In 2011, Aegon adopted integrated reporting - a corporate reporting approach that sought to present company performance in a holistic light by considering medium- to long-term issues, stakeholder opinions, and the relationship between material financial and nonfinancial data. By 2013, Aegon had reduced the page count of its annual corporate reporting documents, helped stakeholders gain a more thoroughgoing understanding of its strategy, and begun the transition from being a product manufacturer to a customer-centric company. Still, the company's integrated report was separate from its regulatory filing. Although work in an area where there was not much regulatory or legislative guidance assuaged the Disclosure Committee's fears of accidentally violating regulations or taking on extra liability by reporting on non-financial information that was difficult to verify by a third-party, some felt the report's status meant it had not driven some of the organizational change it could have. Could Aegon benefit from publishing its integrated report as the official regulatory document? How could Aegon create a more interactive, real-time integrated reporting website that was connected to the core of their strategy? How should Aegon Asset Management include the integration of EGS factors in its investment processes and engagement with portfolio companies? What should the next step be?
Describes Terrapin Bright Green, an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm, and its approach for creating integrative, systematic solutions to green-building conundrums through consulting, research, and policy-related activities. Emphasis is placed on the role of integrated design and the intensive team-based "charrette" process in Terrapin's consulting work as well as on the design trends of biophilia and biomimicry. The case focuses on the sustainable redesign of 111 8th Avenue, New York, New York, to explore the challenge of managing strategic, intangible services in the context of Terrapin's more concrete focus historically. A serendipitous discovery leads the founders to consider how the firm could systematize its process while maintaining the flexibility that made it successful.
Describes Lake Nona, a 7,000-acre residential and research cluster in central Florida, and its process and innovation culture, and Lake Nona Institute, the organization behind the planning and governance of this new eco-friendly community. Emphasis is placed on the institutional collaboration and governance decisions behind Lake Nona's "Medical City" component. Five years after development began, the site boasts a research cluster that has succeeded in attracting scientific talent and residential interest, and has put in place a collaborative governance structure intended to encourage innovation, trust-building and communication. When the Institute's president is asked to decide who the next tenant in Medical City should be, he considers what kind of process would allow them to best grow going forward. Focuses on: 1) the nature of collaboration in the development of new ventures; 2) the managerial challenges of mediation between hierarchical organization processes and consensus-driven structure; 3) the product development process of a developer in a nascent industry.