INREGU Editions

INREGU - Institut National de Recherche En Gestion Urbaine

INREGU Editions

INREGU Editions are currently preparing 2 new books which should be published in 2020.

  • 2022
    • INREGU - Institut National de Recherche en Gestion Urbaine

      Virtual & Commercial Cities

      Concepts of cities keep innovating, after the Digital City, the Smart City, now comes the Virtual & Commercial City. What can a Blue Ocean Strategy approach tell us about the future of cities? A “Virtual City” could become a “real virtuality”.

      When someone asks what is the most important in cities, I always answer “People”. Because without people you cannot have a city. My inspiring Professor at INSEAD, Hal Gregersen, recommends asking catalytic questions. What if… we could have cities with no people? Shocking!

      People are expensive to cities: the more they are, the more infrastructures, natural resources and services are needed. According to the United Nations, by 2050, 68 percent of the global population will live in urban areas. Municipal governments face increasing pressure from citizens and businesses to improve urban service delivery performance. Beyond central government funding, the primary revenue streams for municipal governments are service fees (public parking, toll roads, waste management, and building permits, among others), fines for violations, charges or taxes (on property owners as well as on income, sales, and other transactions such as hospitality charges and taxes on plastic bottles and bags, carbon from vehicles, and vacant land), and assets monetization such as land, buildings and properties.

      In order to increase revenues cities could charge more, improve the number of transactions (service offerings or asset monetization), optimize collection rate (and minimize leakage) or introduce new revenue streams.

      Cities need people to generate revenues to create infrastructures so as to welcome more people. This virtuous circle has its limits though: most of the cities are now struggling financially. These conditions are unfavorable, and they work against cities whatever their resources and capabilities are. For some cities they could adopt a reconstructionist approach and build a strategy that will reshape the concept of a city and what is taken for granted to manage and govern an urban environment. Instead of letting the urban environment defining the strategy of future cities, we could design an urban strategy that defines the urban environment.

      What if… we could increase the number of citizens in the city and decrease the number of its residents?

      What if… a city could create greater value to its citizens while decreasing its costs of governance and management, and increasing its profit formula by introducing new revenue streams?

      Tallinn, in Estonia, launched in 2014 the concept of “e-Residency”. In 2019 Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, developed further the concept of e-Residency and is planning a “Virtual Commercial City”. More and more cities are thinking about adopting a “Virtual City” strategy.

      To become a successful “Virtual City”, a city needs to redefine its value proposition, its profit proposition and its people proposition.

      Based on a Blue Ocean Strategy approach, this book reviews how to design and implement a virtual and commercial city.

      This book is not yet published.

      Dr. Philippe Bouvier

    • INREGU - Institut National de Recherche en Gestion Urbaine

      Digital Revolution In The City

      In 1970 cities have discovered that the use of technology in the urban environment can create new types of jobs and innovative services. The Digital Revolution has now invaded the management of all the departments in a city: water and waste management, energy management, transportation and mobility management, urban security and safety management, etc. This book is reviewing the evolution of the management of urban departments, from simple processes in the 70s to their complete digital transformation and the creation of command centers. But urban challenges are not yet solved, because we lack the understanding of the system called "city".

      Demographic, environmental, economic, political, and socio-cultural changes demand that cities be managed more efficiently and sustainably. Cities are increasingly competing to attract talent and investments. They want to host the Olympic Games, or the World Cup. They want to build world class universities. They want to catch the attention of international companies. They are building their own brands to attract new businesses, residents and visitors.

      ICT innovation started coming into city management in the 1970s with broadband communication. “Digital cities” were created and created many jobs in European and American cities. In the early 2000s, new urban ICT infrastructure provided anyone access to information at any time, from anywhere and on any device. Because of their regional challenges cities have embraced different strategies and branding such as “Intelligent City” in Malaysia, “Economic City” in Saudi Arabia, “Ubiquitous City” in South Korea, “Ecologic City” in China, “Smart City” in Europe as well as “World City” in different places around the world like New York, London or Paris.

      In Europe, “Smart City” initiatives are considered a useful vehicle for cities to achieve their European 2020 targets in areas including environment, employment, innovation, education and poverty reduction. South Korea has defined “Ubiquitous cities” where communications and technology are at the foundation. Prime Minister Modi announced in 2013 that India will need 500 new cities in the next two decades. Spread over 3 high-speed internet corridors, they will pave the way for a new country with a high growth potential. In China more than 1000 new “Ecologic cities” are expected to be created and the upgrade of 170 of the highest growth cities is planned in the next 10 to 20 years.

      But as more people continue to migrate to urban areas, cities are coming under more scrutiny from their inhabitants on the services they provide. Quality of living has become a key indicator of attractiveness.

      Energy, healthcare and utilities are put under ever more stress, often resulting in inefficient, yet highly interdependent public services. An incident in the utility network could impact the transportation network, which could then impact the environment of the city and have an ultimate effect on the healthcare system.

      Cities are struggling to keep up with urbanisation because they’re being managed in “silos”. There is little or no coordination between the city departments regulating transportation, water, energy and security.

      It is also worth noting that until very recently there was no adequate technology to allow for integrated city management, Siloed cities have also proved difficult to change, with public servants often hogging power and positions at the expense of collaboration.

      Cities need a new type of urban management supporting more cooperation and co-ordination between departments, leveraging the latest ICT innovations (“smart” technology), and aligning incentives between departments to achieve a shared goal for the future of the sustainable city.

      The systemic management of the whole city is more efficient than the sum of the managements of its departments. Even if each department has done its best, it can still achieve a better service if it gets more information from all departments, if it collaborates with them, if it co-ordinates its operations with them. The benefit is for “the city as a whole”.

      This book reviews the impacts of the digital revolution in the urban environment and how it created or destroyed value (social, environmental and economic).

      This book is not yet published.

      Dr. Philippe Bouvier