What Does it Take to Mobilise Complementary Partners to Deliver 5X the Current Value in an Ecosystem?

Company executives, often located at corporate headquarters, can be slow to recognize opportunities to create regional private-public partnerships. They are often constrained by financial management systems that, by their very nature, guide them towards short-term thinking. Though there are exceptions, few companies are able to create transformational ecosystems alone. Companies need to partner with a ‘catalyst organisation’ to engage actors from multiple sectors in collaborative relationships and support the creation of strategies that can generate economic and social value. Harnessing the resources and innovation capabilities of profit-seeking companies is the reason governments are attracted to public-private partnerships as mechanisms for improving local socioeconomic conditions.

Representatives from different public and private sector ‘catalysts’ will reflect on the lessons they have learned and consider how the main barriers to successful partnerships can be overcome.