BOSS Magazine #52 - Inspire Us?!

MAGAZINE #52 February/march 2015

Real estate woman of the year | Club trouw | 7 steps towards a more effective carreer | sociaal media & management | crowdfunding in real estate | Start ups | academic views on innovation | columns and more...

February 2015 |

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Colofon BOSS Magazine is an edition of BOSS. Published three times a year.

BOSS Magazine Nr. 52 Inspire us?!

February 2015 Real Estate and Housing Faculty of Architecture TU Delft BOSS Magazine committee Editor in chief Bart Gout Editor Joost Nieuwenburg Editor John Angoh Design and layout Tine Nientker Special thanks to Jordi Kerkum Alijd van Doorn Authors Ronald van Warmerdam Matthijs Haak Arthur Tolsma John Heintz Hans Wamelink Sophie Stravens Hylke de Visser Sander Woertman Fabian Marchand Alijd van Doorn Birgit J端rgenhake Nick van Assendelft Patrick van der Duin Vincent Maaskant Cover Bert Cartoons Press O.C.C. De Hoog

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From the editors We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed. – Charles Caleb Colton It is our responsibility to further the progress our parents and grandparents have made over the past seventy years, while we learn from their mistakes and make living in this world more sustainable through innovation…

That’s about as daft as it gets, isn’t it?

Still, it’s what we hear all around us. We are the ones who have to challenge the future. Now I could start this magazine with pointing fingers and crying out that if ‘they’ want us to, they should teach us. But that is not the point. We should start by looking at ourselves.

Who are ‘we’? I believe we are a generation in doubt. We continuously ask ourselves: ‘What should I do, where should I go, and if I go anywhere how do I prepare myself best for what’s coming?’ One week we want to join in the rat race like the best of them, the next we want a future of relaxation. We want to be settlers and world travellers at the same time. And this paralyzes us.

Even with an agenda filled with courses, business events, extracurricular activities and what not, we still feel we’re not getting anywhere fast.

If you don’t agree, you’re kindly invited to prove us otherwise. I think we would even appreciate it.

It seems that with a multitude of options, for which we are very thankful, our ability to choose a path has been lost. I sometimes contemplate how easy it would have been if I were a baker’s son a hundred years ago, I would surely have become a baker, and been happy with it. Now, it seems we can be anything, and we are expected to become something, not only by our family, friends or society, but most of all by ourselves.

The subtext of these doubts described above is of course that we are looking for direction. If we could just have a clear goal, it would be possible measure our progress, which would presumably calm our minds.

Now, this magazine is not going to be a self-help guide.

But, as editors, we believe that if we let interesting people with different backgrounds explain their ideas, vision and mission in this magazine, your brain -dear reader- might just be provoked to come up with a new idea. An innovation, if you like.

Bart Gout Editor in Chief

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Content 6 14 16 21 25 40 46 57 61 62 64

Event diary Bouwaandeel - together in Real Esate Real Estate Career Day Suit or Jeans?

Overcoming barriers to innovation in the building industry Best housing paper Innovating Dutch developers Innovation: a necessary luxury Column Fabian Business Tour Review Arthur Tolsma: What were you thinking?!

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7 steps towards a more effective career

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18 Startruimte 010 In conversation with Olaf Boswijk, Club TROUW

Bianca Seekles: Inspiration of the inspirer

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Social media & management

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Innovation? Do not be fooled!!

Revenue of construction falls further / 01-12-14 BAM builds ‘House of the Future’ in Berlin / 05-12-14 Minister Blok encourages housing associations / 08-12-14 Housing associations do not become richer / 08-12-14 Construction companies expect more vacancies / 08-1214 After the housing market now also recorvery of housing market in the offiing / 10-12-14 Minister Blok holds on to stricter mortgage standards / 11-12-14 Outstanding BREEAM-office in amsterdam-the edge / 11-12-14 Last minute considerabely more paid of on mortgages / 16-12-14 Starters get it even harder in 2015 / 17-12-14 More houses sold in November / 22 -12-14 BExisting buying houses already more than a half year expensiver than the year before / 22-12-14 Cabinet sweeps away critical enery report/ 22 -12-14 Less rules when building a house yourself / 22-12-14 House prices have risen again / 31-12-14 Demand for recreation homes increases firmly coming years / 07-01-15 - IMF recommends reform of the rental market to the Netherlands / 08 -01-15 Rabo volledig eigenaar van De Rotterdam / 09 -01-15 Minister Plasterk: high incomes housing associations decreases only from 2016 / 12 -01-15 Construction companies in financial heavy weather / 12 -01-15 Energylabel dwelling now mandatory / 15 -01-15 Recovery housing market better than expected / 19 -01-15 - Strong growth order book construction / 19 -01-15 Minister Blok is positive: 65% less building time and 40% less building costs /20 -01-153D printed flat in China / 2101-15 Housing prices euro zone higher / 29-01-15 Image in construction becomes what more promising / 01-01-15- Sharp rise mortgage rent in the offing 28-11-14

February 2015 |

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Event diary What happened?

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September 18th 2014 - Opening of the Nieuwe Haagse Passage in The Hague. The passage offers new shopping space.

October 1st 2014 - Opening of the Markthal in Rotterdam. The Markthal is the first indoor market in the Netherlands

November 17th 2014 - Deloitte moved to their new office in Amsterdam: The Edge.

The Edge obtained the BREAAM-certificate

November 28th 2014 - Delivery of the new buildings for the faculty of Electrical engineering at TU Eindhoven.

Since December 11th 2014 - Movie ‘Het Nieuwe Rijksmuseum’ in the cinema’s. The whole restauration of the Rijksmuseum has been filmed.

November 13th-14th 2014 - Opening weekend of the National Military Museum.

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What is going to happen?

9-13 February 2015 February 9th-13th 2015 - Week of Constructoin 2015 at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. The theme of this year is: ‘from idea to execution’.

February 28st 2015 - Opening new train station in Delft. From then on the train will be underground.

March 2015 - Start of building Student Hotel in Eindhoven by AM Red and BAM Commercial Construction

May 1st - Delvery of the new train station in Breda.

Halfway 2015 - Planned delivery of the HumboldtHafenEins iin Berlin, developed by OVG Real Estate. The building offers 30.000 square meter office space.

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Arthur Tolsma at the TEDxEde in 2014

7 step plan towards a successful career Joost Nieuwenburg Ups, downs, success stories, failures, a learning curve and the development of character: all included in a career and definitely in the one of Arthur Tolsma. All this contributes to the database of knowledge Arthur has collected about building a career.

When Arthur introduces himself in a short story, there is no doubt that he would know a little something about what to look out for when building a career. Not only is his knowledge transferable to different phases during your career, it can also be used as a guide and planning for your future in business. As a former TU Delft student, Arthur will walk us through different points to take care of, and pitfalls to avoid, in order to make a 7 step plan towards a successful career.

Every career has to start somewhere and a starting point might not always be very clear. But becoming a student is a milestone in everyone’s life, so we will back up to this point in Arthur’s life to see where he gained his knowledge on the subject.

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Arthur started his study at the faculty of aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Delft, but after nearly half a year he switched to the faculty of technology, policy and management. While enjoying the student life and trying to combine this with his study, entrepreneurship and innovation got his interest. He was inspired to start his own company and got in touch with YES!Delft. He brought with him a patent from the faculty of aerospace engineering, but soon found out there was to much technology involved to be able to successfully launch his first idea.

Not defeated by a minor hump in the road, Arthur reached for his little inspiration book filled with ideas that might one day become reality. Arthur kept this book with him at all times, to make sure every glimpse of a business idea could be written down.

One of his notes in the book was the root for the company that Arhtur started in 2007, with his partners Richard and Ruben: Greetinq. This personalized voicemail system allows callers to be greeted by a personalized message in case someone is not able to answer his phone. Without hesitation Arthur build himself a team, found an investor and was ready for a bright future.

Already being quite the public speaker back in 2009, Arthur won a pitching match in a TV-show called “Bij ons in de B.V.� presented by Jort Kelder, when he pitched Greetinq.

The company was rising and Arhtur got his 15 minutes of fame. But times can change. In nearly a year time Arthur and his company stumbled from the mountain top down to the valley and perhaps emotionally even further down the drain. In 2010 Greetinq went almost bankrupt, the team fell apart and a full-time devotion to the company became a part-time job. In 2012 Greetinq was sold, as was the initial plan. But the return did not match the investments, so even though the goal of selling the company was reached, the feeling of failure prevailed.

As we will see later on, nothing was actually lost and depending on the perspective only things were gained. Arthur was quickly back on his feet, and has been spending his time in various ways ever since. He is using the knowledge of his entrepreneurship, gives lectures, wrote a book, has an advisory roll for the European commission and is a freelancer in the field of pitching, entrepreneurship and inspiration & innovation.

The proverbial suitcase of knowledge that Arthur carries around is opened for us, and he serves us 7 essential pointers on a shiny silver platter.

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Arthur Tolsma.

The name Arthur, brings to mind the legendary King in ancient Britain. Similarly, Arthur Tolsma can be seen as a king in his own respect. The winner of the pitch contest ‘Bij ons in de B.V.’’, studied policy and management at the Delft University of Technology. Not only is Arthur a trainer and coach but also his experience with entrepreneurship, innovation and pitching makes him an outstanding inspirer.

First point of business is learning.

As cliché as is sounds, it is still true: the real world is the best place to learn. As much as students like to think that learning is primarily done during their studies, the actual learning is done afterwards. During your study you will gain theoretical knowledge, but actual experience is also learning and there is no better teacher than the harsh reality.

Try to pay attention to moments that can be learning moments for yourself, realize what you learn from certain situations and try to figure out what you can do better. Everywhere, anywhere there are opportunities to learn, but you have to be aware of the chances you get to learn and also actively pursue them.

With learning comes making mistakes. But realize: there is no harm done.

Just man up, admit your mistake and see what you can learn from the situation. In order to make the right decisions, you have to make some bad ones first. “Making good decisions comes from wisdom, wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from bad decisions!”

Learning is also about exploring your options. In the early stages of your career, lets say the first 10 years, should be used to learn about your likes and dislikes in job perspective. In order to do this, you must do and try as much as possible. “As much as possible” doesn’t mean you have to know what it is to operate a mining machine in the deep dark jungle of Africa, if your career is going to be in real estate. But it does say that if you think that something can be a learning experience, you should definitely try it. Try new stuff, read new books, commit to something odd, invest time or start a conversation; all things to get to know yourself!

“Dare to ask” Asking questions to gather information, no surprises so far. The secret is to know when and where to ask. In a negative situation, perhaps when rejected at a job interview or when failure to sell something occurs, don’t forget to ask questions before moving on. Why did you not make the sell? Was it the price? Was it the timing? What alterations are necessary to make a successful sell? And in the case of a bad job interview, were it the qualifications, the personality, the demanded salary or the color of the tie that led to rejection?

But there is also a lot to learn in case of success. Why did this occur?

Where it qualities that you are aware of, or is there perhaps something that you didn’t realize but is still beneficial for you?

It is important to get different perspectives on a subject, because, according to professor Hans de Bruijn from Policy Analysis and Management, there is one answer to all questions: “it depends”. So don’t be satisfied with a quick answer; you want to find out all the factors something depends on, so really ask those confronting follow up questions!

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A sufficient grade does not define you Qualities are important and need to be exploited for career benefit. But passing an exam at the university does not say all that much about your qualities. Make sure what good and strong points define you as a person. Are you a good group leader, are you the best listener someone has ever met or are you always able to find the right words to formulate a delicate matter? These may not be qualities to put on your resume, but definitely important to know about yourself in order to fully use them for your personal growth.

Surround yourself with good people A good salary, challenging projects and a nice car might be good, but don’t forget the people you are supposed to work with for 35, 40 or even more hours a week. Also see this in a learning perspective: does your boss take time to invest in you, learn you the tricks and trades of the business and can you talk to him? What kind of people are your colleague’s; have they been doing the same work for 20 years or are they exploring like yourself?

In an ideal situation you will be able to learn from the people surrounding you whilst having fun with them. When you are not familiar with a company or a group of people, there are various ways to get to know them. An inhouse day, talking to people who worked at the company or simply have a drink with an employee. A little beer never hurt anybody.

Find the overlap Take the following into account; things you like to do, things you’re good at and things people will pay for. If you like something and someone will pay for it, but you’re not good at it: it’s just a dream. If there’s no one to pay you for it, but you do like it and are good at it: you found yourself a hobby. But take some time to think about what will happen if you can find the combination of all factors at the same time: the career sweet spot. Although not easy, Arthur believes it is possible for everyone to end up here!

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Personal branding You might be that person that will upload every little thing on facebook, doesn’t eat until the meal is on instagram and makes sure to send at least a few twitter messages before 10 a.m. This is definitely personal branding, but be careful; when it comes to personal branding less is more. Try to create a positive association with yourself. And the way to do this is to take quality over quantity. Promote yourself when you have the chance, don’t be modest when you achieve success and always be honest.

Along with personal branding, networking is important. This can be done via the same mediums. Both on- and offline, try to keep in touch with your fellow students. They might come in handy in 10 or 20 years from now!

It’s a karma thing Realize that if you have knowledge and it doesn’t hurt you to share this or give it away: do so. Help people out or give them good advice. Do this when you see the opportunity, even when you’re not asked to. Arthur believes that this will get you favors in the end. Perhaps not from the people you helped in the past, but also from people who heard you help out others. What goes around comes around. Some aspects are obvious, some might be more important than you expected, but all these steps contribute to the successful career you are willing to built. Arthur provides us with some stuff to avoid as well. To the cliché “follow your dreams”, he says “if it doesn’t pay the bills, don’t follow your dreams!”.

Especially in the beginning of your career, look for the option that will learn you the most. Learn first, themoneywillfollow.Andalthough money alone does not make you happy, it does facilitate, for example for you to start following your dreams!

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Bouwaandeel - Together in Real Estate Sander Woertman Times change and innovative people always find a way to roll with the changes. When times are hard and funds are tough to find, Sander Woertman and his crew were able to come up with a way to start amazing projects through the strength of many. The startup ‘Bouwaandeel’ is a perfect example of the inspiring ways people can work.

Laurens, Sander, Thijs and Hendrik started in 2014 with Bouwaandeel. Their diverse backgrouds, from architecture, communication and webdesign- and development, to locationdirector of Eurohypo, reflect the skills needed to built a platform that is able to connect real estate financing to actual digital and social development.

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The good old days when you could start a real estate project by handing over a spreadsheet to a bank-employee are over. And that’s a good thing. Because history shows us that people prefer not to live and work in buildings that were ultimately built for profit maximization. In contrast, contemporary projects add value to their surroundings and cater to the needs of potential users and citizens, making them inherently sustainable. Bouwaandeel offers investors and developers of these projects a crowdfunding platform where they can organise funding and support for their plans.

In contrast to traditional real estate investment funds, people don’t need a lot of cash, or invest in a portfolio of buildings they don’t know.

Everyone can invest. The crowd that gathers around a project can be seen as a support team, backing the developer in his contact with the municipality and stakeholders. Bouwaandeel offers a transparent insight in transactions people can invest in. Everyone can understand and asses the benefits and risks involved in investing in a particular project.

People can choose to invest starting from €100,-. In return, they receive between 3-7% annual return on their investment.

Bouwaandeel minimizes the risks involved in real estate by securing the investment with a first mortgage. This sets Bouwaandeel apart from other crowdfunding platforms that place the risk in the hands of the investors. Furthermore, Bouwaandeel can rely on the real estate knowledge of its partners and advisory board.

Bouwaandeel is hosting crowdfunding campaigns for projects that offer a sound and safe return on investment. We are honored to facilitate the financing of buildings that are embraced by their developers, investors, users and neighbors.

Sander Woertman Studied architecture and architectural history and was working on a book on the chair collection of TU Delft. Then he left the country shortly to go to work as an architect in Ibos & Vitart in Paris. Since 2006 he works with pleasure as an editor at the Architect.

Sander is a marketing genius in the building sector and is living proof of how thinking out of the box pays. He is currently working on Bouwaandeel, Bim Media B.V, and stichting Zetel.

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Real Estate Career Day De afgelopen 20 jaar heeft de Real Estate Career Day (RECD) zich bewezen als het carrière evenement voor studenten met vastgoed gerelateerde studies. Studenten komen door dit evenement gemakkelijk in contact met bedrijven waar ze stage willen lopen of misschien wel willen werken nadat ze afgestudeerd zijn, maar ook met bedrijven waar ze eerder nog niet van gehoord hadden. Daarnaast hebben de bedrijven hier ook een goede kans om toptalenten te strikken, onder andere door 1-op-1 gesprekken op basis van CV-selectie, cases en de bedrijvenmarkt.

RECD 2015

De vastgoedwereld heeft niet stilgestaan de afgelopen jaren. De crisis heeft zijn sporen achter gelaten en dat is merkbaar bij veel bedrijven. Zij moeten zich aanpassen en bewandelen daardoor andere paden dan voorheen. De invloed van het internet wordt steeds groter, het maatschappelijk bewustzijn heeft een steeds grotere vinger in de pap en duurzaamheid is niet meer uit deze wereld weg te denken. De Nederlandse vastgoedmarkt is voelbaar aan het veranderen, kortom er vindt een transitie plaats. Als organisatie van een nationaal vastgoedevenement was het dan ook een logische keuze om het thema van de Real Estate Career Day 2015 te bepalen: de transitie in de Nederlandse vastgoedmarkt.

Tijden van transitie zijn tijden van creativiteit, initiatieven van onderaf en pioniers. Pioniers zijn de leiders van deze nieuwe beweging, mensen die niet bang zijn om het voortouw te nemen in onbekend gebied. Onbevangen, niet beladen met de kennis van de ‘oude garde’ en de vrijheid om buiten de gebaande paden te denken. Transitie is verandering, dingen anders doen en daarmee een andere kijk op de wereld, de vastgoedwereld.

Reden des te meer om in deze 21e editie van RECD ook de kwaliteit van de dag onder de loep te nemen en te kijken waar verbeterpunten zitten. Op 22 april 2015 zullen al deze verbeterpunten zichtbaar zijn in de Oranje Zaal van de faculteit Bouwkunde. Om alvast een tipje van de sluier op te lichten: dit jaar introduceren wij de Green Corner op de RECD, waarbij speciale aandacht besteed zal worden aan circulariteit en duurzaamheid. Meerdere bedrijven tonen interesse in talentvolle, gedreven en initiatiefrijke studenten om dit – toch nog onbekende – veld verder te verkennen. Ben jij benieuwd hoe wij invulling geven aan deze Green Corner? Maak jij jezelf graag kenbaar bij gerenommeerde vastgoed bedrijven? Denk jij dat jij hét talent bent dat door ieder bedrijf opgemerkt zou moeten worden? Hoe draag jij bij aan de transitie? Schrijf je dan in voor 31 maart voor de RECD 2015 en wij zorgen voor een leuke en productieve dag die helemaal draait om jouw toekomst!

Tot 22 april!

De Real Estate Career Day Commissie 2015 v.l.n.r.

Martijn Dijkstra Studenten relaties Melike Çatalgöl Programma en Logistiek Cherryl Djoegan Voorzitter Sander Rovers Thesaurier February 2015 |

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Alijd and Birgit with some of the participants of Startruimte 010.

Startruimte 010 Alijd van Doorn & Birgit Jürgenhake

Being surrounded by inspiring people can be a major source of inspiration. It’s always interesting to hear enthusiastic people speak about their own initiative and motives. Even more so when these people are really close to us. Birgit Jürgenhake and Alijd van Doorn, both teachers at the Technical University of Delft, have their own startup. They are the founders of a breeding ground for the development of young architectural talent. Because of their daily practices, they have both theoretical and practical knowledge and know like no other what challenges students face when meeting reality. Let’s pick their brain a little bit to see what we can learn from them.

More info: www.startruimte010.nl Could you pitch Startruimte010 in a hundred words?

Startruimte010 is a breeding ground for young talented architects and urban planners that are starting up their own business. We are based in Rotterdam, where we provide for a shared workspace and, together with our partners, for entrepreneurial coaching and project support.

For clients, startruimte010 can be used as a gallery for selected talent in the field of architectural, interior, landscape and urban design.

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With our professional support and back up network we minimise the risk for clients when hiring young architects. In a way through startruimte010 clients get the best of both worlds: young talent and professionalism at the same time.

What do you consider sources of inspiration for Startruimte010?

Of course we both have our personal sources of inspiration, but what binds us definitely is the unique strength of every individual talent. We strive to harvest these unique drives and develop them into successful business models. We want to innovate architectural practice and for this we find inspiration in the collaboration with professionals in other fields of expertise like software developers, internet specialists and experts in new technologies.

When do you consider Startruimte010 a success?

Startruimte010 is a success when we are known inside and outside Rotterdam as a vibrant workshop where ambitious clients find the most talented architects. We want to re-invent the architectural office as a place where architects not only work on their designs, but where we also organize inspiring lectures, pop-up stores and client events. Part of the success on a longer term would be to open up workspaces in other cities, like startruimte020, startruimte070 et cetera.

Why is startruimte010 necessary?

As teachers at the Faculty of Architecture, we simply see too much design talent going to waste. This is especially the case in the last eight years, ever since the beginning of the crisis. Even some of the best graduate students end up doing interns like work or worse, finding themselves forced to get a job in supermarkets or IKEA. Quite a lot of them try to start up their own firm, but they lack the knowledge, skills and support to turn this into a successful venture. We want to nurture their talent to make sure that we don’t waste an entire generation.

Alijd van Doorn The Co-founder of Startruimte010, professor of design and construction management at the TU Delft and columnist, Alijd van Doorn, is indeed a real Boss lady. With a background in Architecture and the built environment at her current working place Alijd is the personification of the soaring popularity of female Real Estate innovators.

What challenges does entrepreneurship have nowadays?

The most obvious challenge for entrepreneurs in architecture is to create work. In the past clients defined the design tasks at hand and then looked for the right architect to provide for the design. Nowadays as an architect you have to find the clients yourself. Within a competitive environment this means that architects have to develop unique products and services that target relevant societal questions in the market.

Overall, architects have to start acting more and more like regular entrepreneurs.

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Birgit Jürgenhake Another Boss lady is Birgit Jürgenhake, Co-founder Startruimte010, assistant professor with the chair of architecture and dwelling. Birgit studied architecture at the University of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany and always aspires to inspire upcoming talent.

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What is interesting about working with Startruimte010 for you?

With startruimte010 we are not only helping young architects to start, we are also a start-up ourselves. The journey that comes with it is truly an adventure, from developing our business model and selecting the talents to looking for the right office space, create partnerships and working on our corporate identity. In our experiences so far, we are happily surprised with the positive feedback and support that we receive from individual professionals as well as from larger organizations. For example BDO accountancy offered a full partnership only after our first talk, numerous architectural offices provided for temporary workspace and firms like ABT engineers make time to support our starters.

As teachers, how do you see the connection between the study and the ‘real world’. Where are the gaps and how can a student close them?

Birgit teaches in the field of Architecture and Alijd in the field of Real Estate and Housing at the TU Delft. The Architecture master is a study without clients and any collaboration with other disciplines. It is more or less learning to design and to research by design in an analytical way.

The gap lies in the collaboration with clients, engineers, calculators and other experts. This gap could be closed if student projects would be more practical, for example if they were actually built which is hardly ever the case. The link with practice in the Real Estate and Housing master is definitely stronger, but of course an academic education does not fit a 100% with practice. If you want to prepare for practice an internship is a must. Besides that, it is recommendable to read relevant journals, follow websites like www.architectenweb.nl, www.dearchitect.nl and www.vastgoedjournaal.nl, and regularly visit relevant symposia and seminars.

Ever since the introduction of the USA Network legal drama, Suits, where the world of corporate law is clothed in slick three pieces suits, and perfectly fitted double breasted suits, many young men have been inspired to engage in the trend of suits. Suits have always been classified with dignitaries and sophistication.

Suits or jeans?

John Angoh

Real Estate is generally linked with this superiority and class. Likewise, management is about leadership and influence. The notion of a suit invoking authority and having the power to transform a man is not at all farfetched. It is however interesting and rather startling, that there is an ongoing shift in the world of Real Estate, where ironically presentation is key to success.

The latest trend is the Jeans. They come in many styles and colors.

However, the blue jeans seem to be making its mark in Real Estate and business as a whole. Like Steve Jobs, many Managers are now into this casual, nonchalant look. One may think this is but hype, but I beg to propose that there is an inherent cause for this shift.

Real Estate has taken a turn from being a corporate office job, towards a more hands on field, practical job. Many Managers have to go on sight to inspire their workers as well stakeholders.The job has become rather more complex and a suit can simply get too warm and uneasy at times.

Secondly, this new look makes today’s manager more approachable and paves the way to attain input from the bottom- up. New organizational models such as Lean, kgotla and even the famous dutch building model ‘Bouwteam’ demand a certain level of cooperation and collaboration. A suit sometimes only causes distance between parties as one may seem too intimidating.

Thirdly, there is a particular entrepreneurial sense stirring up in the building sector. The go getter mentality or the ‘I’m all about ma bizniz, ‘no time to dine or in some cases no time for makeup’, is partially related to this phenomenon of the jeans. It’s simply easy. You do not even have to iron it!

From a scientific point of view, the long lasting nature of a pair of jeans can be strongly related to the sustainability hype. Jeans may be timeless however so suits are. For years, the suit has maintained its position of prestige. Although both suits and jeans are daily reinvented and renovated, they seem not to lose their worth. I, but wonder, which of these is more suitable, SUITs OR JEANs?

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The basement of Club TROUW

In conversation with Olaf Boswijk, Club TROUW Bart Gout We met up with Olaf Boswijk during the BOSS business tour in November. At that time his project and company Club TROUW was in the final months of existence. Club TROUW had become one of the best clubs in the world and was renowned for its lineups as, its crowds, its acoustic environment and the massive parties. Club TROUW is also a perfect example of temporary use of a vacant building, as we all know a very relevant subject in real estate nowadays. Olaf took us on a guided tour through the building as well as time, to explain the birth, life, death and possible after-life of a world famous club.

Start Olaf: In the previous years I had worked with my brother and friends on a project called “Club Elf” on the eleventh floor of the post office. When the building was demolished my friends and me wanted to continue this club, it just couldn’t end there. So we found a way to become owners of the company and go chase our dream. Our chance came when a housing corporation called Stadgenoot offered a building to us.

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Find a place to hang Originally the Trouw building was in hands of a housing corporation, they were planning to build apartments and a hotel. But of course this was around 2008 and the financial crisis hit.

No one really wanted to do anything with it, but they did need to get some return on their investment. When I walked in, I found this room with perfect insulation, equivalent to 1970’s music studio material, a dream for any music lover. We had found our match. And with the financial crisis in the back of our minds, we went for a rental period of 2 years, speculating on an extension into 3, 4 or even 5 years. Which in the end turned out to be right.

Change it up a little When we got started we thought this project would last for two years, so all the changes we made, we made with this in mind. Temporary use.

We left a lot intact, like the old cranes, the holes in the floor where the paper used to go and other similar details that really turned out to give the room character. The fact that the budget was limited forced us to take pragmatic decisions on functionality. Questions like: ‘are we going to do anything with the floors?’. In the end we decided to do only the utmost necessary interventions, so the kitchen, the bar, the emergency exits.

Some problems on the way Now that all sounds very promising but right from the start there were problems. Imagine you have to change a building, designed for industrial purposes, into a cultural hotspot, a place for people. We had 300.000 euros, a rental contract for two years and 2000 square meters, when we were finished with the adjustments, we had already doubled the expenses. This, you must understand, was a heavy burden and I’m glad the contract was expanded to almost 6 years, because we were finally able to make some profit.

Olaf Boswijk Olaf started as a sound engineer at a radio station, became music journalist and DJ, and eventually went on to become a programmer. In five years Club TROUW had become an internationally renowned club, as it was Amsterdam’s answer to the Bergain in Berlin and Fabric in London. Without any education background in Real estate, Olaf is a living testament that inspiration can make achieve things no one expects you to be able to.

Contrary to popular belief, the municipality wasn’t a major driver in the success of TROUW. Although they helped us arranging the permits, at the beginning we even only had a permit until 3 in the morning, which for a club is a disaster of course. The council was rather sceptical. But we wanted to make international impact. Luckily they understood that at one point, and we became the first club in Amsterdam with a 24-hour permit, on the condition of good behaviour. They maintain a ‘three strikes, you’re out’ system, which is fair in my opinion.

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Effects Mayor van der Laan recognised us at one point as people who were of value to the city when he gave us that 24-hour permit. That was the moment I knew we were taken seriously. Of course it was not only TROUW that rejuvenated ‘Oost’, the Volkskrant building had a very large part in it, just as the campuses and the city council policies as well. Now, this street has a ‘coffee company’ and a ‘bagels and beans’ which is a sign of progress i suppose. The question some people ask me is if this can be replicated in other places. I don’t think it works like this; entrepreneurs need to feel a click with a place. It is not a copy and paste process for bettering a neighbourhood.

Results Why stop now? When TROUW is at its best, in the top 5 of greatest clubs in the world. Why wouldn’t you continue, is a question often asked by people? Well, for one, I believe in the strength of temporary use. It is more rewarding to do something real good in a short time and have a bigger impact. And secondly, how many clubs do you know that stay really good for longer than 5 years. Something always happens, be it a change of owner, crowd, programmer or the neighbourhood, that eventually influences the vibe of a place in a negative way. Make your dreams come true today, finish them tomorrow and reinvent yourself the next day.

Future Notwithstanding making a little profit is nice, this project never was about the money. It was about chasing a dream. These last years have been an awesome experience and it’s great to see the next generation standing up with the same drive as we had, saying no, TROUW can’t die!

We must continue. Maybe there will be a next project in the future or maybe I’ll help these people build something new, for now though, I will first take some much-deserved vacation.

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Overcoming Barriers to Innovation In the Building Industry John L. Heintz & J.W.F. (Hans) Wamelink This article is based on a longer forthcoming work (Wamelink and Heintz 2015).

We live in an era of accelerated innovation. All around us we are immersed in a sea of new technologies and products that were very recently confined to comic books and science fiction tv-series. Yet in this storm of innovation the building industry seems to stand out for it’s committed old fashioned-ness. While some incrementally innovative materials do rapidly diffuse through the market, there have been relatively few disruptive innovations. In particular a number of developments that claim to offer significant and disruptive benefits through integration have been very slow in coming. Innovations in process integration seemed to be stuck on the lower part of De Tarde’s S-curve of innovation diffusion (Kinnunen 1996) For example, the principles of Building Information Modelling (BIM) have been known since the 1970s (Eastman, Fisher et al. 1974). Yet it has only relatively recently begun to diffuse through the industry, first in North America, and now in other countries such as The Netherlands.

It seems therefore that, in the building industry, there is a significant gap between the development of new technologies and innovation. Innovation, which we use to describe precisely those new technologies and processes that become disseminated throughout an industry – leading to significant change in practices or products. Thinking up the new technology, whether it is a new material, device or process, is only half the work. A new technology has to be taken up and change an industry to become a proper innovation.

In the building industry it is new developments in process integration that seem to offer the best chance for significant or disruptive improvement in performance, e.g., BIM, Integrated Contracts and Supply Chain Management. The principle of integration in the building industry has had many advocates among both practitioners and academics, e.g., (Howard, Levitt et al. 1989, Nam and Tatum 1992, Dulaimi, Y.Ling et al.

2002, Baiden, Price et al. 2006, Forgues and Koskela 2009, Gambatese and Hallowell 2011b). However it is only in the last few years have businesses in the construction industry begun systematically to take up these initiatives. One is therefore entitled to ask why it is that these promising technologies and processes have been so slowly taken up?

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John Heintz John Heintz is noted among many students of the Delft Technical University, where he is Section Head Design & Construction Management, Department of Real Estate & Housing at Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, for his highly inspiring lectures. His eloquence, precision and eye for detail are exemplified in his works, which are generally innovative and refreshing.

What are the key factors that have made it possible for these new technologies and processes to be taken up now?

A number of researchers have examined this problem, and the most succinct statement of their results is that: “Innovation in the construction industry requires three components: idea generation, opportunity and diffusion.” (Gambatese and Hallowell 2011a) The process of up take occurs on two distinct levels: adoption, or the decision by an individual business to adopt an innovation; and diffusion, or the social process through which innovations spread throughout an industry. The importance of making the distinction is that, while diffusion is to a significant extent the result in individual decisions, many factors influencing those decisions that only apparent on the broader scale.

The process of diffusion was first characterized by Everett Rogers (1995). His goal was to determine why it was that some inventions take off, while others have little impact. He proposed that there are five intrinsic preconditions for successful innovation: 1) relative advantage, 2) compatibility, 3) complexity or simplicity, 4) triability, and 5) observability.

Relative advantage refers to the net financial benefit offered by the invention. Compatibility refers to the degree to which the new device or process is compatible with existing products, practices and markets.

Complexity seems self explanatory, but refers particularly to interaction and with other existing partners, practices and technologies. Triability refers to the costs of trying out the invention – purchase of equipment, training, convincing others to accept the novelty. Finally observability refers to the degree to which the invention and its relative advantage are visible to actors in the relevant markets.

Taking BIM as an example again we can see how these pre-conditions were not at first met. BIM certainly was not compatible with existing practices such as manual drawings or the clear separation of responsibilities of different designers. Even with the eventual development of CAD programs, porting data back and form from 2-D CAD models remains a significant barrier to the use of BIM systems. BIM is conceptually simple, but appears quite complex, especially to firms not yet familiar with the technology. This complexity is perhaps most evident in the extensive training involved in learning to use BIM – not just learning to draw, but also to use the databases and associated applications, the

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acquisition of powerful computers, and the coordination of BIM and CAD systems and file and layer naming among designers and with contractors and suppliers. All this presents significant problems with traibility.

Finally the benefits of BIM use, and the real experiences of early adopters has not been clearly visible to other players suspicious of the enthusiasm of the occasional booster. Existing methods seemed good enough. (Especially when the cost of mistakes could so easily be transferred to clients.)

All of these have been considerable barriers to the diffusion of BIM systems through the manufacturing sector, in the building industry they were for many years insurmountable. One of the major factors making the diffusion of innovations more difficult in the building industry is that unlike in manufacturing, there is no stable supply chain and few strategic relationships (Brandon, Betts et al. 1998). Coordination across an ever fluctuating series of temporary supply chain constellations in an industry with an unusually large number of players has proved to be a major problem in the adoption and diffusion of new developments.

In addition, long supply chains make it difficult for product suppliers to appeal directly to clients. Given such significant barriers to implementation, it seems surprising that BIM was adopted by even the most daring and technically ambitious firms. As we shall see, in fact it required the presence of a driver to provide the motivations to overcome these barriers.

The diffusion of innovations is considerably influenced by the existence of factors known as motivators, enablers or drivers. Several researchers, including Nam & Tatum (1997), Winch (1998), Gann (2000), and Bossink (2004) have modelled these factors. Gambatese and Hallowell (2011b), state that regardless of the process undertaken and the nature of the adopters, the diffusion of construction innovations does not occur in the absence of a motivator. Quoting Blayse and Manley (2004) Gambatese and Hallowell went on to identify the key factors that influence construction innovation on projects, and identified the following as the six major influencing factors: (1) clients; (2) production structure; (3) innovation networks; (4) procurement systems; (5) regulations; and (6) organizational resources by focusing on the interface between innovation development and project implementation. These factors can be seen as corresponding to potential strategies, both intended and emergent, top-down and bottom-up, through which organizations in the construction industry attempt to implement innovations.

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Winch (1998) proposed a model that places these factors in a social system demonstrating how they influence the diffusion of innovation.

Drawing in on the work of Miller et al (1995), on innovation in the flight simulation industry, Winch adapted their model for innovation in “complex systems industries� to the construction industry.

The model consists of a three-layer system with System Integrators (principal architects, engineers and contractors), are positioned at an interface between a Superstructure consisting of clients, regulators and professional institutions, and an Infrastructure consisting of specialised trade contractors, specialist consultants, and component suppliers. The Innovation Superstructure governs the innovation environment, specifying demand, regulating performance, and supplying knowledge processes and tools to the System Integrators. The System Integrators assemble complex systems products (flight simulators in (Miller, Hobday et al. 1995)) using components and sub-systems supplied by the Innovation Infrastructure.

Table 1: Winch’s Model of Innovation Structures One might think that the system integrators would be the agents of change, but not in construction. Where in manufacturing a single System Integrator would be in control of both design and assembly, in construction these roles have been divided. Further, where is in manufacturing serial production is based on a stable design (or variations on it) and a stable supply chain, this is not so in construction.

In innovation in construction process integration it is clear that adoption of innovations in process integration only occurs if the superstructure plays a sufficiently strong role; the presence of a strong client demanding the application of the new technology is the key factor. In the construction value chain, clients can act as a catalyst to foster the diffusion of innovation by exerting pressure on the supply chain partners to improve overall performance and by helping them to devise strategies to cope with unforeseen changes (Gann and Salter 2000).

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Further, clients have the ability to demand the adoption of innovation on a project-by-project basis. On the infrastructure level (trade contractors and suppliers) no intended or emerging strategic action can be distinguished. On the other hand system integrators (building firms, architects) reacted to developments by starting pilot projects, exchange of experiences, building knowledge networks and joint developments.

Stated simply, the demand of a major client, often from the public sector, is necessary to drive the diffusion of any innovations which involve a significant departure from existing practice. And it the Netherlands this demanding client has more often than not been the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf.

However, once the motivator is in place, the system integrators must realize the new technology.

And here we shift our focus from diffusion to adoption. At the level of adoption, other factors play the critical role. But where we might easily accept that on an industry wide level innovations should be taken up as quickly as possible it is important to acknowledge that for individual businesses it will be rational not to adopt an innovation until several preconditions are met. This is particularly true of process innovations intended to significantly change how projects are delivered.

In the building industry, the adoption of any major process innovation will always be in the context of a pilot project. Whether this is for a single firm (where other project members already use the technology in question), or for all members of a project trying out the technology for the first time.

We can use Rogers’ 5 conditions for diffusion as a guide to these preconditions: 1) Relative advantage There must be a clear business case for taking up the new technology.

The potential for profitability must be evident, either within an immediately available project or so clear that an temporary loss will be quickly earned back.

2) Compatibility Assuming that the new technology requires a step change, there must be a clear path to overcoming compatibility problems. (In the case of BIM one form of this was the development of software for importing and exporting different file types.)

3) Complexity There must be sufficient incentives for other members of the project

Hans Wamelink Hans Wamelink (1963) has been a professor at the faculty of Real Estate and housing since 2006 . His focus is on the coorperation between various parties in complex processes. He is a great contributor to the field of design management and construction process innovation. Furthermore, he finds it a challenge to teach students how using relatively simple rules can better manage the entire building process. With a background in Civil enginering and specialization Constructive Hydraulic Engineering / Civil Business Administration at the T.U 1988, Hans can be seen as a perfect blend between technology and management and is most definitely a true inspiration.

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team to adopt the technology, and to coordinate their practices with each other.

4) Triability The costs, including the cost of acquisition of equipment and training personnel must be recoverable from a single project. There must be sufficient information available to plan a pilot project and determine the costs and risks involved.

5) Observability The benefits of the new technology must be measurable in someway. It must be clear at the end of a trial project that there has or has not been a benefit delivered by the new technology.

For each of these five criteria there will be substantial uncertainty, and therefore risk. The calculation of the possible down side risk will need to be made, and this risk must be within limits set by project budget and firm turnover. Few firms will have significant reserves for investment or to cover substantial down side risk. Hence the difficult in calculating down side risks will in itself be a barrier to up take. Hence one may expect that there will be significant initial resistance by the majority of system integrators to innovations in process integration. Such technologies will be perceived as too costly, too risky, and little perceived benefit to justify the risk and outlay required for a pilot project. And once you have tried and new integrative technology once, and found it to be advantageous, there is no guarantee that your collaborators on the next project will be willing to use it.

This leads to our final point. Given that at first it will be rational for most firms to reject new technologies, managers will develop a form of inertia or bias that resists an eventual change of their earlier decision and the adoption of what previously was an undesirable novelty. Young professionals can play a crucial role here. Not only will the opportunity costs of training young professionals be lower, they will likely have been exposed to new technologies and processes (at least in a theoretical sense) during their education. They are thus likely to be more up to date on some new technologies than their managers. Finally, young professionals, lacking the sober wisdom that comes with experience, have a relatively optimistic outlook, and will often continue to enthusiastically endorse new technologies after their seniors have decided to pass them over.

The championing of new technologies by younger professionals may be an irritant to their seniors, but they are likely eventually to provoke a reconsideration of technologies which may have matured in the interval since their previous rejection. The ignorance of youth can be a powerful force in the adoption and diffusion of innovations.

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References Baiden, B. K., A. D. F. Price and A. R. J. Dainty (2006). “The extent of team integration within construction projects.” International Journal of Project Management 24(1): 13-23.

Blayse, A. M. and K. Manley (2004). “Key influences on construction innovation.” Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management 4(3): 143-154.

Bossink, B. A. G. (2004). “Managing drivers of innovation in construction networks.”

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 130(3): 337-345.

Brandon, P., M. Betts and H. Wamelink (1998). “Information technology support to construction design and production.” Computers in Industry 35(1): 1-12.

Dulaimi, M. F., F. Y. Y.Ling, G. Ofori and N. D. Silva (2002). “Enhancing integration and innovation in construction.” Building Research & Information 30(4): 237-247.

Eastman, C. M., D. Fisher, G. Lafue, J. Lividini, D. Stoker and C. Yessios (1974). An Outline of the Building Description System. Research Report No. 50. . Pittsburgh, PA., Institute of Physical Planning, Carnegie-Mellon University.

Forgues, D. and L. Koskela (2009). “The influence of a collaborative procurement approach using integrated design in construction on project team performance.” International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 2(3): 370-385.

Gambatese, J. A. and M. Hallowell (2011a). “Enabling and measuring innovation in the construction industry.” Construction Management and Economics 29(6): 553-567.

Gambatese, J. A. and M. Hallowell (2011b). “Factors that influence the development and diffusion of technical innovations in the construction industry.” Construction Management and Economics 29(5): 507-517.

Gann, D. M. (2000). Building innovation: complex constructs in a changing world. London, Thomas Telford.

Gann, D. M. and A. J. Salter (2000). “Innovation in project-based, service-enhanced firms: the construction of complex products and systems.” Research Policy 29(7–8): 955-972.

Howard, H., R. E. Levitt, B. Paulson, J. Pohl and C. Tatum (1989). “Computer integration: reducing fragmentation in AEC industry.” Journal of computing in civil engineering 3(1): 18-32.

Kinnunen, J. (1996). “Gabriel Tarde as a Founding Father of Innovation Diffusion Research.” Acta Sociologica 39(4): 431-442.

Miller, R., M. Hobday, T. Lerouz-Demers and X. Olleros (1995). “Innovation in complex systems industries: the case of the flight simulation industry.” Industrial Corporate Change 4(2): 363-400.

Nam, C. H. and C. B. Tatum (1992). “Noncontractual methods of integration on construction projects.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 118(2): 385-398.

Nam, C. H. and C. B. Tatum (1997). “Leaders and champions for construction innovation.”

Construction Management & Economics 15(3): 259-270.

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. New York ; London, Free Press.

Wamelink, J. W. F. and J. L. Heintz (2015). Innovating for Integration: Clients as Drivers of Industry Improvement. Construction Innovation. F. Orstavik, A. R. J. Dainty and C. Abbot.

Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell: 149-164.

Winch, G. (1998). “Zephyrs of creative destruction: understanding the management of innovation in construction.” Building Research & Information 26(5): 268-279.

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Inspiration of the inspirer Joost Nieuwenburg

‘Leuke WOONwinkel’, a concept of Era Contour, Hazenberg Bouw, Koopmans Bouwgroep and their partners.

A picture, an idea or your favorite pet; everything can be an inspiration if you want to. When your inspiration is a person, that very person has sources of inspiration itself. One of the bosses of real estate in the Netherlands is Bianca Seekles: ‘Vastgoedvrouw’ of the year 2013, nominated for ‘duurzame bouwvrouw’ of the year 2014. She collects prizes in the build environment like most women collect shoes, but that’s not what she is in the game for.

As she is an inspiration for many, both inside the company she works for and outside, we want to know what is important to her, does she use the attention and most important: what is her opinion on inspiration.

Like her father before her, Bianca was all into the technical and beta stuff in high school. But where her father choose the side of mechanical engineering, Bianca decides to go with a little more creativity and choose

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choose engineering and architecture. She also made the thought out choice to go to an applied college instead of a regular university. The atmosphere there was not to her liking, and she also wanted a good period of internships to get a good feel for her likes and dislikes.

After graduation, in a time of economic prosperity, employers were lining up to contract Bianca. Influenced by her internships, she started on the department of client guidance at a small firm called “Box project” in Vlaardingen. After a half year of practice she moved on to project development, which she did for three and a half year.

After this, it was time for something bigger. It was that move that determined the workplace for Bianca for the next 14 years: ERA Contour.

She started on the department of “concept development” and grew her way into the company to end up where she is now: part of the managing board as statutory director.

The combination of doing things she likes and doing things that are good for ERA Contour makes it easy for Bianca to stay with her current employer for such a long period of time.

What she likes, is working with real personal contact. This is for example shown in the way she motivates and inspires the people she works with.

It differs from each person to the next what makes him or her happy, so everyone requires a different approach. Bianca is responsible for the department of “initiative and concept”. The people working here are very similar to Bianca; full of energy, full of ideas and enthusiastic. These are the ones who are easy to motivate.

A meeting with this department is very constructive and each idea is welcomed with an even louder round of applause than the previous one.

A different story is the department Bianca recently became responsible for as well: “product and engineering”. These colleague’s are very technical, real specialists. Especially this provides a challenge to motivate and inspire. Here it is important to be very clear, choose a surprising angle and let everyone participate in the meeting. Just last week she held a meeting with the “product and engineering” department that she started with an anecdote about a book that she read about energetic leaders. The topic of the book was not directly related to the topic of the meeting. But this unexpected angle got everyone’s attention and gave Bianca the chance to make a connection to the point she was going to make. Using the ‘why, how, what’ approach gives the colleague’s much clarity about the direction the company wants to go. As a conclusion to the meeting a discussion is started about the future of each individual and the company as a whole, to achieve maximum participation of everyone attending that meeting.

Bianca Seekles Bianca Seekles is a true ambassador of sustainability and innovation. It was therefore no surprise that she was nominated in 2013 as ‘ Vastgoed vrouw’, which simply means Woman of Real Estate. Likewise in 2014, she was nominated, ‘ Duurzame bouwvrouw’ which is a prestigious acknowledgement of her efforts in the building sector with regards to sustainability. The statutory director of the managing board of ERA Contour, like many others, has an architecture and engineering background (HTS) and studied at the Neyenrode Business University. In short Bianca, is a true innovator.

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The clarity and the openness of Bianca’s way of working make it easier to combine her demand for high quality and her personal approach to people. Everyone knows what to expect: she is strict, but above all she is real.

Besides contact with people, Bianca sees herself as a real goal getter: she likes to get things done. Its not just that ideas flow freely, she really makes an effort to make sure plans don’t stay on the drawing table. A perfect example of this is the concept “the consumer as co producer”, originated in Bianca’s mind and in now a full-grown product of ERA Contour in the name of “Woonlab”. This concept allows consumers of dwellings to sit along site producers in order to receive something they really want to have. The idea for this product occured when Bianca was working on the redevelopment of an area called “Le Medi” in Rotterdam. It was desirable that a different demographic was attracted to come and live there.

In order to do so, it was necessary to build exactly what the desired new homeowners would like to have. It was therefore that they were invited to the drawing table.

Bianca had the idea, made it feasible within ERA Contour, but is also still concerned with the progress of the product. She is still chasing and motivating the project- and process developers to keep the product innovative. For the future perhaps something weird as a “dating site” for development might arise. Bianca explains that there are people with land, people with certain wishes for a dwelling and there is someone willing to bring this together. Every party makes itself present and some sort of program will make sure everybody gets what they sign up for.

Personal contact and getting things realized are the selling point of Bianca. But she is not afraid to mention her somewhat weaker points as well.

Making schedules, planning ahead, to do lists, filling out timesheets, performance reviews and writing reports; all stuff she can easily do without. But for all this she has a simple yet effective solution. She ads people to her team that have the skills she lacks in greater or lesser extent. Without mentioning someone in specific, Bianca does like to thank her secretary for keeping her on the right track!

As a conclusion, Bianca gives some advice for current students and anyone else with their eye on the future. “Joop van den Ende once said: never pass on an opportunity to make something better”. She likes to inspire herself by learning new stuff, but she encourages others to do 34

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the same. Work on your own mental baggage: visit cities, what building functions, which one doesn’t, how do people behave in public spaces or in buildings. This knowledge allows you to speak with a big variety of people and makes sure you develop your own vision.

Besides this it is important for young people to know how you can conquer your place in a business meeting and how to give a presentation.

These points have the same underlying thought: you have to be able to come up with a clear and constructive story to get your point across!

Last but not least, Bianca encourages everyone to dream big! The sky is the limit! If you start thinking about money, feasibility and all other restricting elements it is never going to be something good!

‘Housing wishes’ at the office of ERA Contour February 2015 |

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Social Media and Management - 7 questions Vincent Maaskant Almost everybody carries a telephone around in today’s world.

Majority of students today ironically have their heads more fixed on the screens of their phones than their books. Times are changing and communication has taken a serious twist. From telegraphs to telephones to ping and now to whatsapp and tweets, digital communication has shaped the world we live in. It is evident that the future of soceity is very much dependent on technology and social media is gradually forming our perception of human interaction.

Recently word reached us about a renowned Project management company in Amsterdam that makes use of Social Media in a rather positive way as a communication tool during construction management processes. It turned out this approach is extremely efficient and effective and we decided therefore to conduct a short interview with one of the pioneers of the phenomenon, Vincent Maaskant. Below is a summary of this interview, which depicts the history of the company, how the idea came about, how it is implemented, the challenges and how it has shaped the company’s prospects towards the future.

Keywords: social media, Db-m, management, communication 1. How it all began Db-m was founded in 2010 by two experienced projectleaders: Hans Colijn and Vincent Maaskant. Both men have over 15 years of experience in supervising large and complex construction projects in the initial as well implementation phase. Based on the success of a number of projects the two decided to join forces to establish one bureau that would embody all their expertise. This is how db-m was born.

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Db-m The Unique combination of the two is also characteristic of the company. Db-m helps various commercial and non-profit organizations to take and maintain control of their projects. Significantly, Services such as construction project management, construction management, contract monitoring and quality are combined with project communication and social media; unique in the Netherlands. The interests of the client are always central. Db-m is noted to operate on a so called ‘champions league level “and has a contemporary and digital process which is a breath of fresh air in the construction management.

Despite a solid theoretical background db m’s consultant always work from a practical perspective and this approach has been very fruitful.

In each phase of the project, db-m’s advisors level the field for clients, consultants and contractors involved to ensure fruitful deliberation and decision making. The effective communication strategy of db-m which is termed “the no-nagging warranty ‘, prevents miscommunication or misinterpretation and ultimately guarantees projects being successfully completed without worry.

Similarly, db-m supports integrated consultancy and project management, preventing uncertainties from being overlooked. The company therefore offers the total package that is efficiency and effectiveness ensuring short lines and rapid knowledge transfer. When necessary, external specialists are employed to achieve the best result.

2. What makes Db-m unique?

Unique combination: construction management & communication Communication is an important part of the building process. Not only is the success of a project dependent on the internal communication but also external communication is rather significant. This inherently builds support, reduces misguided feelings and simply contributes to a good image for the project and your business. Although communication may seem irrelevant, a construction project cannot do without it.

Db-m therefore offers a total package, which fuses communication with construction management; online and offline. In addition, you have everything in one hand, as db-m ensures proficiency and adequacy, with regards to that which is externally communicated.

Vincent Maaskant Co- Founder and construction manager of db- m , Vincent is a specialist in guiding projects towards success. In 2010, he founded db m together with Hans Colijn. Db- m is a professional and ambitious consultancy that operates nationwide.

The firm supervises construction projects for clients in the medical sector , education, office , industrial, municipal property and / rail infrastructure and is noted for its innovative communication strategy. Currently Vincent also works for ProRail ( The Hague New Central ) and MAB Development / Fund - ASR (shopping Terwijde ) .

3. How did this concept come about?

Db-m (Vincent Maaskant) has for a number of years been involved in the construction of the new Hague Central Station. This station was demolished and rebuilt “with the shop open ‘: trains keep riding, shops February 2015 |

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and services are always available.

Communication is crucial during such a complex project by which one has to deal with several stakeholders (travelers, residents, shopkeepers, tenants, HTM, NS, ProRail, the Municipality of The Hague, Ministry IenM, RET, contractors and subcontractors, etc.). ProRail (main client) employed Katja Torbijn for communication during the construction, which was significantly based on online communications and social media.

Lately, the importance of communication during construction projects is on the rise: citizens become much more verbal, supporters and opponents are easily found through social media and everyone shares his opinion easily. This fact combined with the excellent cooperation between Vincent and Katja made this new collaborative process obvious.

4. How it is implemented and incorporated into management?

Communication and social media are not only used in the projects of db-m, but are also an important part of business. With regards to the incorporation of social Media into Management, there is firstly, a strategic communication plan that is updated annually. Subsequently, the contracts of the employees states that they present themselves positively and are active in social media. Those who are not familiar with it are given the necessary aid.

5. What are the advantages of this approach?

Advantages of a joint approach for the entire construction management including communications are mainly the fact that as a client of db-m has everything under one roof. This means construction management and communication are very dependent on each other; there is familiarity, corporation and clarity on what is expected from various parties.

In addition, the lines of communication are short and direct, making communication transparent and all aware of what is going on. E.g. communication through ‘WhatsApp groups.’ 6. What are the challenges?

The main challenges are internal and essentially time related; that there is always too little. Therefore our own communication sometimes disappears into the background or has less priority. On the outside, the challenge lies in the fact that not everyone understands that communication is really needed, and therefore sometimes much persuasion is needed.

Yet we see that more and more companies recognize the usefulness and necessity as they want to apply similar tools, but do not know how. We, in many cases, help or assist such companies or projects.

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Two projects where Vincent Maaskant is currently working on. 1: Den Haag Central Station. 2: Shopping Terwijde Utrecht

7. What inspires db-m?

Fortunately we are surrounded by a number of ambitious companies.

These companies outside the building are very inspiring because just like us, from their own point of view, they make use of social media. We can therefore learn from each other. We also get inspired by our enthusiastic followers as well our blog readers or clients who read our articles and parts. They all bring to the table, a certain energy that motivates us to continue to expand and keep up with new development in the world of social media.

Some projects that have benefited from this approach are The Hague Central Station: http://db-m.nl/station-en-omgeving/station-den-haag-centraal,-den-haag Shopping Terwijde Utrecht http://db-m.nl/woongebouwen/winkelcentrum-terwijde,-utrecht

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Abstract of the best Housing paper Sophie Stravens & Hylke de Visser With the idea of taking up the gauntlet for innovation and inspiration on the students’ part, BOSS magazine decided to organize an essay competition. In close collaboration with the Housing course in the second quarter of Msc1, a jury of four teachers and the BOSS Magazine committee chose a winner. The essay was to be evaluated on innovation, feasibility, social relevance and readability.

We are very proud to announce Sophie Stravens and Hylke de Visser as winners of this competition with their work on ‘The incorporation of residents’ preferences within Dutch housing associations’ asset management processes’.

This is in short what the jury had to say about it: ‘it is of social relevance for it provides an insight in the ways different housing associations deal with preferences of residents.’ And ‘it makes a strong relation between theory and practice as they create a new model to explain and compare the policy of different associations, this model is later used to make constructive recommendations for the future.’

Introduction In the Netherlands, the aims and measures of social housing associations are secured in the resolution on management of the social rented sector (Besluit beheer sociale huursector; Bbsh). This resolution depicts six fields of operation for Dutch housing associations, one of these fields is to “Involve tenants in the process of policy making and maintenance” (Koning & Van Leuvensteijn, 2010, p. 18). Research shows that in 2006 almost 50% of the Dutch housing associations provide les than four initiatives for resident participation (Zijlstra, 2011, p. 101). Recent changes in the housing policy of the Dutch government force housing a sociations to revise their approach towards the management of their assets, into a more market driven model, taking into account residents’ preferences fits in this development. It appears that it is not clearly defined how the consultation of res dents could be implemented in the asset management process of social housing associations (Poorter, 2006, p.

13). This research aims to provide a theoretical approach to the implementation of residents’ preferences in the asset management process with the goal to assess the current practice of Dutch housing associations.

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This resulted in the following research question: “In what way do Dutch social housing associations incorporate residents’ preferences in their asset management processes?”

To answer this question, we designated two sub questions: 1. What models are developed to incorporate the preferences in the process?

2. How is the involvement of these preferences implemented in the processes of housing associations?

Literature study was conducted to develop a new theoretical model to assess the implemenation of residents’preferences in the portfolio management process. The model was used to structure the assessment of publicly available documents in order to gain insight in the way social housing associations involve their tenants’ preferences. Public policy documents of five housing associations are scrutinised regarding the way in which and to what extent they involve the tenants’ preferences in their asset management processes1. Conclusions regarding the research questions are presented and recommendations for future research are made.

Hylke de Visser Hylke is a master’s student of Tudelft in the field of Real Estate and housing management. He is also a key member in the real estate student organization Boss. Hylke is an athlete and trains frequently each week.

The box model The following organisational models, relevant for the involvement of residents’ preferences, have been studied: housing management pyramid (Miles et. al. 1996, in Gruis & Nieboer, 2004, p. 203); strategic real estate management process (Gruis & Nieboer, 2004, p. 211); business column of real estate management (Van der Kuij, 2014, pp. 50-75); PDCA cycle (Arveson, 1998); “beleidsachtbaan” (Van Os, 2013, pp. 6-15). Most of the models incorporate a cyclical approach. They also employ the aggregate levels of the business triangle in the designation of different steps in the process. Another commonality is that all models at some point, involve information from the context or environment they operate in.

To put the process around residents’ involvement under a magnifying glass, a new model is proposed: the Box model, referring to the “box of evaluation” as its most critical part.

Figure 1: The Box model (own illustration) 1. For this assessment see the complete paper at www.bosstudelft.nl

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The model is mainly based on the business column of real estate management as presented by Van der Kuij (2014, p. 51), who uses four levels of aggregation.

However, as the financial aspect is regarded as a precondition to the management structure, this level is left out according to Miles et. al. (1996, in Gruis & Nieboer, 2004, p. 203). The model regards the tactical level as the main connection between the strategic and operational level. Within this column, top-down as well as bottom-up information flows are processed by the middle management on asset level (Van Os, 2013, p. 5).

Figure 2: Explanation of the Box model (own illustration)

In the Box model, the phases of the PDCA cycle also return, mainly focussed around the actions of checking and acting.

Sophie Stravens Sophie is currently working on her master’s thesis at the TU Delft in Real Estate and Housing management.

She is also one of commission heads of the Real estate student organization BOSS. Sophie acts and sings as well.

Figure 3: Explanation of the Box model (own illustration)

The box of evaluation represents the element that analyses the environment, as Van Os (2013, p. 6) calls this and the external analysis phase in the model of Gruis & Nieboer (2004, p. 211). The boundaries of the evaluation are determined by the policies of housing associations, prepared at the strategic level.

Additional preconditions are determined by government policies regarding social housing. Residents and resident organis tions are invited to share their pre erences and wishes in order to provide input in the box of evaluation.

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Figure 4: Explanation of the Box model (own illustration)

The information generated in the box is fed back into the organisation on the tactical level and will be translated to the operational and strategic level by the middle management. Going up, the information is used as input for policy adjustments. On the operational level it will lead to a change in plans on complex level.

Figure 5: Explanation of the Box model (own illustration)

Conclusions and recommendations By means of the resolution on management of the social rented sector (Bbsh), Dutch social housing associations are obliged to involve their tenants in their processes. However, it appears that securing this involvement is interpreted differently. Answering the main research question in this paper, it can be stated that many organisations have a different approach towards residents’involvement. The empirical research shows that most organisations show an interest in the preferences of their residents. However, it differs to what extent this is promoted and facil tated. Furthermore, it is sometimes unclear how the data that was gained from the participation process is used to adapt policies and housing complexes. The information flow back to the organisation does either not exist or the sources found do not provide this kind of information.

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Looking at the empirical findings, our assumption is that the tools, determined at strategic level, do not necessarily align with the tools actually being used.

This means that information gained is not processed in the box of evaluation, consequently the information flow to the management pyramid cannot exist.

Information used for the assessment of the housing associations’ process was mostly found in annual plans and visitation reports. However, housing associations are only obliged to publish the latter once every four years (Aedes, 2014).

This means that it seems not suitable to use an out-dated visitation report in the same research as a current annual plan.

Recommendations The model that we developed for this research contains a number of direct and indirect assumptions and simplifications that that we did not verify thoroughly yet. First there is the assumption that the organisation designates the bound ries of the evaluation box on strategic level and provides this information to the tenants. Also the model assumes that the feedback received on operational level will be processed by the middle management and reflected in the policies.

A first recommendation is to develop a more detailed model regarding the input from and output to the organisation (see figure 18 #1). Secondly, empirical results show that the arrow from the top of the management pyramid to the evaluation box, in practice, designates different scales on which participation takes place. Also the tools that are used in the evaluation, the input arrow to the box, are not made explicit in the model, hence no conclusions can be drawn about the scale of involvement. Therefore, as shown in figure 18, the second recommendation would be to make a more detailed model for the scale (#2a) and tools (#2b) of participation. The starting point for this could be the research of Edelenbos (2000, in Edelenbos, Domingo, Klok, & Van Tatenhove, 2006, p.

21) and the participation scales and tools introduced by Mitros (2009, in Klein Bluemink, Groot, Deker, & Storken, 2010, p. 68). The third recommendation to bring this research a step further, is to find out how organisations really process the information they receive from their tenants (see figure 18 #3).

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Figure 6: Recommendations (own illustration)

The fourth recommendation involves the equal assessment of data per housing association. In order to achieve this, the data sets should be made comparable by means of coding. This would make it possible to improve the comparability of the conclusions. Furthermore, in this research we had to rely on publicly available policy documents and visitation reports. However information directly from residents and the associations itself could improve the results.

Biography Aedes. (2014). Visitatie. Retrieved 28/12/2014, from http://www.aedes.nl/content/dossiers/visitatie.xml Arveson, P. (1998). The Deming cycle. Retrieved 07/12/2014, from http://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/Articles-­‐White-­‐Papers/The-­ Deming-­‐ Cycle Edelenbos, J., Domingo, A., Klok, P. J., & Van Tatenhove, J. (2006). Burgers als beleidsadviseurs; een vergelijkendonderzoek naar acht projecten van interactieve beleidsvorming bij drie departementen. Amsterdam: Instituut voor publiek en politiek.

Gruis, V., & Nieboer, N. (2004). Strategic housing management: an asset management model for social landlords. Property Management, 22(3), 201-­‐213.

Klein Bluemink, G., Groot, S., Dekker, E., & Storken, L. (2010). Maatscha pelijke visitatie stichting Mitros. Rotterdam: Ecorys Nederland B.V. Koning, P., & Van Leuvensteijn, M. (2010). Woningcorporaties uit de verdwijndriehoek. Den Haag: Centraal Planbureau.

Poorter, K. (2006). Quickscan belanghoudersparticipatie. Rotterdam: SEV. Van der Kuij, R. (2014). Woningcorporaties en vastgoedontwikkeling: fit for use? (Doctor), Delft University of Technology, Delft.

Van Os, P. (2013). Vastgoedbeleid bij woningcorporaties; een proces benadering. Amsterdam: Rigo Research & advies.

Zijlstra, S. (2011). Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties. (Doctor), TU Delft, Delft.

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Innovating Dutch developers Matthijs Haak

Introduction During the last couple of years, the Dutch real estate industry has encountered major changes and trends which have often led to crisis and declines in the sector. The limited uptake of office space and the annually increasing vacancy rates are some examples. The latter can also be seen in the Dutch retail market where vacancy rates have been increasing for seven years in a row (Locatus, 2014). At the same time the housing market has encountered a long period of stagnation and almost every actor needs to find a way around the limited funding opportunities (Troostwijk, 2012). All of these changes and trends affect the different actors in the real estate cycle. This includes the wide range of real estate developers that operate within the Netherlands. As a result of these changes and trends, the position of developers within the production chain is under pressure, both at the initial phase (starting new projects) as well as the final phase (uptake of the developed real estate) (Putman, 2010). Consequently, this complicates the central position of the developer in the real estate chain.

Dutch developers will have to respond to the above-mentioned changes in order to stay in business (Meuwissen, 2012). According to Dam and Marcus (2005) a certain degree of flexibility and innovation is needed.

However, it seems that the majority of Dutch developers does not have a clear approach in dealing with the current changes. There is therefore a need for vision and effective real estate strategies. Only developers with innovative and distinctive ideas and projects can confidently keep their business afloat; “they have the guiding compass where they can rely on” (Troostwijk, 2012).

Nowadays several Dutch developers lately state that they innovate.

However, detailed explanations on how they innovate or specific examples are often omitted. In magazines, on blogs and during meetings where innovation is discussed there is lack of clear (scientific) evidence as well. Incongruously, It seems that the word ‘innovation’ is merely used as a buzzword.

In many other industries, such as the electronics industry, there is wellfounded knowledge regarding innovation. Not only is this knowledge interesting, it also provides companies the necessary tools to reflect on themselves. In addition, the knowledge helps by identifying business opportunities and makes it possible for different industries and industry peers to learn from each other and exchange best practices.

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Considering these benefits, the lack of well-founded knowledge on innovation within the Dutch real estate development industry became the main reason for conducting my graduation thesis.

What is innovation?

The word ‘innovation’ does not have one single and clear definition.

The term is derived from the Latin word ‘innovare’, meaning ‘creating something new’. The definition according to a Dutch dictionary – ‘the implementation of a novelty’- adds the word ‘implementation’ to the definition of innovation. This suggests that innovation is more than just acquiring new ideas. It involves a managed process.

In professional literature many similar definitions of innovation can be found. These definitions always contain terms as process, novelty and exploitation. Based on these three concepts, and on the aforementioned descriptions, the following definition of innovation is adapted in my graduation thesis: ‘Innovation is the process towards the exploitation of deliberate renewal of products, services or practices with the aim to obtain a better anticipation on the needs of customers, obtain competitive advantage and to improve business performance.’

When deliberate processes towards the renewal of products, services or practices take place within an organization, one can speak of innovation. This does not necessarily mean that a certain innovation is innovative for the industry as a whole.

Dutch innovating developers In what way(s) and on what fields do Dutch real estate developers innovate in order to respond on the current changes that take place in the Dutch real estate market, and how successful are these innovations?

Matthijs Haak The ambitious Matthijs Haak, recently graduated at the Delft University of Technology in Real Estate and housing management. His quest to explore innovation in the building sector is genuinely depicted in his thesis and has set him off towards a very bright future in the world of Real Estate.

My graduation research shows that the declining demand and the declining willingness to fund (new) projects are the two most common incentives for developers to innovate. Given these market changes it is not remarkable that most developers endeavor to pursue business objectives related to business continuity and covering expenses.

In order to deal with recent market changes and to achieve the business objectives, developers innovate in the fields of processes, products/services, management and business models. Most of the developers indicate that their innovations were related to their operations (processes).

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Based on the answers of 42 different developers on a questionnaire about innovation, the conducted innovations are mapped in an innovation map. This map is depicted in the figure below. The map also depicts how many times each innovation occurred. More specifically: it shows how innovative each particular innovation is.

Approximately half of the developers make use of a rather cautious ‘market reader’ innovation strategy in order to achieve the desired innovations. This strategy is characterized by market monitoring, the preference for incremental innovations and utilizing successful innovative ideas of industry peers. This is also apparent from the earlier given figure that shows that many of the innovations are performed by multiple developers.

Approximately 25% of the developers seem to have no clear innovation strategy. In addition, the innovation strategy of more than 25% of the developers is not in line with the used business strategy.

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This suggests that many developers are not aware of the benefits of deliberately developing a strategy.

These conclusions can be drawn based on my research findings when looking at the developers industry as a whole. My graduation study also shows that certain differences can be noticed among the different types of developers.

Lessons learned Based on my graduation thesis, multiple lessons can be learned. One relates to the focus on other industries.

My graduation thesis provides insight on how developers innovate. It is noteworthy that a number of the innovations come from other recent (technological) developments in other industries such as the use of bigdata, crowdsourcing and 3D printing. Though these innovations still have to prove themselves, they could change the role of the developer significantly.

Besides this, my thesis aims to provide a number of tools to developers which can be used to improve their innovation strategy and come to deliberate innovations. The knowledge that is used to provide these tools comes from other industries as well.

Given the innovative nature of many other industries it is recommended to keep on looking for new developments and innovative methods from such industries and to study possible use of such developments and methods in our own sector. There still is a lot that can be learned.

Literature

Dam, N., & Marcus, J. (2005). Een praktijkgerichte benadering van organisatie en management: Noordhoff Wolters.

Locatus. (2014). Winkelleegstand stijgt voor zevende jaar op een rij. Retrieved 22-032014, from http://www.locatus.com/nederland/nieuws-en-informatie/nieuws-en-pers/ persbericht---winkelleegstand---jan-2014 Meuwissen, J.W.M. (2012). De ontwikkelaar in een veranderend speelveld. Tijdschrift voor volkshuisvesting(3).

Putman, M. (2010). Een nieuwe ontwikkelaar? - Een toekomstperspectief voor de projectontwikkelaar in gebeidsontwikkeling. Master City Developer.

Troostwijk. (2012). Crisis dwingt projectontwikkelaars tot nieuwe visie op vastgoed.

Troostwijk. Amsterdam.

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Innovation? Do not be fooled!!

Ronald van Warmerdam Some years ago, when I worked at an architectural firm, we often wanted to try out new innovative things. We not only did this because we liked it, but most of all it could give us a comparative advantage in, for instance, a tender. However, developing a new idea, designing it, translating it into building materials, detailing it with suppliers, getting permits or guarantees turned out to be extremely time-consuming and therefore costly. The execution of these new ideas often went wrong and our innovations became subject of legal procedures with clients and contractors. Absolutely a non-profitable approach!

Innovation is risky and costly but necessary.

But do not be fooled!

In the Netherlands the government and business invests hundreds of millions in innovation. The program consists of the top sectors water, food, horticulture, high tech, life sciences, chemistry, energy, logistics and creative industry. Where is the real estate or construction sector?

Is innovation not necessary in construction?

I would like to invert the question. Is it always necessary to innovate?

Should we, as a branch, make do with what is available and improve what we are already good at? Is that not also innovation? Maybe not that sexy but necessary! I would like to discuss this matter.

On January 22, 2015, the Dutch Financial Daily stated that innovation in the Netherlands is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in Europe. WOW!, feels like a reassuring message. It nevertheless does not mean that we are on the European top as for example; Germany has a number of innovative companies of 66.9 % and the Netherlands 10 % less. Way to go! The innovative activities examined are, among others, product innovation, process innovation and organizational innovation.

Let’s consider these three activities briefly and then come back to the question whether innovation in the build environment is necessary.

Product innovation If we think of product innovation ICT springs up in our mind. The ICT industry has, over the past 20 years, drastically changed our world, and 50

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consequently, year by year we see new phones, new computers, new systems, new gadgets, robots, drones, self-driving cars, thousands of applications, apps and so on. Cool innovations. Our whole live is connected, becomes faster, interactive and smarter. In ICT, this is financially possible because the rate of production is high and production is limited to a small number of companies. The products are relatively inexpensive, easy to ship around the world and sold to a global market of billions.

Product innovation is also possible in the construction sector but the context is completely different. Compared to ICT, the replacements time of buildings is long, the “product” price is high, there are numerous design and building companies and the market is almost everywhere local. You don’t ship houses around the world. Subsequently innovation will be related to this context. It is not logical to compare the construction industry to ICT, because radical rapid changes are simply not the case. The fact is that houses remain houses and office buildings office buildings, over decades. Big changes or transformations are expensive and innovation will be – mostly - about small adjustments, smart changes in demand and supply, slow changes in the market structures, slow consumer adjustments.

Economic fluctuations or government policies change the market but hardly disruptive. I do not expect grand and compelling changes if it comes to product innovation in the build environment.

Process innovation Thinking about process innovation the car industry comes into mind.

Next to developing new innovative models, constant process innovation in the industry is needed to stay competitive. Robotics, Building Information Management (BIM), supply chain optimization and Lean management are common and integrated in the car industry. These great tools and methods are applicable because there is continuity in production; the repetition factor gives room for a learning cycle and optimal indoor conditions are decisive for high quality.

The mentioned process innovations are adopted by construction industry. But the application is, to my experience, often hybrid used or partially implemented. This is, to my opinion, because building projects are often unique, mostly made by different teams, have to deal with outdoor conditions and for instance BIM is divided over multiple semi individual actors.

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workers are subsequently flexible to cope with it. When creating unique projects in open air and in a changing environment continuity and “Just in Time” could go wrong. What if the cement mixer is stuck in traffic jam or causes it? Without the daily adjustment by site managers things run –lean or not - out of hand. Do not get me wrong! I am convinced these innovations make the process of building smarter, faster and better but it is not a revolution.

Organizational innovation When I think of organizational change, two developments spring into mind: the role of clients and collaboration.

The client Building projects are often expensive and risky and so is innovation. A lot of research has been done about projects and project failure, there is always discussion about it and hundreds of books are written about projects going wrong. Delay and cost overrun are more the rule than an exception. The manager having the problems is taken of the job or fired and the Alderman could lose his position if under his responsibility projects run out if hand.

The fear about failure and who is to blame is omnipresent, especially in governmental organizations.

How to solve that? One solution is the so called “innovative forms of procurement “like Design, Build, Finance, Maintain and/or Operate (DBFMO). The idea behind it is that the party that is able to control a risk best, is likewise to be in charge of it and manage it. The procurement is called “innovative” but you can ask yourself if it is only a word. Often it seems to be a way to get rid of responsibility instead of a fair division of tasks and risks. The whole form is not innovative at all; it’s only shifting responsibility from client to the market. And if you look closely the system behind it stays the same. And if it goes wrong, like the Noord Zuidlijn in Amsterdam the client is to blame and the Alderman went home.

I wonder whether or not this improves the quality of buildings. The fact that a public client steps back form a project and transfers responsibility to the market, sound to me a bit peculiar. And not only because the market has a different goal: earning money. Does this kind of innovation deliver better products for society? Does a company always operate better than a public organization? And how do you balance for the public good with profit? I see project failure at both sites and it is surely an interesting topic for research.

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Is it true that the market performs better than governments? In an interview in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad the new CEO of Ballast Nedam states that Ballas Nedam had to write off millions on the highway project A15 because of Optimism Bias and Strategic Misrepresentation. In Poland Imtech is faced with enormous financial and legal problems from a failed theme park project near Warsaw. The integral construction turned out to be vulnerable for tricky and maybe illegal constructions almost bankrupting the firm.

These news articles show that not only governments are vulnerable in projects but the market as well. Both struggle with false financial estimations, optimistic structural design and optimistic costs and risks estimations, strategic misrepresentation in tenders; in the end leading to costly law suits, financial losses and sometimes bankruptcy. It would be interesting to know if these so called innovations add – in the end - value to society or not? Interesting to investigate? Take your change!

Smart Collaboration The world today shows major contextual changes. Innovation is needed to cope with this. The changes include, among others: growing world population, economic constraints, climate change, energy depletion, digital life and technological revolutions, leading to urbanization, mega cities, infrastructural constraints, floods and droughts all over the world, exclusion, unbalanced division of wealth, terrorism and so on.

Solutions are needed!

In the concept of “Smart City Development “, a number of these changes are combines. The idea behind it is that by means of ICT, Big Data and the Internet things the build environment can be made more resilient, sustainable and livable.

Ronald van Warmerdam Ronald is a project developer and manager at PMB Amsterdam, as well as teacher at the department of Real Estate and Housing, TU Delft. Currently he is coordinating the TRANSFORM project, a partnership between 6 European cities on industry, consultancy and science. Ronald’s love and passion for his work has inspired many students and his charisma really characterizes how significant personality is, in management.

The funny thing is, as he would say, everyone loves Raymond.

Oh, I mean Ronald! Djieeeee!

All around the world cities, companies and universities are working together to face these new challenges combined. The TRANSFORM project, (www.urbantransform.eu) of which I am coordinator, operates on a European scale to tackle the urban issues around energy. The aim is to support cities in their quest to become low carbon cities independent of fossil fuels and thriving on renewables. Smart Energy City aims to find innovation and solutions through horizontal cooperation between government, industry, citizens and knowledge institutions. But this is all but easy! It seems none of them is used to work in this way. And not the technical part is the most challenging. The difficult part is about new ways of working and collaboration, financial models, governance, February 2015 |

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politics, legal constraints, urban design habits, human habits and ecological consequence. A critical view on Smart City Development is needed.

It is a promising concept but reality is tough. Energy transition, climate mitigation and climate adaptation are extremely complex tasks about and there is hardly experience and little knowledge about it. Big Data sounds nice but also raises questions and resistance because of privacy issues, property rights, and vulnerability if information is freely accessible. Think of terrorism and cybercrime. But companies are not used to free data for the public good. Open data is for companies a no go area.

Keep it to yourself and use it for competition. The Internet of Things and everything in “the Cloud “sounds fascinating, and the digital revolution could make our lives easier but there is still a way to go and we do not know if it will work.

Sometimes “Smart” sounds to me like hot air. DATA and ICT bring a lot of good but a vast part of the physical world is not going to be replaced by bits and bytes. Books and music yes, but our homes, our sewage system or our food are not going to be digital. What will the cheese taste of in a digital hamburger?

If a black out hits town, my home stops functioning: no water no heat; no light no computer, no connection. Nice digital world coming to a halt.

There is a long way to go and a lot of innovation needed to make cities really Smart, Resilient and Sustainable. But it is challenging to work on.

Innovation?

Ambidexterity is a characteristic of companies to be able to deal on the one hand with managing and improving day to day businesses and on the other hand being good at developing innovative new products or services for future business. Ambidexterity is being competitive on both sides like I explained above about car industry. The first is the constant optimization of existing processes required for the production of existing markets. The second is about having an eye for trends and social developments. The second is also about creativity to design new products or services and the way to bring it to the market. The characteristics and mentality of the two hands differ but both parts have to deal with innovation.

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I am convinced that the building industry needs both hands. There is a way to go to improve existing structures and methods, and there is need for new ways of working and products as well. But I would suggest doing this in a matter of fact way, typical for the sector, because there is also a lot at stake as I explained above. Innovation is great but realism is needed as well. Don’t be fooled!

I like to end with a provocative statement hopefully leading to innovation.

Matthijs Haak, one of the authors of this issue of BOSS magazine, graduated in February 2015, on “Success through Innovation” in real estate development. After his speech we had a discussion about the low rate of innovation in the Dutch building industry and the tendency to continue with “Business as Usual” as soon as possible. Matthijs stated that this could be the result of the way students are educated! Wow, this question is more than legitimate! Do we educate our students in the good way? Do we prepare our students to deal with future challenges they will face in society? Do we educate them to deal with the vast changes mentioned above? Do we teach theme enough about being innovative during courses and prepare them for life?

Literature http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/ondernemersklimaat-en-innovatie http://government-2020.dupress.com/ Townsend, Anthony M. (2013). Smart Cities. Big data, civic hackers, and the quest for a new utopia.

Haak, Matthijs. (2015). De veranderende ontwikkelaar. Succes door innovatie Hajer, Maarten & Dassen, Ton. (2014) Smart about Cities. Visualising the challenge for the 21st century urbanism.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. (2012). Over budget, over time over and over again.

NRC Handelsblad. 6 september. (2014). Economie katern. Pretpark, Luchtkasteel.

NRC Handelsblad. 23 augustus (2014). Ik hoef mijzelf niet de bewijzen.

FD. Donderdag 22 januari (2015). Nergens in de EU bloeit innovatie sneller op dan in Nederland

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Innovation: a necessary luxury Patrick van der Duin Innovate, innovate, innovate, it has become the mantra of any modern company. But how much stands of these ambitions after the business case is completed. And what does it take to truly innovate as a company. Patrick van der Duin sheds light on the subject from a corporate as well as an academic perspective to make recommendations for understanding and implementing innovation.

My career started at KPN Research, KPN’s R&D lab at the time, which, like so many other telecom-labs, no longer exists today. The dot-com bubble in 2000 forced the managers of telecom providers to focus on the present and go for efficiency at the expense of long-term investments to guarantee the cash flow. Innovation is ‘a luxury’, as Ad Scheepbouwer, the then CEO of KPN put it, making KPN Research somewhat redundant. As a result, KPN Research was bought by TNO in January of 2003 for one Euro and renamed TNO ICT. And to be honest, KPN did not have much choice.

At the time of the dot-com bubble, KPN management visited KPN Research to take a look at our research. A colleague of mine presented a user study into a portable computer consisting merely of a touchscreen (a kind of tablet, if you will). Because my colleague was unable to indicate what the costs would be, he got a thumbs down. Another colleague presented a project involving a more efficient (or smarter, as we would now call it) management of mechanics. This colleague was able to answer the cost question. Both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction had improved enormously, and it was expected that the costs would fall accordingly, resulting in a thumbs up for this project.

Unfortunately, this story is not typical of KPN, nor is it only typical of telecom providers. It is typical of many companies. It is a situation that still exists at many large companies, despite the frequent use of the word innovation in annual reports and other commercial messages, and the pride they take in new products that, unfortunately, are often not that new at all. Short-term products that are virtually guaranteed to yield a profit are preferred to innovative processes of which the outcome is (by definition) uncertain, even though, generally speaking, innovation is considered the key to success by both academics and practitioners.

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at avoiding the extremely boring and ultimately destructive low-costlow-price spiral. It must be much more enjoyable to work for a truly innovative company than for a company that is forever optimizing its processes. The question is why there are so few truly innovative companies? Why is innovation often preached but rarely practiced? Or better yet: what is keeping companies from becoming more innovative? There are various causes, three of which I will discuss here: a preference for the short term over the long term, the various approaches to innovation, and the distinction between projects and innovation processes.

Patrick van der Duin Dr. Patrick van der Duin is assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and associate professor Futures Research & Trendwatching at Fontys University of Applied Sciences. He focuses on technology, management of innovation, and futures studies.

Among others, he has previously worked as futurist in the private sector.

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Innovation is long-term affair. Successful new products and services are not developed overnight, but require sustained commitment and attention from various parties. For example, the first prototype of the videophone (a first form of Skype) was built in the 1930’s and the first mobile phone call took place in 1946. It may be clear that innovation is not for people who do not have a lot of patience. However, when organizations evaluate the performance of their employees every three months, it stands to reason that the focus is not on the long term that is needed for innovation. Due to the resulting short-term vision, people no longer see the connection between what happens now and what may be the long-term consequences. According to the Italian scientist Maurizio Catino, many organizations do indeed suffer from ‘organizational myopia’.

Short-term concerns obscure the long-term vision that is needed, and “the urgent drives out the important”, as Henri Kissinger once said.

In addition to patience and a long-term perspective, successful innovation also is about knowing how to innovate. Few things are more tragic than a brilliant idea that is poorly developed and as such was unable to be turned into a successful innovation. This is why many scientists and consultants are looking for the best way to manage the innovation process. This search can be seen as a quest for the ‘philosopher’s stone’. After all, once an organization learns how to innovate, the road to success is wide open. If an organization understands which factors are involved in successful innovation, it has become an innovative organization.

Good practices are not enough, the quest for the optimum approach to innovation has to lead to a unique set of best practices. This is why, from time to time, scientists as well as consultants announce that they have finally found the best way to innovate. A famous example is the book ‘In Search of Excellence’ by Peters and Waterman, who, after carefully studying the most successful companies, were able to identify the crucial success factors. Unfortunately, a few years later, it turned out that the companies they had investigated were no longer as successful as they once were. One of the reasons may be that Peters & Waterman

simply invented a lot of their data, but it became clear that succes factors are not eternal but subject to change. Nowadays, many people believe in the concept of ‘open innovation’ that was developed by Henry Chesbrough and that encourages companies to share their innovative knowledge and skills with each other.

Unfortunately, things are not that simple. When it comes to innovation, there are no ‘certainties’, and every organization will have to develop its own style of innovation. And although that means that there is no ‘one size fits all’, there are certain tendencies (but not ‘laws’!). For instance, incremental innovations often start with market research, and radical innovations with technical breakthroughs. And in some sectors, regulation and lengthy testing trajectories play a crucial role, while in other sectors, a quick time-to-market is essential.

As mentioned earlier, innovation involves taking risks. Doing things you have never done before. It also means that innovation management is not management in the classic sense of the word (i.e., control), and that it involves more than managing processes. To understand innovation, one needs to draw a distinction between innovation management and project management. Project management sticks to familiar paths and avoids risks as much as possible, while innovation management is about exploring those risks. Innovation management embraces uncertainty, why project management tries to manage it. The construction of the North-South line of the Amsterdam subway is a good example of the distinction between the two. As a project, it was a failure in terms of time and money, but as an innovation, it was a success, because it allowed people to drill for the first time in soft soil in a residential area. Of course, the difference is a gradual one (a day before the introduction of a new product, there is more project management than innovation management), but it is more than a merely semantic distinction, because it is an indication of the actual innovativeness of an organization. It is only when an organization accepts that innovation processes can fail that it can become a truly innovative organization. That is why governments have so many problems with innovation, because they want to minimize risks when they are spending the taxpayers’ money.

Innovation requires a long-term vision, a flexible innovation process and an awareness that innovation is an inherently risky process. That does not make innovation any simpler, but there is no real alternative. However, innovation is also fun, which makes innovation a ‘necessary luxury’, one that is possible for any organization, provided they pay attention to the elements outlined in this article.

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References Catino, Maurizo (2013). Organizational myopia. Problems of rationality and foresight in organizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open innovation. Boston: Harvard Business School Press Duin, P.A. van der (2010). Noord-Zuidlijn dreigt succes te worden, De Volkskrant, 30 Augustus, 2010 Peters, T.J. and R.H. Waterman (1982). In search of excellence. Lessons from America’s best-run companies. New York: HarperBusiness

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Our interstellar Future, or not?

Fabian Marchand Watching science-fiction movie Interstellar, about a space mission leaving planet Earth in search for inhabitable planets, left me somewhat puzzled. Besides the extravagant and somewhat unrealistic assumptions on fourth and fifth dimensions it did include a plausible future for our planet, or at least for its urban and rural fabric. It envisioned a future in which almost all of mankind lives in cities, enabling maximised productivity of the remaining farmlands.

Vast amounts of corn, potato and ricefields have to provide food for billions of people living in extensive cities. Agricultural machinery allowing for non-stop exploitation of these lands could be next day’s innovation. It is just a matter of time before agricultural technologies reach far beyond man-driven tractors.

More interesting however is the continuing trend of urbanization, strongly suggesting a city dominated future landscape of buzzing hotspots within huge open fields of rural farmland.

One could argue an ever growing number of people living in cities will lead to an extraordinary level of wealth, satisfaction and sustainability. As Edward Glaeser explains in his book ‘Triumph of the City’ citizens tend to become smarter, less polluting and are gaining more wealth in densely populated areas: cities. Among the factors specified by Glaeser that decrease a city’s carbon-dioxide emission and gas consumption is travel distance - living close to each other requires less cars and shorter commutes.

People living in cities also use less gas to heat their homes due to living in apartments rather than freestanding homes. Furthermore, proximity allows for knowledge being shared easier, faster and on a higher frequency, resulting in a smarter population.

This is what we could call the arena in which cities compete. Such rivalry between cities could alter a city’s policies to achieve competitive advantages over other cities.

An example of this is allowing unlimited building heights, leading to significant lower rent levels and

resulting in attracting more people and enterprises.

But are these policies and the trend of urbanisation really going to change our planet’s future? What, for instance, will happen to our planet if the cities of China, India and Brazil reach emission levels close to the average of the USA and some European countries? Glaeser explains that current inhabitants of Western cities use significant larger numbers of gas and emit larger amounts of carbon-dioxide. If the levels of China, India and Brazil’s cities reach our western standards, total gas consumption and pollution emissions will skyrocket. These developments will impact our planet’s future regarding sustainability and livability, not the 5% or 10% of Dutch inhabitants using solar panels.

Nonetheless, I do think we can prevent China, India and Brazil’s cities from reaching our Western levels.

It however requires a serious evaluation and alteration of our own lifestyle and (carbon) footprint. Only if Western politics have embraced this self-portrait of excessive energy use and emission they will be able to credibly guide developing countries like China, India and Brazil towards more sustainable societal models. The more we succeed in achieving awareness and shifting lifestyles the more we can prevent our world from perishing in the near future.

So maybe, just maybe, we can turn Interstellar into a fairytale movie without any likelihood of actually happening.

Fabian Marchand Chairman of the BOSS board ‘14/’15, just started his graduation thesis on crowdfunding in the Real Estate investment market.

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Business Tour Review Nick van Assendelft

The first Business Tour of this college year. Several companies were visited by a group of 30 students.

Nick van Assendelft talks about his experiences with his first Business Tour.

Nick van Assendelft Popularly known as Baby face Nicky, Nick van Ass en Delft recently started his journey in the world of Real Estate. He is a profoundly driven and hardworking little boy who always wears a smile. Not only is he good with his books, Nick is also brilliant with beer.

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My first BT was an informative and insightful experience for me as well as the other participating students. It started out with a minor delay, as early in the morning of the first day our bus experienced some mechanical problems. This gave us the opportunity to warm up with coffee and get acquainted with some of the participating students. Finally the bus arrived, and warmed up and well acquainted we departed to visit out first company, Dura Vermeer. They received us in their North West regional office, in which many of us experienced the informal and family like ambiance. After a small company presentation we were split up in separate groups, for a two-part case in which we provided several solutions for sustainable school buildings. After the interesting case and tasty lunch, our group continued to the South Axis in Amsterdam. After some well-earned drinks at Dickys, we hopped on the subway to TROUW. Amsterdam, a temporary club, restaurant and art space in which we received a guided tour by owner and DJ, Olaf Boswijk. The Q and A with Olaf provided us with more insight in exploiting business in temporary real estate, and his drivers and experiences of owning on of the hottest clubs in the Netherlands. The last bus trip of the day, in which we were presented with some nice drinks and exquisite music, took us to Utrecht. After dropping our bags in the hotel, we got a nice late night diner with all the BT participants. The long and exhaustive day ended up with inspecting some of Utrecht’s finer nightlife establishments.

The next day started early after a nice breakfast. we continued the tour to beautiful and picturesque Baarn. Here we visited AT Osborne, a large consultancy firm located in a beautiful manor house in the outskirts of the small village. They handed us a case about drafting a program of requirements, by using their own developed 360- method. This method provides some grip in the beginning of the design process, which is filled with uncertainties. After a delicious lunch in the charming city centre of Baarn, we visited yet another large consultancy firm, Twynstra Gudde in Amersfoort. Against all odds, we were not received with a case, but a teamwork exercise. The objective of the exercise was to quickly make a team and built the quite complex beam together, only provided with several shafts and couplers. Most teams started out quite confident, most members well provided with a technical and architectural background, but it proved to be quite difficult for all teams. This exercise was a fun and informative way of looking at participating in different teams. After the storming, norming and performing of the teams, we were provided a really educational, self-developed real estate pub quiz.

After the quiz, some of Twynstra Gudde’s staff members joined us for some informal drinks and informative dialogues.

The BT was a well-organized and educational experience, in which it provided me with more insight about the several different companies we visited. It’s a useful excursion for everyone who studies in the field of real estate.

At Dura Vermeer

At AT Osborne

At Dura Vermeer

At Club TROUW

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What were you thinking?!

The SS Rotterdam; a ship that used to be the former flagship of the Holland America line. In the nineties, when the ship did not meet the requirements to still drive, the ship was transferred to its ‘birthplace’: Rotterdam. Housing association Woonbron bought the ship for 1.8 million euros to transform it to a hotel. They expected to invest 6 million euros (NRC Handelsblad), however Woonbron had to invest much more money because of asbestos and other defects. In the end, Woonbron had to pay 257 million euros to complete the transformation of the SS Rotterdam. In June 2014, ex-chairman of the board of Woonbron, confessed he now regrets the purchase of the SS Rotterdam (De Volkskrant, 2014).

Since an investment is always risky, we wondered what our fellow students would think about such an investment and the risks involved.

Would they also feel guilty like the former chairman of the board of Woonbron or would they not, since the SS Rotterdam is now a success?

We came up with two different statements, which were divided over our fellow students. They responded and these were their reactions.

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Statement 1 Suppose you’re a housing corporation investing in a project. At the end, it turns out that the costs are 30 times as much as initially expected.

However, the project has a very good influence on the surrounding area (more visitors, less crime etc.). Would you feel guilty or do you think this was a good investment?

Statement 2 Suppose you’re a housing corporation, initially investing 6 million euros in a project that hasn’t got a lot to do with social housing. Then, there are some problems during the process, which causes that the costs increase up to 200 million. Would you feel guilty or do you think this was a good investment?

Result Good investment: 7 Bad investment: 14

Result Good investment: 1 Bad investment: 20

No matter in what way the facts are presented, the general opinion is that it was a bad investment. Can be. Nothing wrong with that. Friend and foe now say it is a success. But the positive effects of the SS Rotterdam on the neighborhood mean apparently nothing compared to the euros that had to be invested. Is that the vision we have? Invest as long as it benefits ourselves in the short term, no matter what the possible long term gains on social themes are.

There are very few respondents who think it’s a good investment when they’re faced with statement 2. In this statement the actual numbers are mentioned. Is this the cause of the difference? Are we afraid of big numbers? Does it become to vivid in case the actual numbers are published?

We shouldn’t be afraid. If we dare to dream big, we might as well get comfortable with big risks and big numbers. Because that is the game we’ll be playing in a few years!

References

NRC Handelsblad (2009). Miljoenenverlies op SS Rotterdam. Retrieved from: http://vorige. nrc.nl/article2202554.ece, accessed on February 16th 2015.

De Volkskrant (2014). Topman Woonbron: spijt van aankoop SS Rotterdam. Retrieved from: http://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/topman-woonbron-spijt-van-aankoop-ssrotterdam~a3667353/, accessed on February 16th 2015.

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