Zeitgeist - issue 4

zeitgeist

h a lc r ow z e i tg e i s t m aga z i n e ISS UE FO UR

Can we save the planet profitably?

the spirit of the time

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Sustainable business ­– does it exist?

We explore the socially responsible paths to keeping shareholders and the planet happy.

We chart the actions taken by forward-thinking companies that have put sustainability into action.

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Having been involved in the creation of some of the world's biggest brands, Rod Petrie turns his attention to the concept of being the creative director of your own mind.

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october 2007

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David Mattin investigates how innovation-driven, big-prize-money competitions are literally catapulting technological advances into the stratosphere.

Affordable space flights for tourists look set to be just one of the offshoots.

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How an anachronistic 1980s Soviet analogue camera subverted the digital spirit of the Noughties.

Its 'shoot-from-the-hip' attitude has become the mantra for a new generation of switched-on photographers.

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Australia, with just 20 million people, has long dominated the world of sport. Mandy Ross discovers how this southern-hemisphere nation punches well above its weight.

Thought leadership and the battle to stay ahead of competitors in an increasingly connected world provides Harvey Bernstein with food for thought.

Paul Taylor from the Financial Times charts the seemingly unstoppable rise of wireless technology.

He examines the development of its latest incarnation – 4G technology – and the anticipated impact on our working and personal lives.

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Complexity in the world of business can be the stuff of nightmares. Patrick Godfrey gives a snap lesson in unlocking the bottlenecks that can jeopardise projects through the discipline of 'systems thinking'.

This approach has ensured that BAA's highly ambitious Heathrow Terminal 5 will be delivered on time and on budget.

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Innovation and imagination at work zeitgeist is published by Halcrow, Vineyard House 44 Brook Green, London W6 7BY, United Kingdom tel: +44 (0)207 602 7282 fax: +44 (0)207 603 0095 email: zeitgeist@halcrow.com website: halcrow.com Cover illustration: Alex Williamson – Début Art Photography: Apple, Australian Sports Commission, Ben Hamilton-Baillie, Christophe Simon – Getty Images, Jim Mires – Alamy, Kim Taylor – Naturepl.com, Lomographic Society International, MoMA – New York, Peter Cook, Robert Beck – Sports Illustrated, Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic Illustrations: Alex Williamson – Début Art Piotr Lezniak – Thorogood.net Editorial and production: Editor: Chris Warmoll Graphics: Tracy Newman, Emilie Dadswell Design: Frank Sully & Partners Contributors: Paul Taylor, David Sanderson, Mandy Ross, David Mattin, Rod Petrie, Harvey Bernstein, Claire Dowdy, Mark Clay, Patrick Godfrey ©2007 Halcrow Group Ltd. Copyright in the style, structure and content of the magazine belongs to Halcrow and/or its affiliated undertakings. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without permission of the publishers. The magazine is for general information purposes only and Halcrow gives no warranty or assurances about its contents and is not liable for any editorial, typographical or other errors or omissions.

Halcrow disclaims any liability for loss arising from reliance on information herein. This magazine, its supply to you and the disclaimer stated above are governed by the laws of England and any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

If you no longer wish to receive this publication, email: zeitgeist@halcrow.com.

Welcome to the fourth edition of Zeitgeist. In keeping with our theme of innovation, we serve up an intriguing spread of topics to inform and inspire.

Our lead article explores the dilemma of achieving sustainable business practices that result in a healthy balance sheet, delighted shareholders and a robust environmental legacy. As Al Gore, now a champion for the green movement, put it so succinctly, “sustainability is not a niche – the old way of measuring value is irrelevant”.

Jonathan Porritt, founder of the sustainable development charity, Forum for the Future, shares his vision for what governments and commercial enterprises can do to make this approach the currency of every sound business.

We consider the issues involved in thought leadership and discuss how businesses can create niches for themselves through timely and original thinking.

We also take a look at Australia, a country of just 20 million people, which has long dominated the world of sport. We visit the Australian Institute of Sport, the body formed after the country’s poor performance at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, to see how unravelling the lessons of failure can be transformed into consistent, worldbeating performances. The parallels for business are as clear as a cloudless sky over Bondi Beach.

This edition has been edited by me, Chris Warmoll, while Dawn Hayes takes a temporary break. I hope you find plenty to sink your intellectual molars into, in this, our latest issue of engaging and thoughtprovoking insights into innovation from around the world.

Chris Warmoll, editor

Alex williamso n

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Can we save the planet profitably?

Something has happened in the business world that would probably have made Milton Friedman blanch, says David Sanderson of The Times.

Sustainable development, previously dismissed by disciples of the economist as nothing less than a dangerous dereliction of duty to shareholders, has become a watchword of our time.

The phrase is peppered across the corporate landscape, from board meetings to coffee breaks, from annual general meetings to extraordinary general meetings. Chief executives seek strategies, governments call for reports and, perhaps most importantly, shareholders demand action.

But what exactly is sustainable development?

What should companies be doing to ensure they can comply with its tenets and, indeed, why should they? Should they not remain true to Friedman’s philosophy that to remain competitive there should be few binding constraints?

There’s general agreement that the concept of sustainable development was born out of the environmental movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Key works like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring formulated concerns that human activity was having severe negative impacts on the planet, and that patterns of growth and development would be unsustainable if continued unchecked.

Eve Balfour, the founder of UK-based charity, the Soil Association, and Wes Jackson, an American geneticist and biodynamic farmer, are both credited with inventing the term.

International attention was first given to sustainability during a United Nations conference in Stockholm in 1972, when delegates agreed that development and the environment would henceforth have to be managed in a mutually beneficial way.

Twenty years later, in Rio de Janeiro, the first

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international attempt was made to draw up action investigated various sustainability schemes.

In fact, companies appear to be doing more plans and strategies for moving towards a more than governments and individuals. sustainable pattern of development. Governments Jonathan Porritt of the Sustainable duly adopted Agenda 21 as a blueprint for action.

Development Commission, the British So that’s a brief history, but what does government’s independent watchdog, is full of sustainable development mean? The Collins praise for steps taken in the corporate world.

English Dictionary offers the broad definition Porritt, who believes that “every company of ‘economic development capable of being has an obligation to reduce its negative footprint maintained at a steady level without exhausting on the environment, community and people, and natural resources or causing severe ecological build sustainable products and services,” says damage’. The inter-governmental Brundlandt companies are shaming the Commission in 1987 “laissez-faire” attitude of said it was ‘development BUSINESSES ARE AS governments, in particular, which meets the needs the British one. of the present without CONCERNED WITH “It’s really significant compromising the ability IMPROVING ENVIRONMENTAL what is happening of future generations now. In the last 18 to meet their own needs’.

PRODUCTIVITY AS THEY ARE months, companies have Of course, there’s WITH RAISING LABOUR AND undoubtedly stepped up a latitude as to how CAPITAL PRODUCTIVTY gear and have risen more these definitions are to the challenges around interpreted: some see it as climate change than in the past. Most companies a revolutionary call for a fundamental are doing a great deal more than governments are re-organisation of society, while others believe it doing and there is a recognition that they have to to be a means of emphasising economic growth be sustainable over time. It is very heartening.” in the name of social and environmental progress.

According to the commission’s website, Most would agree, however, that in essence it’s “successful businesses today are as concerned with about maintaining a good quality of life for all and improving environmental or resource productivity enabling future generations to do the same. The – ie extracting the most value out of resources, roll call of corporations saying they adhere to its making the best use of renewable resources and principles illustrates its powerful sway. minimising waste produced – as they are with Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, says it’s raising labour and capital productivity.” on a mission to paint the company a sustainable For businesses, sustainable development offers shade of green; Standard Chartered Bank claims tangible returns as well as intangible ones. Costs no management meetings are held where it’s not can obviously be driven down by minimising discussed; UK retailer Marks & Spencer seems waste and recycling resources but, less obviously, bent on formulating a new initiative each week. new markets can potentially be accessed by using Even airlines, oil companies and arms companies – by-products of the core business to create new which, rightly or wrongly, many see as the greatest products. This is sustainable innovation. threat to current and future generations – have

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By cutting energy use and carbon emissions, not only is the planet healthier, but so is the bottom line. Additionally, a substantial reduction in resource and energy could be rewarded by one of the hundreds of environmental and sustainable development award schemes open to businesses.

Recognition through an award for good record on environmental and social issues is

increasingly becoming a factor when bidding for new contracts and attracting shareholders – translating to a substantial, if initially intangible, return.

There are also stronger legislative and tax measures being brought to bear on businesses, in some areas, to ensure they provide products and services with fewer negative environmental and social impacts.

Porritt, who is also the founder of the Forum for the Future sustainable development charity, says companies that had introduced initiatives to cut their carbon footprint and reduce resource wastage had rarely suffered, despite the additional costs incurred in managing and reporting on sustainability efforts.

“Most of the things companies are doing do not compromise profitability: sustainable development is complementary to this,” he says. “Where additional costs are incurred, the rationale for any company is to maintain that they are building long-term shareholder value rather than short-term gains. They can be building new products and services for the future in a way that shareholders will gain from.”

In an illustration of the benefits, Porritt believes that companies using unsustainable

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for business needed new strategies, adding: “We’re supply chains are risking supply-chain failure, fundamentally changing the way we operate and which would then disrupt production, with not just cherry-picking individual initiatives. We financial consequences. will trial a different approach to manufacturing in In addition, the use of wood from rapidly our first eco-factories, just as we’re already trialling shrinking rainforests exposes companies to the new ways of building and operating our stores risk of consumer boycotts and, ultimately, reduced to reduce their energy emissions and their waste.” shareholder value.

Another company praised for its approach Marks & Spencer, which has turned its fortunes is Interface, one of the world’s largest floor covering round in recent years under the leadership of chief manufacturers. Ray C Anderson, chairman of the executive Stuart Rose, is recognised as having one Atlanta-headquartered company, says his firm’s of the most enlightened approaches to sustainable mission is to become the “first development. sustainable corporation in the Measures it has taken BEING SUSTAINABLE world and, following that, the include banning PVC from first restorative company”. children’s clothing and MEANS CREATING He adds: “It means creating food packaging, setting its KINDER, GENTLER the technologies of the future fishermen’s nets at a different TECHNOLOGIES – kinder, gentler technologies height in the sea to reduce that emulate nature’s systems.” the by-catch to less than THAT EMULATE Interface claims to have 5 per cent, and starting the NATURE’S SYSTEMS saved £166 million since 1995 process of re-labelling up to by eliminating waste from 75 per cent of its clothing its processes: it reduced the waste sent to landfill range to include the words ‘Think climate – Wash from 9,072 tonnes in 1996 to 2,722 tonnes in 2006; at 30 degrees C’. it reduced energy use in its manufacturing facilities Additionally, it says it’s reducing its carbon by 45 per cent in ten years; it cut water intake per emissions by 24,000 tonnes a year by using square metre of carpet by 80 per cent in modular renewable electricity to power its stores. It has carpets and 62 per cent in broadloom facilities; plans for eco-stores, and has even started and it slashed the number of air emissions stacks to buy electric trucks for its food deliveries. by 42 per cent and effluent pipes by 68 per cent.

According to London’s City analysts, Rose, Furthermore, it uses spare carpet to create energy. whose tenure could be rewarded with the But, according to Anderson, companies can company delivering £1 billion pre-tax profits for only do so much. He believes the largest and most the first time in a decade, has put a sustainable difficult problem is existing laws and regulations. development strategy at the heart of the business.

It is vital, he says, that governments around Known as Plan A – “because it’s now the only way the world shift taxation away from economic to do business. There is no Plan B” – it describes and social benefits such as labour, income and what the company plans to do in five key areas: investment, towards detriments such as pollution, climate change, waste, raw materials, fair partners waste and loss of primary resources. and healthy eating.

Porritt agrees: “Unless companies can be In May 2007, Rose said the challenges ahead

rewarded for building long-term value, there will be a disincentive.

Companies have shown real leadership in this area but the British government has a very laissez-faire attitude,” he says.

This apparent lack of leadership foresight could become of great import if the foot comes off the sustainability pedal. What happens if trading conditions toughen and companies feel they can’t contemplate an initial investment in sustainability schemes?

“That’s the absolute crunch question,” Porritt says. “Companies have been able to make good progress in these areas because trading conditions have been pretty benign for some time. This has made it much easier for them to devote management resources to specific new investments which may not immediately bear fruit.

In the event of a downturn in the economy, a lot of these companies would look at their priorities a little bit differently. Most activists would say that you just can’t leave this up to companies to do voluntarily.”

What is certain is that the landscape has changed. Businesses take the threat of climate change and resource depletion seriously.

Alex williams on

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They realise that every company has a part to play in ensuring the sustainability of humanity and its abode. Furthermore, sustainable development may actually enhance long-term profitability.

As Al Gore, a former US vice president and host of the film, An Inconvenient Truth, once said: “Sustainability is not a niche. The old way of measuring value is irrelevant.”

Design and the Elastic Mind

IM AGiN ARY FORC ES – G reg Lynn, A lex mcdow ell

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24 February to 12 May, 2008 The Museum of Modern Art, New York City New York’s iconic Museum of Modern Art is preparing for a major exhibition – Design and the Elastic Mind – which will chart the creative twinning of scientific technological advances with cuttingedge design.

Design and the Elastic Mind focuses on the ability of designers to grasp momentous shifts in technology, science and social mores. Such seismic changes both demand and reflect major adjustments in human behaviour, while transforming these advances into quantifiable objects and systems that people can readily understand and use.

Highlights will include the successful translation of disruptive innovation, that is, innovation which revolutionises existing markets or products. Modern organisations of all types need to encourage this sort of thinking in order to create step changes in their markets and so gain competitive edge. Examples in the exhibition are based on ongoing research and reflections on the future responsibilities of design.

The exhibition will include objects, projects and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists and engineers from all over the world, and range from the nanoscale to the cosmological. The objects themselves range from nanodevices to vehicles, from appliances to interfaces and from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices.

The exhibition is organised by curator Paola Antonelli, and Patricia Juncosa Vecchierini, curatorial assistant, architecture and design, Museum of Modern Art

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Soap box

Every business has a creative soul. It’s your job to 0nd i, nurture i and help i to grow.

Rod Petrie was one of the founding partners, and a former creative director, of UK agency Design Bridge. He has over 30 years’ experience in the world of brand communication, and has been involved in the creation and evolution of some of the world’s bigges and most famous brands. As a coach and mentor, he describes his purpose as the promotion of fresh thinking to empower people to achieve success. Here, he discusses the concept of ‘being the creative director of your own mind’ and the creative approach at the root of this.

For many business leaders it’s lonely at the top.

Support, motivation, trust and direction are not always easy to find. Of course, the best leaders are optimists who use the power of positive thinking to face challenges, get the best out of their own people and keep one eye on the ‘big picture’ so they spot those elusive business opportunities before anyone else. Great leaders are also not afraid to ask for help. They are people who motivate and create a shared vision among their team.

But for those who aspire to be all these things, but haven’t quite got there yet, where should they look for support, and what form should it take? Should it be at a personal level, coaching or mentoring, or some sort of corporate advice; management consultancy perhaps?

Organisations are run by people, and people come first Management consultancy has a valuable role in business – and will often interview individuals as part of a management consultancy exercise – but I’d like to focus on personal development. People run businesses, and their staff are the people who make those businesses successful.

So if personal development falls under the various titles of coaching and mentoring (and there are others too), let’s start by establishing just what the differences are and where the boundaries lie.

Coaching is work-focused. It means changing behaviour and is great for maximising untapped potential. It doesn’t have to be specific to your industry. When you’re looking at why people aren’t fulfilling their potential, it doesn’t really matter what job they do or who they work for, it’s how those things make them feel that’s important.

Mentoring usually involves a relationship between experience and inexperience. It traditionally involves a younger, less-experienced individual learning from the successes and failures of someone older (though not always) and wiser (perhaps!).

Coaches and mentors are not counsellors or therapists although they need to have a keen interest in people and what makes them tick, and the obstacles and barriers that get in the way of an individual’s development – the things that

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turn excitement at a new opportunity into a fear of failure.

We are complex creatures and should never underestimate the power of past experience and our own perception of things to influence our behaviour, whether in a home or work context.

Simply put, our beliefs influence our thoughts, which in turn affect our behaviour and performance.

Approaching personal development with a creative mindset Here I’d like to introduce the concept of creativity and explain why a creative mindset, coupled with some or all of the tools mentioned earlier, can make a real difference to leaders and the organisations they run.

A creative organisation like a design company nurtures an environment of openness, idea generation and empowerment. In a brainstorm, there is no such thing as a stupid idea: designers are encouraged to be as bold and imaginative as they like, and often the removal of familiar boundaries and comfort zones leads to truly innovative ideas.

They say that the other side of fear is courage, and courage is the basis of creativity.

Creative companies rely heavily on their staff – without happy, productive minds they effectively have no product. So there’s a great deal that other organisations can learn from developing and nurturing this kind of environment.

Leaders establish environments for creativity to shine through. ‘Create the conditions and then they will come,’ as Kevin Costner so aptly said in the film Field of Dreams.

Being the creative director of your own mind Put all this together and you reach a goal that I call ‘being the creative director of your own mind’.

It means using a combination of coaching and mentoring, plus some of the principles used in creative businesses to ‘get it real in your head, and then in the real world’.

It’s what I do every day with different types

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Golf is the ultimate ‘inner game’ and it has made Tiger Woods one of the greatest exponents of creatively directing his own mind

of leaders and their staff in all sectors of business.

I listen. Then I question. I keep questioning until I have challenged, pulled people out of their comfort zones and unearthed the real barriers to progress – and these are often the reasons why specific goals have eluded them for many years. It is this questioning that uncovers real insights and makes connections between past behaviours and future

actions. I like to use analogies and metaphors from sport especially, where I believe many individuals are succeeding in becoming creative directors of their own minds. The secret is in using parallels to ‘turn the light on’ and wake people up to the areas on which they need to focus. They need to be inspired by fresh thinking. Only then can we collaboratively put together a plan of action that people really buy

Rob ert Be c k – Spo r t S Il lustr at e d

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into. And without that personal commitment and a real belief that out of this will come change, there’ll be no new patterns of behaviour, no different result and little point in all the preceding exploration. It’s about creating focus, directing potential and then promoting action.

When people have become creative directors of their own minds, how does it manifest itself? How do we recognise the change?

They’ll have clear goals.

They’ll feel valued. They’ll want to win and they’ll know what it takes to do that. They’ll have optimism and a positive mental attitude. New opportunities will be embraced with courage, enthusiasm and excitement.

They’ll see things differently.

And this change will keep on improving, because success fuels success and change makes us more accepting of other changes. Once they become creative cirectors of their own minds, they’ll have ‘got it real in their heads, and then in the real world’.

Atheletes are often creative directors of their own minds I use sports analogies all the time because, in sport, both the individual and the teams are often much better than the rest of us at becoming creative directors of their own minds. In the sports arena, there’s no shame in having coaches and trainers, and it’s about individual ‘best performance’ as well as teamwork. In sports like cycling, it’s even about the team making one individual look good, with everyone else accepting this as their role.

How many businesses could cultivate that

kind of relationship between staff and still keep everyone happy?

Golf is the ultimate ‘inner game’ and it has made Tiger Woods one of the greatest exponents of creatively directing his own mind. He allows himself a ten-yard radius after each shot to enjoy the moment or get rid of his frustration. As he steps over the ten-yard radius, he abruptly leaves the moment behind to focus on the next shot. Athletes like Lynford Christie reached the top of their sport by sheer determination. In his own words: “Train like a contender not like a champion”.

Are you a leader of producers or creators?

So if you are a business leader, and you recognise yourself or your organisation in these words, what should you do?

Find your business’s creative soul – the creative truth behind you and your organisation, its unique way of thinking and doing. Stick your head above the parapet. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Look after your staff’s creative soul – make sure they are happy, productive and taking on new business challenges with a fresh approach. Think outside the box. Better still, bin the box and think open air, blue skies, radical waves. Recognize that not everyone is born to create. Some don’t have the same creative passion, but most people want to produce something, so as a leader help them to produce something that’s even better.

Lead by example. Get yourself into a position where you are the creative director of your own mind and then help your staff do the same. You’ll reap tangible benefits – and not just in your business life. And if you apply the same thinking to your staff, the payoff in your business will be confident, motivated and focused people who are in control of their working and personal lives. They’ll be effective leaders and decision makers, which will produce results for your business and a positive effect on the bottom line.

Do you have the fire within you to pursue your vision with passion and purpose? And how well do you motivate this in others?” website: www.rodpetrie.com

Thought L

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Leadership

Albert Einstein once said, “today’s problems cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.” That truism is as relevant today as it was in the EARLY 20th century.

Harvey bernstein, vice president, industry analytics, alliances AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES at m c graw-hill construction, considers the competitive edge to be gained through ORIGINAL thought.

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In today’s knowledge-driven economy, where consumers and corporations interact in a world saturated with instant information, Einstein’s view may have even more immediacy.

The ease of internet access fused with a better-educated populace has created a new breed of consumer, one who bridges yesterday’s conventional decision-making process and today’s need for immediate information.

Corporations that recognise, anticipate and provide for this demand before the wider market catches on are the true ‘thought leaders’. They have to recognise, understand and advance ideas in order to create paths to achieve the next level in industry evolution.

John Schaar, professor emeritus at the University of California in Santa Cruz, described these paths to the future best when he stated: “The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created – created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made, and this activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”

Companies that recognise societal trends early enough can identify where niche knowledge can play to their market advantage Coupled with indications of a widespread social consciousness, consumers are demanding superior products and responsible business practices. As a result, corporations are currently scrambling to stay ahead of the curve. There is an unprecedented need for a new brand of corporate leadership to pave the future path and provide a vision that will facilitate the changes the economy already demands. This is the time for the advent of a new generation of corporate thought leadership.

There is evidence of an ethics shift occurring in the behaviour of both consumers and corporations. In late 2006, BusinessWeek magazine reported the results of a survey about the most sought-after consumer segment – members of the millennial generation (those born between 1982 to 2000). The survey revealed that these consumers have deeply ingrained commitments to socially responsible business practices. Nine out of ten of the 1,800-strong survey sample said they would switch brands (given equal price and quantity) to support a cause, while 74 per cent said they are more likely to pay attention to messages from companies deeply committed to one. Seven out of ten consider a company’s social commitment when deciding where to shop, while 66 per cent take this into consideration when recommending products to friends. This is supported by other shifts in consumer behaviour, such as the rapid growth in organic foods, the increasing popularity of hybrid cars, and the thriving market for green buildings and homes. Other changes are afoot.

Publishing companies have to re-think their traditional sales mechanisms to serve a generation that accesses information online, while manufacturers are under increased public scrutiny in an increasingly connected world.

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Making the business case for thought leadership Corporations are uniquely positioned to fill the thought leader role. In a recent interview with Zeitgeist, Professor Dana Brown of the SaĂŻd Business School at Oxford University said, “the future of society and the planet are largely going to be determined by the actions of corporations.â€?

Corporate social responsibility initiatives are currently most common among large multinational corporations with significant employment and interests in the wellbeing of the countries in which they are based. In an effort to stay relevant and capture this growing market of responsible consumers, these industry players have made substantial commitments to sustainability and other forward-thinking business practices. By acting fast to improve ethical, labour and environmental practices, corporations are acting as change agents, innovating and shaping trends instead of reacting to them.

There is a compelling business case for corporate engagement in thought leadership.

Companies that recognise the direction of industry and societal trends at their early stages can identify where knowledge is needed and fill those gaps with leadership and information. To be effective, this recognition must occur before the issues become widely problematic, or a flood of information becomes available and dilutes true intelligence. In filling this role, corporate thought leaders demonstrate their commitment to being the first and trusted source for relevant industry

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knowledge, and they promote responsible corporate citizenship. The true thought leader will edge out its competitors, gain early market share and establish brand recognition.

The strategic benefits of these initiatives are significant. Investments in improved working conditions and skill development yield higher productivity and a more stable workforce, while increased usage of green building practices lowers operating costs. By keeping up with the shifting ethics of the younger generation, companies can stay relevant and attractive to recent graduates and emerging leaders.

Commitments to sustainability and innovation will determine the company’s internal corporate atmosphere, giving employees the sense of being part of a broader effort and leading to increased passion and higher moral values sometimes absent in a large corporate environment. Demonstrable sustainability practices can also enhance a company’s reputation and boost competitive advantage through market differentiation. This is discussed in McGrawHill Construction’s Smart Market report, Greening of Corporate America.

Thought leadership allows companies to demonstrate their commitment to innovative ideas and set a precedent for their peers. Effective thought leaders will be sensitive to the needs of industry, responsible to shareholders, but also innovative in their thinking. Leaders motivate others to change. Thought leaders have the benefit of sharing the ideas and concepts that can help encourage innovation and change, creating a shift without risk to the bottom line. Also, by being a leader through strategic information and services that build on their core business and strengths, these companies can help mitigate the fear of risk for both peers and investors, removing a key roadblock to the innovative spirit that feeds thought leadership and progress. Through transparent, integrative commitments to innovation and strong business ethics, companies can highlight how it is possible to successfully evolve and change, thereby encouraging the consumer, investor and fellow corporations to embrace progress as well.

By keeping up with the shifting ethics of the younger generation, companies can stay relevant and attractive to recent graduates and emerging leaders

Thought leadership in the design and construction industry Thought leadership is particularly important in the design and construction industry. With a global output of over US$4.6 trillion, construction contributes 10 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product and employs a global workforce of 100 million people.

A number of obstacles face the construction industry, such as the energy and environmental impact of buildings, the recruitment crisis of skilled construction workers, and the need for improved project efficiency. Some firms have begun to turn these problems into solutions through research, innovation, collaboration, education and risk-taking.

A specific example involving energy and environmental conservation is a good case in point.

The built environment has a significant impact on diminishing resources. According to the US

PE TER COOK

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Energy Information Administration, buildings are responsible for 40 per cent of total energy use, including 71 per cent of electricity consumption, as well as 38 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, 36 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, 30 per cent of waste output and 12 per cent of potable water consumption. However, by conducting detailed market research to determine the climate of construction industry consumers and players, McGraw-Hill Construction is able to provide companies with the knowledge they need to make calculated decisions to become more involved in green building procedures. By using this research to position themselves ahead of the curve, these companies have been able to take advantage of societal changes and recognise what might be a fad versus a substantial trend. As a result, they are able to minimize their risk when deciding on a new business strategy.

Another important issue facing the design and construction industry is interoperability. More construction projects are being designed out of various offices, requiring new tools and methods.

Never before has the design industry had such need for a way to manage and communicate electronic product and project data among collaborating firms. In fact, as stated by the National Institute of Standards in 2006, a lack of interoperability has cost the US construction industry nearly US$15.8 billion per year and US$60 billion if extrapolated globally.

Further, new design incorporating more-efficient materials and design strategies requires paperless and virtual modelling tools to map out those models. McGraw-Hill Construction is working with other groups to provide industry information on this critical emerging trend as it starts to transform the industry.

a lack of interoperability has cost the US construction industry nearly $15.8 billion per year and $60 billion if extrapolated globally

Moving toward a tipping point In any field or discipline, a tipping point occurs when an emerging idea or innovation becomes a mainstream trend. Thought leaders bridge the gap of that movement, helping shed light on those ideas that will turn into trends. By identifying these tipping points, thought leaders help inform the market, creating opportunity for both early adopters and the industry as a whole.

McGraw-Hill Construction has used a research methodology based on Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point to provide this intelligence to industry. Our market research group has been able to apply these concepts and determine where certain emerging markets are moving. For example, we projected that green home building would reach its tipping point in 2007, when more home builders will be building green compared to those that are not.

And in a downward housing market, building green homes stimulates more sales by serving as a market differentiator. Similarly, we projected a tipping point in 2009 of corporate green building, when 82 per cent of corporate owners will be greening at least 16 per cent of

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their portfolios. This kind of information helps create a ‘pulse’ of the market that players – such as design firms, product manufacturers and contractors – can use to gauge their offerings’ potential.

The path to thought leadership There are two essential components in becoming a thought leader: the ability to recognise fads versus trends and embracing the role of change agent.

Being able to differentiate between fads and trends is essential in leading the intelligence game. Consumers want to gain insight into what is going to happen tomorrow. Leaders will use their past experiences, access to their markets, market research and content expertise to identify and track those trends. They will use internal information successfully to make smart decisions and investments, never losing sight of where their strengths lie and where they have exceeded their core missions. A thought leader must avoid a tendency to broaden its reach beyond its expertise in order to remain focused on its customers’ value proposition.

Being the change agent, directing and facilitating the conversation while also informing it, is the role of the thought leader. It is as important to create open dialogue as it is to provide the education and intelligence directly. By being the broker of these conversations, the thought leader establishes credibility, relationships and stronger connections to the trends.

It is also critical that thought leaders are not fearful of taking risks and moving into new areas, as long as those areas align strategically with the leaders’ core capabilities and service areas. For example, we at McGraw-Hill Construction might move into providing intelligence on broader emerging themes touching our industry, such as water, climate change, renewable energy and infrastructure, but we would be ill-advised to move into non-related or very ancillary areas that would dilute our ability to provide key knowledge and serve our customers’ most important needs.

Yet, the thought leader will invariably be setting the pace and leading its industry and should not be fearful of going into the unknown. It is only by performing this service that the thought leader will gain long-term respect and ultimately market share. By approaching the obstacles facing our industry and the world with a new attitude, one of knowledge generation and sharing, innovation and risk taking, the corporations of today can lay the foundation for the business practices of tomorrow.

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4G’ing ahead More than any other technology area, mobile telecommunications suffers from abbreviation overload – consider GSM, CDMA, 3G, WCDMA, 4G, VoIP, Wi-Fi and WiMax. But behind these lie some extremely sexy technological applications that have transformed the way we do business.

In fact, research by Forrester, the US-based IT consultancy, suggests that many mobile users consider their handsets their most important portable possession.

Today, the latest third-generation (3G) networks support a wide range of handsets and services, ranging from ordinary voice calls and Short Messaging Service (SMS) messaging to mobile TV services, music downloads and the mobile internet.

Each generation of wireless telecommunications technology has been built on the foundations of earlier cellular networks, adding capacity and bandwidth, which in turn support ever-more advanced features.

Early GSM (originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) networks supported only very modest data rates similar to early dial-up modems in the prebroadband era. In contrast, the latest 3G networks based on High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) technology support similar download speeds to

JIM MIRES - ALAMY

Paul Taylor from the Financial Times discusses the alphabet soup of acronyms and technical mumbo jumbo that populates the world of mobile telecommunications

basic fixed-line Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections. This enables network operators to provide a wider range of more advanced services and use the wireless spectrum (airwaves) far more efficiently.

For mobile operators, the most significant feature of 3G or Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS) technology is that it supports greater numbers of voice and data customers – especially in urban areas – and higher data rates at lower incremental cost than earlier 2G networks.

In October 2001, Japan became the first country to introduce 3G wireless technology on a large commercial scale, followed by South Korea. In Europe, where mobile operators in several countries

– including the UK – spent billions at 3G licence auctions organised by governments, the first 3G services were introduced in March 2003.

Spurred on by the opportunity to boost declining voice revenues with advanced data services, 3G services have now been rolled out in many countries.

According to Ovum, the UK-based telecommunications market research firm, there were 200 million 3G subscribers by June 2007 from an estimated 3,000 million mobile phone subscriptions worldwide – or roughly 6.7 per cent.

But in the early-adopter countries where 3G was first launched – Japan and South Korea – over half of all subscribers use 3G. In Europe, Italy leads the

continent with a third of subscribers migrating to 3G. In other leading countries, including the UK, Austria and Singapore, about 20 per cent of mobile subscribers have moved to 3G services and handsets.

Before they were built, network operators believed video telephony would be the ‘killer application’ for their new 3G networks. As it turned out, music and video services rather than video telephony proved to be the biggest sources of revenue for 3G mobile operators.

Mirroring this trend, handset manufacturers have developed 3G handsets with increasingly sophisticated multi-media capabilities, including built-in digital music players, video features and multi-megapixel digital cameras.

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c o u r t esy o f A p p le

Increasingly, 3G handsets support Wi-Fi wireless networking (wireless fidelity), which is based on an international standard called 802.11. But unlike cellular telephony and wide-area cellular telephone networks like 3G, which evolved to incorporate high-speed internet access, Wi-Fi has its origins in the computer industry, where it was designed to replace – or supplement – wired networks used to hook up personal computers and other devices.

Wi-Fi is a short-range, high-bandwidth technology primarily developed for transmitting data rather than voice calls and, unlike cellular technologies, it uses unlicensed spectrum, meaning anyone can deploy a Wi-Fi network. It is the main technology behind wireless home networking and the Wi-Fi ‘hotspots’ found in airports, hotels and elsewhere.

Wi-Fi’s popularity as a way to connect to the internet and the web has been fuelled by the inclusion of Wi-Fi chips in almost every laptop computer produced in recent years.

Initially, however, most wireless operators,

particularly those who had invested heavily in 3G licences and technology, viewed Wi-Fi as a competitive threat. But there were exceptions.

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA subsidiary has built an extensive Wi-Fi hotspot network in the US in conjunction with partners, including the Starbucks coffee chain.

In Europe, BT in the UK and fixed-network operators in many other countries have embraced Wi-Fi as a way to capture a portion of the mobile internet access market without the expense of building a 3G cellular network. Such hotspots provide laptop users and others like Apple iPhone owners and personal digital organiser users with a fast, easy-to-use and secure means to access the internet at speeds far faster than even the most advanced 3G network. But they have drawbacks. In particular, Wi-Fi hotspots have a relatively limited range – typically not more than 33m.

But some operators have found a way around the range limitations of Wi-Fi technology – hooking hotspots up together into what has become known as a Wi-Fi ‘mesh’ network. In both Europe and North America, many cities and municipalities have built, or have announced plans to build, Wi-Fi mesh networks, often in partnership with privatesector operators. Typically, these mesh networks are being designed to provide low or cut-price internet access for citizens, while also providing broadband communications services for municipal agencies and emergency services.

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As with Wi-Fi hotspots, most mobile carriers initially viewed Wi-Fi mesh networks as a competitive threat. More recently, however, some, including AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications group, have begun to embrace the technology, viewing it as complementary rather than as a competitor.

In fact, some operators now see Wi-Fi technology built into the next generation of mobile phones to provide improved indoor coverage and offloading bandwidth-heavy services that might otherwise clog up 3G networks.

are developing 4G networks based on a version of WiMax called WiBro. Meanwhile, in Germany, Deutsche Breitband Dienste (DBD) has launched WiMax services in Magdeburg and Dessau. In the US and several European cities, including Brussels and Dublin, Clearwire has rolled out WiMax services.

However, Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US carrier, has announced the most ambitious 4G plan to date. The company plans to build a nationwide WiMax network that will reach a potential 100 million customers by the end of 2008.

Many consider their mobile handsets their most important portable possession This ‘convergence’ of wireless technologies is most apparent when it comes to 4G or fourthgeneration networks. These networks will be built using a family of Internet Protocol (IP) packetbased technologies guaranteeing that voice, data and streamed multimedia can be delivered to users on an ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis at higher data rates than previous generations.

Among the most promising 4G technologies is WiMax or 802.16 – a standard that has the same roots as Wi-Fi but can support much faster data connections – at least 100Mbps (megabites per second) – over relatively large geographic areas.

This means, in theory at least, a customer carrying a WiMax-enabled laptop or phone will have a mobile internet connection at least as fast as current fixed broadband links. This will enable users to watch live high-definition TV, hold mobile video conferences and access a broad range of online services as though they were sitting in front of a broadband-connected home or office computer.

The first of these next-generation networks is already being built. In South Korea, mobile carriers

Extensive trials of the service will begin in earnest across several cities, including Washington DC, by the end of 2007.

Sprint Nextel’s partners in the project include Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung.

“We believe we have a two-year head start over the competition,” says Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel’s chairman and chief executive, who believes that WiMax will unlock the potential of the mobile internet. “We’re talking about taking the desktop – taking the applications that have only been economically available in fixed networks – and making those mobile,” said Forsee when he announced Sprint Nextel’s £2.5 billion investment in WiMax. Mobile carriers elsewhere will be watching Sprint Nextel’s WiMax bet closely. Whether or not it is an immediate success, innovation in the mobile communications business is likely to continue, providing business users and consumers with new services, some of which have probably not even been thought of yet.

Kim Taylor – NaturePL.COM

Waiter – there’s a

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s a spy in my soup SCIENTISTS HAVE DEVELOPED A LIFE-SIZE ROBOTIC FLY THAT LOOKS SET TO TRANSFORM THE SHADOWY WORLD OF ESPIONAGE The ‘robo fly’ weighs little more than a pin head and mimics the movements of a real fly, with a 3cm wingspan that beats 110 times a second.

Developed by Harvard University professor, Robert Wood, the fly has the potential to pass unobtrusively into buildings and record top secret information for the intelligence services.

“We’ve been using insights from biology as shortcuts to engineering,” said Wood. “We have looked at what 300 million years of evolution has come up with and copied it.”

To achieve his goal of creating a small device capable of sustained autonomous flight, Wood concentrated on re-creating the hovering motion of insects – the trickiest form of behaviour to mimic.

“Hovering is the most attractive feature as surveillance, for example, requires the machines to hover and stare,” he said.

Using laser micro-machining, his team cut thin sheets of carbon fibre and polymer into twodimensional parts. Moving in response to electrical signals, they change shape on exposure to voltage.

Wood finally got the fly to take off after seven years of work. “It would have been embarrassing if my students had seen me at that moment,” said Wood, “because I was literally jumping up and down and waving my arms around.”

Ron Fearing, Wood’s former PhD advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is also building his own robotic insects, dubbed the maiden ‘flight’ “a major breakthrough”.

But among the many future challenges is overcoming the fact that Wood’s fly is tethered and can only move in a straight, upward trajectory.

“We will have the fly hovering in five years and totally controllable in another five,” said Wood.

Bio batteries – colonies of bacteria that generate energy – as well as vibrational wind harnessing, are being explored as possible on-board power systems.

Aside from intelligence uses, other options include installing chemical sensors to detect hazardous substances to prevent humans having to enter danger zones.

Such innovation is all the more impressive given that it wasn’t until 1997 that researchers finally discovered how insects fly.

We’ve been using insights from biology as shortcuts to engineering A team led by Cambridge University zoologist Charles Ellington used high-speed video in a wind tunnel and filmed smoke trails over the wings of a tethered hawk moth, to reveal the insect’s complex wing motion.

By beating down and forward, then rotating back and upward it was able to generate small whirlwinds that moved along the forward edge of each wing.

Having experimented with a mechanical model of the moth, Ellington’s team found that these vortices were created on the down stroke, producing a low-pressure area above the wing that provides up to 50 per cent more lift than is needed to fly.

It was this tipping point that inspired today’s innovation-driven research.

Verging on the g

Virgin Gal actic

It’s June 2004 in the Mojave desert, California. A project-hardened team of aerospace engineers has gathered apprehensively.

At 9.30am, all present cast their eyes upward to watch a white carbon-composite spaceplane, SpaceShipOne, re-enter the earth’s atmosphere and glide to a halt. During a 90-minute, sub-orbital flight, SpaceShipOne pilot, Mike Melvill, flew 100km above the earth’s surface to the edge of space.

That voyage meant the observers on the ground had just become the engineers behind the first private manned space flight in history.

e galactic

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Weeks after that flight, legendary space engineer Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites were declared the winners of the Ansari X Prize, a £5 million purse offered to the first private team to complete two sub-orbital manned space flights within two weeks in the same spacecraft.

The prize was the creation of space exploration entrepreneur, Peter Diamandis, whose mantra is “innovation through competition”. The competition is being cited as a model that could transform human endeavour across medicine, energy production and third-world poverty. So just what role, exactly, did the Ansari X Prize play in opening a new age in space exploration? And is competition really a good way to accelerate technical innovation?

In 1995, Diamandis announced the X Prize with one aim: to make spaceflight accessible, affordable and safe for everyday people. Forty years since its inception, space exploration, he claimed, was stuck in a rut: every NASA shuttle launch cost £500 million, and only mega-rich private citizens could ever hope to visit space (in 2001, investment manager Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist when he paid £10 million to hitch a ride on the Russian Soyuz rocket). The X Prize was the door to a new era: “I realised that it’s not governments that create radical change,”

Virgin Gal actic

© 2 004 Mojave Aerospace Ventures LLC, photograph by Scaled Co mposites. SpaceShipOne is a Paul G. A llen Project

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Diamandis says, “it’s small groups of passionate believers. The purpose of the X Prize was to create unconstrained thinking.”

Superficially, the prize seemed an instant success: 26 teams across seven countries signed up.

But did it really accelerate progress, or was it just an exercise in media hype?

John Loizou, an engineer at British aerospace services provider Vega, recently chaired a Royal Aeronautical Society conference on space tourism.

“Yes, the prize had an impact,” he says. “But it wasn’t the money; Scaled Composites spent £12.5 million on SpaceShipOne. “What the prize did was push people that bit

expensive problems only an agency such as NASA can deal with – had been solved already.

The X Prize was effective because enough was already known about the fundamentals; if huge questions are still unanswered, competition might be counterproductive.”

Burt Rutan’s winning solution, the innovative SpaceShipOne, rocketed to an altitude of 14km on the back of a jet-powered carrier aircraft. It employed

within 20 years, a sub-orbital flight will potentially be the price of a good family holiday harder; it extended their limits. Every team knew that there were other engineers out there, working on the same problem. Fundamentally, it’s about human nature: we respond to competition.”

Even so, at the heart of a competition such as the Ansari X Prize there is a crucial trade-off. Gains in energy and focus must be measured against an end to the sharing of resources and information that comes with a co-operative approach. Loizou points to key factors that made private space flight amenable to a competition.

“First, you’re dealing with enthusiasts who are driven primarily by passion for what they are doing,” he says. “Second, there was a commercial application here. It is clearly not right that a state agency should spend money developing a product to allow rich people to visit space; it’s a job best left to private-sector teams. Last, the timing of the competition was crucial. With private space flight, much of the rocket science – the kind of hugely

unique ‘feathering’ technology to change shape on re-entry to increase air resistance.

Now, Diamandis has established the X Prize Foundation in an attempt to roll out the competition model far more broadly; two future X prizes will focus on quick sequencing of human genomes and a viable low-emission car. Meanwhile, Cambridge scientist Aubrey de Grey, an expert on human ageing, has instituted the M Prize, a £2.25 million award for scientists who extend the lifespan of a mouse to unprecedented lengths. We are entering a new age of innovation competitions.

There can be no doubt that a new age in space travel is now upon us. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has teamed-up with Scaled Composites, and will offer £100,000 passenger seats on sub-

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Virgin Gal actic

orbital flights in Rutan’s SpaceShipTwo from 2009.

Departure will be from the Norman Foster-designed Spaceport in New Mexico.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said: “Our passengers will train for three days before a flight. They will experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth beneath them. There’s no doubt the Ansari X Prize pushed Burt to develop a spacecraft that is extremely cost-effective, and safe.

Now Virgin is working on a £25 million prize for the

first scientist who finds a way to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

John Loizou estimates that, within 20 years, a sub-orbital flight will potentially be available at the price of a good family holiday, and orbital trips will be available, too.

And when those future space travellers look back to the earth hundreds of kilometres below, it seems likely that they’ll see a world transformed – radically improved – by innovation competitions.

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kisch in sync life through a lens

INNOVATION CAN BE A STRANGE BEAST. THE RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON ONCE SAID: “THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A DECISIVE MOMENT.” FOR THE LOMO, AN OBSCURE 1980S MASS-PRODUCED SOVIET CAMERA, THAT MOMENT HAS COME. THIS YEAR THERE WILL BE A LOMO CONGRESS IN LONDON, MARKING ITS METAMORPHOSIS FROM A STANDARD-ISSUE CAMERA THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNIST WORLD, TO ITS RE-DISCOVERY AS A STYLE ICON.

t h e l o m o g r a p h i c s o c i e t y I N TER N ATIO N AL – W W W. LOMOGRAPHY. COM

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The analogue Lomo camera has spawned a cultish photography movement with over a million evangelical aficionados in this highly sophisticated digital age. Part of its charm lies in the fact that you can use it even if you are technologically illiterate.

The Lomo LC-A is the camera that unwittingly kick-started the whole movement.

The roots of the phenomenon began in St Petersburg in 1982. A Red Army general, Igor Petrowitsch Kornitsky, was quick to spot the potential of a Japanese camera – the Kassina – and asked the head of Leningradskoye Optiko Mechanichesckoye Obyedinenie (Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Enterprise) to copy and improve the design. Not long after, Leonid Brezhnev distributed 6,000 LC-A 35mm cameras to delegates at a Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The roots of the phenomenon began in St Petersburg in 1982 For many years, it enjoyed popularity in the USSR, due in large part to a lack of any real choice, as a leisure camera, until it began to suffer from competition in the form of cheaper, more-reliable Asian imports. The camera was uneconomic to make, and in 1991 the future looked dire for the LC-A. But in 1991, a group of holidaying Austrian art students in Prague saved the Lomo’s proverbial bacon. Intrigued by the camera, they bought a few and began merrily snapping away. As soon as their shots were developed, the creative potential of the camera was immediately apparent.

Its blurry, distorted colours and capacity for the happy accident inspired the first Lomographers and kick-started a global cult. By the late 1990s, the Lomo factory threatened to halt production. But a petition by the Austrians and an intervention from Vladimir Putin, then mayor of St Petersburg, gave the camera a stay of execution.

The popularity of the camera grew, thanks to the Austrians’ clever guerrilla marketing and their founding of the Lomographic Society. Its aim was to sell the cameras and promote the phenomenon. In 1994, simultaneous exhibitions in Moscow and New York were held, introducing a distinctive Lomographic hallmark, the ‘Lomowall’. Lomowalls are a myriad pixelated collage of photos pasted into a huge grid, creating an arresting tapestry of colour. On closer inspection, they become an unfolding kaleidoscope of moments captured or lost.

The key Lomo philosophy is ‘Don’t think. Shoot!’ It is the Lomo’s freer and unpredictable lower resolution that captivates so many. But its mantra follows in the wake of a 100-year-old tradition of ‘shooting from the hip’.

“My passion has never been for photography ‘in itself’,” said Henri CartierBresson, “but for the possibility – through forgetting yourself – of recording in a fraction of a second the emotion of a subject and the beauty of the form.” This he

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dubbed ‘the decisive moment’ and his work around this helped secure his position as one of the world’s greatest pre-war photographers. He believed that if you thought too much about composition and what you were planning to shoot, that irreplaceable decisive moment would be lost for all eternity.

Lomography is united by two things: the love of the cranky camera and the Lomography website. Here users can upload, edit, share and comment on each other’s efforts. It also acts as a shop front for the Lomographic Society, nowadays an extremely savvy commercial enterprise selling all manner of analogue cameras and increasingly scarce film.

The plethora of available cameras has multiplied. The Lomo is now manufactured in China, although the lenses are still the genuine Russian article. It sits on the site alongside other ‘fun’ cameras: a rip-cord-powered model that produces four vertical slices of time and a ‘frogeye’ camera producing a 170-degree image. Other Russian ‘deadstock’ cameras feature, notably the Holga, a medium-format model that uses two-inch film and is famous for its light leaks and the need to tape it up between rolls.

The opportunity for online interaction between users has spawned ‘Lomogroups’ and ‘Lomomeets’, where members gather to hear a keyword for the day and then disperse to capture and embody it in a picture.

Taking the unpredictable a stage further are ‘doubles’ and ‘triples’. The roll of film is shot, carefully rolled back into its drum and then sent on to another member for re-exposing over

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the original images. Bizarre juxtapositions of two or even three experiences emerge from the negatives. Unsurprisingly, the chances for ruined film increase exponentially with this approach. Users regularly swap comments on each others’ sites or discuss techniques such as cross-processing, a Lomo hallmark technique where slide film is put through the ‘wrong’ chemistry resulting in high-contrast and ultra-saturated prints that incorporate odd colour shifts.

Encouraged by the ‘break-the-rules’ rule, users will often boast of their forays into the ‘what ifs’ of photography. What if I used out-of-date film? What if I bake my film in the oven?

By harnessing the power of the internet for promoting an analogue camera, the Lomo Society was at the vanguard of online photo asset management before the emergence of blogspot or flickr. They also anticipated open-contribution stock image services such as iStockphoto by marketing the best Lomo images commercially. In exchange for providing an environment for contributors to store and catalogue their images, the society has a fully archived resource at its fingertips.

Lomo prints have a vignette – a blurry penumbra surrounding the image. In infinitely higher-end cameras, huge amounts of time and expense are put to eliminating this unfortunate optical fact, but the Lomo fan will enthusiastically embrace it with the other Lomo baggage.

Recently, big business embraced Lomo’s cool status, when Swedish drinks giant, V&S Absolut Spirits, distillers of its eponymous vodka, commissioned Lomographers to come up with a Europe-wide advertising campaign. The move was a natural progression for a global brand whose creative marketing has become synonymous with innovation. Previous collaborators have included pop artist Andy Warhol and digital art pioneer Laurence Gartel.

As Lomographic photography is all about the person behind the lens, the snappers were given the freedom to choose any subject that inspired them, so long as it summed up their vision of the Absolut brand. All entries to the Absolut Lomo project were available to view in the gallery sections of both parties’ websites. Each image received a public rating from visitors to the site. Based on this, a joint Absolut/Lomography jury selected the winning shots to feature in the campaign. The arresting images were duly booked into the pages of the more discerning magazines across Europe and beyond.

The Lomo phenomenon underscores the ethos that the creative application of new ideas to transform seemingly tired or forgotten technology can reap a multitude of dividends.

This autumn sees the World Lomo Conference hit London together with a huge Lomowall display in London’s Trafalgar Square. And like Nelson’s innovative tactics that defeated the French navy off Cadiz in 1805, which led to the naming of the capital’s most famous square, the Lomo legacy looks guaranteed an equally long exposure.

Big business has embraced Lomo’s cool status

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Powering Australia’s Olympic edge

AUSTRALIAN SP ORTS COMMISS ION

Australia has been punching above its weight in the international sporting arena for years. mandy ross investigates how.

Sydney Olympics 2000 and 58 medals, then Athens 2004, where Australia ranked fourth worldwide after the US, China and Russia.

This from a nation of only 20 million people.

But it was poor performance at the 1976 Montreal Games that was the catalyst for an elite sports system to put Australia on the podium of international sport.

How did the Aussies do it? And, with the sporting world now snapping at its heels, how will Australia keep its sporting edge?

Australia plays hard. Competitiveness is a celebrated national trait in a country with one of the highest sporting participation rates worldwide. The entity credited with translating talent and tenacity into results is the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), formed to lift the nation’s game after Montreal. The AIS is an icon for sporting excellence and is the starting line for elite athletes from 26 sports, a high percentage of Australia’s Olympic medal winners among them. Based in Canberra with eight state and territory institutes, its sports science and sports medicine services lead the world.

Dennis Hatcher, AIS assistant director, offers a glimpse into this unique system.

“The AIS was forward thinking from the

outset and has taken the idea of a national elite sports institution to a new level for the western world. The sports institute model in Europe when we started in 1981 was regimented and academically focused, with scientists dictating a viewpoint. Culturally, that wasn’t right for us.

“We took a more egalitarian approach and brought the scientist into the realm of coach and athlete in equal partnership.

Coaches have to coach, athletes have to perform and scientists bridge the gap to get the performance on the track. Some of our earliest staff members were biomechanics and physiologists, people who in those days belonged in universities. It‘s always been vital to us to get the science behind what we do – to first understand the mechanisms, then start to innovate.

“The spirit of collaboration is key to all innovation and this is fast-tracked when the people who need to innovate are working in the same environment.”

And innovate they do. Examples include the talent identification programme first established in the late 1980s to connect Australian sporting potential to the podium, now a major programme in a lot of countries.

The AIS was first to develop a sportsbased PhD scheme in conjunction with universities. Students work directly with a specific sport, focusing on a particular issue for three years. They get to understand the demands and needs of that sport, and the PhD produces a direct outcome. Fittingly for a country of long hot summers, Hatcher confirms, “Hydration research is high on the agenda. We’ve been working on hydration with swimmers, an area that’s never before been thought of. With pool temperatures of 26 to 27 degrees centigrade, hydration and temperature control are as important here as they are for hockey players.”

Inevitably, the AIS model and programmes have been replicated overseas, including in the UK, sometimes with direct help and staff exchanges from Australia. However, “In the past ten years, intellectual property has become paramount. Countries are now investing big money in a bid to catch up whereas it may’ve taken us 15 years to get to that level,” acknowledges Hatcher.

CHRISTOPHE SIMON – GE T T Y IMAGES

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“The spirit of collaboration is key to all innovation and this is fast-tracked when the people who need to innovate are working in the same environment” For Australia’s elite sports system, the challenge now is doing what they already do... only better. The AIS is applying emerging technologies and a growing band of niche expertise to understand the individual athlete at a whole new level.

In the past, the coach put the entire hockey team through the same training programme.

Now, the specific demands on each athlete are examined and their response to various stimuli quantified. It may involve global

positioning system (GPS) technology (the AIS started building its own GPS devices six years ago), performance analysis software, data mining technologies and the work of recovery experts. The latter – recovery – is a hot area of current AIS research, as quicker recovery

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equals advantage when, in all other respects, athletes may not be doing anything different.

This increasingly sophisticated approach to developing high performance is demanding a broader range of experts, many of whom simply were not around a few years ago.

“Performance-wise we need to get that last .01 per cent,” states Hatcher. Getting there may require a growing team of experts, but perhaps Australia’s real edge lies in a spirit of competition and innovation that can’t be bought or copied.

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shared pace

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How we develop our towns and cities at street level and encourage people to leave their cars at home is a challenge faced by planners across the world. Sharing some of this thinking is Claire Dowdy, who discusses the concept of shared space with Hans Monderman and other leading evangelists on the subject.

“We live in two worlds, one of legislation and rules, and one of socialising and interaction. When we force people to behave in a certain way, the rules take over and we don’t make ethical evaluations in our minds.” So says Dutchman Hans Monderman, a traffic engineer and inventor of an alternative way of configuring our streets. “When we organise the behaviour of people, we have to explain everything because they behave like idiots.”

This may account for the myriad traffic signs on almost every roadway, from the ones alerting us to the presence of cows (often next to a field of said cows), to the ones reminding us (yet again) of the prevailing speed limit.

The traffic engineer’s assumption seems to be that when we get on the roads we leave our brains at home. So perhaps it’s not that

B e n H a m i lt o n - B a i L l i e

The traffic engineer’s assumption seems to be that when we get on the roads, we leave our brains at home counter-intuitive to think the unthinkable by actually getting rid of many visual traffic cues, and relying instead on human instinct and common sense. It certainly works in mainland Europe.

Monderman has devised more than a hundred socalled shared-space schemes for the Dutch region of Friesland, and the results are impressive. Motor

traffic no longer dominates, pedestrians and cyclists are less fearful, and rather than a place of antagonism, the roadway becomes an harmonious part of the surroundings.

Monderman achieves this through a pick-andmix of often minor changes. He might narrow the road to 6m, which encourages drivers to slow down.

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He might do away with kerbs, getting rid of the people-car divide, and swap the tarmac for paving. He could even give the road more bends so that motorists don’t put their foot down on a straight stretch. He’ll certainly

“ The more bikes there are, the safer i is to cycle, because of the criical mass” get rid of as many traffic signs as possible, including traffic lights, forcing everyone to be more alert.

His most high-profile shared-space scheme is in the Friesland town of Drachten.

Here, he spent seven years reconfiguring

Laweiplein, the town’s unloved main intersection, into a ‘squareabout’. Because of the leisurely way the traffic is channelled, this is such a safe place that pedestrians can happily meander between the cars and bikes.

That’s not to say that Monderman’s schemes are totally accident free. In fact, he distinguishes between ‘good’ accidents, a minor prang that reminds all involved that roads contain risks, and ‘bad’ accidents, where serious damage is done. Shared-space schemes bring about a fall in frequency of the latter.

Monderman is not the only one to champion this form of traffic engineering.

Jan Gehl is the Danes’ advocate and the man behind Copenhagen’s transformation into the most cycle-friendly capital in the western world.

He explains the history of traffic like this: 100 years ago the streets were full of people because the greater part of life happened there. In the 1950s, the cars took over.

Then, in the following decade, streets were pedestrianised to help shopkeepers. However, today the main activity is not shopping but culture and recreation – that is, meeting people. “We live longer in smaller families and have increasingly private lives, and so the public space has taken on a new meaning.”

Since the 1970s, “everything has been done in Copenhagen to encourage cycling,” he adds. So bike traffic lights turn green six seconds before car signals.

These measures have seen a 100 per cent increase in cycling in Copenhagen in the last decade. Some 36 per cent of people there cycle to work, and it has the lowest car use in any western industrialised city.

“The more bikes there are, the safer it is to cycle because of the critical mass,”

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he adds. Gehl is now bringing shared-space thinking to Jordan’s capital. Amman’s mayor, Omar Al Ma’ani, is “eager that the city shouldn’t develop into a big traffic jam like other Middle Eastern cities. But many wealthy people are arriving from Iraq in cars. We are introducing the concept of pedestrian priority streets,” he explains.

The biggest shared-space scheme to date is in the UK. The unprepossessing Kent town of Ashford is spending £11.3 million on its 1970s ring road.

As one of the government’s four key growth areas in the south east, the town is destined to double in size, with 31,000 new homes complemented by the creation of 28,000 new jobs by 2031.

The expecation is accidents will fall by up to 47 per cent over three years To avoid the ring road strangling the life out of the city as the town sprawls, it’s being transformed into a series of calmer two-way streets. So unnecessary street furniture and road markings will be ditched and the speed limit reduced. All this will be accompanied by an art scheme, including way-marking

B e n H a m i lt o n - B a i L l i e

water channels, musical stepping stones and south-facing terraces.

The expectation is that accidents will fall by up to 47 per cent over three years, compared with around 35 per cent with more conventional plans.

Urban planning consultant Ben HamiltonBaillie believes the time is right for shared space: “There is a sea change in our thinking about traffic in towns and that could have a profound effect on how we behave and configure streets”.

Pushing the envelope

The complexity of modern business life brings with it the danger of uncertainty and conflict. If we don’t face up to the issues it can bring, they will ultimately control us. So says Patrick Godfrey, Professor of Systems Engineering at the University of Bristol and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, who is at the forefront of managing complexity. He has successfully applied a unique systems thinking approach to risk management consultancy for a range of complex projects, including Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5.

Q. What is complexity?

A. I am really talking about complex relationships

and behaviours. The relationships between people can be very complex, for example, which makes it difficult to predict behaviour.

Q. Where does complexity come from?

A. People are often seen as irrational elements in our

systems, and the source of much complexity. What is irrational to one person can be very reasonable to another, but to view things from another person’s point of view can often simplify, or clarify, our general understanding.

Complex systems are also difficult to define and

to predict, due to the complexity of human behaviour within them and outside of them.

To fully appreciate this complexity, we need to understand that performance is dependent on the relationship between the components of the system and their relationship with the system’s setting.

Q. Does complexity arise from different perceptions?

A. A lot of it, yes. Conversely, looking at a problem

from a number of perspectives can aid understanding.

How we see the problem not only determines what we do about it, but ultimately the outcome as well. It can benefit stakeholders to understand their position in the context of the proposed outcome of

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the project. That greater understanding helps them see how their needs relate to the whole, rather than viewing their needs in isolation. This process can even change their views.

If a process is to be successful, therefore, we should seriously think about engaging with stakeholders at the start, rather than starting from the solution and working back from there, using a process of appeasement and compromise – something which is more common.

Q. How can systems thinking help?

A. The approach has its origins in disciplines as

diverse as engineering, philosophy, mathematics, social science, biology and economics. It’s a new way of thinking – a needs-driven, creative methodology for tackling problems. The systems thinker looks for a hierarchy of interconnecting processes to build into a process model.

This means having the ability to deal with something that consists of numerous interacting parts. Systems thinking provides a framework for using the potential energy in conflict to achieve our intended outcomes.

Considering multiple perspectives when building a design or strategy is necessary, but involves a great deal of complexity. It takes a level of judgment on how to deal with different situations and the ability to learn as the process evolves.

By understanding stakeholder needs, different solutions can emerge. Instead of compromises, where everybody loses a bit, synergies can be found that mean the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Q. What’s a great example of this in action?

A. There are many. Systems thinking was used to

create an environment for success to develop the immensely complex procurement process for the design and construction of Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

A project succeeds if it has delivered its purpose.

The key challenge here, therefore, was aligning hundreds of suppliers and thousands of people, with their diverse backgrounds and interests, to the

purpose, so they could achieve success together.

The overall objective was to develop a sense of purpose and positive stakeholder outcomes. For this project that included customers experiencing a “refreshing interchange”, not just a terminal, and for BAA (formerly British Airports Authority) and British Airways shareholders to make a profit, while Heathrow Airport – and London itself – retain top positions in the global hierarchy.

The project is set to open in March 2008, on time and on budget – an impressive achievement for what was once Europe’s largest construction project.

Q. What are the principles of systems thinking?

A. The UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering sets out six principles for systems thinking in its booklet Creating systems that work: • debate, define, revise and pursue the purpose • think holistic • follow a systematic procedure • be creative • take account of the people • manage the project and the relationships Q. Future trends?

A. Low-cost economies will always be able to deliver

simple components cheaply. Achieving a competitive advantage means responding to the increasing pressure to deliver more-complex, sustainable solutions in a global economy. That means working successfully with complex systems.

It’s also contextual. For example, building a railway in open country is relatively simple, but safely building a 300km-per-hour rail system, like the UK’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which brings together a major transport interchange with connections to existing facilities and rail networks using legacy technology, is a complex challenge.

For more information about complexity and systems thinking, email patrick@systems-thinking.co.uk or visit the Royal Academy of Engineering website at www.raeng.org.uk.

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