Expertise

Berenschot’s consultants and process managers have a strong affinity for the spatial domain. Furthermore, we view the issues from an integral perspective. And we invest energy in linking the abstract and the actual execution.

Process Management

So many players with so many interests, and only so much space: area development processes are becoming more and more complex all the time. At the same time, players are increasingly seeing functional blending as an opportunity to find better spatial solutions. But this places high demands on the way in which the process is set up and how different parties work together.

Do you have questions about a complex area development process? Do you find it difficult to get different players to work together? Berenschot can supply process managers for complex area development projects and is thus able to jump-start complex collaborative initiatives.

1. Content: framing and reframing. Designed to get the players to look at the area and the content aspect in a different way, so that new perspectives emerge.
2. Arena: the proactive management of the various parties. This is accomplished by broadening horizons and mobilising new parties as a means of adding a new dynamic to the process, or in reverse by excluding certain parties as a means of reducing complexity.
3. People: motivating the representatives of the various parties. This to make it enjoyable and interesting for the people who play a key role in the process. Objective: to ensure that they will act as ambassadors for the process within their own organisation.
4. Steps: scripting. To maintain an overview of all required activities and to ensure that they are in fact carried out.
5. Preconditions: time, money, quality, information, organisation. To organise support such that operations are reliable and the rules of behaviour are consistently applied. 

Advice

The integral character of area development requires new instruments that span different sectors. This applies to the financing of a project and the required partnership constructs, such as PPPs. What legal, financial and organisational solutions are available for this purpose? To what extent is a mobilised development actually feasible?

Berenschot has frequently provided advice concerning complex area development projects and spatial issues. Examples of this include the design of processes, the development of social cost-benefit analyses (SCBAs) and business cases, and the review, including the legal review, of partnership constructs.

Learning

Opportunities to realise social value on the basis of area development can be created by establishing new links between sectors, players and individuals. This transforms area development into a collective learning process about collaboration across boundaries, where the involved parties jointly learn how to explore the new potential of an area. Aside from this, area development is also a learning process because it requires organisations to adopt different behaviours. Sometimes being able to properly anticipate the spatial challenges requires organisational changes. Berenschot provides support and consulting services within and about this learning process.

Research

Knowledge and new insights are required to legitimise the steps involved in area development. Berenschot regularly uses the joint-fact-finding approach, so that insights are jointly developed. Research is also required for comparative and innovation purposes. Do you have a need for joint-fact-finding or independent expertise? Berenschot has many years of experience conducting research within the spatial domain.