Smart Cities

By Daniel Müller Niklas Sutela Ricky Foo

Mercuri Urval is proud to release a white paper on the topic of “Smart Cities” in collaboration with thought leaders in the field:

  • Andreas Hermann, Professor & Director, Institute for Mobility, University of St. Gallen
  • Marko Kärkkäinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Clewat Oy
  • Jukka Salmikuukka, Director of Partnership Development Asia Pacific, KONE
  • Anja Riedle, Co-Founder & VP of Smart City Hub Switzerland
  • Saara-Sofia Sirén, Member of the Finnish Parliament
  • Seth Ryding, Chief Sales Officer Global Sales, Telenor Connexion
  • Sau Sheong Chang, CEO, SP Digital
  • Göran Näslund, Strategic Segment Manager Utilities & Smart Cities, Telenor Connexion
  • Daniel Müller, Partner & Director, MU Zürich
  • Niklas Sutela, Partner & Director, MU Helsinki
  • Ricky Foo, Partner & Director, MU Singapore

Efficient and sustainable smart cities are the next big trend to keep an eye on. With autonomous driving, 5G-optimised public transport and personalised energy solutions, smart cities are fuelled by tech. However, tech alone cannot make a smart city. More fundamentally, a smart city is created by the people living in it.

Where are the people in all this buzz about smartness?

The white paper augments the existing discussion by focusing on how smart people power smart cities as the cardinal resource for their development, using the Top 3 “Smart Cities” – Singapore, Helsinki, and Zurich – as excellent case studies.

The paper explores the role people play in determining how technology and cities are made smart. Then, a quick and rich dive into how a smart city is built from scratch highlights the opportunities for businesses and governments to contribute. The paper then zooms into the rapidly growing industries of smart mobility and smart environment, focusing on the future of autonomous driving and how urban resource management tackles the environmental concerns of the near future.

This paper acknowledges that there are other pillars of smart cities, as shown in the model below, but chooses to discuss smart mobility and environment as we believe that these are the pillars that are the closest to the core of smart cities, which are smart people.

This paper is made unique by our close collaboration with smart city experts hailing from the Top 3. Their insights into the success of the Top 3 provides a comprehensive, people-centric view of smart cities, representing a range of industries from public utilities and telecommunications to governance and academia. You can be sure to find ideas that resonate with you whatever your industry.

Read the full paper here.