Q&A: Matt Crisp
We’re working with Matt Crisp, a leading expert in smart cities and human-centred technology, to help mission-led businesses connect technology and strategy to purpose and commercial advantage.
There is a huge opportunity for purpose-led businesses across a variety of sectors to drive profitability and mission by engaging with the smart city agenda. That means using innovative digital technology such as data sensors, “big data” analytical modelling techniques and AI to enhance wellbeing, make services better and increase communities’ ability to respond to local and global challenges. But where to start?
That’s where Matt comes in. Matt is the former MD of Big Belly UK, a world leader in smart cities, smart waste and recycling. A global smart data business, Big Belly UK uses cloud-based technology to improve urban public spaces, give communities a better quality of life and deliver economic impact and revenue for its partners — becoming a Global Smart Cities Winner and a Sustainia 100 Winner in the process.
Focusing on smart and connected cities, urban mobility, sustainability and human-centred ideas and technology, Matt will work alongside The House to help our clients identify where technology and creativity overlap to deliver commercial advantage.
Purpose spoke to Matt about how creative business leaders can make sense of new technological trends, cut through the hype and deliver fresh solutions that meet customer needs.
Q. Why should mission-led businesses pay attention to smart city technologies?
We now live in the age of cities, not countries. Mass urban migration brings with it huge challenges in terms of mobility, clean air, access to green spaces, education, public health: the list goes on. But equally, it brings huge commercial opportunities for the companies that can provide creative solutions to these problems.
Smart cities could potentially become a trillion-dollar-plus market, so it’s not surprising that such a wide range of companies, countries and governments are announcing smart city projects and initiatives. At the moment, though, a lot of it is just marketing. To cut through the clutter, you have to focus on real human needs.
When you put real service at the heart of innovation, that’s when it tends to actually work. Effective solutions have to be human-led, not technology-led.
Q. How can companies get to grips with these opportunities?
There are different ways. In many cases, it can be useful to start with a journey of exploration and experimentation, perhaps developing ideas at the edges of the company, to allow more space for creativity. But in the end, it all comes down to having good ideas, being people-first, solving a problem and making it scalable.
Essentially, any technological idea you invest in developing has to be an enabler. It can’t be about tech for tech’s sake. What is the problem you are trying to solve? If you’re trying to solve problems, you’re in a much better space than if you’re just trying to make products.
The key is always being clear on your purpose and why you are doing it — not getting sucked into product and ignoring what the customer actually wants. Sometimes that might require some refocusing. It’s interesting to see, for example, the chairman of Ford come out and say, “we’re not a car company, we’re in the mobility business”.
Q. Which businesses are doing a good job of being human-centred in their approach to smart technology?
There are lots of smaller businesses doing simple, needs-led things, such as JustPark, which matches drivers to parking spaces through an app. This eases parking congestion and lets private individuals earn extra income by turning their driveways into rentable assets.
Social housing can also benefit from these types of applications. For example, where you have elderly residents or people convalescing from illnesses, it’s possible to use data sensors around the home to stay connected to them and make sure that they are secure, without having to be intrusive or reducing their independence. By building a realtime, cognitive view of people’s behaviours using AI, you can discreetly notice if they haven’t, say, boiled the kettle in the morning as usual, and send a quick text message to make sure that they are OK.
And remember that human-centred innovation doesn’t have to be about cutting-edge digital technology. Simple behaviour change is just as important. There is a great project called Legible London, a street navigation system for pedestrians that uses physical maps to give you an easy view of everything within a 5-minute walking radius. That’s been adopted all over the world, and it’s actually affected behavioural change.
Not only does it reduce impact on the environment, reduce congestion, and reduce stress on the system, but it also has a massive health benefit in terms of getting people to take more journeys on foot. If you could get everyone in London to walk 10 minutes a day, you would save the NHS £10 billion.
Q. How did you apply human-centred technological thinking at BigBelly?
I’m proud of BigBelly — it’s great example of a smart city innovation that has actually made a real and tangible impact.
It started with smart waste management — a bin that uses sensors and cloud connectivity to tell you when it’s full. That means you don’t have trucks driving around kicking out emissions and congesting the city, collecting half-empty bins. We’ve placed over 40,000 bins in major cities and college campuses across the world, saving local authorities money and reducing environmental impact. Global waste is doubling every ten years, and this will make a real difference in tackling the problem.
But the really exciting part is that, once you’ve got that bit of physical kit out on the street, you can go beyond waste management and add more services later on. Each station is connected to the cloud and is solar-powered, so they can collect and share sensor data. It becomes a platform that can respond to what people need. In New York, for example, we even meshed a wifi network to the bin system.
Q. What do you think holds companies back from embracing these kinds of new technological opportunities?
In part, it’s because a lot of people just do what everyone else has already done. And ultimately, a lot of legacy companies have looked at the space but have been afraid to change.
It’s important not to be frightened by change or failure. If you do nothing, you will be eroded eventually — someone will come and disrupt your sector.
Q. Finally, what’s the link between technological innovation and purpose?
I think the purpose movement is evolving in a way that’s now much more externally-facing. It’s more about being real-world and real-time, and about businesses immersing themselves in cultural shifts and being aligned with how the world is moving.
For purpose to mean something, it has to answer that question: “what are we doing tomorrow that’s different?”. Unless your purpose infuses everything you do, and everything you want to do, it’s simply not relevant.
That’s what I bring in terms of working with The House: helping companies who want to use technology creatively to take a robust look at the business plan, product strategy, management and investment plan, and overall roadmap to the future.
To learn more about how people-centred technology can boost your business and supercharge your mission, get in touch at steve@thehouse.co.uk, call us on 01225 780000 or visit www.thehouse.co.uk.
