid the job properly, you're going to be losing money, you're going aftersomebody because nobody likes to lose money, you're going to go after the client, and then theadversarial scenario sets in.Jim 21:24So the most important relationship, the most important relationship between the client and thecontractor for the project success is immediately set up on a weak foundation, like, yes. Okay. Thatexplains anything.Riccardo Cosentino 21:40And it will be, you know, is not impossibly, you could implement a collaborative contract between theclient and the contractor. However, the lenders need to get repaid, and the lender is only going to getrepaid when you reach substantial completion, you start extracting oil, you start selling the oil, and thatgenerates the revenues that are then used to repay the debt lenders, right? Yeah, so we couldimplement collaborative contract between the contractor and the project developer. However, in case ofcost overruns, the developer would pick up those costs. And because obviously, the lenders are still,you know, they still have debt service that you have to repay. And so somebody's got to pick up theircosts. And if he's not, there is not the contractor for a lump sum turnkey, then is the developer. Andhowever, that is not then becomes a more expensive structure, got a sense that you now have to putthe equity in. So now, it's very, very technical.Jim 22:55So maybe complex is that is that a good way to put it? 8Transcribed by https://otter.aiRiccardo Cosentino 22:59Is the well yes, complex, as actually complicated. It's very mechanical, there's no complex, it's theJim 23:07Swiss watch. It's not the flock of birds,Riccardo Cosentino 23:11which is basically, you know, when you inject equity, you know, when lenders lend you manage for aproject, that lenders lend you money for a project, they want to know that they're going to get paid back,right? And so they are going to look at the cost overruns. And they're going to look at who's going toabsorb the cost overruns. And so if the contractor is not going to pick up the cost overruns, becauseyou now have a relational contract in place, then the sponsor will, however, the sponsor has norecourse, there is no recourse to anybody above, right, typically, the contractor provides a parentcompany guarantee, and as the recourse to the parent company, but a developer because there's norecourse is not providing that they're there for they have to actually inject all of the equity upfront, rightto cover potential cost overruns. So you now have cash injected into the project, even though you mightnot need it, which makes it very, very expensive.Jim 24:08But you also have the benefit of big contingency.Riccardo Cosentino 24:11Absolutely. Absolutely. So, again, it's not is not impossible, this is just gets to the conclusion of mydissertation, which is it's possible to have relational contracting, it's going to be more expensive.However, the flip side, if we believe that collaborative Contracting is the way forward, you're going to bemore likely to finish on time and on budget, through collaboration that adversarial relations.Jim 24:38It's a funny, it's a funny perspective, to me having been involved in some complex projects, and itseems a little bit short sighted that somebody would really object to a 200 basis points or 2% increasein their cost of capital. Over massive cost overruns in the back end, huge attorney He's fees, delays,which we know costs money, I mean, time is actually money in a major program. So it's always justshocked me how everybody wants to bid to be as low as possible. Everybody wants to make sure thatthat interest rate is just as thin as they can possibly get it without giving any consideration to the factthat you're not saving anything. Because when you set up the program, that way, you're justguaranteed you're going to be over budget far more than you would ever save, and then add thelitigation on top of it that delays everything else. I mean, it just seems short sighted to me,Riccardo Cosentino 25:35unfortunately. So I'm, I specialize in public sector infrastructure. So I deal mostly with municipal, stateand federal government projects. And unfortunately, in the public sector, you have to demonstratevalue for money. And, you know, I think PPP is, it's particularly, the value for money analysis makesthings even worse, because what you end up now with is, private sector financing is more expensive inthe public sector financing a public, they know, the United States government can borrow at a cheaper 9Transcribed by https://otter.airate than any other corporation. So if you have a federal project, you're now adding, you know, 100 150bips to the cost to the cost of that because you have the private sector taken. So you now have a valuefor money analysis that already starts with you being in a hole. Because you now they Yeah, are goingto do it for a PPP are going to use private finance, but it's more expensive. So how do I balance thevalue for money? How do I justify that this is good value for money. And, you know, that's where youare starting play with risk transfer, you start quantify, the more risk you transfer, the more able you'regoing to be to show value for money, the lower the cost, the better because then again, you're going tobe able to show value for money. And as I said, The problem is that you're starting in a hole, right,because you already have to demonstrate why are using private finance. And then, and thencompound, the problem is, the way you justify private finance is by transferring risk, that are going totransfer more risks to the private sector are going to pay them more, you know, are going to pay theirhigher cost of capital. But that will bring me benefit because I have transferred to them the risk ofcompletion.Jim 27:37So you've got a, you've got a problematic paradigm may not be the it's a bit overused word, but you'vegot a problematic equation at the front end, which is creating some pretty significant adverseconsequences at the backend. Before you even get in to start talking about planning fallacy andstrategic misrepresentation. I mean, it, it sounds like the entrenched thought process behind howprojects should be evaluated, needs some work. And a fundamental understanding of the flaws in valuefor money might help. Because we know the results. I mean, there's plenty of data out there that showsI mean, independent of structure, how badly these projects perform. It's astronomical. But but it seemslike there's still some pretty heavy resistance to changing a perspective or methodology on the frontend to try to make up for some of that stuff. Is that fair?Riccardo Cosentino 28:35Yeah. I mean, you're also dealing with politicians right at this point. So it makes things even morecomplex. I think it's important that we talk about the I have other theory evidence, I guess it's furtherarea research, maybe for my PhD. But in my mind, PPP is our Chem, there is a role for PPP. So whenyou have low complexity projects, where you can actually define what you want, and you have very fewstakeholders. It's not it's not a bad model. So in Canada, various jurisdictions have had a lot of successwith hospital building, procuring them and building them using the PPP structure and as being as beingpositive as being a positive experience for all stakeholders. And this bill because it's a box, right, youbuilding a building, and it's any, you know, you can define what you want, and contractors are fairlyexperienced. And you know, it's a it's a Vertical Box. I think we're a falls apart where the PPP falls apartis when you have linear project and you start having more complexity in terms of many morestakeholders Many more moving parts in terms of you know, if you're building a railway, you now needto choose the technology, you go for different jurisdictions. And so the PPP, so having the privatesector lenders into a PPP structure creates more complexity, because he adds an additionalstakeholder and shareholder into the project. And it makes things a bit more complex, especially whenyou when you hit in problems.Jim 30:30 10Transcribed by https://otter.aiSo there's a every program has got a certain complexity threshold, that it cannot pass, it sounds like soif it's going to be, or if it's simple, from an engineering design perspective, single site, you know, squarepiece of property, whatever it can tolerate, and maybe even benefit from a certain addition ofcomplexity on top of, you know, in this case, the private sector provides access to resources thatmaybe the public sector doesn't have or can't appropriate. So the project can kind of hit that threshold.Whereas a complex project, just in the engineering and design side, may already be at that threshold orpast it. So adding another layer of financing complexity sounds disastrous,Riccardo Cosentino 31:18that's certainly the anecdotal evidence I have that especially so the way we differentiate is linear versusvertical. Right? When you have a linear project, yeah, the complexity is too high. And the benefit is,because you remember, the argument of bringing private sector lenders is that you have additionaloversight, you have an additional layer of oversight, you're going to use, the private sector lender isgoing to keep all the other stakeholder honest. So we're going to keep, let's say, the hospital ownerhonest, in terms of change order, they're not going to be able to halfway through the process, that issuechange order change in their mind, or what the scope of the project is, right? There's, you know, withthe with the design, build, finance, maintain and operate, you're actually maintaining the hospital for 30years. So you have now forced the Minister of Health to ring fence, the money required to maintain theproject for 30 years, because you're sending up a contract upfront, right. And if you if you know, publicsector, you know that the first thing the public sector cuts is operating budgets, right, so the PPP bringsbenefits. So the additional layer of complexity brought in by the private sector lenders iscounterbalanced by all these other benefits that a private sector lender brings in on a linear projectwhere the complexity is much higher, the benefits are outweighed by the negative of adding additionalcomplexity to something that cannot absorb it like you describe it very well.Jim 32:50So what conclusions did you draw from the research? I mean, PPP, the resistance to PPP,collaborative contracting, and PPP sounds fairly high. Yet the benefits seem fairly easy to argue. Andcertainly, anecdotally, we've got enough evidence where things don't work that you'd like to think afresh approach might be warmly received. But what are the impediments? What are the realistic optionsas they are today, relative to how successfullyRiccardo Cosentino 33:19I you know, can be my conclusion was pretty straightforward. It's actually it's the money issue, right? Imean, it's you, you could have collaborative contracting, it means equity has to take more risk. Andtherefore the project is going to be a little more expensive to finance because equity is taking more risk.However, if truly collaborative Contracting is the way forward and can actually deliver better on timeand on budget outcomes, then the additional cost of the private finance, to have collaboratedcontracting is, is insignificant. I haven't quantified it. But you know, you know, several basis points,compared to hundreds of millions of cost overruns. Yeah, I think if we were to do a back of theenvelope, we'll probably come to the conclusion that it's the cost benefit analysis, justify the additionalcost of financing,Jim 34:20 11Transcribed by https://otter.aiwhat's there, there's some and I'm going to get it wrong, but there's some colloquialism about steppingover dollars to pick up pennies kind ofRiccardo Cosentino 34:30Pound Foolish Pennywise PoundJim 34:32Foolish Yeah, the British the British version of the same sentiment. I keep having to remind myself thatwe went to went to graduate school in the UK, butRiccardo Cosentino 34:42yeah, so that's, you know, it'd be interesting it'd be a be interesting. The problem is PPP is a politicalbeast. I mean, the reason PPP was created, it's a political tool.Jim 34:55I mean, it to your point, it serves a purpose. It is a tool that has An application. But they the othercolloquial, I mean God, there's so many colloquialisms we could use. But if all you've got as a hammer,everything starts to look like a nail. I could go on, I'll spare the listeners, too many mixed metaphors andbad analogies. But the it sounds like your research is, or the conclusion is, it's got its place, it can bevery effective. But don't over rely on and the industry really should be open to a candid and evidencesupported discussion about alternatives.Riccardo Cosentino 35:32And it's admitting that to private finance, add an additional layer of complexity. And then the private Jimis that most practitioners don't understand complexity don't understand my major program is complexsystems. So it's not understood that you can't keep adding complexity and, and not not having negativeoutcome. Right, the more complexity you add, the more likely you have to have negative outcome, andadding a private sector lender is adding. So if you if you understand that, then you can manage andmitigate it. But if you don't even understand that private sector lending is additional complexity, thenthen you findJim 36:17that that may be the message or the beginning of the next research project or the next mission,understanding the level of complexity and how major programs are, in fact, complex adaptive systems,maybe we can take that step to your point, everything else will start to improve as well.Riccardo Cosentino 36:35So maybe we should start published, shared that complexity tool that we used complexity assessmenttool,Jim 36:46I'm sure Harvey Mahler would be thrilled if you would post a link to his research on complexity. Well,this has been fascinating. Riccardo, I certainly appreciate it. I've learned a lot. I really enjoyed readingyour research. I do think that there are opportunity. I mean, we've got enough evidence that the PPP is 12Transcribed by https://otter.aidon't work that well outside of some pretty specific application. So I think the work that you've done willcertainly push that conversation forward. And I, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to talk with youabout it.Riccardo Cosentino 37:21Thank you very much, Jim. And thanks for hosting the episode today. And hopefully, I'll have you backover guest in the foreseeable future.Jim 37:28That'd be great. I'd certainly appreciate the chance. Thank you.Riccardo Cosentino 37:32Thank you. That's it. For this episode, we'll navigate the major problems. I hope you found today'sconversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, pleaseconsider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue theconversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the nextepisode, where we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major programmanagement. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such asleadership, risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's aconversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate major problems. And Ilook forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

Do Women Need to Play Golf in Order to Lead Major Programmes? With Corail Bourrelier Fabiani | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford | S1 EP 9

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2023 38:16

Do women still need to get on the course to progress their careers in major programmes? Does The Boys Club still exist in 2023? Inclusivity and ambition—how are they connected? Navigating Major Programmes podcast co-host, Corail Bourrelier Fabiani, shares her Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation's insightful findings in this week's episode. Riccardo and Corail take a deep dive into equality, diversity and inclusion in the infrastructure industry uncovering the taboo topics that have been avoided for decades. “In the research, you can see that women's interests are not really accommodated in major urban transport infrastructure programs,” says Corail. “And there is a big gender data gap, which is kind of reinforcing inequalities in this space. In my opinion, all this is reinforced by the fact that we don't have enough women at the top. So I thought, how are we changing this?” Corail, the accomplished programme manager behind projects such as the Paddington Square Public Art Programme and the Shard Quarter Public Art Programme in London, concludes the discussion with four steps to solve this complex, systemic issue. Key Takeaways: The seven gender-related challenges in major programmes and how to solve them.How language labels leaders as men and how applications can encourage the women talent pool to apply.How to alter networking and affinity bias in order to better support women in infrastructure and why women-designed networks with male allies are so vital.The scarcity mindset and what happens to women at the top. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInCorail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05You're listening to Navigating Major Programmes, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Hi, welcome back to another episode of navigating major programs. Today I'm here with a recurring guest and co-host of this podcast. Corail 01:03I am with Corail Riccardo Cosentino 01:04l, how're you doing? Corail 01:06I am doing great. Thank you, Riccardo, Riccardo Cosentino 01:08Thank you for joining us again. Really glad that you're here today. Today, we're gonna talk about your dissertation from your master's degree at Oxford. If I remember correctly, you did a dissertation titled, "do women need to play golf in order to lead measure programs?" really catchy title? But maybe you can tell us a bit more why you picked that dissertation? And what dissertation was all about? Corail 01:39Yeah, sure. Yeah. So yeah, this title was kind of a humorous reference to an HBR article, which said that basically, many women in male dominated industries feel compelled to play golf to access to the top leadership network. And my research was about women's network, and how can those women network help change the culture of major program, which are notoriously male dominated environments? And I thought it was funny that some women would think like, Okay, I'm gonna play golf, so make the most important contact, and I was like, okay, is this still happening? Do we still need to go on, on the course to get this important contact. So I did this research as part of our MSc in major program management at the Said business school. And it was really like, out of had the like, how out of an impulse after an event that happened during a master's degree. And I don't know if you remember that. But basically, each year, the program gets the opportunity to do a debate at the famous Oxford Union. And during our cohort, we have Ella a brilliant change manager, men's leader, who proposed the motion for that debate, which was around the importance of gender diversity in major programs, team versus versus experience. And we were all quite excited to debate this topic at the Union. But basically, the university got back to us and said, it's too late volatile as a topic. So they brushed it off, and they say, maybe debate another topic. And at the time, I was really shocked. And I think we were all the women of our cohort. I think we were below 30%, maybe around 28% 25% 28% of women in the cohort. And we were all pretty upset about this decision. Because we didn't understand it. We were like this is the Oxford Union the Union debates corruption slavery, things like that. And we can talk about that, you know, gender diversity in major program, but I saw Okay, that's that's say something right about our industry and about the I think the leap that we have to make to make it an OK topic, you know, to talk about that. So we decided to self organize, and to redo that debate, just organized by students. And it was a great, great moment. And I thought, Okay, I want to look deeper into all this EDI questions on major program. So I started like looking a little bit into what the UK Government says about gender diversity in major program. So I looked at the infrastructure and projects authority report at the time. And what I found was quite upsetting when you look at the budget, although major programs represent like astronomical budgets in the UK, but first of all, only 10% last year were classified as likely to be successful, and most of them only had just thought So you think there is an issue they are right. And in the IPA report, they acknowledge that the main issue was with capacity and capability of the teams and of the leadership in the UK. But there was no mention at all about, you know, the fact that we are losing opportunity, because we're not leveraging women's talent pool. And I looked deeper into it. And I looked at the appointment process for senior responsible owners, you know, the leader of this major program. And I found that although there is a mention about diversity, in the report, it's very, like there are no real KPIs or practical ways to do it, or methodologies or anything, and when you look at what they're looking for the SRO usually in, in a biased environment, you would, it's more oriented towards male. So there, we have something like, You should possess strong leadership and decision making skills, that's fine. But when you are in a male dominated industry, leadership resonate with a man. So that's where we'll come to your man. Mind. Sorry. And that's, you know, for example, Bent Flybjerg, called the major program leaders, Master Builder, Master Builder, as a word, I think you will think about a man rather than a woman, just just with that simple words. There are other things that I thought were interesting in the way they said this the label thing, for example, they say, you need to have the experience, the character and personality that are right for the program. And I think this is all well, but it's very subjective, right. And in unbiased environment, it's subject to bias. So I think there are lots of different things like that, that will, that are not not laid out in a way to promote women as leader in that in that environment. And what effectively, when you look at how many leaders of major program in the UK are female, it increased a lot recently, you have about 30% of SROs, that are leaders that are female leaders. But actually, they're only managing about 10 to 15 15%, of the major program budgets. So you realize that they, you're increasing the number of women at the top, but in effect, the budget that they manage is so much smaller than the budget and then manage. And really, in the research, you can see that women's interests are not really accommodated for in major urban transport infrastructure programs. And there is a big gender data gap, which is kind of reinforcing inequalities in this space. And in my opinion, all this is reinforced by the fact that we don't have enough women at the top. So I thought, Okay, how are we changing this. And I looked at what was suggested as the best way to improve gender diversity in leadership roles. And I realized that in research networks are always mentioned as one of the ways and in some research, it's mentioned as a way like a hidden gem. So something that is really useful. But that is not really, that male leaders don't think is really is actually useful. But let me say it's again, because network has shown are shown as hidden gem in the literature, because men leader don't really think that they are that useful when female leaders think that they are really useful. And I thought it's an interesting is one of the most interesting points to look at. Because when you have a strong network, that a lot of the other the issues that you can that you can solve. So for example, if you have a strong network, and you want to have more role models to improve your gender diversity, you can find this through your this network. And so that's how I started looking into it. to remit to continue, Riccardo Cosentino 09:22no, let me let me jump in. So it's interesting. So you talk about network and I understand anecdotally how important they are. Because I've seen my level, you know, when you're recruiting for executive talent, the first thing you do is you go into your network, you know, I mean, the day is when you get a certain level in our organization, and so the seniority, you know, you do post a job, but you typically make sure that people within your network, see the posting and apply and so it is about networking. Because when you hire the certain level you need, you know, the compensation is high, the responsibilities high. So you really want a second opinion even before you start the process. So yeah, I can see our network. Very, very important. So it's interesting that you, you got to that conclusion for your research as well. I guess my question is, does he have to be a woman network or does just have to be a networking, we talked about this in the last podcast as well. As you change as your research actually has a different view than the previous answer you gave me in the previous podcast? Corail 10:37Now, my my, I think, my research says that it does need to be a women's network as in the people who need to, to design it need to be women. But obviously, men need to be involved in it massively. And it's, especially male leaders need to be actively involved in the network and give feedback, etc. But it's all about women designing this network and women using systems thinking to think about their situation and think about how to improve it together. Before you know like talking about it was male leaders and receiving and, and having the kind of reverse mentoring, interaction with male leaders, I think why it's important that it's that we use Women's Network is that obviously, men and women don't benefit from networks in the same way. So in, in the research, in paper, academic papers, you see a lot of research about men network, and what we call weak ties. And I think it's a, you know, Granovetter, who was like one of the first in social science to talk about networks, who said something really funny, he said, It is remarkable that people receive crucial information from individuals whose very existence they have forgotten. So it means like you you get crucial information to get a job from your loose ties for people who are not like in your closest process network, because the information that your best friend knows you already know. But you know, it's the friend of your friend who's going to have the information that you need, or you know, and all this loser ties that you have in your network. And that's really true for men. But for women, research shows that is slightly different. women really need strong ties, as well as weak ties, not only the weak ties on the don't surface, just because they don't have enough of them, and they don't, they can't have as good network with men because you have a homophily bias. So you will want to connect, or you will naturally connect faster with someone who looks like you and who is like you and has the same gender, etc. So there is a sort of imbalance and because we men generally at the top are a bit lonely, a way to, for them to basically catch up with men is to have strong networks, both men network and female network. But when they're alone at the top, they need to develop strong ties with the men who are the top but then if they want to change the system and change, you know, the culture of this environment, then they need to proactively create networks to connect with those women that they wouldn't meet otherwise, and to rethink the way we're doing thing together. I think Riccardo Cosentino 13:40there's a very interesting finding, I'd like to take you back actually, to the beginning of this conversation when you were mentioning about the biases within even the job postings having that that's a very interesting concept. And it's something that I read in literature where even the adjectives used to describe things. You know, I think you mentioned master builder, right? If you think of a master builder, the first thing that comes into mind is a man with a beard. And probably a hat, right, a pointy hat. And so your mind I mean, this is probably deviating a little bit from your research but I think it'd be interesting to know your view is how do you remove that bias when even the who writes the job posting is probably a man or maybe recycling a job posting that was already you already developed by another man so how do we break that cycle? Corail 14:40Yeah, I think I think that's that's a good question. It's really difficult you know, and what is interesting is like some research even show that depending on your language, if you're French for example, or if you're a Italian like you Ricardo, we gender everything is gender, right? We say he we say her and if you say Speak, you know, or if you write, you know, whether it's a woman or a man. Whereas you have some languages that are non that if you say, my friends, you don't know whether it's a man or a woman, etc. And it's funny because it does something that the tricks our brain and induce countries, usually you have less issues with gender inequalities than in the countries that really differentiate in the language, whether you're a man or a woman. And I think there has been a lot of work done on this to try and neutralize as much as possible, the adverts. So that it there is no gender assigned to the advert and the terms employed by the employers are really gender neutral, and try to bring to your mind like a gender neutral candidate. But I think beyond that, some, well, companies like need to improve that the pipeline and try are trying to go directly and look at the you know, train women from from, you know, create specific programs for women from earlier on, so that there are more women in that pipeline, etc. There is something really interesting as well, is that research shows that women will only apply when, you know, they fit all the criteria. And I think you know that whereas men will apply when they feel only 60 I think it's around 60% of the criteria. So I think there is something as well, In that which you see more and more now, it's just a simple line saying, if you don't feel all this criteria, please play anyway. And that that helps you getting more female candidates who will match the male candidates because they will be encouraged to apply no matter you know, even if they feel a bit overwhelmed by the by the description. Riccardo Cosentino 16:47That's very, that's very interesting insight. And I knew of the problem, but I didn't know the solution. So thank you for the firm, thank you for the solution. I will definitely make sure my next job posting has that additional line at the bottom. What What else? What else? Are you finding your research? I think you had 7 to seven points of conclusion, I believe in your research, well, what are the what are the points? What are the conclusion do you draw from from what you researched? Corail 17:19Yeah, so I have seven several layers of finding. So the first the first findings was indeed, like I found seven gender related challenges in major programs. One group of challenges was feeling older, you know, feeling like the oldest gender bias unfair expectation that you find in male dominated industries. And catalyst actually refers this as the double bind dilemma. Expectations put upon women are higher than men, despite lower compensations. Women are perceived as too soft, too tough, never just right. And women leaders are perceived as complete, competent or likeable. But rarely, both of them. That's what catalyst says. And that's what a lot of the women in that I interrogated, told me. And I found that most of the time, the way that they respond to that is with personal ways of responding or personal ability. So some will train super hard will take extra lessons will work so much harder, you know, stay at work, while while their male colleagues are having the drink outside. Some will say, Oh, no, I decided that I have a really strong personality. And I tell off everyone, and I don't care if I don't. Some nice. Some of them just said, like, I just help everyone to make sure that I'm like, you know, it's a, it's all about themselves and trying to transform themselves to manage to navigate those difficulties. And that's why again, I was interested in bringing this back to the network because this is a systemic issue. And you can't fight a systemic issue on your own, or you can but you get into a situation that we have today, which is you just have a few women at the top but the one that they're yet the second issue that they talked about was the boys club. So a lot of them were partner at partner levels in a big corporate companies and said that that they could still feel this boys club that they weren't included in. They were in part of it. And sometimes they found out that, you know, the the other leaders had been out for for some events, and they were not aware of that. So they're still best systems. Some mentioned the anti role models and it's funny because it's also the strongest female leaders. We talked about this about the fact that in their career, they've they've been really defended difficult to work with women. They were in higher level than them at the time. And that is very well researched. And that's a phenomenon that is understood. And that is completely structural, which is the resultant of, if there are not enough women at the top you are made to feel special, unique, etc. And you want to dissociate yourself from the lower class group, let's say, which are women at lower levels. And so that creates a sort of divide between lower levels, women, women and top level women. And it's not predictive. And some, some people think it's a women thing, but it's not a women thing. It's something that is just the result of numbers. And effectively, in every situation where you have groups that are dominant, and groups that dominated people will move from the dominated group, if they join, the dominant group will try to distance themselves from the dominated group. Women talk also about some women choosing respite over ambition. And so it was hard for me to accept because obviously, I feel like I only know really ambitious women around me. But that's what came out in my interviews. Some said, Well, women just don't have the ambition, they just don't want to go to the top. I don't know if this is true, or if it's a resultant of the culture that is difficult for women. And there are some research. And I think it's it's interesting to look into that, which says that in environments that are really inclusive, women and men have the same level of ambition, in environments that are not inclusive, there is a big gap of ambition. So I think it's important to take this into consideration, even if you will feel like it's a bit of a chicken and an egg situation. Riccardo Cosentino 21:56I had a guest on another podcast and we talked we you know, one question I had for her, because it's not an it's, I think, is a known phenomenon. That is this women tend to exit like a career, you know, especially after giving after having children, some don't return to the workforce. And the ones that return to the workforce don't might not have the same career ambition that they had before having children. And I was actually thinking, because, you know, the way even the way I just described is almost like the women made this decision. But I was also I was actually wondering if is if the environment actually is driving women away, rather than the run into the woman making this decision? I mean, you know, it's already hard enough, the environment is really not conducive, are going to do something else with my life. Corail 22:50Absolutely. Yeah. I totally agree with that. And I think this fan phenomenon of women exiting the workforce at mid mid level, is mainly you see it mainly in male dominated industries, such as tech, for example. And I think some women leave because yes, they, you know, they, they have this babies and suddenly maternity like, you know, is this isn't, isn't there, they're cooling and, but a lot of them just leave to go somewhere else to go into a different industry that is much more, you know, flexible, much more inclusive, much more adapted to their needs, as you know, working moms, for example. And I think to me, a way to to solve this issue is really looking at paternity leave. That's That's what that's the only that's the last way to change this, this. This phenomenon. If you if you look at that, and it's live, and you and you increase it and you make sure that men and women are both involved equally, in this early stages in early process of building a little human, anything a little human, you basically involvement and it means that they are much more concerned about later on when they come back to their career about those ideas of flexibility in working of being available to get that kid out of school and working late, you know, later at night, for example, having a different work attended than women. Because at the moment what you're seeing is companies that afford like that are inclusive and propose flexible working in the tech industry. I want to be more inclusive this way. Unfortunately, the what you see is only women take these offers, you know men don't take them. And so then it's badly seen that you're going home to too early and working in the evening at home or it's seen as you're less committed and that creates a whole dynamic. That just reinforces the bias. You know that women are not committed women don't have the same ambition etc. So I think if you make sure that men are as involved as women on the early stage of raising a child, you suddenly men more interested in changing this way of working. And to make it work for everyone. I think Riccardo Cosentino 25:18I have to say, I mean, it's so it's actually, I agree with you that we need to, we need the systems in place to allow men to take paternity leave. But to be honest, in Canada, we have that, and he's now making a lot of a difference. What, uh, what, you know, what I'm noticing is, is the societal pressure and the societal norms that really need to be changed. I always say, why is always the woman taking the 12 months off in Canada, you get 12 months, right, you can get up to 12 months. And and I think the policy is that it doesn't have to be the woman, right? I mean, it the paternity leave is leave of absence. And especially public sector employers have very, very accommodating terms and irrespective of that is always the worry, you know, I understand the woman has to take the time off after childbirth to recover. But you know, after four or five months, does this really have to be the woman's their home white? Why is the man cannot stay at home? And I think it's societal pressure, I think there's a big component of societal pressure. Corail 26:23Absolutely, I would be I would be in favor and the the podcast is thinking really radical, but I would be in favor of, you know, in some countries, If men don't take the paternity leave, they get fined. And that motivates you to actually take that time off. And I think, obviously, yeah, if you have the option, but it's not mandatory. Because we're in a society that's not there yet. It's obviously it's, it's badly seen by your colleagues, you again, you look less committed, you look and so you don't take it. So yeah, as you said, the system needs to change. Riccardo Cosentino 27:02So okay, so we started the conversation with the title we dissertations, which was Do woman need to play golf in order to lead major programs was the answer. Corail 27:12Yes, they still need to play golf to live major program 100%. Unfortunately, we're not in a perfect world yet. And at the moments, women have to work harder on their networks to get the same benefits as men. And the way to work on your network and break this boys club that we're talking about is being there being on the field. Obviously, if you hate playing golf, don't totally send to me don't do that, if it's not that bad for you just yeah, get the motivation go on the green. Riccardo Cosentino 27:46I think I think use golf as a figure of speech, but it's, you know, it's, Corail 27:51yeah, get it means get out there. And if we want to talk if we want to go back a bit more into women's networks, and how they should be formed and shaped, when we talked about them with my interviewees, I had really two different narratives about them, I had some really positive narrative narratives. And I found that they can be a way of conduit to reveal gender bias issues to yourself to others, they can be a way to receive and give support to other women. They can be a way to learn and teach etc. They can be a way to, to inspire other people, other women. But mainly and more strategically, they can be a way to have a voice. So have you know a bit of a strategic impact on the leadership team of your organization. And they can be a way to where they can define and design an inclusive workplace. So as I said, women need to think about what is the like, what is the system we want to design to create a more inclusive environment, environment, but I also found out that there are also a lot of negative views about women's network and a lot of my interviewee mentioned that there are serious issues with women networks, which are sometimes unfit for purpose. They said like it can be a manifest some sense, you know, and for them it's not conductive of anything if you're just like, or sometimes it's just unstable because it's it's on the shoulders of one volunteer and doesn't last Some said they was it could be hypocrite if it's used as lip service but your company as a marketing tool, it just don't feel like it's actually useful is just like the company trying to to show that they're more intrusive without doing the work. Sometimes they said it could be biased and that goes with the with the idea That's, if you're if you're promoting meritocracy, for example, through your network, when you know that meritocracy is not the issue there, that you know, that's not helpful. Or if you're trying to throw the network shape your team so that they fit into a mold, then you're not leveraging your diversity, right? So it's not useful, either. Some study could be pernicious or even risky. And that is because they felt like sometimes there could be a backlash, you know, men feeling like, Oh, why are we not included in this? Why? Why are you rejecting us? And that can create some tensions that are not conductive of anything positive and risky. Sometimes if you're seen as like the leader of a movement or of protests in your company, right, at some point, you know, it's not good for your career, you can be blocked just because you're too vocal or too militant. So the idea of that the research was like, How can we focus on the positive impact the women's network can have? And how can we try and reduce those negative effects. And I think, to really make those networks strategic and interesting, basically, you have, you need to almost use the rules of change management, and make it a full like enterprise. And so I think if violet listeners, if there are four things that I'd like them to remember, for their networks, is, first one, the professional women network should be led by women, and mainly designed by women, supported by change consultants, maybe to help them design the change. But they need to take ownership of this network. And some women will tell you, I Yeah, but you're just adding a lot more work on to our work. And it's, it's another assignment on top of all our assignments, and I totally agree, but I see it as a necessary evil, let's say to get to a better a better environment. And they need to create sessions where they use system thinking, I think system thinking is very important, because it's a very practical tool, it helps you you can create maps, that shows the issues of a system that you can then share with the leadership teams, you know, you can bring your map that you've worked on in a session, and you can say, look, with Matt, the issues there. And here are the intervention that we think will improve that system or it or change or resolve, at low at low cost or at low budget, you can do this and that and look how it impacts our system, the system. And I think this is a powerful tool, a tool that needs to be leveraged to induce networks. So that's step one. Step two, is that as we discussed, male leaders need to be actively involved. And feedback session must be organized to present how like how all these measures will benefit not only women, but also the organization as a whole. And it's, it creates trust. And it's it's good to communicate like what you're doing. But also it helps women having a bigger purpose than just themselves if they see themselves that, that what they're doing is benefiting the you know, the organization itself, they will themselves be much more buying it, you know, they will want to do it more. Step three, is that you need to use reverse mentoring. For the senior leaders, I think it's it's, it's really important that senior leaders get a better understanding of the battles that women are facing in the major program industry, and that they themselves become female advocates like you are Ricardo. And this is like basically giving effective training to male leaders so that they understand the issue. And they and yeah, they become allies. And the final step is that results of those networks need to be properly measured with inclusion indicators like KPIs, etc, rather than just number of memberships. You know, we don't care if you're, if your network has 15 members, where we one is like, what are the results of it? What are you producing? What is the impact? How is it measured, etc. And then you need to communicate this results like really enthusiastically, via maybe professional communication campaign, and that you need to get obviously this report of your organization for that. But I think the more effective the communication, and the more you can see effective results, the better. Riccardo Cosentino 34:40Well, it makes it sound so easy, just four easy steps to solve all the equity and diversity issues that we have in the industry. Corail 34:50I'd really want to see it, you know, try it out. Try it and test it and then we can improve on that as well. You know, Riccardo Cosentino 35:00I think there's a good movement. I'm optimistic, and particularly not very optimistic. But I'm optimistic that as an industry, we are trying to move in the right direction. I think the next so well, first of all, the problem is being understood, accepted that there is a problem. I mean, probably 20 years ago, there wasn't even an acceptance or recognition that we had a problem. Atleast Now we know that we have a problem because we don't have the diversity because we have established that diversity is important for business. So I think there is a will. And it's important people like you doing research about how to do it. Because you know, one thing is to, to admit that we have an issue, but then how do we solve it? And having a systematic review, and research done on the topic is going to improve the way we go about solving this issue? Corail 35:55I hope so. Yeah. Thank you. Riccardo Cosentino 35:59Okay, so I think we covered what I wanted to cover today in the podcast, I was really looking forward to this. I really, truly enjoy your dissertation. I'm not sure if listeners are interested in seeing your dissertation. Are you able to see somewhere, have you published? Are you going to publish? Or can they just reach out? Corail 36:21Yeah, we will definitely trying to publish it with my supervisor Chantal Cantera. Lee, who is amazing and amazing professor at Cranfield University, and who's been supporting me throughout the entire process and is pushing me to get another updated version of the reserves so that we can finally get it published in a journal. So hopefully, very soon. You'll see it, I'll share it. Yeah. Riccardo Cosentino 36:47Perfect. And I will provide updates to the to the listeners if and when you publish, actually, when you publish. Corail 36:54Thank you. And it's on it. Riccardo Cosentino 36:57Yeah, I mean, you're you're being it's being recorded. You're being recorded. You're going to be publishing so having we now have witnesses to well, Corail, thank you very much for joining me today. Really enjoyed our conversations. And hopefully I'll see you again on a future episode of navigating major programs. Corail 37:18Thank you so much Riccardo Riccardo Cosentino 37:20By now. That's it for this episode on navigating major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Hashtags: #GenderChallenges #WomensNetworks #MajorPrograms #Inclusivity #Diversity #EmpowerWomen #Leadership #EqualityAtWork #CareerAdvancement #SystemicSolutions #WomenInTech #GenderDiversity #CorporateCulture #ProfessionalNetworks #Advocacy #GenderEquality #BreakingBarriers #WomenEmpowerment #WorkplaceDynamics #GenderBalance #GenderChallenges #WomensNetworks #MajorPrograms #Inclusivity #Diversity #GenderBias #Leadership #SystemicSolutions #CareerAdvancement #WorkplaceEquality #ChangeManagement #GenderDiversity #WomenInTech #GenderEquality #ProfessionalNetworks #WorkplaceDynamics #WomenLeadership #CorporateCulture #GenderBalance #Advocacy Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

The Meditation Breakthrough for Non-Meditators - Episode 76

Seeking With Robyn

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 22, 2023 62:21 Transcription Available

Get ready to be inspired on many levels -- and also in alignment with who you really are. Meet Ashley Wray. She is the founder and CEO of Mala Collective which works with artisans from Bali, India and Nepal to create beautiful and powerful products supporting a mindfulness and meditation practice. The inception of it is a story in and of itself that we'll be discussing...plus it is a mindfulness resource for all of us. Seriously, we had never used a Mala and now understand the power! It may be just what you need to make meditation work for you.Ashley is also a sought after meditation and mindfulness coach for high performers. She helps C-suite incorporate mindfulness into their roles to reduce stress, prevent burnout, build confidence, and create clarity for decision-making and effective leadership. Ashley partners with companies including TED, Google, and VaynerX to bring wellness to corporate settings as well as universities, recently teaching at Oxford Saïd Business School in collaboration with the Institute for Real Growth.Ashley will lead you through a simple and short, yet impactful meditation during this episode...and she's sharing easy practices that may make a huge difference in your everyday. There's a lot covered in this mindful conversation!MORE FROM ASHLEY WRAYFind out more about Ashley and how to work with her at ashleywray.coShop Mala Collective at malacollective.com. Use promocode: Seeking20 for the Seeking Center discountFree Meditation Series: visit Mala 5 Day Free Meditation SeriesFor more from Robyn + Karen, and to sign up for Weekly Inspo visit seekingcenter.appYou can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram at @seekingcenterrobyn

Intelligent Technology in Major Projects with Kimberley Héraux |Saïd Business School, University of Oxford | S1 EP 8

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2023 38:47

In this episode of Navigating Major Programmes, Oxford Saïd Business School alumnus Riccardo sits down with fellow alumna, Kimberley Heraux, to discuss her dissertation on the use of intelligent technology in major projects. The pair discuss everything from the role contractual agreements play in the success of intelligent technologies, to treating the implementation of AI as a complex programme itself. Héraux is an experienced program manager with a demonstrated history of delivering complex projects and programs in the higher education sector and in private industry. Her experience includes but isn't limited to: Enterprise Software Deployments, Data Center, IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Integration and ITIL. “If you treat the implementation of intelligent technology into a major programme as a complex program itself,” says Héraux “We can shift the mindset to have two Galbraith's Star Models.” Key Takeaways: Why we should look at major programmes as an information processing system, plus why information flow will directly increase productivity.The obsession with time and progress and why this mindset blatantly disregards proven program management processes. The two classes of AI technologies that are altering the iron triangle. The “SWAT team” mentality, benefits of agile processes; welcoming change in major programmes. Collaborative contracting to improve the flow of data and reduce risk in major programmes. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInKimberley Heraux on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05 You're listening to navigate major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Kimberly echo is best known for a drive to deliver organizational transformation through major technology initiatives. She is currently serving as a program leader on an industry defining technology major program by the US fortune 50 company. Kimberly is passionate about technology, elevating team culture and firmly believes in the indomitability of the collaborative AI performance project team. Kimberly holds a Master's of Science major program management from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science in international business from the California State University, Northridge. When she isn't busy running major technology initiatives, you can find Kimberly running on Southern California's beaches and wine tasting. Hello, welcome back to another episode of navigate the bigger programs. Today we're here with Kimberly servo. And today we're going to discuss intelligent technology in construction mega projects. Hi, Kimberly, how you doing today? Kimberley Heraux 01:56 Very well. Ricardo, thank you so much for having me on. This is very exciting. I've also been very curious about you know about some of the research that's been done in this space. So very happy to join the conversation. Riccardo Cosentino 02:10 Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad you're on today. It's it's a very interesting topic. I know you wrote a dissertation about this topic for your master Oxford. How did you decide to write a dissertation about intelligent technologies in megaprojects? Kimberley Heraux 02:27 Well, so my background, I built a career managing complex, IT projects, information technology projects. And if you think about artificial intelligence, it is technology. You know, you're we're increasing, we're seeing an increase in the use of AI in all types of technology. So naturally, when it came to selecting a dissertation topic, for for my Oxford, MMPM, I naturally gravitated to, well, gee, what will start to happen when we see mega projects, adopt systems that are increasingly outfitted with artificial intelligence. So that's how that's how I came up with that topic. You know, because I really find myself being interested in being able to deliver results and through technology that sort of that what has excited me all along my career, you know, is being able to deliver IT solutions that really make a difference to the bottom line of the organization. So I had, you know, a couple of a couple of experiences early in my career, one of which I like to cite and tell people, that's how I caught the bug of you know, getting excited about implementing IT systems where we, you know, we had a project where essentially, I was able to see the direct impact of properly implemented IT solution on the business where essentially, I was working for a manufacturer whose shipping process was very sensitive. And essentially, at the end of the project, we had cut down the time that it took to ship the product by over 60%. So shipping times were now a third of what they were. So that's when I caught the bug of my goodness, you know, technology can really, really make a difference in an organization's performance. So that's a tie in for you. Riccardo Cosentino 04:27 That would be an amazing achievement if we could increase the productivity of mega project by 60%. But okay, maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves we're getting ahead of ourselves. Kimberley Heraux 04:40 I think it would be a very different world and Oxford would be very very proud of us Riccardo Cosentino 04:48 so before we get into into the into the discussion, maybe we need to do a little bit of scene setting and just frame what what we mean by intelligent technologies because I think in today's world, I mean, we have so many, so many words and so much jargon around AI and intelligent technology that I think it's, it's important that we frame what we mean in this particular setting. Kimberley Heraux 05:15 Very good. Yes, we can do that. So what I mean by intelligent technologies is, in the context of my research, it refers to artificial intelligence and the suite of technologies that complement or contribute to it. So what I mean by that is, so you take sensors, for instance, that are able to gather data, that can into a database that can then be used, you know, where AI algorithms analyze that data for you. So that would be a technology that contributes to, you know, artificial intelligence capabilities. Other technologies that complement AI, maybe things like modeling tools that allow you to, you know, gather interesting disciplinary data, because as you'll find out, when you talk about artificial intelligence, there's, you know, you know, data is a big part of that picture. So intelligent technologies is meant to refer to AI specifically. So algorithms that you know, pick up patterns in your data and help you leverage the patterns, or the discoveries that you make from those patterns, and the technologies that contribute to you being able to gather that data. And I should say, Ricardo, that if you actually search out there, I think all technology is increasingly being outfitted with AI. So when I mentioned modeling tools, realize that modeling tools in and of themselves, are using AI to help you run simulations to help you optimize things and whatnot. So these technologies that contribute to AI, and this, you know, this definition that I'm giving you, it's almost like there, there are a lot of gray lines, you know, but it's just think about intelligent technologies is AI primarily, and a bunch of associated technologies that are helping contribute to, to the AI algorithms being able to perform what they're what they're good at doing. Riccardo Cosentino 07:16 Will you say my bit? Well, yes, absolutely. When you say modeling tools, just for everybody's benefit did, can you mention a couple of sort of brands that you're referring to for modeling tool? What would be would like an AutoCAD be a modeling tool, or or a modeling tool? Or from the financial side? Kimberley Heraux 07:38 Yeah, very, very, very good question. So in the context of the research that I did, I focused on, I focused on the construction industry. And I use construction very, very loosely as basically mega projects that build things, you know, whether it'd be civil infrastructure, commercial buildings, etc. If you're building something that was essentially again, the term was used very loosely to cover a wide scope in my research. So when it comes to when I say modeling tool, so in construction people are used to when it comes to facilities. They're used to hearing about building information modeling. So that's the one that I focus on in my research. But really, the comments that I make in my research are applicable to any any tool that you use that allows you to create a virtual model of what it is that you're building. So I think you Ricardo recently posted something on the the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which I'm jealous that you recently visited. I think that you know, if you actually study that case, that I think they use the modeling tool called what what was it like Katia, you know, it was used for free rides, so they adopted that. So that's what I'm referring to when I say modeling tools. Riccardo Cosentino 08:53 Okay. No, thank you. That's an important clarification for everyone. So we have a good frame of reference. Okay, why don't we jump into the into the discussion and I'm gonna kick you off with a you know, with a will probably a broad questions, but one that is worth is worth starting from, which is what is the primary value of intelligent technology in construction projects or what why have you been able to find out in your research? Kimberley Heraux 09:20 So what I found in my research is that the primary value of intelligent technologies in the construction space specifically or in construction, mega projects, rather, is primarily these technologies help mega projects with risk reduction. And I in my research, I divide the technologies into two primary classes. The first class of intelligent technologies will allow you to unleash the power of AI on mega project data. So once you've done that, basically what you're able to do is to analyze the patterns In that data and make more accurate predictions based on those patterns. So it's analogous to the navigation system that you use when you're when you're driving somewhere, right? So you tell the navigation system, here's where I want to go, here's the approximate time that I want to arrive there. And it basically charts the course for you on how to get there by the time that you set right? Then halfway through your journey, something happens, traffic increases and whatnot. And it sends you a warning saying, hey, you know, something just happened. You're now your projected, you know, arrival time is now x, here are your options, would you like to reroute? So there's a class of intelligent technologies that allow you to do that with a mega project. And it's very, very valuable, because with the power of AI, the accuracy of those predictions, has improved drastically. Okay, so that's very exciting. So that's one class of technologies. The other class of technologies are more along the lines of the modeling tools that we were talking about earlier. And these information technologies really allow a megaproject organization to improve the information flow. So if you adopt, there's a set of authors that I ran into, they wrote an article in 1978, which seems like ages ago, but it was, you know, it's one of those. It's one of those classics, it's called "Information processing as an integrating concept and organizational design". And their key point was that you can look at an organization as primarily an information processing system that runs into internal and external uncertainties. And generally speaking, the more complex the endeavor that this organization is working on, the more information you'll need to help you manage through and navigate through. So if you look at a mega project through that lens of it's an information processing system, any technology that allows you to improve the flow of information between parties to create better alignment between parties, will actually yield productivity increases, which impact the megaprojects performance. So that was, the other key thing that I picked upon is that as I as I researched, is that really, it seems that there's that second class of intelligent technologies, really, if they're implemented correctly, and that's a caveat, they should help to increase productivity simply because the various parties on the mega project have better alignment. So that was very, uh, you know, those were exciting, exciting things that I uncovered. And, again, going back to my days of, you know, cutting down the the shipping time by, you know, to a third of what it used to be I mean, that's, that's what started to click for me, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, you know, these technologies really hold a lot of promise. So I got excited, all over again, getting ready for this conversation today, because I'm like, Oh, yeah. You know, definitely saw some exciting things out there in this space. Riccardo Cosentino 13:32 Well, first of all, I'm impressed that there's a paper from 1978, that deals with a topic that is so relevant today. Now, the 78. Math is, you know, 40 45 years ago. And so that is that it was really nicely put the way you, I'm gonna put the name of that paper in the show notes, because I think our show, so I want to go and read it. But I think I've all the listeners would want to go and check it out. And yeah, I'm fascinated by the concept that, yeah, I mean, it's complexity that the way you deal with complexity is by and by having information flow, and these tools and these technology help in flowing information and distributed information, allowing a reduction in complexity. And I think that's, that's, that's a key. That's a key point. And I think we know from our studies that mega projects are complex adaptive systems. So whatever we can do to reduce the complexity. Drive to where a business is a better outcome of major projects. Kimberley Heraux 14:47 Yeah, I'll give you a bonus one, I'll give you a bonus. You just threw out the word adaptive. So in my world in the world of IT projects, especially software systems, you know that the term agile became very, very popular. And if you had to ask me for my humble opinion on what Agile is, what Agile does, if you look at the practices is essentially really replaces a lot of processes that used to be very paper heavy, document the specs and then send them over and have them built. It replaces that with face to face interaction. So now you've got the product owner who's got the vision of what needs to be built, constantly checking in with the team, face to face interaction, to resolve the complexities, to basically be able to pivot when we have to adapt, you know, so adaptive change, because agile actually welcomes change. It says, Hey, product owner, if your business case has changed, and you need for us to make an adjustment in how the product is being built, we welcome that. So and and, you know, in some of the discussions that we had at Oxford, there are hints that the construction industry find some of that appealing, because you can't predict everything, right. And sometimes the nature of the program has to adapt to whatever external or internal pressures or you know, happenings. And so that idea, that idea is very appealing. So again, but if you look at Agile processes to me, they improve that information flow, they improve, you know, the ability of parties to quickly align. So when you have a change, like you have a design change, everybody has an easier time aligning to that change, because everybody's you know, that information flow, you know, you've enabled that know, through the use of, you know, if you use intelligent technologies to help you improve that information flow, at the end of the day, you have a much better time adapting without losing productive time. You know, because it's like, oh, somebody forgot to tell Riccardo about that change? How many times that hat does that happen, right? One stakeholder that found out late because of whatever, right? But if you've got if you've got rigorous processes, and that's the other thing I should mention is that these technologies are relatively complex to implement. You have to and you know, that the information processing technologies, you know, what I call coordination tools, in my, in my research, it's not just the technology you have, you also have to spend time coming up with putting in the processes and the internal standards to help you leverage the technology. Because it's not it's not magic, you know, there's a there's a science to implementing these things. Riccardo Cosentino 17:36 While you're almost prompting me to my next question. That's a nice segueway, which is, you know, what, you know, you mentioned some of the challenges, but what what are the challenges? What challenges into the successful adoption of intelligent technology in the construction industry? Or, or, you know, the, the part of the industry that you researched? Kimberley Heraux 17:58 Yes, well, I'll give you I'll give you a quote from my research, and you might, you might chuckle at this a little bit. So definitely, like challenges that hinder successful adoption of intelligent technologies in construction, are construction industry practices themselves. So one author described the construction industry as being overly obsessed with time and progress, with a blatant disregard for proven program management practices. Right. So it's, it's almost like what you picture what I pictured as I as I was reading this piece is that there is such a focus on delivering and delivering fast because as you mentioned, there's a focus on you know, the lowest bidder, you're trying to do it for the lowest price possible. So and time is money typically right? So you tried to deliver fast and and you some of the things that get de prioritized are some practices that if you actually took the time to put them up, put them in place some practices and solutions like intelligent technologies that if you put them in place up front, they will help you get there fast, right but um, but so, you know, construction industry practices, definitely a hindrance, you know, other practices such as, you know, a focus on lower lowest bidder policies. They tend to drive the the, you know, if you think about it, if that's, that's the focus, then what ends up suffering is, you know, there's no no time to really think about putting in a centralized information system for the mega project organization. Oftentimes, there's really no one party that's watching out for, you know, putting in a centralized or well thought out system at the core of The mega project is what it boils down to. And when you when you have no ownership, you end up with a hodgepodge. You know, some things might work well, and other things might be disconnected and cause you problems, which is where the productivity or the mega project, performance takes a hit. Riccardo Cosentino 20:16 So Kimberly, in your, in your research, I'm keen to bring out to for the listeners the topic of collaborative contracting, integrated project delivery. Because as we studied at Oxford, we know that integrated project delivery was was it was a contracting tool that was developed to increase collaboration and information flow between parties. You know, I think the fact that the literature too, says that the BIM models were being used, but various parties to the contract were not inputting the right data into the BIM models, because of the contractual relations between them was not conducive to that. And it'd be interesting to understand from from your research, what what are the links between in between collaboration and information flow and collaborative contracting in major projects? Well, what were you able to find out? Kimberley Heraux 21:20 So what I found out is that collaborative contracting, such as integrated program, program delivery, help improve the flow of data in mega projects. And what this means is that, you know, the participants who work in these contracts settings, the the the mega project managers that, that I interviewed specifically cited, that those types of arrangements definitely bring down some of the barriers between the various mega project actors, data silos, and that what that does is it it creates one set of data that is more transparent for use by the mega project. Okay, and that's good news for AI, because you just unleash those powerful AI algorithms on your good data, and you should be able to get some insights, you know, referring back to my navigation example earlier, right. So the accuracy of the predictions that you're going to be able to, to make based on that data, improve your ability to reduce risks on the mega project. What I found further, I think, in one, one of the pieces that I read, there was one author that proposed specifically, that contractual structures for construction, mega projects, should not only use more collateral continue to encourage more collaborative agreements, such as IPD. But they also they go a step further and say, you know, we should really take a look at, including specifications in those contracts that specify the contributions that each party will have to make to a centralized system, which is exciting, because if you know, if that's the case, I mean, you already have certain countries like the UK, the US, you know, requiring the use of modeling tools like Building Information Management, in BIM, you know, in mega projects, so you can leverage that, right, and say, That's a good foundation. Now, let's go a step further and specify for each of our mega project parties, you know, specify what the expectations are, as far as what your you're expecting them to contribute to the centralized system. So definitely, you know, it would seem if I had to summarize it for you, the mega for the the contractual agreement, helps to set up a structure that, you know, a mega project, organizational structure that encourages the use of intelligent technologies. So that's, that's the, that's the tie in there. Riccardo Cosentino 24:04 It's interesting that you mentioned specification of these standards, I think that the British are certainly ahead of most jurisdiction. There are British standards that are trying to address this. There's, you know, obviously the beam push for implementing BIM at various levels. But unfortunately, my jurisdiction Canada, I think we're still very far from from where the UK is. And it's left to single projects a single owner to specify and push the data. The data standards, which creates problems in itself because there's no modularity and there's no transferability of of processes from one project to another, unless you have the same client unless you have the same advisors pushing for the same specification, so there's still a lot of fragmentation, certainly in Canada, when it comes to data standards, however, the UK is much more advanced from what I understand. Kimberley Heraux 25:19 Yes. And you know what the other thing that I found, too, I mean, we were talking earlier about challenges from industry practice, in general, of course, you know, every country differs, but in general, you know, the research basically cites the power dynamics in mega project organizations. And, you know, specifically point out that it makes it very difficult for actors, like the client to mandate which IT systems the parties should use. So if you think about that, I mean, if you actually zoom out and think about that, if you're an organization, that you Your aim is to deliver a certain outcome or a certain product, but you've got a medley of systems to manage the information and to, you know, to help you manage the journey to actually to delivery. I mean, it's a tremendous obstacle, you know, to being able to achieve the outcomes that you're after. I mean, it can you imagine if IBM had, you know, disparate systems between its divisions, and it's working on a, you know, cross functional cross division project, you can imagine how difficult it would be for them to pull it off. Well, that's what you have, essentially, in a mega project organization is you have each party coming to the table with their set of practices, their set of systems, and of course, they're focused on delivering on time and for the lowest cost. And so putting in a set of systems or processes is sort of lower on their priority list. But in the end, I think that one of the end results is the mega project performance takes a hit Riccardo Cosentino 26:59 is interesting, because I think, yeah, one of you key findings was that we should be treating the adoption of intelligent technology. And I'm assuming, probably broaden it to say treating the adoption of of systems and information flow in major project as a complex IT project within the mega project organization. So based on your experience, fears, implementing major IT projects, when would you set up the IT system within a major project? And is there a specific time that is more beneficial, thinking that a major project has got a lifespan of maybe, you know, 10 years, and there are different phases in a major project, which have different requirements, you know, when you're in the development phase of a major project, you don't have the same number of people, you don't have the same number of stakeholders. But there are a lot of decisions that are made early on, that affect the future of the project, are we when the major project relies on the system is during the implementation phase, but that's typically four or five, or even six years after the big project was kicked off to the for the development phase. So in your mind, when, when when would be the best time to implement the IT strategy for a major project? Kimberley Heraux 28:31 So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go about answering that question in a roundabout way and tell you about my findings when I interviewed IT system implementers, as part of my research, because what I did was I asked them, I said, What, in your opinion, are some of the key attributes of an organization that succeeds at adopting complex technology? So if an organization is going to succeed at adopting complex, innovative technologies, what are the attributes of that organization? And they quickly pointed out two things that are very important one is you have to have vision of what it is that you're after. Right? So if you're going to tackle innovative system implementation, you have to have a clear vision of what you want out of it. And the second aspect is that you cannot have a quick fix mentality, right? So you have to think about a deeply come up with a plan, and then execute that plan, and put the systems in place. And those things allow the organization not only to implement the innovative technologies, but to adopt them and to get the benefits out of all of the blood, sweat and tears that you put in putting in a unit that you put in installing these systems. So given that, you know context, my opinion, is that for a mega project, and you're right, I did I did. To point out that mega projects really should think about the implementation of technologies as a complex IT implementation at the core of the mega project. And in order for you to drive adoption of those intelligent technologies, in my mind, what you would have to do, given that most mega projects are very time centric, I mean, there's a big focus on time is you'd have to almost, you know, at the beginning of the mega project, take a look at what systems will yield, they have the most promise of helping you manage mega project performance of helping you adapt, right, and then create a strategy for implementing those systems really fast, right? And it's, it's, it happens at the beginning, it's, it's part of, I mean, if you think about setting up an organization, it's part of the setup of the organization, you're setting up processes, you're setting up these complex intelligent technology systems to help support the processes that you've put in place, you're setting up, you know, your governance, your governance, body, etc. So it's part of setting up the organization with the caveat that, you know, you have to do it really fast. So you almost have to, in my mind, you have to have a SWAT team type of mentality, that's going to take a look at, okay, these are the technologies that we think we will get the most mileage out of, how do we get them adopted, you know, successfully by all of our by all of our all of our partners, right and and you basically manage like a complex IT system with all of the things that come with it, you know, you have a plan, you have a schedule, you put in the technology, you deliver the training that's necessary, you make sure that people have access, you know, to information necessary on how to use you know, you might, you might have to have continuous education on some, some some parts of it. And so that's, that's what I think is that it belongs at the beginning of the mega project organization coming together. Riccardo Cosentino 32:13 So, I think when we look at your dissertation, we have to mention the Galbraith star, because you you use your Galbraith star which is which is a framework that we studied in in Oxford, to look at the use of technology through, the throught that framework be interesting to get your insight in, in that methodology that you used. Kimberley Heraux 32:39 Right. So the Galbraith star is a well known organizational design framework. And, you know, as you know, Oxford focuses on the mega project organization itself being a temporary organization, but it's got all of the attributes of a complex organization. So, the Galbraith Star model has five components. Strategy, right? So what is your strategy for achieving the outcome that you're after the structure of the organization, the processes of the organization, the rewards that are associated to so that's incentivizing your your teams to, to, you know, to deliver or to to certain behaviors that are beneficial to the megaprojects goals. And then the people aspect so these intelligent technologies fall into the processes box. And what's interesting about the model is it encourages you it basically it has you analyze the tensions between the various boxes. So again, strategy structure processes, rewards people. So, if you're going to put a new intelligent technology based set of intelligent technologies within your processes box, the model what I take a look at in my research is what does that require of the mega project organizational goals an organization's structure? And what does that mean for the megaproject organizations? People like what what are the adjustments that have to be made primarily on on those in those two components if you will, of the structure and the people? And so, you know, what I found is that really what would be what came to light is that this if you treat the implementation of intelligent technologies within the mega project as a complex program in and of its own, then really it ends up with its own star right. So you have to have you know, because the it ends up with you know, the it the implementation of intelligent technologies at the core of a mega project, you're going to find yourself asking questions in each of those five domains. Right. So what's the strategy for the intelligent technologies? What structure do we need to put in place in order to enable adoption? What are some of the processes and standards internally that need to accompany those, those intelligent technologies? How do we want to reward our megaproject parties for you know, how do we want to incentivize them to use the intelligent technologies rather? And you know, what, what do we need to do to equip our people that the teams on the mega project to leverage those technologies? Does that make sense that that answer your question, guys, Riccardo Cosentino 35:43 It does Thank you. And it's, I think, Oh, my God, you just started another line of thinking, but I think you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to rephrase that we were starting to run out of time. But you know, the concept that, you know, you have a Galbraith star within a Galbraith star, I mean, we could really, we could really spend a little time discussing that. Kimberley Heraux 36:02 And the point there is that really, you know, it really does need if you're going to leverage these technologies, you really do need to treat it as a complex program within the mega project. And so if you think about it that way, it makes a lot of sense that it does require investment, it requires strategizing, it requires all the things that come with a major IT program. Riccardo Cosentino 36:25 Fascinating. Fascinating, I think we could be we could be talking about this for a long time. Anyway, I think we are coming to the end of the allocated time for for this show. I am trying to keep it to like 30 40 minutes, it fits nicely into the, into the daily schedule, or most of the people listening. But before we go, if a listener was interested in reading your dissertation, would they be able to find this somewhere? Have you published Are you would you be interested in people reaching out to you? If they wanted to know more about your dissertation? Kimberley Heraux 37:06 Yes, absolutely. If they're interested in reading it, then I can give you my information where they can reach out to me and I will gladly supply them with a copy. Riccardo Cosentino 37:15 I will put that in the show notes so that people can, can can reach out. And with that, I want to thank you Kimberly, for a great conversation today. I certainly you looked at a topic that will definitely help us navigate the major programs. And you provided us actually a really nice analogy with the navigating tool I swear we didn't plan that but you talk about navigating tool in navigating major programs. Thank you for that. Kimberley Heraux 37:43 Yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was this was such a pleasure. Thank you. Riccardo Cosentino 37:50 Thank you very much, and we'll chat soon. That's it for this episode on navigating major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

Practical Major Programme Leadership with Jim Bernard | S1 EP 7

Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2023 38:29

In this episode of Navigating Major Programmes, Oxford Saïd Business School alumni Riccardo and guest host Corail, interview fellow alumnus, Jim Bernard. Jim specializes in real estate investment programme design, structured finance, risk conceptualization and strategic partnership formation. With an impressive track record spanning over 25 years, Jim has accumulated more than 4 billion dollars in real estate investment experience. Now, as a partner at consultancy and as a major programme advisor, Jim is focusing on disrupting traditional approaches to major programme management—making him an exceptional expert to share his insights on this podcast. Key Takeaways: Why major programme management in North America is behind the UK and what needs to improve in order to catch up.The practicality of the Galbraith Star Model™ in major programmes and why People and Rewards need earlier attention. Considering the perception of major programmes as temporary organizations as well as their nonlinear evolution. The power of major programmes as they relate to climate improvement initiatives. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInJim Bernard on LinkedInCorail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedInTwo Roads Group website Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05 You're listening to navigate major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino I brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major prpgrams. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. James Michael Barnard, commonly known as Jim is a highly accomplished professional specializing in real estate investment program design, structure finance, risk leadership, and strategic partnership formation. With an impressive track record spanning over 25 years, Jim has accumulated more than $4 billion in real estate investment experience. Currently, Jim serves as a partner at Two Roads Group, a consultancy he co founded with a focus on disrupting traditional approaches to measure program management by employing novel and empirically supported methods for risk mitigation, decision making and stakeholder engagement. He also serves as a major program management advisor for AI cumulus. Additionally, Jim is the founder of the Regal, a privately held investment company that concentrates on sustainable real estate assets. Outside of his professional pursuits, Jim actively engages in community service as a member of the town Castine Planning Board, and serves as a director on the SMU Cox School of Business alumni board. He is also an accomplished diver and a skilled jazz pianist. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of navigating major programs. I'm here today with my co host, a guest appearance from Corail with my esteemed colleague and friend Jim Barnard, who has graciously agreed to join the podcast today and talk to us about his new venture and his new approach in helping major programs. How are we doing, guys? How are you doing, Jim? Jim 02:37 Great. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Corail 02:39 Hi, Riccardo Jim 02:40 Carail. Corail 02:41 I'm doing great. Thank you for having me again. And I'm excited to hear more about Jim today. Riccardo Cosentino 02:47 And by the way, today, we were joining the podcast. I'm in Toronto. Jim is in Maine, and Correll is in London. So you got a truly international episode? Corail 02:57 Yes, very much. Riccardo Cosentino 02:59 So why don't we Why don't we jump right into it? Corail, I think you're gonna help me co host today's episode, the new format for us. But you being a guest on this show before? So I think you're you're almost almost part of the family. Why don't you take it away? Corail 03:18 Hi, Jim. I hope you're well and nice to see to see you and hear you. I wanted to ask Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners today and tell us a little bit about your career? Jim 03:32 Sure, It'd be my pleasure. My name is Jim Barnard. I'm fortunate to have been a classmate with your two esteemed hosts here at the University of Oxford and major program management program at Syed business school. How I came to the program. Let's see. I was a CFO for real estate, sustainable real estate investment development company in Austin, Texas for about five years before I applied to Oxford. My background had always been in real estate. I'd done it since I graduated from university. At the time, we were struggling with some fairly common major program themes, complexity or projects are getting more difficult, more intricate, larger, we are having challenges scaling. So interestingly, I was sitting in a conference room trying to sketch out a risk curve with my team in the finance department to try to figure out where he has some significant exposure and one of my co workers looked at the whiteboard and said, you know, there's a whole program at the University of Oxford that takes on these questions directly. So I I bet him that if he would write a recommendation I would make the application under no circumstances did neither one of us think that we would be or that I would be admitted to the program. But here we are two years later having survived it and fortunately, having had the chance to work with great people like the two of you You learn a whole lot about managing major programs. Corail 05:03 Yeah, congratulation. Jimmy did I think wonderful in the program, and he was really interesting, you know, to hear about your experience throughout and your background. I was wondering like, I think we both know Ricardo and I, that you started in entrepreneurial adventure after the program. Can you tell us a bit more about what led you to start your own business after the program? And why are you particularly interested in consulting in the fields of major programs? Jim 05:39 Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I haven't started this alone. In fact, you both probably know very well, some of the people that are investing in the, in the consultancy with me. And that alone is a privilege. So the opportunity to work together with like minded colleagues, who've enjoyed similar professional backgrounds, or have had similar professional backgrounds was probably one of the primary reasons why I decided to start this consulting practice. But really, the, I guess the motivation came out of, believe it or not the global financial crisis in 2008. A couple of us back in Austin, with this real estate development company that I mentioned, we basically, we'd all lost our jobs, you know, the industry was kind of in shambles. So at that point, we decided we would get together kind of start at ground zero. And I think maybe we had 200, or we had $2 million in assets at the time. And 10 years later, we were up to $250 million in assets. So to kind of get back to some of the scaling challenges I mentioned earlier. But that experience of of one having an industry job, and then losing it quickly, in rather chaotic circumstances. And then having built up the other company, over that period of time sort of gave me a sense that one, security in major companies undertaking major programs is not always as secure as you might think it is. And two, there's not necessarily as much risk in starting in your own venture, as you may think there is so the chaos of that prior period of my career gave me the confidence to start this new consulting practice with the folks I mentioned previously. So yeah, that's that's kind of where it all came from. In terms of goals for the program, I mean, the whole podcast is focused on major program risk and making major programs function more effectively. Certainly, in my career, and in the careers of the colleagues that have joined me in the group, we've seen plenty of complexity. And we've seen plenty of four major program performance. So the idea behind the group, at least for me, was to be able to use a lot of what we learned at Oxford, and try to address these issues at meaningful points of intervention. So being able to offer that to a variety of clients at a variety of different industries was appealing, and seems rewarding. Corail 08:16 Yeah, that's amazing. That sounds super interesting. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're offering in this consultancy, then? And you know, how you feel like you're apart from other consultancy, what puts you about? Jim 08:33 Sure, broadly speaking, I think what separates our consulting practice from maybe some of the other ones out there would be our combination of gray hair and battle scars, domain expertise on the on the one hand, having worked in all of these areas professionally, as of, you know, my, my colleagues in the practice, but also the academic basis. So one of I had an MBA before going to still do MBA before going to Oxford. So I was familiar with the professional graduate school, curriculum and approach, particularly United States. Oxford is obviously very different. But one of the things within Oxford that truly distinguishes it, particularly MMPM, is the research background. So we not only had to justify our opinions professionally, but we had to support them academically as well. So when we form TRG, both of those aspects became mutually supportive and critical to the practice. So we we tried to bring a whole lot of domain expertise in a variety of different fields and circumstances and marry it with the best academic research that we can find. And then do some of our own research. So hopefully, we can keep the practice as progressive as possible and as helpful as possible. Corail 09:59 Yeah, I do. Like, the fact that you're trying to combine this academic side of the field with your practice, you know, and the kind of practical aspects of of being a major program leader everyday. So I wanted to ask with what you've learned in Oxford and what you're doing in your current consultancy. What do you think will be the main area of improvement for major programs in the future? Jim 10:32 It's an interesting question, because I think it's geographically dependent to some extent. And by that, I mean, the whole concept of program management is really not understood even conceptually, on this side of the Atlantic. In the UK, major program research is been around for quite a while, I mean, clearly, the program's been around for quite a while. But the subject itself certainly goes back a long way. And the UK Government has adopted over the years many major program management practices. So in that area in the UK, in particular, major program management is understood as a discipline, as well as its value is understood. And they've UK Government in particular, and obviously Oxford have invested a lot and refining the subject and practice. In the US, it's very different. The concept of program management really hasn't entered the collective experience, I guess, major programs are still heavily engineering based. Project management is a very familiar term. And certainly there are enough people who engage in project management, they get very frustrated by some of the program management aspects that says so much it's beyond their purview, it's just the project managers are as they should be laser focused on delivery, on time on budget, and aren't necessarily positioned to deal with the externalities that can influence that delivery schedule. So one of the bigger challenges, I think we have at least bidding projects in the US is making the case for program management being part of any large mega project, there's definitely a sense that improvements need to be made, particularly when you start talking about less quantifiable aspects like stakeholder engagement, kind of broader community outreach, communication, change management, I mean, a lot of these very established business practices that are at least familiar in the consulting world, per se, but may not have made it into the major program management world. So the big opportunity, and I guess challenge, at least again, in the US, is sharing this field and the insights that it can provide with some of the larger project constituencies, and really, you know, help the programs perform better than they have been traditionally. Riccardo Cosentino 13:09 You mentioned the United States, but I'm in Canada. And I think what you describe is really a North America phenomenon, where major program management is just not viewed as a discipline in itself. Would you ask a guest why they is in North America? How come I always say Canada is at least five to 10 years behind what the UK is. I haven't quite been able to explain why North America is behind. One of the policies I have is just the way major projects are funded, not founders centrally, like the UK, there and therefore create doesn't create a center of knowledge that the UK has with Treasury. But do you have any view on that? 13:54 That's a really good point, the centralization of a lot of the biggest projects in the UK. I think you're onto something there. I mean, that that would explain why there's been so much investment, at least in part, why there's been so much investment and trying to understand kind of the major program management phenomenon. In the US, we obviously, I guess in as in a lot of other places have a robust private sector. That very active builds a whole bunch of different things. And then we have the public sector, which is probably more focused on what you'd consider traditional infrastructure, and then your private public partnerships for for large events and stadiums and that type of thing. The US is a complex network, and pardon me for overusing complex, but I'll probably be using it a lot in this conversation. It's a rather complex overlap of jurisdictions. So for example, the federal government came out with the infrastructure plan, build back better, massive amount of money, but unlike in the UK, in the US, the federal government's role is basically to distribut and administer of money, they're not particularly involved in any of the actual construction, or conducting major programs that can happen at the state level that can happen at the local level that can happen in public private partnerships. So you definitely have a very fragmented market for pursuing any of these types of projects. So then the private side. And of course, this is financed completely differently as well. Why it hasn't made it far enough along, or as far along as in the UK? Maybe it is because there's not as much of a central actor, as there is over there. But it's an interesting research question. Maybe we can get convince some of our colleagues at Oxford to take it up. Corail 15:48 Yes, talking about research, and I know you, you are really fond of everything. Academic related, following on what you just said, Jim. I think it's really interesting for our listeners, who are leaders in major programs to get your knowledge in a bit of sense of your knowledge in the research into major program. And I know that you're fond of many frameworks that help improve major programs. And I was wondering if there was, like one framework out of your time in Oxford that you saw was particularly useful to improve the performance of major program? And could you share that with our listeners, Jim 16:32 I'm happy to share some of the conclusions I've come to and some of the frameworks I've found more useful than others. Of course, the big challenge is always empirically establishing a framework or trying to apply a framework that's been super successful in one area to another area and see, see how it goes. So there are a whole bunch out there, I think a lot of them are more applicable to certain circumstances than others. However, the framework I use for my dissertation in particular is called the Galbraith Star model. It's, it's been around forever, primarily applied to ongoing businesses, not necessarily major programs. But we had a professor at Oxford, introduce it to us, and show how it could be usefully applied to major programs in particular sort of extend its range beyond your your typical business consulting practice. So I found that one fairly useful on primarily because it's, it's sort of simple to conceptualize, it's got a are, for those who don't know, it's a five pointed star, it's got several aspects of an organization that all need to be organized in order for the organization to kind of hit its goals or realize that strategy. And in that instance, certainly applies in a major program context as well. It's also somewhat easy to understand for for people that are used to working in more traditional business environments, or sort of more traditionally practicing project management. So things like identifying a strategy or the goal of a major program, and then making sure that you've got a management structure that supports that strategy. And you'll get decision processes that help information flow among the people within the structure. The other two areas, which interestingly seem to get next to no attention are people. So the which would open up areas of psychology and and behavioral economics, and then reward structures. So how do we actually keep our people who are working on the project who are compensated in a variety of different ways, whether they're the general contractor or subcontractor, the developer, or the municipality or a government official, and everybody's sort of rewarded in different ways? So the question is, are all of those areas sort of aligned in the same direction, so you can accomplish the goals of the major program? So I guess the one of the questions is what is, you know, the perfect alignment for a major program and some of the research I did, unfortunately, was inconclusive in that area. It doesn't seem that there's a single right way to organize a major program, but provided all of those areas are aligned, I think you've certainly got a much better shot of finishing one successfully, Riccardo Cosentino 19:26 if I may jump in and follow up because that framework was a very interesting framework. I was fascinated by that class and having worked in major programs for a big chunk of my career. And I think the for me, the lightbulb moment was major program is a temporary organization. So although the Gobrecht star can be applied to major program, you have to do it through the lens that these are temporary organization. And I think that was a nuance of major program that never occurred to me So as you're designing your organization, you have to keep in mind that you have challenges and opportunities that come with a temporary organization. So, in your view, how much does that influence the way you're designing a major program organization, the fact that is a temporary one. The deal did your research touched upon that? Jim 20:23 It did. In fact, I, in some sense, one could look at the defining difference of a major program, relative to a permanent organization, is the fact that it's temporary. But when you unpack that a little bit, and you start to think about what Temporary means, offer that a lot of the permanent organizations and the permanent organization mindset is far too focused on longevity, when we actually don't see companies last as long as some of the major programs that we work on. So even though a major program may be temporary, you know, a beginning and an end, people can work on a single major program for the majority of their career. So they are so long lived, that they're, they're temporary aspects, maybe more of a perception necessarily than a mental chronological reality. And similarly, on the corporate side, where people are looking at, you know, perpetual existence of a corporation that very rarely happens. Most companies could probably benefit from thinking, and again, this is my opinion. So for all the people who own companies out there who think that I'm a fool, they're certainly welcome to that perspective. But I think companies would probably benefit more by acknowledging volatility and change and sort of the temporary lifespan of whatever a single strategy is, and maybe the major program world would would benefit a little bit from looking at their projects more organically, because they certainly do evolve over time and less from my on a sort of linear project management standpoint, where point A will never be revisited after we complete it or pass it, because we're temporary. So we're gonna do ABCDE. Whereas you're really not you're going A, B, C, D, B, C, A, D, and then kind of spiraling apps. barleys, not the right word. But hopefully your project doesn't spiral but evolving forward in a nonlinear framework. So I guess it's a long winded way of saying, yes, they're temporary, but maybe not as temporary as it's helpful to consider them being, particularly since these projects are supposed to really impact communities for generations, even if their actual construction or development is somewhat limited. And again, could be decades but somewhat limited. I think the perception behind their concepts. And what they're supposed to do for a society is far longer than even most permanent organizations. I mean, the investment we're making in any of these things is really supposed to be generational. Riccardo Cosentino 23:14 Thank you. That was interesting. Exchange, and certainly helped me revisit some of my view about major projects or temporary organization. Jim 23:25 One of the things that was glaringly obvious in my dissertation mean, there was very little that was glaringly obvious in my dissertation, it was largely failed to support the management frameworks that I had formed based on the literature. But, interestingly, of the Galbraith principles of the five points of the star, people and rewards barely showed up at all. So there was, if you think of programs, as we have discussed, having a beginning and an end, whether that's an appropriate perspective or not, they certainly do go through phases from concept of you know, what, what qualifies as completion, although I'll offer that the never really complete, but that whole aspect of people aspects and the reward aspect, explicitly tied towards stakeholders that are involved in the program, kind of a much broader perspective of who was actually involved, and then rewarding people for their involvement in the success of the program, like completely lacking. It didn't show up at all. I mean, maybe towards the later part of a project, did you start to see some considerations about people and how they were going to use the output of the of the program. But really, in the beginning, it was all strategy and structure related. I mean, it just didn't even show up. The programs are so Mayopiccally focused on, on this strategy thing that they never really, at least in my research, exhibited any consideration for people and rewards. So you got another area of research that's probably worth considering there. Riccardo Cosentino 25:16 That's interesting. So your your research show that major programs don't take the time to design a compensation structure and a reward structure to align the interests of the project with the interest of the leadership and in Jim 25:36 really, it really anybody I mean, there's there's certainly incentive based compensation mechanisms at the corporate level, you know, risk base, you come across this all the time, whether you're delivering a turnkey project, or you know, cost plus, or g max, or whatever the structure happens to be relative to the contractor. But in my experience, particularly if it's a major program within an organization, so we worked on a program, or I did with a, another friend of mine, where a company was digitalizing, their entire, basically production stream. So it was within almost exclusively within an organization, although obviously, it touched on some external partners as well. But there was no bonus incentive, there was no reward structure, there was no career path, you know, sort of advancement on to greater challenges or responsibility for implementing the program successfully. I mean, it was literally like, your job is to do it. And good luck. We'll be back in touch if things go wrong. So that to me, that, to me seems like an opportunity to to pull people in the same direction. One acknowledge more broadly, the breadth of the stakeholders that are influenced and then within the program, aligning some of those reward incentives, which may or may not need to be monetary, but aligning those reward incentives within the program to see it completed successfully. Riccardo Cosentino 27:09 Yeah, can it can resonate any makes sense? That's certainly my anecdotal experience. And when you're when you think of a major program, do you think, you know, stakeholders have a lot of influence on the success of their major programs, I've never seen in the few, one of the few major programs I've been involved with, and alignment of the project leadership to the stakeholders. So you know, you could have situation where you could have engagement with stakeholders, and measuring and getting the feedback on how the project is delivering against their needs, and aligning the compensation of the leadership to the stakeholder needs, because we know from our study that stakeholders can derail a major program. And then stakeholder management is key. So there should be a metric that should be aligned. Jim 27:59 Sure, we're in there also a tremendous asset to a program to the coordination takes a huge amount of resources. And it can be very frustrating, particularly from a project management standpoint, where there's a, there's a tendency to to go, go, go, go go. So any sort of these, these stakeholder intervention points, I think, have probably traditionally been viewed as a burden for the program. Whereas leveraging resources of a community, and this comes up a lot in my native state of Maine, particularly with some offshore wind programs, recognizing the support and resources that the local community can provide is a pretty big step. We've got these offshore wind communities obviously touch a lot of sea based industries, fishermen, marine biologists, obviously, the electricity company, but also shipping, manufacturing base quality jobs within the state of Maine. I mean, these are huge opportunities that touch so many different aspects of society. And that can be positively influenced by them. But you kind of have to start with that first perspective that there are a lot of people involved that have a lot to contribute. So engage them early and often and I you should have a better program. Riccardo Cosentino 29:24 Music to my ears. Correll, over to you again, with your series of questions. Corail 29:33 I wanted to go back to a more personal question now. What do you love most about your work and about setting up a consultancy in major in the major program industry? I think what would be interesting is to know more about you and what what does it take to be a major program leader? Jim 29:56 More about me professionally, personally, what attracts me to Do it what a, and we could go down a rabbit hole here. Corail 30:04 I'd be interested to know more about you personally, and, you know, understanding better. What do you love about your job? What drives you to this field? And yeah, what's what is your passion? Jim 30:22 So big, big question, obviously limited time in a podcast format. So I'll try to be as specific as possible. But what what drew me to the real estate industry in particular, despite my best efforts to avoid getting into what had been a family business for years, was how multifaceted is probably an overused description, but how many areas real estate touched any sort of construction project, which sort of, you know, goes back to the broader stakeholder engagement perspective, but also the number of disciplines who are are had to be involved in any successful project, from architecture, to engineering, to finance to delivery to sales, I mean, there, there's not a lot of pigeon holing within real estate, people have to be somewhat familiar with a great number of things in order to have a project delivered successfully. So, you know, personally, I like the breadth of knowledge and the breadth of engagement and the opportunity to use a whole bunch of different skills without diving maybe sufficiently deeply in any of them. My background, certainly, as I mentioned, finance, and there's that's sort of a obvious area one could focus on. But what I've discovered over my career is that any subject, such as finance, is really, again, back more to being about the constituents, stakeholders involved in the finance process. So I can run spreadsheets all day long, I can make him say whatever you want, I can regress to the mean, I can calculate internal rates of return. But what really matters is the people within the transaction, and what they what is their perspective, if I'm a lender going into a project, what Yes, I want my money paid back. Yes, I want interest to to be generated on the loan. I mean, all of these things are fairly cut and dry. But what does that actually mean for the loan officer, the person that you're working with on a day to day basis? And how does your program fit within the larger context of the organization that's lending you the money. So even within something that seems like it would be as as specific and cut and dried as finance is really a far broader and more interesting opportunity to connect with people that have a vested interest in the project? I think that is one of the things that's most appealing about being at least for me, personally, being in a consulting practice or forming a consulting practice, are, I'll say, the second most interesting thing is the breadth of engagement and the number of different subjects and aspects of major programs that you get to touch and sort of have to acknowledge at a minimum to deliver services to your clients. But hands down, the most rewarding thing is the people I get to work with. So and Oxford definitely raised that bar in terms of professionalism and capability of the people on the teams. So does that answer the question people and diversity of subjects? Maybe Riccardo Cosentino 33:28 you sold that to me? So Oh, good. Jim 33:32 No good. Should I point you to our website, because we're always looking for new clients? You Riccardo Cosentino 33:36 should you should what's, what's the website? 33:38 The company is called Two Rodes Group. Website is www.tworoadsgrp.com. As you mentioned, we've got partners in Dublin and London and here in the States. So I won't get into the story of the name. I'm not that I'm not romantic enough to do justice to it. But yeah. Riccardo Cosentino 34:03 Now you have to now. Jim 34:08 So, Robert Frost, former Poet Laureate of the United States and find New Englander wrote a poem called two roads. And the ending stanza is two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. So when we start to think about major programs and adjusting the perspective, we tried to bring in that road less traveled, the the opportunity to make all the difference by looking at traditional forms of delivering major programs and offering some alternatives that hopefully will make a material difference. Corail 34:45 That's amazing. Thank you, Jim. Riccardo Cosentino 34:48 Very nice. And by the way, the link to your website will be in the show notes and in the episode description so the listener can can find the details if you I couldn't read it down quickly enough. Okay. I think we're coming towards the the end of the podcast currently, if you don't mind, I'll ask the final question to Jim. And so, Jim, in your mind, what would be the dream major program? What will? What would that look like? Jim 35:20 There has so the absolute dream program under sort of all circumstances, for me would be impact related, particularly related to climate change in the natural environment, having grown up in Maine and actually sitting in Maine now looking at the ocean, I think, maybe Maine culture is somewhat uniquely attuned to or dependent upon the natural world. So given all the climate related challenges that everybody acknowledges that we have now, unfortunately, any project that influences a basically preservation of the natural world is to me hugely meaningful. So whether there's delivering clean energy, whether it's considering different ways of funding, climate related initiatives, reef preservation, I'm being a little coy because we just bid on a project recently that had some of these characteristics. But since it hasn't been awarded yet, I can't get into too many details, but basically, the opportunity to use the inherent transformational aspects of a major program to to improve any of a number of situations, particularly around climate change. Riccardo Cosentino 36:32 Very nice. Okay, I think we come to the end of the podcast, Correll, any, any, any final thoughts from you? Corail 36:43 I just, I'm thinking that if every leader, were interesting in the same topics as you, Jim, we wouldn't situation we are today. So I hope you're an inspiration for all our listeners. And thank you for your time. Riccardo Cosentino 36:59 Thank you very much, Corail for CO hosting the podcast with me. Thank you, Jim, for joining us in this conversation, always stimulating conversation with you and Corail. Any final thoughts from you, Jim. Jim 37:14 It's, it's an exciting world. Major programs are definitely a topic not only were studying, but fascinating to work in. So I encourage everybody who's got the chance to consider the topic and get involved. Riccardo Cosentino 37:27 And on that, thank you very much for joining us this week, and we'll talk to you soon. Bye now. Thank you. That's it. For this episode, we'll navigate the major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, where we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

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An interview with Basil Towers

The Little Questions

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2023 34:31

On this episode of The Little Questions, we are joined by one of our industry's most respected practitioners, Basil Towers. Basil has been advising organisations on how to be trusted for 40 years. He's researched it, he's taught it at Oxford Saïd Business School, he's advised FTSE 100 CEOs on it and one thing he has found in that time is that not all trust is of equal value. Join Jenny Scott and Andrew Brown from Apella Advisors, as they chat in depth about trust with Basil Towers on this latest episode. We'd love to hear what you think. Get in touch on social media or email podcast@apellaadvisors.com This edition of The Little Questions podcast is presented by Andrew Brown and Jenny Scott. Apella partner Andrew Brown is a former Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Ageas Insurance. He has more than ten years' experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors, developing considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc. Apella partner Jenny Scott joins us again on The Little Questions podcast. Jenny has worked as Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England and Advisor to the Governor. Jenny sat on the Bank's executive committee and risk committee. Formerly Economics Correspondent for the BBC and Presenter of the Daily Politics, she is now Trustee of Pro Bono Economics. Find out more about Apella Advisors at www.apellaadvisors.com and you can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com This episode was produced by The Podcast Coach.

Ep 124: More Than One Way to Live | Jacqueline Novogratz (Founder & CEO, Acumen)

So This Is My Why

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2023 51:21

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder & CEO of Acumen - a non-profit global venture capital fund that aims to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty. She was also born for crisis.As the OG of impact investing, her impressive list of accolades include:One of the World's 100 Greatest Living Business Minds 2017 by ForbesForbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship, 2016The Resolution Project Champions Circle Award, 2016Bloomberg Markets 50 Most Influential in Global Finance, 2014Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008She also sits on the board of: Aspen Institute board of trusteesPakistan Business Council Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (CERB)]Advisory Councils of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, the Oxford Saïd Global Leadership Council and UNICEF.When she graduated from the University of Virginia, she described herself as someone who was "excited, idealistic & had dreams in your head of changing the world and didn't have a clue how to start”.That start ended up being at Chase Manhattan Bank - despite telling the interviewer that she had no interest in banking & was only there because her parents told her to!She did so well, the then COO, Tony Triciano, wanted to fast track her career and have her be his right hand person.She said NO. She wanted to change the world.And left for Africa. There, she suffered failure after failure after failure.She learned that while she had gone to try & save the African continent, Africa neither wanted nor needed saving.But those lessons were invaluable and led her down the path of founding Acumen.Even when building Acumen felt like - in the words of Acumen's first COO, Dan Toole - “Standing at the 5th floor of a brick building & we're trying to build a terrace brick by brick with no safety net underneath!”So:❓ What is it like to live a life of such purpose?❓ Who are the people (+ life partner!) that you need to surround yourself with to keep the mission alive?❓ Why did her mentor, John Gardner, use to say that “the key to life is to be interested. Not interesting”?Well.You'll just have to listen to STIMY Ep 124 to find out!

S04 Ep. 18 Design in the 2020s: More Agency, Less Control with Christian Bason

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2023 54:35

Join us in our latest podcast episode as we delve into the world of design with Dr. Christian Bason, CEO of the Danish Design Center. We explore the crucial role of how we think - the “thinking” part of design thinking - in addressing global challenges. Drawing from one of his latest books "Expand: Stretching the Future By Design", co-authored with Jens Martin Skibsted, Christian introduces the concept of six expansions: time, proximity, life, value, dimensions, and sectors. These expansions encourage designers to break free from traditional boundaries and tackle complex issues like climate change, pandemics, and digitization. We also discuss the dynamic nature of design modes and methods, highlighting the importance of agency and adaptability in diverse contexts. Dr. Christian Bason brings his expertise in innovation, design, policy and leadership to enrich our conversation. Before becoming CEO of the Danish Design Center, Christian gathered a wealth of experience leading organizations such as MindLab, the Danish government's innovation team, and Ramboll Management Consulting. He has published in amongst other Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review and has taught executives at Oxford Saïd Business School, Henley MBA, the European School of Administration and Copenhagen Business School. With Christian, we dive deep into the ethical considerations surrounding technological innovation and the responsibilities of designers and developers in the digital space. Our conversation examines the impact of technology on society and emphasizes the need for governance mechanisms to keep up with rapid advancements. The podcast further explores the role of designers as decision-makers and their responsibility at various scales. We look into the transformative power of unlocking individual creativity and cultivating innovative cultures within organizations. Lastly, we confront the current state of the world and examine the rise of autocracies and surveillance societies, questioning why top-down control has become such a prevailing force. Christian proposes that we have agency to create more sustainable and human-centered organizational forms that can effectively navigate complexity and build alternative futures. Join us for this captivating podcast episode as we navigate the future of design, highlighting the transformative power of agency, and embrace a world where creativity and collaboration pave the way for a better tomorrow. Key Highlights

Not Getting Tangled

business growth mba economy markets regulation silicon valley bank tangled oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2023 34:34

The importance of red tape in growing economies. In this episode, Jordan Zele, Oxford Saïd MBA and host discusses regulation with Nattawan Kularbkeo, a fellow student and Senior Investigation officer at SEC Thailand. Nattawan challenges the idea that markets must choose between growth and regulation, suggesting that for sustainable growth, regulation is necessary. The episode explores emerging challenges across all markets, highlighting the fundamental role regulators must play in the future of business. Of note, this episode was recorded before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Featuring: Nattawan Kularbkeo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nattawan-kularbkeo/ Jordan Zele - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-zele-1504b95a/ Link to the school website - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Link to the podcast - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/future-business-podcast/season-five

Frida's Fight: Examining the Gender Gap in the Art Industry

art business drawing mba gender examining modern art contemporary art gender gap digital art art industry oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2023 27:35

In this episode of season 5, Susheel Siram, an Oxford Saïd MBA and host, discusses gender inequity in the art market with fellow student Brooke Reese. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Brooke spent over five years in the contemporary and modern art market. She begins by sharing her experience working in the art world and then delves deep into the role that gender plays in the valuation of art. Drawing on her experience and research, Brooke analyses the reasons behind the undervaluing of artwork created by women and makes predictions about how this theme will develop in the age of digital art. Featuring: Brooke Reese - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookecreese/ Susheel Siram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sks93/ Resources: Sydney Morning Herald on how artwork created by women is undervalued - https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/blind-viewing-shows-how-female-artists-are-undervalued-20201109-p56d0v.html The Economist on why women's art sells at a discount - https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/05/16/why-womens-art-sells-at-a-discount Link to the school website - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Link to the podcast - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/future-business-podcast/season-five

It runs in the family: How to navigate various crises in the world of family business

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2023 18:56

In this episode of season 5, Sandhya Sridhar, Oxford Saïd MBA and host, discusses the world of family business with fellow student Shwe Yee Win. Shwe Yee runs her family garment manufacturing business - SPZ Garment and Embroidery - in Yangon, Myanmar. She dives into her experience of working for her family business and elaborates on the times the business faced crises such as COVID-19 and the military coup in her country, and how these required constant strategic restructuring and revamping of the business model and functioning. She also shares her experience promoting women to the forefront of management by motivation and methodical planning. Featuring: Sandhya Sridhar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyas0594/ Shwe Yee Win - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shweyeewinsyw/ Resources: SPZ Garmet and Embroidery - https://www.facebook.com/spz.mm/ Link to the school website - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Link to the podcast - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/future-business-podcast/season-five

Paying to Play: How to fund the Arts from a pianist's perspective

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Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2023 31:27

Happy New Year from the Future of Business Podcast! In this season's second episode, Jordan Zele, Oxford Saïd MBA and host, discusses funding of the arts with pianist, actor, and fellow student Helen Kashap. Helen draws upon her experiences across North America and Europe to explore market failings in the art world, and why alternate means of funding such as patronage, philanthropy and government funding are necessary to ensure a thriving art community. The episode highlights the challenges inherent in these funding types and suggests alternative strategies for the future. Featuring: Helen Kashap - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkashap/ Jordan Zele - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-zele-1504b95a/ Resources: Helen Kashap - https://www.helenkashap.com/ Link to the school website - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Link to the podcast - https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/school/our-community/future-business-podcast/season-five

On Purpose: How businesses and individuals can create impact

business strategy mba series businesses individuals women in business ngo world you want oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2022 31:08

This episode explores how business and impact have become interwoven over time and how that shapes companies' strategic objectives. Series 5 Episode 1: Welcome back to the Future of Business. In the first episode of the new season Susheel Siram, Oxford Saïd MBA and host, dives into impact with fellow student Christen Brandt. Christen is the co-founder of She's the First, an international NGO dedicated to ensuring girls everywhere are educated, respected, and heard. She is also the co-author of Impact: A Step-by-Step Plan To Create the World You Want to Live In. Susheel explores with Christen how business and impact have become interwoven over time and how that shapes companies' strategic objectives. Christen also draws on her experience to explore how businesses can design their policies and operations to promote the empowerment of women and girls. Featuring: Susheel Siram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sks93/ Christen Brandt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjbrandt/ Resources: She's the First - https://shesthefirst.org/. Christen's Book – Impact - https://www.planyourimpact.com/

On Purpose: How businesses and individuals can create impact

business strategy mba series businesses individuals women in business ngo world you want oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2022 31:08

This episode explores how business and impact have become interwoven over time and how that shapes companies' strategic objectives. Series 5 Episode 1: Welcome back to the Future of Business. In the first episode of the new season Susheel Siram, Oxford Saïd MBA and host, dives into impact with fellow student Christen Brandt. Christen is the co-founder of She's the First, an international NGO dedicated to ensuring girls everywhere are educated, respected, and heard. She is also the co-author of Impact: A Step-by-Step Plan To Create the World You Want to Live In. Susheel explores with Christen how business and impact have become interwoven over time and how that shapes companies' strategic objectives. Christen also draws on her experience to explore how businesses can design their policies and operations to promote the empowerment of women and girls.Featuring: Susheel Siram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sks93/ Christen Brandt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjbrandt/ Resources: She's the First - https://shesthefirst.org/. Christen's Book – Impact - https://www.planyourimpact.com/

Andy Bass, Author of Start With What Works and Committed Action, On: The Culture of Optimization and Liberating Your Company's Potential By Revealing the Truth, Not Inventing It

Next Wave Leadership Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2022 41:23

Andy Bass is the Founder and Managing Director of BassClusker Consulting, where he works with senior executives to increase their growth and productivity. He's advised leaders in more than 30 industries across 12 countries. As a strategist, Andy has counseled executives at large organizations such as Deutsche Bank, L'Oreal, and Aon and many mid-sized businesses and trade associations. Andy has also taught executives at leading business schools, including Oxford Saïd, Warwick, Aston, and Strathclyde. He is the Forum Chair for MacKay CEO Forums and is a member of the associate faculty at Aston Business School Centre for Executive Development. Along with his positions, Andy has written several books, including Start With What Works and Committed Action. In this episode… In the pursuit of improving their businesses, many executives look to external factors to gain a competitive advantage. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent on outside resources and, ultimately, very little changes. While these solutions can be helpful, they should never be a leader's first option. In fact, many businesses already have the tools they need to succeed. Andy Bass is a leadership advisor who pushes clients to reassess the resources they already have at their disposal. Rather than spend exorbitant sums of money to get ahead, Andy shows leaders how they can better utilize their current assets. The process is easily adaptable, and the results can be surprising. In this episode of Next Wave Leadership, Dov Pollack interviews Andy Bass, the Founder and Managing Director of BassClusker Consulting, to talk about liberating your company's potential through overlooked resources. They talk about reassessing your business and finding creative ways to improve systems. They also touch on innovation, eliminating waste, and looking for answers internally. Stay tuned for more.

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Everything Startups, Investing, IPOs, Founder Support and Mountaineering with Tony van Marken of First Ascent Ventures

Tank Talks

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2022 62:16

Mountaineering is a sport that draws a lot of comparisons. Climbing can be done as a lark or as a well-planned expedition. Sometimes even the best-planned climbs can end in disaster due to one wrong choice or factors outside the control of the climbers. And sometimes everything is perfect and an underprepared climber can achieve something special.At the end of the day, you need to show up and do the climb before you know the outcome.That same truth applies to venture capital and investing, and our guest today, Tony van Marken of First Ascent Ventures, marries both those pursuits as a successful operator, investor, and mountaineer.We touched on how Tony supports founders going through the emotional startup journey, and how to help CEOs during a company-wide layoff. Tony shares his experience as a public market CEO, and how the recent sell-off in Canadian IPOs is impacting his Founders.About Tony van Marken:Tony van Marken is the co-founder and Managing Partner of First Ascent Ventures. Previously he was the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vox Telecom Limited, a leading independent telecommunications service provider in South Africa. Tony is a former General Partner with XDL Intervest Corporation, a Canadian venture capital fund, where he led investments in the software and telecommunications industry. Prior to XDL, he was President and CEO of Architel Systems Corporation. Tony is an accomplished endurance athlete and a veteran of over 35 high-altitude mountaineering expeditions with over 65 summits. He summited Everest in 2005 to complete his quest to climb the world's seven continental summits.Tony graduated with a B.Sc. (Computer Science) from the University of Cape Town and with a B.Comm. (Economics and Business Management) from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and has completed executive education courses at Kellogg University, Wits Business School (South Africa) and the Oxford Saïd Business School.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren't asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:45 Tony's career journey to becoming an investor06:01 Perspective on the current downturn and how it compares to ones in the past09:12 Why today may be the best time to make investments11:06 Common mistakes founders make in downturns15:42 Why now is a good time for founders to raise prices17:12 Helping founders manage the emotional rollercoaster21:27 How founders can manage a RIF and layoffs27:35 Advice to CEOs considering an IPO36:51 Has power returned to VCs or do founders still have the edge38:25 Expectations Tony has for new investments40:52 What should founders be asking investors?44:18 Should founders pursue remote or in-person for their companies50:39 Tony's mountaineering experiencesFast Favorites*

Prof. Ludovic Phalippou: Private Equity, Under the Hood (EP.210)

The Rational Reminder Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2022 56:26

If you have any interest in private equity or have thought about it as an asset class, then this episode is for you! What is private equity? This might seem a simple question but the answer is more complex than you think. Private equity is a nuanced subject that requires a deep understanding to make successful investments. To help unpack this non-trivial subject is expert Ludovic Phalippou, a Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School. Although he studied economics in general, his research mainly focuses on unravelling the complexities of private equity. He has written many papers on the topic, including a book called Private Equity Laid Bare. He has a Masters in Economics and a Masters in Mathematical Finance from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Finance from INSEAD, making him well versed in the subject. Besides his impressive qualifications and experience, his insight and ability to speak to the data make him stand out from other experts. In our conversation, we get into the basics of private equity and what makes it attractive to investors. During our conversation we discuss the challenges for measuring performance, how to best measure the performance of private equity funds, the different facets associated with private equity, how to tell if certain private equities are a good investment, and the differences between private and public equity. We also hear how it is applied as he walks us through some real-world scenarios and gives us some insider knowledge on the best private equity options. As you will hear from our conversation, there is no easy answer! Key Points From This Episode: We learn what asset classes are included in the broad term of private equity. [0:03:39] The end-to-end process for investing in a typical private equity fund. [0:06:49] The challenges with measuring the performance of private equity managers. [0:09:48] How investments that have not yet been sold are treated when a manager is reporting on their performance. [0:12:48] Professor Phalippou explains how well the IRR captures the economic results delivered by a fund. [0:14:04] Whether there are alternative approaches to evaluating performance. [0:17:52] A discussion about the typical characteristics of a buyout fund. [0:19:35] The best approach for evaluating your private equity. [0:21:24] Find out if a public equity benchmark has to be adjusted for leverage, regarding buyouts. [0:24:26] We learn about the fees that private equity limited partners typically pay. [0:26:34] Outline of the less obvious fees that limited partners might be paying. [0:28:11] Whether an investor paying carry is a sign that the investment has done well. [0:31:07] Comparison of private equity performance relative to public equities. [0:32:31] What number Professor Phalippou would assign on an expected return to private equity, as an asset class. [0:38:46] How successful investing in private equity has been for institutional investors. [0:39:32] The performance of Blackstone and KKR is discussed relative to an average private equity fund. [0:42:11] We get details about the Yale situation and how it manifested. [0:44:24] Reasons why private equity is regarded as the best performing asset class for institutions. [0:45:32] Professor Phalippou tells us if he thinks private equity offers diversification benefits to a public equity portfolio. [0:46:01] He discusses a recent case study regarding Hilton. [0:47:11] Why he thinks sophisticated investors are allocating funds to private equity. [0:48:14] Professor Phalippou shares how to be successful when investing in private equity. [0:50:00] Whether the returns of private equity can be replicated in public equity. [0:53:09] How Professor Phalippou defines success. [0:55:18] We end the show by finding out if the value premium is risk-based or behaviour-based. [0:55:35]

Calvert Impact Capital CEO, Jenn Pryce on Community Investing, Investing Where Banks Won't, the Seychelles Blue Bond, and the Community Investment Note with 100% Repayment Record (#001)

SRI360 | Socially Responsible Investing, ESG, Impact Investing, Sustainable Investing

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2022 55:34

Jenn Pryce (@JennPryce) is President and CEO of Calvert Impact Capital, a global investment firm investing in communities, people, and businesses that are overlooked by traditional finance in the United States and in over 100 other countries. Essentially, they're putting their money where banks won't.Jenn learned the power of community at the start of her career working in the Peace Corps in Africa teaching math in Gabon. She then worked as an equity research analyst for Neuberger Berman before making her way to the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley's London office and then went on to help raise financial support for The Public Theater in New York City. Facing several challenges in this endeavor, she stumbled upon a Community Development Financial Institution where she began to understand the importance of community investing. During a stint at the Nonprofit Finance Fund in Washington D.C., she learned about the value of driving financial support to community businesses after which she landed at Calvert Impact Capital where she later became the CEO. During Jenn's tenure at Calvert, she has expanded the sectors they work in and developed new products and services to ensure that impact investing is accessible from institutional to small retail investors. Since Calvert Impact Capital's founding, the company has worked with nearly 20,000 individuals, institutions, and advisors to raise nearly $3.5 billion. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business, a board member of UNICEF USA Impact Fund for Children, the Advisory Board Chair of Quantified Ventures, and as a member of the Advisory Board of Ecofin and Operating Principles for Impact Management.Show notes: https://sri360.com/podcast/jenn-pryce/SELECTED LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE: Connect with Jenn Pryce: Twitter | LinkedIN Calvert Impact CapitalCalvert Community Impact Investment NoteCommunity Development Financial InstitutionsIncapital/InspereXJonathan Rose FundsNeuberger BermanNon-Profit Finance Fund (NFF)Seychelles Blue BondSunFunderThe Public TheaterPEOPLE :Harold Newman, Financial AdvisorJohn G. Guffey, Jr., Director Emeritus and Founder of CalvertJoseph Papp, NYC Theatrical Producer & DirectorWayne Silby, Director Emeritus and Founder of Calvert

#33 Interview with Chris Danusiar — Senior Client Partner at Globant and Adjunct Lecturer at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Cryptocurrencyteens

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2022 30:56

In this episode, Chris Danusiar joins the Cryptocurrencyteens Podcast to discuss his role as a Senior Client Partner at Globant, how he got into teaching, his experience working at a startup, and his reflections on his career journey. Listen to not only hear his insightful words of wisdom to teenagers but also his thoughts on Cryptocurrency and explanation of why it interests him. Chris partners with Globant clients to build innovative, strategy-driven, industry-leading, emerging technology exploiting products, build high-performing teams, and advises start-ups. He has worked as a CTO, CIO, Senior Product Officer, Digital leader, and start-up CEO - driving innovation - at emerging technology-powered startups, and prestigious global enterprises. Chris has initiated, built, led, and delivered three year technology transformation programs with a $350M+ budget and led a visionary startup as Interim-CEO & technology lead - built two innovative MVPs, brokered an M&A Purchase Term Sheet and a Board upgrade. Chris has also earned a Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the University of Oxford - Saïd Business School. Learn more: Chris Danusiar (guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdanusiar Abigail Li (host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/cryptocurrencyteens About Cryptocurrencyteens: https://www.cryptocurrencyteens.com/

Digital Players & Future Markets – Game Theory in Machine Learning & Common Ownership topics | with Martin Schmalz

Game Changer - the game theory podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2022 25:04

Digital Players & Future Markets – Game Theory in Machine Learning & Common Ownership topics | with Martin Schmalz In this episode, Martin Schmalz explains what machine learning has to do with economics and game theory and its relationship to common ownership. He gives some practical examples for game theoretic situations in which machine learning is already used, and shows where potential benefits and risk for consumers might lie. In addition, we discuss the topic of common ownership – another one of Martins' fields of research, i.e. situations in which individuals or groups simultaneously hold shares of competing companies in a market sector. According to Martin, this phenomenon occurs much more often than you might think. He explains its effect on competition and we discuss its potential for collusive market behaviour. Martin Schmalz is professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School and co-author of the book 'The Business of Big Data'. His research interests, among others, are in the areas of financial economics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

university business future digital finance economics players markets ownership machine learning big data martins business school game theory schmalz oxford sa

O que você deveria saber sobre trabalhar em startups? mas ninguém conta.

O lado i

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2022 55:32

Minha convidada tem mais de 20 anos de experiência em liderança de estratégias de Marketing/Growth/Marca/Mídia/Comunicação em empresas multinacionais e startups. Trabalhou 14 anos na Nextel, 4,5 anos no Spotify e nos últimos 4 anos atuou em 3 startups, Guiabolso (fintech), Lingokids (edtech) e Loft (proptech) ajudando a escalar o negócio e construir a marca. Formada em Comunicação Social pela Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, pós-graduada em Gestão de Negócios e MBA em Gestão de Sustentabilidade, ambas pela FGV-EAESP e participação em programas executivos da Singularity University, Oxford Saïd Business School e INSEAD. Nesse episódio batemos um papo solto e aberto sobre nossos aprendizados e experiências trabalhando em startups. Venha descobrir o que ninguém conta.

Marla Woodward: From the USA to Oxford Saïd Business School to UK Tech start-up

The Modern MBA

Play Episode Play 30 sec Highlight Listen Later Feb 22, 2022 33:58

Today on The Modern MBA podcast we're speaking with Marla Woodward , currently The Head of Product Marketing at Attest, a UK tech start-up. She shares with us her international journey from the USA to the UK; details of her career path; and about her experience doing an MBA at Oxford Saïd Business School. About UsMany students come to an MBA from banking, consulting, or MNC backgrounds, but what about those that don't? The Modern MBA podcast with Marie Kirwan and Kristen Rossi shares the stories of those transitioning from or using their MBAs in unorthodox MBA sectors including the arts, healthcare, not-for-profit, academia, and more.Website: http://www.themodernmba.co.ukSubscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google PodcastsFollow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TwitterSupport the show

united states spotify head uk mba woodward business school product marketing mnc attest uk tech oxford sa

Trade Friction Points – Measuring Contractual Ecosystems

The FS Club Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2022 48:43

Find out more on our website: https://bit.ly/36mPdfe The emergence of a networked world has created a core framework for a relational economy, but this shift is frustrated by the lack of institutions, procedures and rules necessary for its management. Emerging technologies provide an opportunity for new thinking and to turn the theory of relational economics into practice. The intersection of a relational approach to contracting and digitisation creates a perfect environment for relational economies to be measured as ecosystems of contracts. Join Sally Guyer, CEO of World Commerce & Contracting and Adrian Furner, Fellow of World Commerce and Contracting as they present the findings of a major EU Commission Study and specifically how a dataset of AirBnB contracts and innovative friction point analysis was used to demonstrate the way contractual networks impact consumer behaviour and consumer benefit; how contracts can be interpreted as boundary objects which are capable of connecting relational and transactional information in a single and unified modelling framework. Speaker: Sally Guyer: A boarding school education gave Sally the confidence to follow an unconventional path that has led her to being CEO of one of the world's fastest growing non-profits. Her mission is to inspire and support the World Commerce & Contracting team and our global community to collectively drive positive change in the world of commerce of contracting. In 2014, Sally was invited to join World Commerce & Contracting as a part-time contractor, leading its activities in Europe... a year later she became COO, charged with bringing structure and discipline to the fast-growing and entrepreneurial association. By 2018 she was leading and supporting the global team and members to pursue excellence in commercial and contract management as Global CEO. In 2019, Sally was invited to become Chair of the Board for the Open Contracting Partnership and in May of 2021 was appointed Professor in Practice in Strategy and Innovation at the University of Durham Business School. Adrian Furner has 30+ years' experience in the design, implementation, and delivery of commercial transactions using a wide portfolio of models from the simple traditional models though to new and novel business models. He has worked in a variety of sectors including defence and security, aviation, technology, infrastructure, banking and financial services, and natural resources. As an experienced practitioner Adrian is focused on 'Commercial Excellence', supporting organizations in developing and leveraging their 'commercial acumen' to gain better business outcomes. This includes: raising their commercial awareness; designing and implementing innovation models; and deploying relational contracting to enhance business performance. Adrian is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), and an Honorary Fellow of World Commerce & Contracting (formerly IACCM), where he is a former member elected Board Director. He has a BEng in Production Engineering and Management from the University of Nottingham, and has also completed the London Business School Corporate Finance Programme along with executive education programmes at both Wharton Business School and Oxford Saïd Business School. Adrian has contributed to a number of books on commercial and contract management and co-authored the Professional Services Leadership Handbook (www.koganpage.com/pslh).

How to Get Accepted to Oxford Saïd Business School

Admissions Straight Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2022 41:42

Find out what the Oxford Saïd MBA program has to offer [Show Summary] Hannah Griffiths, Oxford Saïd Business School's MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager, shares how the school aims to equip leaders to effect change in various sectors all over the world. Additionally, Hannah highlights what it takes to get accepted. Interview with Hannah Griffiths, Oxford Saïd Business School's MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager [Show Notes] Welcome to the 457th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Before we get to our wonderful guest, I'd like to invite you to join me for our next live MBA webinar. I will present “How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance and Reduce Your Stress Before the 2022 Application Season,” and I'm going to present it tomorrow, February 16th. During the webinar, I'm going to give you a plan that can prepare you for a successful MBA application this fall. The presentation is free, but you do need to reserve your seat, and you can do so at accepted.com/457webinar. It gives me great pleasure to have on Admissions Straight Talk for the first time Hannah Griffiths, MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager for Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Hannah earned her Master's in English from the University College Cork and shortly thereafter started working at Oxford in different roles and in different parts of the university. She's been there for most of her professional career. Since November 2019, she has been the MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager for Oxford Saïd. Can you give us an overview of the Oxford Saïd MBA program for those listeners who aren't that familiar with it, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:55] Yes, absolutely. The Saïd Business School is a business school that is embedded within Oxford University. Our MBA program is a one-year MBA program, and given that the business school is embedded within a world-class university, that does impact the MBA experience in a number of different ways. One of those ways is that the students can expect in the one-year program a lot of academic rigor. Our program is an intensive one-year MBA. It aims to include everything that a candidate would maybe anticipate finding on a two-year program but packed into a 12-month period. The main aim of the business school and of the MBA program is to prepare our students to be responsible business leaders and individuals who, as they move through their career in the future, are prepared to tackle world-scale problems, challenges, and to really see business as a vehicle to drive change, be that within the organizations that they work in, the sectors that they choose to work in, in their communities and sometimes on a larger scale in the countries that they choose to be based in. In addition to academic rigor, another thing to highlight that students could anticipate finding on the Oxford MBA, is an incredibly diverse cohort. Our student body is largely international. Our current class is 94% international, with 71 different nationalities represented across the class. Diversity of thought is something that's very important to us at the Oxford MBA as well. We have a very broad range of different sector backgrounds represented in our cohort. That also means that students can expect a diverse range of career outcomes and also a global alumni network that will be very far-reaching in depth and breadth as well. And obviously access to the greater Oxford community network, correct? [4:00] Yes, absolutely, which largely comes from their college membership while they're with us in Oxford. But in terms of that alumni network, absolutely. They gain the benefit of having a network that they will have via the business school and then obviously another network that comes via the university as well. One of the concerns with a one-year program is that maybe there won't be an opportunity for an internship. It's harder to make career changes.

university english master diversity mba oxford acceptance oxford university business school university college cork get accepted oxford sa oxford mba

Gerisha Nadaraju: Oxford Saïd Business School to Fintech start-up

The Modern MBA

Play Episode Play 30 sec Highlight Listen Later Nov 23, 2021 32:54

Today on The Modern MBA podcast we're speaking with Gerisha Nadaraju a chartered accountant who made a switch from financial services to Fintech after her MBA at Oxford Said. She talks with us her journey from accounting with PwC to a Fintech start-up; how she found a technology visa that has allowed her to live and work in the UK post-MBA; and she she has her own podcast too! Product Ops PodcastAbout UsMany students come to an MBA from banking, consulting, or MNC backgrounds, but what about those that don't? The Modern MBA podcast with Marie Kirwan and Kristen Rossi shares the stories of those transitioning from or using their MBAs in unorthodox MBA sectors including the arts, healthcare, not-for-profit, academia, and more.Website: http://www.themodernmba.co.ukSubscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google PodcastsFollow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TwitterSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Themodernmba)

spotify uk finance mba fintech pwc business school chartered accountants mnc oxford sa oxford said business school

5, Building a better economic system: the Better Business Act

Leadership In Extraordinary Times

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2021 57:28

In episode 5, Innocent Drinks CEO Douglas Lamont and Amy Clarke, Chief Impact Officer at Tribe Impact Capital, discuss how business can be part of fundamental economic, social and environmental change by signing up to the UK's Better Business Act. The BBA coalition currently consists of more than 600 businesses and calls for a change in the law that would require companies to advance the interests of wider society and the environment alongside those of shareholders. This would revolutionise the nature of conversations in the boardroom, allowing for a more holistic approach to the challenges faced by company directors. Chairing the discussion are Oxford Saïd's Dr Mary Johnstone-Louis, Senior Research Fellow and teaching lead on the Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations programme, and Charmian Love, Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Mary and Char are both deeply involved in the B Corp movement – Mary as Chair and Char as Co-Founder and Activist in Residence at B Lab UK. Featuring: Mary Johnstone-Louis, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford's Saïd Business School; Head Tutor for the Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations programme. Charmian Love (@charmianlove), Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University's Saïd Business School; Co-Founder and Activist in Residence at B Lab UK; Co-Director of the Oxford Climate Emergency Programme. Douglas Lamont (@douglaslamont), CEO Innocent Drinks; Trustee The Innocent Foundation. Amy Clarke (@PlanetBubble), Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer, Tribe Impact Capital, a dedicated impact investment wealth manager.

4 Driven: How to Fuel Success Through Adversity

Leadership In Extraordinary Times

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2021 63:30

In episode 4, Toto Wolff and Tengku Muhammad Taufik of Formula One's Mercedes-AMG Petronas discuss their record-breaking partnership. They reveal how they have led the teams behind seven consecutive double F1 World Championship titles in turbulent times – marked not least by the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing scrutiny around diversity and sustainability. Joining them to discuss how their approaches to leadership have delivered success are Oxford Saïd's Professor Marya Besharov and, chairing the discussion, Professor Michael Smets. Featuring: Toto Wolff (@totobossf1), Team Principal & CEO, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. Tengku Muhammad Taufik, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Petronas. Michael Smets (@michael_smets), Professor of Management, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Marya Besharov (@MaryaBesharov), Professor of Organisations and Impact, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

2 How can businesses use artificial intelligence responsibly?

Leadership In Extraordinary Times

Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2021 56:22

In episode 2, Andrew Stephen, Natalia Efremova, Felipe Thomaz and Yasmeen Ahmad discuss the principles for ethical uses of AI in business, based on a new report from Oxford Saïd and the International Chamber of Commerce. Featuring: Andrew Stephen (@AndrewTStephen), Associate Dean of Research, L’Oréal Professor of Marketing, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Dr Natalia Efremova (@burantiar), Teradata Research Fellow in Marketing and AI, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Dr Felipe Thomaz (@felipecthomaz), Associate Professor of Marketing, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Dr Yasmeen Ahmad (@yasmeen_ahmad), Vice President Strategy, Teradata. Peter Tufano, Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stablhttps://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/

S1-27 I Change the Paradigm, Change the System: A Conversation with Denise Hearn

Breaking the Fever

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2021 57:57

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Denise Hearn about the most significant opportunities and concerns with capitalism, the need for ESG and corporate governance to evolve, and the ideas behind her new project, Embodied Economics.We discuss:- How monopoly, competition dynamics, and instrumentalist thinking affect ESG investing- Ways ESG investing has been shaped by the pandemic- The problem with the idealized, abstract, self-interested logic of economics- What good corporate regulation looks like in a contentious political climateDenise Hearn is co-author of The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition—named one of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2018 and endorsed by two Nobel Prize winners. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and a thought partner to SheEO. She is also Board Chair of The Predistribution Initiative—a multi-stakeholder project to improve investment structures and practices to address systemic risks like inequality and climate change. Denise helped launch the First Principles Forum, a platform to support and challenge technology company founders who want to use their wealth for good—now housed at Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She has an MBA from the Oxford Saïd Business School, where she co-chaired the Social Impact Oxford Business Network and has a BA in International Studies from Baylor University.

#27 - Change the Paradigm, Change the System: A Conversation with Denise Hearn

Breaking The Fever

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2021 48:19

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Denise Hearn about the most significant opportunities and concerns with capitalism, the need for ESG and corporate governance to evolve, and the ideas behind her new project, Embodied Economics.We discuss:- How monopoly, competition dynamics, and instrumentalist thinking affect ESG investing- Ways ESG investing has been shaped by the pandemic- The problem with the idealized, abstract, self-interested logic of economics- What good corporate regulation looks like in a contentious political climateDenise Hearn is co-author of The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition—named one of the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2018 and endorsed by two Nobel Prize winners. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and a thought partner to SheEO. She is also Board Chair of The Predistribution Initiative—a multi-stakeholder project to improve investment structures and practices to address systemic risks like inequality and climate change. Denise helped launch the First Principles Forum, a platform to support and challenge technology company founders who want to use their wealth for good—now housed at Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She has an MBA from the Oxford Saïd Business School, where she co-chaired the Social Impact Oxford Business Network and has a BA in International Studies from Baylor University.

#32 - Rewriting The Story That You Tell Yourself with Mark Leruste

Everyday Leadership

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2021 55:41

Have you ever felt like you don’t deserve your job or accomplishments? Felt like a fraud who is going to get found out very soon and everything will be taken away from you? Congratulation you are part of the estimated 70% of the worldwide population who is suffering from impostor syndrome, or what psychologists often call the impostor phenomenon. In today episode my guest and friend Mark Leruste delves into all things imposter syndrome and why it is important to have an open conversation about it. He taps into how society doesn't talk about the feelings of fear and self-doubt that we all experience and why it is crucial to change this. Mark breaks down the myths that the only people who can be successful are those who are extremely confident or extroverted. He taps into his book ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ and breaks down how transformational leaders who have described themselves as shy, insecure and introverted have found a way to change their narrative and rewrite their story. Mark gives us an array of wisdom and knowledge into how to identify feelings of imposter syndrome and most importantly how to combat these feelings and tap into your purpose and potential. About Mark Leruste Mark Leruste is the Founder and Host of The Unconventionalists®. Mark Leruste is on a mission to help entrepreneurs and business leaders have an impact on the world with their message. Mark previously served as Country Manager at the Movember Foundation, where he helped raise €2.8 million for men’s health and inspired 110,000 fundraisers to sign up, winning multiple awards along the way. Since then, his videos have been viewed over 2.5 million times on social media and his podcast has been downloaded over 160,000 in over 100 countries worldwide. He is the author of “It’s Not You, It’s Me” and his popular TEDx talk “What They Don’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship” is the most-watched TEDxCardiff talk to date.Over the years Mark has acquired many well-deserved accolades and has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, GrowthLab, Metro, VirginStartup, Shortlist. Mark has also spoken at notable companies such as Google, Adobe, YouTube, Samsung, The Guardian, L’Oreal, Method & Ecover, VirginStartup, Oxford Saīd Business School, Intuit, INSEAD, State Street and Wellcome Sanger instituteTo find out more about the incredible work Mark Leruste is doing check out his resources below. Resources:· Company Website: www.markleruste.com | www.theunconventionalists.com· Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/markleruste· Twitter: www.twitter.com/markleruste SPREAD THE WORD. LEAVE A RATING, REVIEW, AND FEEDBACKYou can do this on Apple podcast or on Stitcher Your ratings and reviews help us place the podcast in front of new leaders and listeners. I am always keen to get feedback so if you have any thoughts once you’ve listened to this interview just drop me an email at hello@mindsetshift.co.uk I appreciate you and your support!

#32 - Rewriting The Story That You Tell Yourself with Mark Leruste

Everyday Leadership

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2021 55:41

26: Valerie Keller, Co-founder & CEO, IMAGINE

Change Makers: Leadership, Good Business, Ideas and Innovation

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2020 23:18

IMAGINE Co-Founder and CEO, Valerie helps leaders use their power for good. With deep expertise in transformation, she helps global corporations become purpose-led and future-fit, and convenes cross-sector coalitions to accelerate tipping points for humanity’s Global Goals. Valerie is an Associate Fellow of the University of Oxford Saïd Business School where she directs executive education programs. Founder of Veritas and of Beacon Institute, she served as EY Global Markets Executive Director and CEO of US-based social enterprises addressing homelessness, healthcare and housing. She was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and serves on the Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board.

ceo university founders co founders keller world economic forum business school veritas associate fellow young global leaders global goals leadership board oxford sa

What Is Social Entrepreneurship? With Sally Osberg

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2020 50:18

If you’ve been tuning in to series 1 and want to know more about social entrepreneurship, or you’d just like to spend some time in the company of an extremely cool woman with a voracious intellect and a lot of wisdom about how change happens, then this bonus episode is just for you.For two decades Sally Osberg has played an outsized role in growing the field of social entrepreneurship. She was the founding president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, one of the world’s leading organisations in this space. With Roger Martin, Sally was the author of the seminal book Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works. And she’s also an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School. Reimagine aims to explore how change happens by getting into the minds of social entrepreneurs. And this episode is a chance to get under the hood to see how social entrepreneurship works. If you’ve been listening to Reimagine, you’ll hear a lot of familiar themes. But here, we’ll go deeper. What is a social entrepreneur? Why do they matter? And what’s their special role during the era of coronavirus? Featuring:Sally Osberg (@SallyOsberg), author of Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works. Host:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business School.Want to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

covid-19 ceo director education entrepreneurship oxford university business school reimagine social entrepreneurship associate fellow skoll foundation oxford sa credits producer stabl peter email

The Sustainability Revolution With Al Gore

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2020 45:12

“We are in the early stages of a sustainability revolution. It will have the magnitude of the industrial revolution yet the speed of the digital revolution”In this special episode Nobel Peace Prize winner, former US vice president and one of the world’s leading climate activists shares his vision for a sustainable future – Al Gore.Reflecting in the context of Covid-19 from his home in Tennessee, Al talks about the lessons for the climate emergency revealed by the current pandemic and his optimism for our capacity to forge a path out of the climate crisis. A just transition with millions of green jobs and redefining value to include not just profit but people and planet are key. Peter is joined by Dr Aoife Brophy Haney, lecturer in Innovation and Enterprise at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and Saïd Business School. Featuring:Al Gore @algore, former US Vice PresidentDr Aoife Brophy Haney (@abhaney), Departmental Research Lecturer in Innovation and Enterprise at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the School of Geography and Environment and Saïd Business School.Host:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business School.Resources:Al Gore’s websiteThe GOTO 2020 summitGOTO 2020 behind the scenes series “Coronavirus and the climate crisis are worsened by the same system”, Aoife Haney and Peter Drobac, the Independent.Want to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

Gimme Shelter, Ending Homelessness

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2020 47:36

“I’m here to prevent the next generation of Big Issue vendors.”Homelessness is an example of a wicked problem – a complex, messy problem with many causes, contradictory forces, and no easy solution. Wicked problems are rooted in broken systems.It’s estimated that 2% of the world’s population are homeless. But many more – perhaps 1 in 5 people worldwide – may lack adequate and secure housing.In this episode we focus on the situation in the UK, where an unprecedented number of people are without a home or living on the streets. That number has doubled since 2010, and continues to trend upward. What will it take to shift the status quo on homelessness? We start with a report from the frontline of care for homeless people during the pandemic, recorded for us by Sara Emerson of Brighton charity Justlife. The coronavirus lockdown has had the short-term benefit of getting people off the streets and into temporary housing. But that’s an emergency measure, not a solution. Peter digs into the roots of homelessness with Dr Elisabeth Garratt from the Sheffield Methods Institute, who leads a research project exploring people’s experiences of homelessness in Oxford. And he talks to the founder of the Big Issue, Lord John Bird, about possible solutions, and how his own lived experience of homelessness helped him to redefine how we think about the problem. Reimagine is a podcast about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Sara Emerson, Justlife, https://www.justlife.org.ukDr Elisabeth Garratt (@eagarratt), lecturer at the Sheffield Methods InstituteLord John Bird (@johnbirdswords), https://www.bigissue.comHost:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business SchoolResources:In 2019, Saïd Business School announced a three-year partnership with Homeless Oxfordshire, a charity that provides short-term accommodation to the homeless in the county alongside high-quality support and initiatives to help them regain and maintain independence.Want to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

Health For All

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2020 48:17

“Illness is universal. Access to healthcare is not. That shouldn’t be true in the 21stcentury”In this episode we focus on health equity. Every single day people are dying of entirely preventable, treatable diseases simply because they are poor, or because they live too far from medical care. Children die from diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition. A staggering number of women and babies don’t survive childbirth. Paul Farmer, who we heard from in Episode 1, has a name for this – Stupid Deaths. Every time we let someone die of a condition we know how to treat, that’s a stupid death. It’s a reminder that poverty is the most deadly pathogen of all.How big a problem is this? According to the World Health Organisation, half of the world’s population cannot access essential health services. That’s nearly 4 billion people. Millions of the most vulnerable families are forced to choose between healthcare and food. With all the wealth and prosperity and technology we’ve created as a civilisation, it’s nothing short of a moral outrage.Raj Panjabi wants to change that.Raj is the founder and CEO of Last Mile Health, which brings lifesaving primary healthcare to some of the world’s most remote communities. Many healthcare systems are built around hospitals, and most hospitals are in cities. But in Liberia, as in many parts of the world, for rural communities the nearest medical care can be days away, by foot. So what if we could bring the healthcare to the people instead? That was the question Raj and his colleagues asked. And their answer was to take an old idea – community health workers – and reinvent it for the 21st century.Raj is now taking his community-based healthcare model beyond Liberia. He has a big vision for what this can look like across the world. And how it could help in the fight against Covid-19.Reimagine is a new podcast about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Dr Raj Panjabi (@rajpanjabi), founder and CEO of Last Mile Health (@lastmilehealth) Host:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business SchoolResources:https://lastmilehealth.org/ On the urgent need to get PPE for ALL health workers, including community health workers:https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/covid-19-it-aint-over-until-theres-ppe-all-overWant to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

Beyond Greenwashing

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2020 43:11

EPISODE 4: Beyond Greenwashing: The Business of Climate Action with Paul Polman and Cameron HepburnMore and more CEOs are sounding all the right notes on the climate crisis. But is big business really ready to be part of the solution? Peter talks to Paul Polman, who became an iconic CEO by putting sustainability at the centre of Unilever’s business, and Cameron Hepburn, Oxford professor of environmental economics.“We were pretty scared, but the challenges of climate change and growing inequality needed to be addressed with courage, and courage is on the border with fear.”In this episode we focus on the role of big business when it comes to the climate crisis. More and more CEOs are sounding all the right notes on sustainability. But is big business really ready to be part of the solution? Or is it just greenwashing?Host Peter Drobac talks to Cameron Hepburn, Oxford professor of environmental economics, about the vital role business has when it comes to combating climate change.He’s also joined by Paul Polman, one of the first CEOs of a big firm to walk the walk on this issue.For ten years Paul was at the helm of Unilever – one of the oldest and largest consumer goods companies in the world. Whether you’ve heard of Unilever or not you’ve probably got some of their products in your cupboard – from tea to ice-cream to soap, Unilever’s hundreds of brands have massive global reach. During his decade at Unilever, Paul became an iconic CEO by putting sustainability at the centre of the firm’s business. He was also an early champion of the Sustainable Development Goals, working with then UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to build private sector support for the SDGs.Paul has since gone on to co-found Imagine, which aims to bring businesses together to combat climate change and inequality. This episode also features a special update from Cameron Hepburn about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the climate emergency.Reimagine is a new podcast about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Paul Polman (@PaulPolman), co-founder and chair of sustainability consulting firm Imagine. Cameron Hepburn (@camjhep), professor of environmental economics and director of the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Host:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business SchoolResources:https://imagine.one/https://www.cameronhepburn.com/Want to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

Higher Ground: Reimagining Higher Education

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2020 43:15

EPISODE 3: Higher Ground: Reimagining Higher Education“Talent is distributed evenly around the world. What is not is opportunity.”Around the world universities have closed their physical doors and temporarily moved online due to Covid-19. That creates all kinds of challenges. But it’s also a chance for us to re-examine the very idea of a university in the 21st century.Higher education has been broken for a long time. With costs out of control, in many parts of the world a university education is a privilege most could only dream of. While a mismatch between what’s taught and the skills needed for the 21stcentury means many graduating students are burdened with debt and can’t find jobs. Across Africa higher education has for too long been seen as a luxury the continent cannot afford. According to the World Bank, in sub-Saharan Africa just 9% of young people enrol in a tertiary education. That compares with 60% in the UK, and 88% in the US.Yet a vanguard of unconventional startup universities is flourishing there. One of them is perhaps the boldest experiment in higher education on the planet – the African Leadership University or ALU. Peter talks to ALU’s founder, Fred Swaniker, about his vision to transform higher education in Africa by making it cheaper, more accessible and purpose-driven. His goal is to develop 3 million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders for Africa and the world by 2035.Could this be the future of higher education? Peter explores global trends and possible solutions with international education specialist David Johnson. Reimagine is a new podcast series about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Dr David Johnson of the Centre for Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford.Fred Swaniker (@FredSwaniker), founder and CEO of the African Leadership Group.Host:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business SchoolResources:https://www.alueducation.comWant to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

Rebel Economics

Software Process and Measurement Cast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2020 42:07

As the world slips into recession, possibly even depression, Covid-19 has revealed the design flaws in our global economy.For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that there’s no problem the invisible hand of the market can’t fix. And while a relentless pursuit of growth at all costs has delivered prosperity for some, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is at historic levels.Will this once-in-a-century pandemic create a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a real shift in our economic systems? If so, what should that look like?Six years ago, Ian Goldin predicted the next financial crisis would be caused by a pandemic. We talk with Ian about how we got here, and how to get out of it.Then we meet renegade economist, Kate Raworth, whose big idea - people and planet living in harmony “inside the doughnut” - may have found its moment.Reimagine is a new podcast series about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Ian Goldin (@ian_goldin), Professor of Globalization and Development, Oxford UniversityKate Raworth (@KateRaworth), author of Doughnut EconomicsHost:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford Saïd Business SchoolResources:Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21stCentury Economist, by Kate RaworthThe Butterfly Defect: How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, And What To Do About It, by Ian Goldin and Mike MariathasanA Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise In Disaster, by Rebecca SolnitWant to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl

covid-19 director university education professor development entrepreneurship economics oxford rebel oxford university globalization business school reimagine social entrepreneurship kate raworth ian goldin oxford sa credits producer stabl skoll centre peter email

SPaMCAST 564 - Tame Your Work Flow, Part 2, A Conversation with Daniel Doiron and Steve Tendon

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2019 19:45

SPaMCAST 564 is part 2 of my conversation with Steve Tendon and Daniel Dioron. We discussed their new book Tame Your Work Flow. Steve and Danie ask the question “Do you need a high-performance enterprise management & governance approach improving planning, execution, and delivery while dealing with multiple projects, events, stakeholders and teams?”, the book and the interview probes potential answers. In order to answer the question, the three of us take a deep dive into applying Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints in the real world. Listen to part 1 before listing to SPaMCAST 564. Steve Tendon’s Bio With a background in software engineering (in his early career he lead the development of software applications in diverse fields, like banking, health care, legal, human resources, and more), Steve is the creator of the TameFlow ® Approach, a systems thinking approach for creating breakthrough performance innovation in knowledge-intensive digital businesses. The TameFlow Approach has been developed and used with great success since 2003, across numerous industries. Steve holds MSc in Software Project Management with the University of Aberdeen, an MIT Fintech Innovation: Future Commerce certificate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme certificate with the Oxford Saïd Business School. Daniel Dioron’s Bio Daniel has been involved in IT since 1981 in a wide range of roles and responsibilities, primarily in client-facing consulting projects covering the government, banking, insurance, and telecom industries to name a few. Daniel’s involvement with Agile started with Scrum in 2005 and more recently with Kanban and Management 3.0. Daniel is heavily involved with Steve Tendon’s TameFlow method. He is proficient with working expertise in Finance/Accounting/Managerial control (MBA-CPA-CMA), Agility (CSP), Project Management (PMP), Kanban (CKC and CKP) coupled with 38 years in IT (Bachelor studies & career). He loves systems, enjoys measuring improvement while embracing teamwork that actually works! For Tameflow Training, visit http://agileagonist.com/ Re-Read Saturday News A few nights ago severe thunderstorms rolled through northern Ohio. There were lots of power outages and trees that were blown over. The next morning when I went to the grocery store, the store’s systems could not accept debit cards. I immediately made up a story that connected the storms to system failure. As we have seen before, System 1 thinking takes disparate facts and creates a coherent believable story. No conclusion is too big a jump for System 1 thinking. My story and my belief that I had predicted the most probable cause is an illusion of validity which unless I can get System 2 involved stands a good chance at being wrong even though I believe I am correct! Remember, if you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of Thinking, Fast and Slow, please buy a copy. Using the links in this blog entry helps support the blog and its alter-ego, The Software Process and Measurement Cast. Buy a copy on Amazon, It’s time to get reading! The installments: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction – http://bit.ly/2UL4D6h Week 2: The Characters Of The Story – http://bit.ly/2PwItyX Week 3: Attention and Effort – http://bit.ly/2H45x5A Week 4: The Lazy Controller – http://bit.ly/2LE3MQQ Week 5: The Associative Machine – http://bit.ly/2JQgp8I Week 6: Cognitive Ease – http://bit.ly/2VTuqVu Week 7: Norms, Surprises, and Causes – http://bit.ly/2Molok2 Week 8: A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions - http://bit.ly/2XOjOcx Week 9: How Judgement Happens and Answering An Easier Question - http://bit.ly/2XBPaX3 Week 10: Law of Small Numbers - http://bit.ly/2JcjxtI Week 11: Anchors - http://bit.ly/30iMgUu Week 12: The Science of Availability - http://bit.ly/30tW6TN Week 13: Availability, Emotion, and Risk - http://bit.ly/2GmOkTT Week 14: Tom W’s Speciality - http://bit.ly/2YxKSA8 Week 15: Linda: Less Is More - http://bit.ly/2T3EgnV Week 16: Causes Trump Statistics - http://bit.ly/2OTpAta Week 17: Regression To The Mean - http://bit.ly/2ZdwCgu Week 18: Taming Intuitive Predictions — http://bit.ly/2kAHClJ Week 19: The Illusion of Understanding - http://bit.ly/2lK954p Week 20: The Illusion of Validity - http://bit.ly/2mfyrYh Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 565 will feature an essay on sprint goals. Everyone says they use sprint goals. While I am not convinced, those that do use them often mess them up. We will spend a few minutes straightening them out! We will also have a visit from Jon M Quigley who will bring his column, The Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the podcast!

SPaMCAST 563 - Tame Your Work Flow, Part 1, A Conversation with Daniel Doiron and Steve Tendon

Software Process and Measurement Cast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 35:20

SPaMCAST 563 is part one of my conversation with Steve Tendon and Daniel Dioron. We discussed their new book Tame Your Work Flow. Steve and Daniel share deep insights into applying Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints in the real world. After you have listened to the conversation you will never view the flow of work as an esoteric topic. Steve, Daniel, and I had a wide-ranging conversation, I decided to ignore my own guideline on two-part interviews and let the tape run (metaphorically). We will return with part 2 next week. Steve Tendon’s Bio With a background in software engineering (in his early career he lead the development of software applications in diverse fields, like banking, health care, legal, human resources, and more), Steve is the creator of the TameFlow ® Approach, a systems thinking approach for creating breakthrough performance innovation in knowledge-intensive digital businesses. The TameFlow Approach has been developed and used with great success since 2003, across numerous industries. Steve holds MSc in Software Project Management with the University of Aberdeen, an MIT Fintech Innovation: Future Commerce certificate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme certificate with the Oxford Saïd Business School. Daniel Dioron’s Bio Daniel has been involved in IT since 1981 in a wide range of roles and responsibilities, primarily in client-facing consulting projects covering the government, banking, insurance, and telecom industries to name a few. Daniel’s involvement with Agile started with Scrum in 2005 and more recently with Kanban and Management 3.0. Daniel is heavily involved with Steve Tendon’s TameFlow method. He is proficient with working expertise in Finance/Accounting/Managerial control (MBA-CPA-CMA), Agility (CSP), Project Management (PMP), Kanban (CKC and CKP) coupled with 38 years in IT (Bachelor studies & career). He loves systems, enjoys measuring improvement while embracing teamwork that actually works! For Tameflow Training, visit http://agileagonist.com/ Re-Read Saturday News Part 3 of Thinking, Fast and Slow is titled Overconfidence. Chapter 19 begins by exploring several biases that affect overconfidence. Earlier in the book, we explored how System 1 thinking connects events to generate a coherent story. This chapter begins by building on the attributes of fast thinking by stating that humans interpret behavior as a manifestation of general propensities and personal traits. One of the classic biases that cause this type of thinking is the halo effect. I overheard an example of a negative halo effect this week as I walked behind a group of people in Chicago. The group, tourists, pointed at a person sleeping rough along the river and exclaimed that the person was lazy. One attribute of the person’s behavior was generalized into a larger narrative. Remember, if you do not have a favorite, dog-eared copy of Thinking, Fast and Slow, please buy a copy. Using the links in this blog entry helps support the blog and its alter-ego, The Software Process and Measurement Cast. Buy a copy on Amazon, It’s time to get reading! The installments: Week 1: Logistics and Introduction – http://bit.ly/2UL4D6h Week 2: The Characters Of The Story – http://bit.ly/2PwItyX Week 3: Attention and Effort – http://bit.ly/2H45x5A Week 4: The Lazy Controller – http://bit.ly/2LE3MQQ Week 5: The Associative Machine – http://bit.ly/2JQgp8I Week 6: Cognitive Ease – http://bit.ly/2VTuqVu Week 7: Norms, Surprises, and Causes – http://bit.ly/2Molok2 Week 8: A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions - http://bit.ly/2XOjOcx Week 9: How Judgement Happens and Answering An Easier Question - http://bit.ly/2XBPaX3 Week 10: Law of Small Numbers - http://bit.ly/2JcjxtI Week 11: Anchors - http://bit.ly/30iMgUu Week 12: The Science of Availability - http://bit.ly/30tW6TN Week 13: Availability, Emotion, and Risk - http://bit.ly/2GmOkTT Week 14: Tom W’s Speciality - http://bit.ly/2YxKSA8 Week 15: Linda: Less Is More - http://bit.ly/2T3EgnV Week 16: Causes Trump Statistics - http://bit.ly/2OTpAta Week 17: Regression To The Mean - http://bit.ly/2ZdwCgu Week 18: Taming Intuitive Predictions — http://bit.ly/2kAHClJ Week 19: The Illusion of Understanding - http://bit.ly/2lK954p Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 564 will feature part 2 of our interview with Steve Tendon and Daniel Dioron discussing their new book Tame Your Work Flow. Steve and Daniel continue to share deep insights into applying the Theory of Constraints in the real world.

Davos Doom and Gloom

business doom corporations world economic forum davos gloom said business school tufano oxford sa

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2019 23:17

This year's World Economic Forum was punctuated by an overall sense of pessimism and concern for the future. One attendee, Oxford Saïd Business School Dean Peter Tufano, gives his take on the state of business. Tufano also discusses how business schools like his can better prepare students for leadership positions in a changing world.

Davos Doom and Gloom

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2019 23:17

OSEF 2018: Spotting Investment Opportunities in an Uncertain World - A Panel Discussion

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2018 57:12

Spotting Investment Opportunities in an Uncertain World - A Panel Discussion at Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum 2018. With Spencer Crawley (firstminute.capital), Stephan Morais (Indico Capital Partners), Jenny Tooth (UK Business Angels Association) and Joe White (Entrepreenur First)

OSEF 2018: What Lays Ahead for Government Technology? - A Panel Discussion

business technology entrepreneurship panel discussion lays government technology oxford sa osef

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2018 54:04

What Lays Ahead for Government Technology? - A Panel Discussion at Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum 2018 - Daniel Korski (Public), Robyn Scott (Apolitical), Pere Valles (Scytl) and Peteris Zilgalvis (DG Connect European Commission)

OSEF 2018: Feeding 9 Billion - A Panel Discussion

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2018 46:35

A Panel Discussion at Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum 2018 - Robert Opp (Innovation Division World Forum Programme (UN)), Tim Röhrich (European Founders Society), Willem Sodderland (Seamore) and Ilana Taub (Snact)

OSEF 2018: Moving Money: The Story of TransferWise

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2018 46:41

Kristo Käärmann (Executive Founder of TransferWise) gives the afternoon keynote at Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum 2018.

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OSEF 2018: Biz Stone in conversation with Brent Hoberman