CdS Strategy 2018-2028

2018 —2028 STRATEGY

Laying the foundations

Our first 20 years

In its two decades shooting, the City of Knowledge Foundation has managed to transform and productively use the 120 hectares and more than 200 buildings received from the former Clayton military base to develop a State project: the creation of a space that promotes knowledge generation, innovation, and collaboration between business, scientific, academic, cultural, and humanist communities, benefiting the development of Panama and the region.

Unlike other scientific and technologic parks, since the beginning City of Knowledge bet for integrating many elements of an actual community, with residential areas, schools, commercial services, recreational and sport areas, as well as a varied knowledge dissemination activities schedule, open for the general public. This has enormously favored the collective appropriation by the Panamanian society in this area, which was unavailable and inaccessible until 20 years ago.

As a result of this huge effort, the Foundation has managed to gather in City of Knowledge an open, unique community where scientists,

thinkers, artists, business people, entrepreneurs, government, ONGs, and international entities experts, as well as representatives from the communities, in search for innovative solutions that generate social change.

An important challenge for our organization has been turning the historically military buildings and spaces into a proper environment to develop the City of Knowledge project and its community of clients, users, and visitors. The Foundation has put a constant institutional effort to ensure the necessary provision of services and infrastructure in the campus, and achieving an efficient, sustainable and competitive management of the spaces, buildings, and urban planning.

We have achieved in developing a specialized, experimented human team committed with its mission. We count on the leadership of a competent executive team, as well as the orientation of an active Board of Directors and a Board of Trustees integrated by prominent representatives from multiple country sectors: academic, scientist, business, and governmen-

tal. An important community of allied people and entities collaborate with the foundation in the development of impactful initiatives in multiple sectors.

Through all these years, the Foundation has ensured an efficient and transparent management of its operations and finances, aligned with the City of Knowledge project’s priorities, and ensuring its sustainability on the long term. The organization supports itself with its own income since 2005, without receiving any subsidy from the government for its operations since then.

Its autonomy and stability have allowed the organization to a mature vision about what should be its role and contribution to a country that is in process of transformation. Through this path, there have been many people who have enriched City of Knowledge project’s vision with their ideas, contributing to keep it in line with the needs of a changing environment, growing with the country and the world.

Multiplying the impact

Our challenge for the next decade

Twenty years after its creation, the City of Knowledge Foundation stopped its projects to invite its community of clients, users, and allies, as well as its directors, to participate in an open dialogue process to identify the challenges and opportunities in its mission’s development: to be an innovative community that drives social change through humanism, science, and business.

This effort resulted in the definition of a new strategy for the new decade, which challenges the Foundation to consolidate the achieved progress and, at the same time, to multiply the project’s impact in both, the campus and the country, putting the City of Knowledge mission, clients, and users in its management core.

To multiply the City of Knowledge impact, the Foundation’s processes, activities, and teams are being organized and developed into 5 HUGE STRATEGIC LINES.

You can see herein how we will develop these five strategic lines in objectives that help us each year to prioritize and organize our resources and activities.

strategic lines5

Modelling the innovation

Developing intensive activities in knowledge and scientific, technologic, business, and creative capabilities for social innovation, with national reach and focusing in women and the youth.

Enhancing the incidence

Developing City of Knowledge as an innovation reference for the social change and promoting a higher knowledge and support for its mission.

Providing the proper environment

Efficiently managing and providing the required facilities, spaces, and services to satisfy our clients and users’ needs.

Evolving the business model

Ensuring that the operations and finances management enhances the assets worth, optimizes resources, diversifies the income sources and guarantees sustainability on the long term.

Transforming the organization

Consolidating a culture and model of strategic management, centered in the vision/mission and in the continuous improvement of the user/customer service.

Modelling the innovation

Providing the proper environment

Multiplying the impact

Enhancing the incidence

Evolving the business model

Transformar la organización

Our vision

A prosperous, inclusive, democratic, and sustainable future, for Panama and the world

City of Knowledge wants to be part of the construction of a well-being future, where societies and cultures can prosper together peacefully, caringly, safely and with dialogue.

We foresee an equilibrated planet, where both production and consumption take place responsibly and sustainably. A world where all people’s basic needs are fulfilled, and where individuals and communities have healthy, productive lives full of purpose.

We are inspired by the vision of a future with full democratic liberties, in pluralist and tolerant societies that guarantee social justice and human rights. A future where opportunity equality is guaranteed for all the individuals, without exception.

Our mission

Being an innovative community that drives social change through humanism, science and business

We live in a world where knowledge is the main economic and social development factor, thanks to technological advances that, like never before, allow sharing and benefiting from information and knowledge at global scale.

In this scenario, societies that are better suited to thrive are those that organize themselves to generate knowledge, share it, and implement it at the moment of making decisions in light of current complex economic, social and environmental problems. For this reason, Panama should invest more in developing its ability for research, scientific-technologic development, creativity, and innovation, and placing it at the service of people’s/ communities’ needs. In this search for solutions, collaboration is the key. City of Knowledge is where entrepreneurs, businesspeople, scientists, thinkers, artists, community leaders, as well as government, NGOs and international entities experts collaborate to develop projects to generate social changes.

At City of Knowledge, we think that only through a strategic alliance between the State, private enterprises, and the third sector, Panama shall be able to develop a strongly knowledge-based economy and society.

The group of sciences has a critical role in understanding the problems of the society, and in offering proper solutions. Business has also an important role in this too, so it is required to incorporate more researches, technologic development, and innovation to its productive processes.

Humanistic ethics must guide everything we do. We state that all people have an essence and a common dignity, which we must mutually assert and recognize. In this, City of Knowledge has the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights as its reference, and the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations as the road map.

This convergence of humanism, sciences, and business is what makes the City of Knowledge contribution to the search for solutions special. Being an innovative community, open for all, and an experimentation laboratory for the transformations we want to see in Panama and the world.

Our values and principles

WE ARE SUSTAINABLE

We are committed to leave a legacy that makes people proud.

WE ARE INNOVATIVE

We constantly challenge ourselves to create new solutions.

WE ARE FLEXIBLE

We know how to adapt without compromising our essence.

WE ARE PASSIONATE

We are intensely moved by what we do.

WE ARE FUN

We don’t label anyone, and nobody is left outside.

We measure the impact

We make sure to validate that our efforts are achieving the proposed objective.

We have drone sight

We take into consideration the general picture to widen our reach.

We honor our commitments

We care for our credibility; we vindicate our word.

We serve and inspire

We serve with authenticity and genuine concern to generate impact.

We work together

We produce exceptional results adding and developing our strengths.

We don’t negotiate our integrity

Under no circumstance we shall compromise the ethic legacy we inherited.

Three terms plan

The plan has been proposed in three progressively longer terms. Each term establishes the bases for the next term:

2018 to 2020 Developing competences at CdS

Focused on creating competences in the fields of human resources, relations with allies, clients, and neighbors, synergies and systematic governance.

2020 to 2023 Developing tools

Focused on strengthening synergies, obtaining more resources, disclosing achievements, and planning to make better connections with society in the future.

2024 to 2028 Develop impact

Focused on harvesting and boosting achievements of previous stages’ efforts. It includes constantly measuring the impact in the governance process, strengthening college education and research, and internationally disclosing the achievements.

Modelling the Innovation

Developing intensive activities in knowledge, scientific, technologic, business, and creative capabilities for social innovation, with national reach and focusing on women and the youth.

Attracting, installing, and retaining professionals, organizations, and companies with high potential to contribute to our mission.

• Developing a selective Attraction Strategy focused on achieving productive integrations and scale economies in the intervention sectors.

• Developing an integral Marketing Strategy of our products and services.

• Developing an integral experience and a Loyalty Program for our clients and users.

• Ensuring synergies with the country’s governmental strategy of foreign promotion and of foreign investments attraction.

Organizing and implementing an offering of specialized services for the development and articulation of innovative or strategic sectors

• Dynamizing and linking the City of Knowledge innovative community for the exchange of experiences and opportunities.

• Developing the Forum Program, oriented to the promotion of a social innovation culture and SDGs, as well as the promotion of vocations.

• Developing the specialized capabilities Formation Program for the different sectors.

• Developing new services to support the innovation for organizations and companies: knowledge transference and technology, D+I, and others.

• Favoring the organization of collaborative / competitive ecosystems with territorial reach in the different intervention sectors, including boosting cluster initiatives.

• Developing a portfolio of flag projects in collaboration with allies.

• Contributing to strengthening the country’s integral offer through cultural, scientific, and innovative diplomacy.

Consolidating and escalating the programs that boost entrepreneurship of our innovation Center

• Redefining and developing an entrepreneurial support services offer for each of their maturity phases.

• Escalating and replicating the Canal de Empresarias experience in the intervention sectors.

Enhancing the incidence

Consolidating City of Knowledge as a referent of innovation for social change and promoting a higher knowledge and support for its mission.

What will we do?

Improving and widening the knowledge about CdS and positioning the Foundation as a source of key information

• Strengthening the creation of CdS content.

• Boosting the owned channels and media.

How will we do it?

• Reinforcing our presence in the communication platforms and media.

• Focusing our advertisement investment.

• Disclosing an annual report of City of Knowledge management, results, and impacts.

• Developing a visitor’s attention Program (walk-ins and goal groups).

• Ensuring the Crisis Communication Strategy.

Placing the CdS campus, territorial, and global allies in value for the incidence in public affairs

• Developing an Incidences Strategy with proper approaches for each intervention sector, which optimizes and organizes the Foundation efforts.

Generating a sense of appropriation and support in the public for our mission

• Developing a Volunteer Human Resources Mobilization Strategy (advisors, mentors, and volunteers).

Providing the proper environment

Efficiently managing and providing the facilities, spaces, and services required to satisfy our clients’ and users’ needs.

Efficiently preserving and operating the campus, using sustainable practices that guarantee its ecologic and environmental equilibrium

• Defining and organizing policies, processes, procedures, and regulations in the new campus Sustainable Operations Manual, and ensuring its compliance.

• Ensuring the quality and continuity of the logistic and technologic systems provided in the campus, and achieving the best service from the external providers of utilities and supplies.

• Adopting and complying efficiency standards of construction, transportation, energy and water savings, emissions reduction, integral waste management and green areas maintenance.

• Designing and executing a plan to ensure the needed investments to extend the infrastructures lifespan and to reduce their maintenance.

• Designing and executing a preventive maintenance program on buildings that have been rehabilitated.

• Designing and executing a preventive maintenance plan on buildings that shall not be rehabilitated on the short term.

• Preserving and placing value to the Rodrigo Tarte reservation.

• Developing projects with allies to generate innovative solutions.

• Designing and developing new building and integral building rehabilitation projects that are aligned with the demand, and that allow correct operations during its entire lifespan.

Planning the campus urban development, providing a proper offer of spaces for our clients and users

• Generating an offer of facilities and public use spaces that offer universal information, safety, comfort, functionality, and accessibility, ensuring its compatibility with other mission-derived activities.

• Establishing a governance, financing, and follow up mechanism for the new CdS Sustainable Urban Development Master Plan.

• Developing projects that consolidate us as a referent in sustainable urban planning, historic heritage and smart city model.

• Positioning ourselves as a key agent in favor of the City of Knowledge urban surroundings environmentally sustainable development.

Generating spaces for community gatherings, participation, and well-being, and favoring the campus public enjoyment

• Designing and executing a Community Activities Program (for cultural, well-being, and recreative activities). Disclosing the historical value and meaning through the Interpretative Center (House Museum) and its activities.

• Developing features to appeal to the public in the campus, with historic, artistic, environmental, and recreational elements.

• Promoting the community’s participation in the identification of needs and solutions regarding well-being and public usage.

• Ensuring the existence of an equilibrated commercial services offer, aligned with our community’s need.

What will we do?

How

Evolving the business model

Ensuring that the operations and finances administration enhances the assets value, optimizes the resources, diversifies the income sources and guarantees sustainability on the long run.

Consolidating financial sustainability

• Keeping the Foundation’s financial health.

• Performing an optimal, transparent management of the Foundation’s economic, financial resources and assets.

• Optimizing cost accounting processes in all the business, programs, and projects units.

• Defining and implementing a methodology to measure our investments in innovations, and the assessment of its economic and social return.

Developing cost-effective new income generation formulas

• Developing and prioritizing business plans for new innovation supporting services.

• Diversifying the offer related to the complementary spaces and services renting.

Developing alternative financing models

• Developing flag projects in alliance with local, regional, and global partners and co-investors.

• Establishing public-private alliances for more impactful projects.

• Developing a management strategy for subventions, sponsorships, and donations.

• Defining and implementing guidelines for third party project funds management.

Transforming the organization

Consolidating a culture and a strategic management model, centered in the mission/vision and in the continuous improvement of the customers’/users’ service.

Developing the Foundation’s culture

• Transforming the organizational structure to respond to the strategy.

• Incorporating gender equality, social innovation, the SDGs, values and principles as our culture and management cornerstones.

• Developing the needed competences for the new strategy challenges.

• Providing the needed resources to our collaborators, in order to offer an exceptional customer service.

• Achieving a full integration of the Innovation Center processes into the other Foundation’s processes.

Ensure the talent’s sustainability

• Attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent for the Foundation.

• Implementing a continuous succession plan.

Structuring the Foundation based on processes

• Mapping the value chains of the Foundation products and services.

• Enhancing management through quality and continuous improvement standards.

• Implementing the digital transformation strategy, in order to speed the processes, reducing costs, and improving our clients/users experience.

• Measuring our management and converting data and knowledge in a Foundation asset.

Ensuring the governance strategy and developing capabilities of organizational and business intelligence

• Using the Integral Command Chart for the strategy’s governance and follow-up.

• Designing and implementing a succession plan, and a gender equality plan for the corporate government entities.

• Strengthening our Advisory Committee to align it with the mission, strategy, and intervention sectors.

• Performing a periodical census between the CdS campus operators and/or residents, which measures the innovative activity and our clients’/users’ satisfaction.

• Elaborating the periodical Innovation Social Report, which measures and reports about the CdS management, results, and impacts.