Aligning Accommodation Strategies | Processes Dutch Public Broadcasters
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Aligning Accommodation Strategies | Processes Dutch public broadcasters Aligning Accommodation Strategies | Processes Dutch public broadcasters P5 Report Name: Michiel Vis Student number: 1368133 Address: Delfgaauwstraat 45A 3037 LH Rotterdam Email: [email protected] Telephone: +31610966436 Date: 31-01-2014 Institution: TU Delft Faculty: Architecture Master: Real Estate And Housing Graduation Lab: Real Estate Management (REM) Main mentor: Prof.ir. H. de Jonge (CREM) Second mentor: Ir. A.J. van Doorn (DCM) External mentor: Drs M.C. Schuring (NPO) Examinator: Dr.ir. A. Straub (OTB) 2 Preface This document contains the results of the graduation research at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Delft. The graduation research has been conducted within the master Real Estate and Housing and the Graduation ‘Lab’ Real Estate Management. It is the final step of me as a student towards a career in practice. The subject of this thesis is a strategic decision making process with many involved actors, leading towards a desired end result. The organizations for the case studies are the Dutch public broadcasters. The Netherlands has a unique system for public broadcasting organizations and is therefore an interesting subject to study. Currently some of the Dutch public broadcasters are planning to merge due to reorganisations and need to reorganise their current real estate situations. The goal of this thesis is to test whether the process model strategy-as-force can add value to these types of projects. Both the strategies of the broadcasters as well as this thesis presented to you are the result of a difficult process. Many people have participated in this research. Therefore I will first of all thank all the interviewed Directors at the Dutch public broadcasters and the NPO for helping me in gaining more insight in the processes within the Dutch broadcasting system. A special word of gratitude must go out to Marije Schuring for her constant preparedness to help and support me as an external mentor. At the TU Delft I have experienced many patient and helpful people along the way. First of all I want to thank Tom Daamen for his insightful criticism on the way in which I have interpreted Strategy-as-Force. Then aligning accommodation strategies is one thing, but aligning the agenda of Hans de Jonge with a graduation calendar is another; thank you Laura for all the help. Most of all, I would like to thank Alijd for teaching me the essential rules of researching and academic writing and Hans for the sharp questioning and ability to reduce theoretical and practical problems in the short amount of time available during each conversation. Both of you have helped me in gaining more insight into my own process and the required resources for graduating and receiving a master degree. Finally my love goes out to my sister and mother who have always supported me to complete my study. You were always there for me when studying went a bit slow and items were lost or damaged along the way. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my father, who passed away during the writing of it. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Michiel Vis Rotterdam, January 2014 3 Management Summary Research Introduction Organisations have to use innovative strategies to survive in these economic difficult times. One of the possibilities of these strategies is collaboration in the form of sharing facilities. To analyse the strategy making processes of aligning accommodation strategies in order to collaborate, this thesis will make use of the cases of the Dutch public broadcasters. The broadcasters operate in a political environment due to the subsidies they receive from the government. They are not owned by the government though as they are owned by the so called Broadcasting Associations, which are mostly originated from ideological conceptions. The public broadcasters thus consist of a broadcasting association and a broadcasting company. They operate under the same name and present one combined annual year report. In 2016, the national public broadcasters of the Netherlands (currently holding twenty-one broadcasters) may only consist of eight broadcasting companies and a coordination body (NPO), according to the new Media Act. All the tasks and responsibilities of the broadcasters are specified in this Dutch Media Act. The proposal for the eight broadcasting places is the following so called ‘3-3-2 model’: Merger VARA and BNN Standalone broadcaster VPRO Task Broadcaster NOS Merger AVRO and TROS Standalone broadcaster EO Task Broadcaster NTR Merger KRO and NCRV Standalone broadcaster Max Table. The proposed reorganisation of the Dutch public broadcasting system The broadcasters must reorganize their total accommodation situation to physically realize the mergers and realize the budget cuts. They are now forced to collaborate with other broadcasters. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has formulated possible strategies and an optimal situation for all the public broadcasters together. With the changing real estate market and extra budget cuts from the government the research by BCG lost some of its value as a leading document for decision making. Besides the reduced usefulness of the research it has been no motivation for the broadcasters to realize the reorganization of the accommodations. The reasons for the difficult process of the case studies lead to the problem statement of this research, summarized in the following, more abstract, statement; a difficult process of aligning the accommodation strategies of multiple actors with diverging interests and goals, within a dynamic political environment. A similar problem statement can be found in the Strategy-as-Force publication of Daamen (2010). The first similarity is that the Rotterdam CityPorts project in the research of Daamen is also about aligning multiple organizations striving towards a desired end result (aligning strategies of multiple actors with diverging interests and goals). Next to this the political forces that influence the projects are comparable (dynamic political environment). The project of the CityPorts in Rotterdam is governed by the mayor and aldermen of the municipality of Rotterdam. In this project the ministry of Culture, Science and Education is the political body responsible for the Dutch public Broadcasting system and thus the reorganisation project. The results of Daamen’s research will therefore be used in this thesis. Daamen’s answer to this problem statement of an ineffective process is given in the form of a strategy-as-force model by which projects like these can be evaluated upon. Daamen states that by an evaluation and better understanding of the practice one can improve the practice as well. The main research question of this thesis therefore reads as follows; Is the Strategy-as-Force model a useful tool for improving a complex multi actor process of aligning accommodation strategies? 4 The research will be conducted in three parts. First a literature review will be done on measuring accommodation strategies and analysing strategy processes. These two subjects will form the core of the theoretic framework (see image). For analysing the content of the strategies this thesis will use the added value theory of real estate for organisations to show their goals and interests. The processes behind the formulation of the strategies is analysed by using the Strategy-as-Force model (Daamen, 2010). After this part an empirical research will be done by conducting nine case studies. The case studies selected for this research are nine of the public broadcasters (see the blue marked broadcasters in the overview of the 3-3- 2 model). These broadcasters are thus the VARA, BNN, TROS, AVRO, KRO, NCRV, VPRO, EO and NTR. These nine case studies are selected as they are crucial actors in the various strategies of the BCG report. The desired end result therefore depends on the actions and decisions of these broadcasters. Hence it will provide a sufficient overview of the accommodation strategies in political environments and the strategy processes behind it. By conducting interviews, empirical evidence about the added values of the accommodation plans and the resources mobilized during the process, will be collected. The results will then be combined in a synthesis where conclusions will be drawn about the relations between the accommodation strategies and the strategy processes of the Strategy-as-Force model. This part will propose a way to apply the Strategy-as-Force model in real estate management practice. A second empirical research will evaluate the value of using this model in practice to improve the process. From this point general conclusions can be drawn to answer the main research question described on the previous page. Figure. The research design of this thesis 5 Added value If the accommodation wants to contribute to the organizational performance it needs to add value to the core business. Hence organizations are mainly interested in the value that the real estate can add to support their business strategies. According to Lindholm et al. (2006) the added value of real estate is mainly focused on maximizing the wealth of shareholders, who together with the vision and mission of an organization create the business strategy. The seven added values of De Jonge (1996) are used for this part of the thesis; Increase productivity, reduce costs, control risks, increase value, advance flexibility, support culture and support PR/Marketing. Empirical research was done firstly to analyse the important added values of the accommodation strategies of the broadcasters. During the empirical research it has become clear that under current circumstances the most important added values for the public broadcasters are Increase productivity, Control risks, Advancing Flexibility and Supporting Culture. This was found by analysing the accommodation strategies both through document analysis as well as interviews. The first added value productivity is used in the accommodation strategies by introducing innovative workplace design and focusing on the satisfaction of employees.