Smart Cities: A Toolkit for Leaders

The definition of a “smart city” is changing. Not only does it refer to a community that adopts technological tools to make itself more efficient, but the term also encompasses the ideas of sustainability, compassion and equity for all stakeholders. As cities embrace initiatives to become more connected, data-driven and resilient, mayors and other leaders often have to prioritize among the various needs of the community in light of budget constraints. The key is to strategically pick the projects that will bring the most impact to a city and result in the most good.

A Smart City is More Than Just About Technology

THE DEFINITION OF A “SMART CITY” is changing. Not only does it refer to a community that adopts technological tools to make itself more efficient, but the term also encompasses the ideas of sustainability, compassion and equity for all stakeholders. As cities embrace initiatives to become more connected, data-driven and resilient, mayors and other leaders often have to prioritize among the various needs of the community in light of budget constraints. The key is to strategically pick the projects that will bring the most impact to a city and result in the most good. When cities first embarked on the smart city journey, they focused on bringing the right technology on board. In this first phase, municipalities worked with technology partners to do such things as deploy sensors to manage utilities and used the data generated for descriptive rather than predictive analytics. Smart Cities 2.0 saw municipalities take a bigger lead role as they leveraged the Internet of Things (IoT) and used technology proactively and on a much wider scale to produce a better quality of life. In Smart Cities 3.0, the city positions itself as a platform that actively interacts, collaborates and co-creates with its citizens as valuable stakeholders. GETTING BACK TO BASICS The mayor’s first big test is to decide where to begin the smart-city journey. Start with the basics. “The four big pillars for smart cities are urban mobility, energy, telecommunications and public safety,” said Jesse Berst, chairman of the Smart Cities Council. It’s important to get the basics right before attempting higher profile projects. “Cities should be concentrating on what they need to do and what they can do best, which is very often not very glamorous,” added Gilles Duranton, Wharton real estate professor. “These may have to do with the management of urban space, roadways, and how to deal with local public goods — that’s picking up garbage, making sure people get water, do not get lead poisoning, and so forth.” It’s also important to think holistically, even with individual projects. For example, aim to maintain a high degree of connectivity with residents by offering a single-point access to services with a consistent user experience on one platform. The best way to achieve that is with “an integrated, cross-cutting approach,” Berst said, where one app could connect citizens with different departments. It might help to think about the city as a business with the mayor as the CEO, said Robert Inman, Wharton professor of business economics and public policy. “The city is essentially the caretaker of land . ... My job as the mayor is to manage that location.” As you craft a smart-city vision for guidance, focus on three aspects, said Seeta Hariharan, general manager and group head, Digital Software & Solutions Group, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). One is how to drive innovation at the local level that would counter the challenges brought by rapid urbanization. Partner with local companies, which understand their markets better as well as the residents’ needs and challenges. Second, redefine public-private partnerships in a way that includes the voice of labor unions. “Including the labor unions in these partnerships can close the digital gap and create more equal opportunities for everyone,” she said. Third, “mayors have a responsibility of looking ahead and coming up with smarter regulations that keep pace with technology,” Hariharan said. For example, when cars were first allowed on the roads, it was illegal for them to drive faster than a horse and carriage under the Highways Act of 1861. Back then, people were worried about safety, and the maximum speed limit set for cars was four miles an hour. Cars, which were called “horseless carriages” back then, had to each have a three-man crew including a red-flag bearer, who would walk in front of the car and direct traffic as the car approached intersections. That same sentiment could be at work today. “When we have a new technology in place, we tend to take the rules of the past and apply it to the new technology,” Hariharan said. In much the same way, the laws governing driverless cars vary across states. In New York, for example, one cannot have a driverless car on the road unless it is escorted by a police car. “I was reminded of the 1861 Act and the red-flag bearer,” she said. In some other states, even if one is operating a driverless car, the driver must have both hands on the steering wheel. FINDING THE RIGHT FRAMEWORK Before launching a smart cities project, it is important to set up the right framework for success. First, a city’s leaders and financial backers must truly care about this endeavor, said Britt Harter, a director in the Sustainable Business Solutions practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and leader of its Cities of the Future initiative. “Without that ... push from the real leaders and the decision-makers, things will stall,” he said. Second, cross-departmental facilitation is a must to get things done. But take note that it won’t happen automatically. “You need a push from the leader,” said Harter. “You need a reason for them to come together and make change, otherwise they will just wait out the meetings and then return to the status quo.” Third, he said, city departments “need to know what to do; they need a plan.” Take the experience of Atlanta. Early on, the city prioritized the use of the latest technological innovations such as the IoT and big data analytics to improve the quality of life for its residents, according to the city’s former CIO, Samir Saini. Those tools, especially the data component, drive decision-making and improve outcomes by enabling the switch from a reactive model to a proactive and predictive one. The other piece he saw as a “game changer” was the city’s decision to set up an enterprise data platform with data links and analytics tools. It would aggregate data from multiple sources, contextualize the information and make it available to others who could use it to improve the quality of life in the city. Illinois led the data and analytics effort itself. Hardik Bhatt, who until recently was the CIO of the state, dispatched at least five IT teams to develop mobile solutions for city services. The state was delivering one mobile app every month and cross-training employees on mobile technology. A central data analytics team is working with three state government departments to build analytics components. In 2017, cyber security training for government employees took off in full force, following a state legislature mandate. However, 90% of the employees had already voluntarily joined the program. “You don’t get all those gains if you don’t have an employee base that is bought into the vision,” said Bhatt, also formerly the CIO of Chicago. To be sure, cities know that their grand visions will get moving only when there is economic growth and its accompa-

nying larger tax base. That means cities have to attract both employers and skilled workers. But which do they entice first — the employers and then the talent will follow, or the other way around? “Talent first, employers later” seems to be the answer. Begin by making the city a desirable place to live and work for employees, which means investing in the amenities they seek, said Prasanna Tambe, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions. For instance, a city might want to invest in mass transit systems to make mobility easier for residents and expand shopping, dining and entertainment options. Once a critical mass of talent becomes available, employers will follow. Finally, it is easy to get excited about smart cities and overestimate what they could deliver and underplay any potential challenges. Be realistic. City leaders “work under the pretense of execution. That is, ‘We need to drive this big plan and this big plan will be key in local economic development policies’ to become the next Silicon Valley,” Duranton said. “The reality is very sad – most of these never take off.” Respect technology as an enabler, but don’t allow it to dominate the decision-making process. “Historically, smart cities have had their agenda driven top-down by private sector vendors,” said Adam Beck, executive director of the Smart Cities Council, Australia and New Zealand. “They have been trying to sell technology and don’t necessarily understand how cities work.” In the past, this way of selling made it challenging for cities to understand and buy into smart-city agendas. But that has since changed and cities now understand that technology is the enabler.

The four big pillars for smart cities are urban mobility, energy, telecommunications and public safety