School of Business and Law

ECU Business Flashlight - 20 August 2018

Managing Critical Assets in Turbulent Times

Edith Cowan University’s School of Business and Law invites you to the ECU Business Flashlight, a regular forum for researchers and practitioners to engage in collaborative dialogue with industry and government on relevant issues in business and management.

Roads, rail, power, household water, hospitals, schools… we rely on infrastructure being in place to provide services to the communities in which we live and work. However, we are challenged by the ‘infrastructure crisis’– escalating costs of building new infrastructure, ageing infrastructure and problems of maintenance along with greater community demands for delivering infrastructure. Australia is not alone in dealing with the issues as these elements form part of a global infrastructure problem.

Good asset management is not just about purchasing new assets; fixing or keeping assets running but requires taking into account the entire service system and delivering services across the entire life of an asset. This new approach requires next generation asset management using novel management and leadership skills, innovation and the ability to integrate technical and management systems to better support infrastructure use. Achieving a balance between community expectations (performance), organisational risk exposure (risk) and the effective use of financial resources (cost) is difficult. It requires more strategic, integrated, flexible and service-centric approaches to the planning, design, procurement and management of assets into the future.

Looking at innovative ways to deal with these demands on infrastructure in Australia and Western Australia and understanding what we can learn from other countries is the focus of this Business Flashlight. The response to the financial crisis by companies in Spain shows us some of the ways that companies have responded to turbulent times.

• When:    Monday, 20 August 2018
• Where:   The City of Perth Library Auditorium, 573 Hay Street, Perth
• Time:      17:00 – 19:30

This forum will feature the following presenters:

Keynote speaker: Javier Tafur is Professor in the Department of Management, and Madrid Campus Dean at ESCP Europe Business School, affiliated to the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry Paris Ile-de-France. Professor Tafur was a practitioner in Engineering and Management Consulting in public and private sectors; devoted to industry practice in Defence, Aerospace, Transportation and Telecommunications. He was appointed Professor of Management, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain in 2007, with Innovation & Strategy as his research domain. Active in industry-sponsored research, his focus is on technology innovative activities and advanced business services as transmission of the innovation process in Strategy, Technology Innovation and Strategic Asset Management. He is a member of the Spanish Association for the Industrial Management Development, Chambre Franco-Espagnole de Commerce et d'Industrie en Espagne and the Spanish-Irish Business Network (SIBN).

Kerry Brown is Professor of Employment and Industry, and Director of the Centre for Innovative Practice (CIP) at Edith Cowan University’s School of Business and Law. She was appointed to the Australian Research Council College of Experts for the period of 2017 to 2019. Professor Brown is also the theme leader of the Governance and Organisational Planning Program at the Asset Institute. She has also been very active in professional engagement. Currently she is an Executive Board Member and Founding Fellow of the International Society for Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM), a position that she has held since 2007. She is a Board Member of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) for the period of 2016 to 2019. She is also a member of Standards Australia Mirror Committee MB019 Asset Management and the International Standards Organisation ISO Technical Committee (TC251) Asset Management. Additionally, she is the Editor-in-Chief of the Engineering Asset Management Review Series published by Springer.

David Daines is the National Chair of the Asset Management Council and Chair of the Australian Standards Mirror Committee MB-19 and member of International Standards Organisation's Technical Committee 251 for Asset Management. David is also Director on the Board of International JV, World Partners in Asset Management, for Asset Management Assessor Competency, since 2014. Prior to moving to Australia, David qualified as a marine engineer working with the British Merchant Navy from 1976 to 1984. A career change led to over 31 years experience in the mining Industry fulfilling numerous roles at senior levels within a major resource company. This experience has provided David with significant exposure to many facets of business from Design, Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Operations and Maintenance, and Disposal of plant and infrastructure.