This will be a year of setbacks and recoveries — and recoveries and setbacks. We see 2022 as a year of opportunity as the world learns from the past and works to rebuild with more resilience, sustainability and equity. Yet it will also be a year of uncertainty as new challenges emerge and social expectations continue to shift as we learn to live in a world with (not after) COVID. And infrastructure leaders have an opportunity to fundamentally change our collective path on the climate, social and governance agenda.
Making the right decisions on infrastructure will require four things: insight, agility, collaboration and bravery.
The insight tells us what we should expect in the future. Such insights (such as those gathered through data & analytics and publications like this one) will need to flow from a wide range of sources, leveraging multiple inputs, for infrastructure decision-makers to get a more holistic view of everything, from individual needs through to system-level opportunities.
The agility is needed when our insight is wrong. Agility will be needed at every level of the infrastructure ecosystem — from individual assets right up to the system. It will be required by every actor (regulators, owners, management and workers, suppliers, technology providers and others). But if we try to operate in silos we will fail.
Collaboration allows us to change things at speed. Thus, deeper collaboration must be embraced, including cross-sectoral approaches to understanding and addressing infrastructure needs. Lastly, bravery is the spark that lets leaders act. It is needed, because time is running out to tackle challenges like climate change; infrastructure decisions will need to be made in years not decades.
To learn more about these trends and their potential impact on your organisation, we encourage you to contact us.
