City leadership and business opportunities

Background

Management

Governance

Objectives

Targets

Allocation of resoruces

Monitering

Coordination

Policy making

Regulation

Leadership

Social process

Mobilisation of energies

Followership

Definition

City leadership involves people and/or organisations that are in the position (both formally and informally) to activate, mobilise and lead social processes that create followership patterns into relevant city outcomes

City outcomes are impacts/results on society (at the city level) of public actions. Outcomes are usually used as indicators to assess/measure the effectiveness of public actions

The reduction of unemployment

The increase in people with a university degree

The reduction of crime rates

The increase of life expectancy

There are four main types of city leadership:

Managerial leadership

Deals with the public services (e.g. housing, healthcare, education, regeneration, leisure, etc.) delivered within a place

Political leadership

Deals with the democratic processes and decisions affecting a place and its citizens

Civic leadership

Deals with all the processes provided by the community and its actors operating outside the traditional realm of the public and private sector

Business leadership

Deals with the processes of creation of value provided by the private sector

Why is it important?

May generate business and social opportunities to achieve relevant city outcomes

Elements of city leadership

Actors

Structures

Processes

Followers

People who are in a formal or informal position to lead

They might be individuals and/or collectives (people and/or organisations)

Arrangements that enable the pursuit of city leadership

Types of arrangements could be

Electoral (e.g. the existence of a directly elected mayor)

Organisational agreements (e.g. networks, partnerships, etc.)

Social processes through which leaders create followers

People who are those mobilised by actors and/or structures and/or processes of each form of city leadership

Followers may be companies in the case of Invest Edinburgh, fans/tourists/sponsors in the case of Leicester, or European policy-makers/other municipalities in the case of Riace and Milton Keynes

Sustainable cities – creating urban environments of the future

Background

Autonomy

Participation

Transformation

How can business contribute to developing more sustainable cities?

Predictions that 7 out of 10 people will be living in urban areas by 2050

Cities are therefore the future

Each city is different

History

Culture

Skills basis

Need autonomy to allow them to build on their uniqueness, play to their strengths and respond to the challenges ahead

Extreme weather

Growing and ageing populations

Resource crunches

This has become difficult as cities have become stripped away from authorities and the state has become more centralised

Conservitive deputy PM

Autonomous cities are leading economic growth

There are large differences n the control that European
cities have over revenue raising and spending

Not controversial however there is the question on who has the power to pull the lever

Should they be able to make procurement decisions, not hampered by national, EU or global rules?

Should they be able to introduce minimum wages for their
area?

A more complex regulatory environment may reduce efficiency for big businesses but smaller businesses will flourish

Bigger businesses will have to improve relationships with cities and will need to adapt to the environment they operate

Who holds power at the city level?

Heseltine suggests that businesses need to be at the driving seat and setting the rules

If we want to improve the wellbeing of our cities, autonomy cannot just exist for the benefit of a powerful few

Participatory decision-making and participatory
budgeting

Involving affected communities in making the decisions
themselves

Giving a voice to the poorest and most marginalised in society, not just the well-educated and articulate middle classes

Involving local residents can improve (Brazil)

Increased primary healthcare

More schools/nurseries

Provisions of water and waste water systems

For participation to work

We need a good education system that provides students with good maths, English and science, and develop the power of critical thought

Sharing

The vision of the future needs to be the same with the same objectives

We need to find buisness models that will help build communities

We need to bring people together, not segment them

There need to be the correct framework and input from both traditional and new businesses to achieve a goal

There has to be the correct foundations eg good water

The ideas are transformational for the future of cities

Businesses will have very different roles to play

As a city gets bigger it will demand more power

The digitally enabled public will demand their voice is heard