Selected Applied Strategy Activities (in reverse chronological order)
Corporate Innovation Program for a major global bank
Assist a global bank with the design, piloting, and establishment of a new company-wide innovation programme.
Financing Climate Adaptation
Assist the largest and leading association for local climate action (ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability) to co-create an innovative mechanism for climate adaptation financing with major international development finance organizations and banks. The aim of the mechanism is to ensure that climate adaptation funds/projects are fully integrated with and leverage other local capital investment projects.
The California Endowment: Building healthy communities
Assist California’s largest foundation to develop the new practices needed to implement its new 10-year “place-based” strategy in fourteen low-income California communities. The plan makes 10-year commitments to these communities “to improve health systems and the physical, social, economic and service structures that support healthy living and healthy behaviors.” www.calendow.org
Food Industry BOP Strategy
Assist a large multinational food company to develop its strategy for expanding product offerings and operations for low-income consumer segments internationally (with Luis Arnal).
WWF-UK: Conceiving the ecological “Citysystem”
Author a paper on the transformations needed, at various scales, to make global urban society truly sustainable, and identify new program opportunities for WWF in the urban sustainability field. http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/changing_the_way_we_live/
Access Distribution India: Testing new models for network-based rural retail
Pilot different rural distribution and village retailing models for a large portfolio of household consumables in one of the world’s most strategically salient retail industry markets, in partnership with a network of 70 village-based retailers (with Avik Roy and Swayam Shikshan Prayog).
Reuters Market Light: Real-time market pricing, local weather, and agricultural expertise for India’s small farmers
Applied strategy support to the chief executive and start-up team of this new Thomson-Reuters enterprise that provides a high-impact, mobile phone-based information service to small farmers. Activities focused on start-up strategy, team competencies, market segmentation, product specification and financial modeling, entry planning, and business process and management tools (with Craig Cohon, Avik Roy). https://customers.reuters.com/community/commodities/focus/focus_june08.aspx?
Nestlé “Bottom of the Pyramid” Strategy Review: Translating local innovations into new business license
Designed and executed a three-day global strategy and best practice review with senior executives, market and product heads (with Craig Cohon). Evaluated by participants as the best and most value-added workshop they ever attended.” http://www.nestle.com/Resource.axd?Id=7DE92E65-8DB7-4DD2-A1B5-28BB7DF21686
BP and Johannesburg: Cleaner, safer fuels for low-income townships
Managed a three-month innovation process with a new bp South Africa ECM (emerging consumer markets) team that resulted in the launch of a new business in month six offering a cleaner, affordable paraffin (kerosene) fuel in a returnable safety bottle distributed through an innovative township warehousing and spaza shop retailing model (with Avik Roy, Craig Cohon, C.K. Prahalad). http://www.bioenergylists.org/bparivi
Centre for Social Innovation, Toronto: Scaling a community of urban change agents
Specification and review of CSI’s established office solution business model and financial model to develop a strategy to scale the model (with Michael Miloff). Resulted in significant expansion and innovations in the model. http://www.socialinnovation.ca
BP Emerging Consumer Market Strategy: Leadership and competitive advantage through innovative market segmentation
Prepared market segmentation methods and analyses (conception, algorithms, data generation, and analysis) to provide bp with a proprietary, granular way to segment the emerging consumer market (ECM), nationally and locally, for its new ECM strategy and business unit.
BP India Rural Distribution Channel: Co-creating business partnership with women’s micro-credit networks
Coached and facilitated a ten-month innovation process with a new bp Indian ECM (emerging consumer markets) team that resulted in the launch of a new business offering a smokeless, high-efficiency biomass cooking solution to hundreds of thousands of households relying on unhealthy, low-efficiency biomass combustion (with C.K. Prahalad, Craig Cohon). Specifically facilitated the co-creation of a large distribution and retailing network for the stove and fuel (with Avik Roy, C.K. Prahalad, the bp team and NGO partners). http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=10610
East London, UK: A new “Water City” urbanism
Advisory and entrepreneurial support to Leaside Regeneration, a successful East London urban regeneration organization. Contribute to development project design, branding, and finance recruitment (with Craig Cohon, James Waite, Claire Sellers). http://www.leasideregeneration.com/detail.php?ItemID=338
Metro Vancouver: Updating strategy for the Livable Region
Advisory support to CEO and Planning Department of Greater Vancouver Regional District, developing local partnership and economic development strategy frameworks for renewed implementation of long-established regional ‘livability’ development objectives, expanding these objectives to embrace ‘sustainability’ concepts and challenges in the context of a new ‘Sustainable Region Initiative’. Included authoring of a local economic development report on sustainability-oriented industries in the region. http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/sri/Pages/default.aspx
Asia-Pacific Urban Institute/City and County of Honolulu: An innovation process for Asian urban leaders
Designed and coordinated an experiential leadership development program involving more than 100 Asia-Pacific governors, mayors, and city executives (with Karl Hausker). Developed and tested the pedagogical approach, curriculum, program cycle and delivery mechanisms, local business promotion, and governance arrangements for the resulting “Mayors’ Commitments Program.” http://webapps01.un.org/dsd/partnerships/public/partnerships/101.html
Barcelona: City and Expo as conveners of global change
Retained as strategic advisor to the Barcelona City Council in the tripartite production of the 2004 World Forum of Cultures. Objective was to provide program concepts that would make the Forum more impactful and action-oriented than a traditional exposition. Developed a detailed proposal of initiatives and civil society negotiation processes for a “post-modern expo” to be staged through the Forum preparations and events.
Kitakyushu: Sustainability as niche economic strategy
Advised the longstanding mayor of Kitakyushu and the city Environment Department on the development of Kitakyushu’s strategy to make “sustainability” a linchpin of its East Asian and international economic development efforts. http://www.city.kitakyushu.jp/pcp_portal/PortalServlet;jsessionid=44A609C84509F9E5F4E6DFC4D6468EF4?DISPLAY_ID=DIRECT&NEXT_DISPLAY_ID=U000004&CONTENTS_ID=14935
ICLEI “Resilient Communities” Initiative: making disaster risk management part of the sustainability agenda
Designed and established international partnerships for a worldwide ‘Resilient Communities’ program, integrating risk management tools and ‘resilience’ as a design principle into urban infrastructure and services of participating cities. Resulting partnership launched at the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=805
Sustainable Santiago Project: Using sustainability solutions to create coherence in metropolitan planning and growth
Designed, secured resources, and guided a year-long program that introduced applied sustainability solutions (e.g., clean buses, environmental management systems, low-income housing design) to the metro region, thereby also creating a forum for inter-municipal exchange on sustainable urban development (with Sandra Makinson).
Local Agenda 21 (LA21): Localizing the sustainable development agenda
Conceived, gained international endorsement, designed the basic practices and planning methods, and promoted one of the largest community-based planning initiatives in urban planning history, eventually engaging more than 6,500 cities and towns in 115+ countries over more than a decade. Conceived and led promotion of LA21 scaling worldwide through “national campaigns” led by national associations of local government. Designed, secured funding, and co-managed two multi-year action research projects focused on making the LA21 approach valuable for developing country cities: the Local Agenda 21 Model Communities Programme and the Local Agenda 21 Incentive Grants Programme, which together worked in 14 countries (with Pratibha Mehta, Prabha Khosla, and others). http://www.iclei.org
Cities for Climate Protection (CCP): First line of response to the climate challenge
Co-founded the first data- and results-driven international program to mobilize and support cities to inventory and build scenarios on their urban greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions and to establish official ghg mitigation plans, eventually engaging more than 800 cities and counties in 50+ countries (with Phil Jessup, Ralph Torrie, and Nancy Skinner). Conceived, secured US EPA and major foundation resources, and guided a two-year action research project with 12 municipalities to develop the CCP “ghg reduction planning” methodology. http://www.iclei.org
The UN Recognizes the Urban Revolution: Representing the City in international policymaking
Served as the lead technical representative for international associations of cities and local governments over the course of a decade of international diplomacy and policy development on sustainability issues, managing relations with UN departments, commissions, and summit secretariats; preparing policy and white papers; and advocating policy in international negotiation processes. Representational achievements include positions urban and local government issues in UN summit and other multilateral reports including Agenda 21 (1992), the UN General Assembly Special Session on Sustainable Development (1997), the Habitat Agenda (1996), the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (1993-2000), the FCCC Conference of the Parties (1996-2000).
ICLEI: An international environmental agency for local governments
Conceived (1989), founded (1990), and internationally developed ICLEI (1991-2000) as the preeminent international voice and practice innovator on urban sustainability issues in the 1990-2000 period. http://www.iclei.org
