I&E Group advise on Olympic Legacy

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1 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group newsletter Issue 8 May 2012 I&E Group advise on Olympic Legacy Dr Andrew Davies (pictured) work on the management of mega-projects has been applied to London Olympics 2012 construction, which was delivered ahead of time and on budget. This work was carried out with CLM (a consortium involving Laing O Rourke, our long-term strategic partner) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). Building on our earlier work at Heathrow Terminal 5, the London Olympics provides a timely opportunity to further develop our understanding of the role of innovation in successful megaprojects. By focusing primarily at the senior level of management and the major innovations utilised on the project, Dr Davies was able to chart not only the use of innovation but how and why these developments occurred. Reasons for success included the use of key project management processes and explicit targets, as well as applying a cohesive management philosophy across the breadth of the project. This approach has helped to raise standards of practice within the UK construction industry, and we established clear evidence of learning being taken forward at various levels through the adoption of firm-wide policies. A report of the findings, entitled Lessons Learned from the London 2012 Games Construction, has recently been published as part of the ODA s Learning Legacy programme. Dr Davies also presented work from this project alongside the CEO of the Olympics Delivery Authority, and the Directors of Mace and Balfour Beatty at the Association of Project Managers dissemination event entitled Learning Legacy Launch Debate: Lessons Learned on the Construction of the Olympic Park. To find out more about this project and to download a copy of the report, please visit our project page: Inside this issue: 2 Group agrees collaboration with Crossrail 2 GEDI: One year on 3 Research impact feature: Transforming the project-based firm 4 Research impact feature: Designing innovation 4 The UK-IRC host DRUID Academy Winter Conference 5 New staff in the I&E Group

2 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group newsletter Group agrees collaboration with Crossrail The I&E Group has agreed a new one-year research collaboration with Crossrail on developing a strategy and framework for innovation. This will allow for the capture and integration of knowledge management within all organisations involved in this complex infrastructure programme. Building on our earlier work on megaproject management at Heathrow Terminal 5 and the London Olympics 2012 construction, this project will examine and further develop the governance mechanisms and social strategies to be used by Crossrail. This will enable Crossrail to successfully identify and capitalise on the innovation and capabilities residing within their supply chain and partners and combine them to guarantee project success. Crossrail Ltd (CRL) was established in 2001 to promote and develop transport facilities and support London as a leading financial and business centre. It is the biggest engineering project in Europe and will connect 37 stations across London with new rail links and stations. CRL is interested in innovative solutions that will deliver efficiencies during implementation and tackle capacity and congestion problems on existing networks. The intent is that this project, with the I&E Group, will develop a best practice framework for megaproject management in the transport industry. Find out more about this project here: GEDI: One year on On 24 April, Professor Erkko Autio (pictured) launched the 2012 version of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The event, introduced by David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, presented the Index and discussed its use for economic planning and policy-making. Speakers included GEDI developers Professor Autio (Imperial College London), Professor Zoltan Acs (George Mason) and Professor Mark Hart (Aston) who analysed its UK and global application. Since the launch of the Index in March 2011 it has found worldwide recognition and use for policy-making. A published version of the 2012 Index has now been released. To find out more about the 2012 launch event and the background to GEDI, please visit our event page: 2

3 Research impact feature: Transforming the project-based firm The I&E Group is having a major effect on business practice, transforming strategy, organisation and project management skills in the construction industry. Traditionally, project-based firms have promoted successful project managers to senior executive development positions: but the different approaches required for business development has resulted in a skill deficit in management roles. Working primarily with Laing O Rourke (LOR), the UK s largest solutions-provider in this sector, we identified this skills-gap and prompted a directional shift in management and strategy. This resulted in us devising a systems integration model and a tailored Executive Education teaching programme to address the talent development issue. The success of our projects has led to closely integrated and unequalled collaborative efforts with LOR enabling the successful delivery of megaprojects including Terminal 5 and the Olympic park. By re-equipping skills, we changed organisational behaviour and re-orientated project management practices, translating lessons learned into organisational capabilities at LOR. Results from this project have also been applied to projects with Finmeccanica, Arup and the Dutch Highways Agency. Consequently, our research is continuing to have significant implications for megaproject management in the UK and internationally. 3

4 Research impact feature: Designing innovation Our work on integrating design has helped firms develop capabilities linking end-user need to product and service development. Seeing design as a core business process has helped to establish it as a fundamental aspect of project planning, resulting in competitive advantages for engineering firms. Our work has had a multi-faceted approach: first, we developed Design Quality Indicators (DQI), a not-for-profit tool to evaluate the potential quality of a building s design and that is now used extensively in the construction of private and civic spaces including offices and schools. The UK-IRC host DRUID Academy Winter Conference Following the success of the DRUID Society Summer conference held at Imperial in 2010, the UK-IRC were invited to host the DRUID Academy Winter 2012 conference for PhD students in Cambridge the first time the conference has been held outside of Denmark. It attracted more than 80 attendees, including several PhD students from the I&E Group who presented their papers in the parallel sessions, whilst UK-IRC Research Fellows acted as discussants. Second, we addressed the dislocation between MBA and engineering teaching through our ground-breaking Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design course that incorporates practical skills into the generic MBA. Finally we established Design London, a pioneering multidisciplinary research centre for design-led innovation, with the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial and the Royal College of Art. As well as integrated teaching and research, Design London also offered incubation and simulation opportunities for new and existing firms, mixing academic and experiential opportunities to develop genuine business outcomes. 80 percent of ventures passing through the incubator have secured future investment and development, whilst four currently have products in the market these include The Mu (or folding plug) from Made in Mind, Brit Designer of the Year Award 2010, and Plumis, a fire suppression system that won the Dyson Award Ammon Salter (pictured) gave a keynote speech entitled, Going Underground: Bootlegging and Individual Innovation Performance. This highlighted his latest work undertaken with a large multi-national company on the impact of individual s secret projects on innovation productivity and how increased bootlegging can positively affect organisational performance. Hosting this event has helped reinforce our ongoing relationship with the DRUID network and resulted in more collaborative research projects and dissemination opportunities.

5 New staff in the I&E Group Tufool Al-Nuaimi Tufool works with Gerard George as a Research Associate in the Rajiv Gandhi Centre. Tufool joined the Group in 2008 as a PhD student analysing the innovative activities of MNCs in emerging market economies and how they differ from MNCs located in advanced economies. She is now working on innovation in emerging market economies, in particular those that have a substantial impact on their local environments as well as on other countries. Dr Kun Fu Kun joined the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group in March 2012 as a Research Associate after being awarded a PhD degree in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University. Her research focuses on technology innovation and entrepreneurship. She is currently working with Professor Autio on the project Contextual Influences on Entrepreneurship. Dr Julien Jourdan Julien joined the group in January 2012 as a Research Associate in the Business Model Innovation theme. His research draws on strategy, organisation science and economic sociology to explain how institutional complexity affects industries and markets. Julien completed his PhD at HEC Paris studying film investment funds in the film industry. His industry experience includes six years at Warner Bros. Pictures in film production and distribution. Julien is currently working with Markus Perkmann on a study of resource acquisition by Imperial College scientists. Dr Pantelis Koutroumpis Pantelis joined the Group in October 2011 as a Research Fellow in the Digital City Exchange. He is also a Fellow of the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information, Columbia Business School and his main research interests are in telecommunications economics and regulation, industrial and welfare economics. Dmitry Sharapov Dmitry joined the Group in February 2012 as a Research Associate working in the Diffusion of Innovation theme looking at contextual influences on entrepreneurship using multi-level configurational analysis. His PhD at the University of Cambridge considers the effectiveness of firm management practices, and research and development investment in improving organisational performance. New people joining the Group Clockwise from top left: Tufool Al-Nuaimi, Dr Kun Fu, Dr Julien Jourdan, Dmitry Sharapov and Dr Pantelis Koutroumpis. 5

6 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group newsletter Disclaimer While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information in this publication is correct, matters covered by this publication are subject to change. Imperial College Business School accepts no liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, howsoever caused. Our dissemination Since the last newsletter, members of the Group have published articles in a number of leading journals including: Mike Wright and Bart Clarysse s co-authored paper with S. Mosey on Transforming University Structures for the Knowledge Economy Through Multidisciplinary Institutes. This was published in The Cambridge Journal of Economics. Ritsuko Ozaki, Isabel Shaw and Mark Dodgson s paper The co-production of Sustainability: Negotiated practices and the Prius, was published in Science, Technology and Human Values. Paola Criscuolo and Ammon Salter s co-authored paper with N. Nicolaou, The Elixir (or Burden) of Youth? Exploring Differences in Innovation Between Start-ups and Established Firms was published in Research Policy. Professor Gerry George and Adam Bock have published their new book Models of Opportunity: How Entrepreneurs Design Firms to Achieve the Unexpected [Cambridge University Press] which links scholarly research on business models and organisational design to the reality of building entrepreneurial firms. Promotions Dr Ileana Stigliani has been promoted to Research Fellow. She received her PhD in Management from Bocconi University, Milan and her current research focuses on how material artifacts and practices influence cognitive processes including sensemaking and sensegiving, as well as perceptions of organisational and professional identities within organisations. Contact us If you have any articles you would like to appear in the next issue of ingage, or if you have any comments or suggestions, please contact: Jo McHugh: j.mchugh@imperial.ac.uk Imperial College Business School 2012