4 cees van Beers, professor of innovation management in the tpm faculty and head of the technology, Strategy & entrepreneurship section, often hears people say: 'information technology is dead, long live biotechnology and sustainable energy systems!' But is that really the case? We can certainly expect to see biotechnology and sustainable energy systems making quite a stir, but nothing like the impact that information technology had and is still having on people and society, says Van Beers. on 5 february 2010, this was a theme of his inaugural address, entitled: Revolutions and adaptations, technological Shocks and Business performance. Van Beers, a professor since September 2008, coordinates research into revolutionary technological innovations that have major effects on society. Examples include the progress made in the 19th century thanks to the introduction of electricity or the development of IT in recent decades. The research focuses on how businesses are forced to adapt in order to increase productivity and achieve innovation. The emergence of new technologies may often make it seem that IT is past its best, but I would dispute that. Biotechnology and sustainable energy systems do not deliver significant cost reductions and are there- fore only limited in scope compared to IT. A mobile phone or internet access may be accessible for people in developing countries, but new medicines are not. Van Beers also takes into account the fact that companies have not yet fully exploited the possibilities offered by IT systems. Although they may manage their customer data in a CRM system, they often fail to fully integrate this with an inventory management system or with their providers' systems. This means that they underperform as businesses. The technology is out there, but it is not being fully exploited. Systems are not nearly as interconnected as people tend to think, says Van Beers. At macro level, greater interconnectivity would mean that external shocks, such as a Keynesian negative demand shock, would spread faster through the value chain and accelerate economic decline. On the positive side, it would also mean that economic recovery is faster. This seems to be what we are now seeing in the credit crisis. Van Beers is keen to discover the obstacles that hold back businesses in the face of technological advances and make them stand and stare like rabbits in the headlights, as he likes to put it. There is one cause of which he is very much aware: the high costs of the additional investments required. People claim that for every euro a company invests in IT, a further nine euros are required in order to ensure the system functions effectively. That makes sense. But what exactly are these costs? nowadays, consumers can choose between a bottle of water from australia or a bottle of water from Spa for the same price. lóri tavasszy cites this example to explain the practical background to his inaugural address. products are distributed worldwide and this has led to a corresponding increase in freight transport. this boosts our prosperity, but there is also a downside, in the form of environmental pollution and localised nuisance. a lot of traffic does not actually need to be in a specific place, but does have to pass by it. if freight transport doubles in the space of just a few decades, something will have to be done about it. this is something we are not yet ready for. neither in terms of the inconvenience it will cause, nor the opportunities it could offer. Since 1 June 2009, Tavasszy has worked in the TPM faculty as a part-time professor in Freight Transport and Logistics. In addition to his role as professor, he is also a senior consultant at TNO. 'Time for policy' is the title of his address and, as he explains, this relates to him personally. I came to Delft in order to be able to concentrate more on policy design. In Nijmegen, there is a natural focus on social studies. In Delft we are designers and our first concern is how we can use design to improve things. According to Tavasszy, there is plenty of room for improvement in his field of expertise. Freight transport continues to undergo substantial growth at both global and local level. This is partly as a result of globalisation, but changing patterns of consumption also play a role. The emerging success of online shopping is plain to see. New structures are developing to bring goods to the consumer. Freight transport has much more impact on our lives than it ever did in the past. So how can we organise it effectively? This is not just a technical, organisational and logistical question, but also relates closely to society. It is this combination that makes this material so interesting for a faculty like TPM. In his inaugural address, he tackles the three policy issues that form the focus of his lectures. This story involves economics and technology and we will also examine sustainability in worldwide chains. In our current situation, we simply let everything happen. The question is whether it is possible to make a smart distinction: allow the transport stream that is profitable to pass through the Netherlands and divert the part where there is little or no money to be earned through other countries. This requires research in order to identify which streams they are and how we can create such a scenario. There is very little of this research going on at the moment. Armed with this knowledge, we can strengthen government policy and devise new strategies to develop our ports and multimodal infrastructure. CEES VAN BEERS Technological shocks and business performance LóRI TAVASSzY Effective organisation of freight transport MARTIN DE JONG Learning from our differences harbin institute of technology (hit) in the north- eastern corner of china. it is thursday 4 february, 16:00 local time. the university building is the venue for a strange and unfamiliar ceremony, since the phenomenon of an inaugural address is unknown here. Still, associate professor martin de Jong of the tpm faculty, part-time professor at hit since may 2009, thought it would be fun to make his appointment something special. he decided to give an inaugural address and a two-day workshop on the same subject: the pros and cons of confucian values in infrastructure development. After studying public administration at the Erasmus university in Rotterdam, Martin de Jong worked as a research assistant for TPM professor Ernst ten Heuvelhof. Between 1993 and 1997, he worked on an international comparison of decision-making on transport infrastructures. That was what sparked my interest in cultural differences and different institutional systems and the possibility of transferring knowledge from one country to another. I referred to this as institutional transplantations. In his quest to answer the question of how to make systems faster, more robust, more democratic, more decisive and so on, De Jong ended up in China. In Europe, minor expansions to underground systems and high-speed rail lines seem to go hand in hand with a great deal of pain and inconvenience. In China, these kinds of projects emerge from nowhere and develop at a rapid pace. What do the Chinese have that we don't? An obvious answer would be to suppress democracy a little, reduce community involvement and eradicate the powers of veto. Of course that cannot happen, although I sometimes think it might be a good idea. In the West and in the Netherlands in particular, we have created an excess of interdependency between the various parties involved. Confucianism is a school of Chinese philosophy that highlights the importance of discipline for people. In his inaugural address, De Jong asserts that, in China, it is the elite (politicians, senior business people) who need to be disciplined in order to combat corruption and excess power. In the West on the other hand, it is the population that needs to be disciplined and to learn to be responsible in the use of its freedoms. Here, it is the people with the loudest voices who have the most power, even if they know little about the subject. There is no authority with the audacity to challenge this. Most of the empirical examples I have come from the world of infrastructure, but it could apply equally to politics, for example. That would give this development much greater scope. Inaugural addresses
5 the story of mei ling tan's experiences is one that could inspire envy in the best of us. the 23 year- old tpm student is currently spending six months in the united States as part of the prestigious Kauffman global Scholars program. it is an internship among the world's greatest in the field of science, innovation, industry and technology, aimed especially at outstanding students intent on starting their own business. mei ling tan is in her element: i aim to make a small part of the world my own. This ambition, which she says is part of her being, is evident as soon as you meet Mei Ling Tan. When she faced the prospect of appearing before a high-powered committee to confirm her application for the business internship, she showed no signs of nerves or tension. This was just made for me and that was the impression I conveyed. Everyone couldn't resist a smile. I knew straight away that I would be successful. This second-year Master's student (SEPAM; System Engineering, Policy Analysis & Management) may sound confident and self-assured, but betrays not a hint of arrogance. On 19 November last year, Science Minister Plasterk* awarded the internships to Mei Ling and five other Dutch students (two from Wageningen, two from Maastricht and one from Nijmegen). The Kauffman Global Scholars Program offers students the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills in an international setting. The group currently involved in the programme also includes students originally from Iran, China, Korea and India. Entrepreneurial spirit When Mei Ling Tan started studying some six years ago, she was totally unaware of her entrepreneurial spirit. It was mainly the combination of technology and policy that attracted her to the TPM faculty. However, everything changed when Professor Ken Morse of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sparked her interest in technology and commerce just two years ago. It was during a special inspirational lecture at the YES!Delft, incubator for technological start-up companies run by Tu Delft and the municipality of Delft. His advice was that anyone who wants to become a successful entrepreneur needs to start by spending five years working for a company in a specific sector. I asked him whether, after five years, you would not find yourself tied to the company: a good salary, company car, accustomed to the comfort of a secure, well-paid job. Who would want to leave all that to start a business from scratch and even invest money in it? Women might also want to have children. How can you find the time to spend five years simply assessing the situation? Morse was interested by the question and invited Mei Ling to attend a masterclass, followed by a six-month period as a research assistant. I learned all about the ins and outs of doing business in a complex environment. The more I got to know other entrepreneurs, the more fascinated I was by the idea of trying to market innovations. I was bitten by the entrepreneur's bug, the idea of believing in something and running with it. Simply talking about things gets you nowhere. But business is also about helping each other. This all suits me perfectly: technology, science, innovation and working with people. Previously, Morse had said to us, Delft students: if you can't do it, who can? So that's what I intend to do. Energy Mei Ling Tan aims to run a business that is active worldwide in the field of sustainable energy. She realises that she has a long road ahead of her. I do not want to get bogged down in a company with just thirty people. Doing creative things that help make the world a better place is something I believe in and find energising. When lecturer Dap Hartmann of the Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship was asked to propose candidates for the Kauffman programme last year and told Mei Ling Tan that it fitted her curriculum perfectly, she had no hesitations. Even though it does mean that I will graduate a year later. Mei Ling is already two months into the internship. But she felt at home in the States within a week. It felt as if I had been here for months. We spent the first five weeks on a speed course in business. This was followed by visits to universities and companies in Silicon Valley (Stanford university, Apple, Google) and on the west coast (MIT Boston, Harvard). She has just started on a three-month internship with Ernst & Young Venture Capitalists Advisory Group. At YES!Delft I experienced how start- up businesses work, now I am in the world of investment banking and venture capitalists to see how companies go about achieving exceptional growth. * In alliance with the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is an initiator and sponsor of the Action Programme, Education and Entrepreneurship (Onderwijs en Ondernemen). For more information, see www.kauffman.org and www.onderwijsonderneemt.nl. TPM sTudenT Mei Ling Tan joins The KauffMan gLobaL schoLars PrograM Business internship in the US Ken Morse's advice was that anyone who wants to become a successful entrepreneur needs to start by spending five years working for a company in a specific sector
http://www.kauffman.org, http://www.onderwijsonderneemt.nl.,
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