• Transformational organisations are using digital platforms to connect with investors, governments, contractors, suppliers and customers in new ways
• Digital platforms enable a multi-disciplinary approach using a common operating model – HSE, profitability, risk, quality, portfolios / programs / projects, design, engineering, operations, compliance managed dynamically in one place for a more predictable future
• Creation and seamless flow of information and it’s trace-ability is key for our industry renaissance

On reflection
Earlier this week, I provided some coaching to a good friend of mine who wants to start a new business. She had a great concept and understood her market well, plus already has a number of options to invest her time and money in. However, she has been stuck for a while in starting her business, because factors affecting her options are constantly changing and therefore, she perceives making any initial investment is too risky. My advice based on her solid business foundation is to simply start with making a choice based on the moment in time, and over time customer and market insights we enable you to adapt your business and grow. I had to remind her, the last business idea she had and procrastinated over, led to other companies capitalising on the new nutritional product market instead of her.
Anyway, this made me think about the world I work in which is the Energy industry, and then some of the conversations I had with people at the World Energy Capital Assembly (WECA).

If making decisions on getting started with a simple business is difficult, or for that matter, knowing what to write and getting started with this blog, then how difficult must it be to invest significant amounts of capital into energy projects in such a volatile environment.
Well if you are like my friend, if you can’t make a decision based on the holistic facts in front of you and can’t anticipate and adapt to changing conditions then you are not going to get the return on capital you want. Of course, this is not the case in the Energy industry and from what I gleaned from talking to people at WECA, some great decisions are being made to stimulate projects, returns and re-investment to support the energy demands across the globe. However, it was clear decision making could be made a lot easier, especially to enable investors to increase their optionality by having a more holistic view and can understand the interconnections between dependencies and the impact of their choices.

Improved optionality
We can all adapt, this has been well drummed into most people by now. However, can we adapt quick enough in the Energy industry and accelerate robust decision making. I am sure if we were to then this would have a significant positive affect on the number of energy projects being capitalised on and their success, even based on the stricter capital discipline we are seeing.

Off the back of a number of conversations I’ve had about portfolio management in the Energy industry, I reflected on how other industries are going about this. No, not Amazon, Uber, AirBnB etc…well documented business successes who have been able to accelerate decision making and adapt based on leveraging digital platforms (I think our noses have been rubbed into these examples enough). Instead I looked at industries who are investing significant capital into their portfolios and are bound by similar volatile conditions and increasing regulation. Surely we can learn more about active portfolio management and optionality to ensure energy based companies increase access to funding sources or alternatively increase access to funding opportunities.

• How do companies build adaptability into their operating and financial models, in addition to striving for operational excellence?
• How do they manage accumulated risk and effectively redeploy resources?
• How do they link corporate strategy to capital allocation, to portfolio management, project management, flexible contracting, and engineering?

The obvious place for the Energy industry to benefit from best practice in portfolio management is within the Financial Services industry, where the majority sources of funds come from. So are investors imparting their rigour around portfolio management with, essentially engineering companies, and are we really combining these two distinctly different worlds to unify and accelerate decision making. Asset managers use multi-dimensional insights based on structured and unstructured customer channels to improve their product development and relevance, dynamically managing issues to enhance customer experiences. So in the engineering world, are we really using multi-dimensional intelligence to initiate, develop and execute capital projects…and (now I think I’m on a roll here), are investors and engineering companies collaborating on dynamic, multi-dimensional insights to accelerate robust decision making ….and effectively carry out ‘What if’ scenarios together (maybe I am getting carried away here). I wonder…

Multi-dimensional & multi-disciplinary collaboration at scale
After pausing, I have come to realise there is a lot going on across the world where multiple actors are collaborating on a common cause, using a common platform and dare I say it digital platform, to accelerate robust decision making, stimulate investment, combine finance with systems engineering, co-create value, reduce risk and adapt.

We only have to look at the Aerospace industry where I know of one good example of a community called ‘Boost Aerospace’, which includes 5 global leading manufacturers (the shareholders), an additional 20 key players and over 1500 industrial partners who using a secure digital platform to improve the collaboration between all stakeholders involved in projects to meet global demand and stimulate growth in their industry.

Through the standardisation of business processes (not systems, because we all like our own systems) and the ability to handle the complexities in the size and variety of technical data, plus the velocity of financial data, structured or unstructured, information can be contextualised for all actors to accelerate robust decision making. This multi-dimensional collaboration has been extended to urban planning, we just need to look at some of the inspirational work going on in cities and territories such as Singapore, Rennes and Jaipur. Dare I say it (although I do need to get this in) cloud based digital platforms provide us with a great opportunity to collaborate quickly and at scale.

So you can harmonize capital investment with engineering and importantly the environment. Maybe we need to explore this more through WECA, or maybe we are already doing enough.