Evening seminar with Tim Chapman

On Monday 9 February, we welcomed Tim Chapman, Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), who delivered an insightful and engaging seminar on Sustainable Infrastructure Delivery: Leveraging Systems Thinking for Speed and Efficiency. The event brought together members of our academic community, University of Southampton Business School industry partners as well as students.

Around the world, governments are under increasing pressure to fund and deliver the infrastructure needed to support growth, connectivity, resilience, and long‑term prosperity. Against this backdrop, Tim’s presentation offered a timely and insightful comparative analysis of how different countries approach infrastructure investment and delivery. The seminar highlighted the persistent challenges facing the delivery of major projects in the UK, where outcomes too often fall short and costs and timelines far exceed international benchmarks. As Tim underscored, infrastructure remains one of the most powerful drivers of social wellbeing and economic performance.

Drawing on international examples, Tim demonstrated that countries adopt different investment models, each shaped by political priorities, institutional design, and market structures. His analysis showed that:

• Energy and digital infrastructure generate some of the largest economic returns.
• There is clear evidence of a strong correlation between higher‑quality infrastructure and increased GDP
• Countries that invest systematically and strategically tend to enjoy greater productivity, more dynamic labour markets, and improved social outcomes.

Tim emphasised that the UK faces an urgent need to invest in better infrastructure, that needs to be delivered more affordably and with a stronger focus on wider societal benefits. In today’s VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), the ability to identify infrastructure needs and deliver effectively is more critical than ever. This requires a transformation in how infrastructure programmes are planned and executed.

He concluded by presenting a systems‑based framework for enabling productivity, highlighting how clients, designers, and contractors must work in alignment to improve delivery outcomes. Effective clienting practices, he argued, are a vital part of this shift, shaping both the quality of delivery and the long‑term value infrastructure brings to society.

His remarks strongly connected to the recently published report by Professor Jeni Giambona and Dr Nicholas Dacre, USBS academics: “ Clienting in Major Projects: Beyond Outputs, Towards Outcomes .” If you have not yet read it, we invite you to explore the report and share your thoughts with us.

Stay tuned for more insightful events organised by  USBS. If you want to explore how to engage with us, contact Professor Jeni Giambona, Associate Dean (KEE), j.giambona@soton.ac.uk