Engagement plan for cross sector collaboration to revive abandoned public zones of Chisinau

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The Amsterdam MBA program

Master of Business Administration Company Project Student Elena Budico - 11115416

Date August 31, 2017

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Executive Summary

In the last decade, cross sector collaborations have been a hot topic. These are seen as the answer to driving innovation, driving sustainable social development and bridging complex unmanageable gaps. In the Western world a large number of cross sector collaboration programs exists. These are sometimes developed by businesses, governments and NGOs. In the developing countries, cross sector collaborations are in their infancy stage. The quote of Anne-Birgitte

Albrectsen, the CEO of Plan International, applies globally and it is very relevant for the developing countries: “the scale, scope and complexity of the economic and social transformation to come will be such that no one sector – government, business, civil society or academia – will be able to manage the transformation alone. We’re going to need some surprising alliances that bring different sectors together if we are to overcome its challenges.”

As an MBA student at the University of Amsterdam, the concept of cross sector

collaboration and the value that it can create has inspired me to co-found an NGO in Moldova, my country of birth. The NGO, named Urban Concept Chisinau (UCC) intends to use the Western teachings to address social issues via cross sector collaborations. The organization started its activities in August 2016. It seeks to restore neglected public spaces in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. A core belief is that revival of abandoned areas can be an empowering tool for Chisinau’s society as a whole. In pursuing its mission, UCC collaborates with various stakeholders on a non-profit basis. The active stakeholders offer their time and resources for free or at substantially reduced costs for the development of UCC projects. In return UCC seeks to fulfill stakeholders’ self-interest that are in line with the objectives of UCC projects.

To date UCC has engaged stakeholders on an ad hoc basis. This thesis seeks to increase UCC’s stakeholder relationship effectiveness by methodically developing a stakeholder engagement plan. To do so, this study: 1) explores the opportunity UCC has to create value to stakeholders by tapping into market inefficiencies, 2) identifies and analyses UCC’s current and possible

stakeholders, 3) identifies possible value exchanges between stakeholders, 4) seeks to develop a value proposition that meets the stakeholders’ needs, 5) determines ways of effectively engaging

stakeholders and 6) proposes means of monitoring stakeholder relationships. The output of this paper includes a list of UCC stakeholder groups, a value proposition that is consistent with

stakeholder needs and UCC’s mission, a stakeholder engagement plan with a related action plan and a set of KPIs intended for monitoring stakeholder relationships.

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I. Chapter 1: Introduction

A. Background

In the post USSR era, the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, has suffered from prolonged stagnation. As a side effect, the capital’s public spaces are in large part neglected and in a

deteriorated state. Communities are disengaged and focused primarily on self-serving, individual interests. Administrative institutions are often weak and corrupt. Their efforts are insufficient to address the decaying state of the city. Young talent, which in large part is the aspiring, progressive, intellectual and the most talented part of the population, out-migrate in large numbers to developed countries. As Larysa Byrka, president of Red Cross Moldova stated, “Moldova can surely be

described as a demographic disaster. […] Migration has affected every family, and we suffer both a brain drain and a youth drain as a result” (Nyanenkova, 2005). International Organization for Migration’s EPM reports suggest that during the years 2005-2012, at any given moment during the referenced period, 25-33% of the working population of Moldova was in migration (Crivenco, 2014). Some speculate that the actual number is much higher than this.

UCC’s activities commenced as a response to the weak reaction of the government, citizens, NGOs and businesses, as it relates to the deterioration of public spaces in the city. There are

numerous reasons for this lethargy in addressing degrading spaces. We attempt to identify below the three main causes of this situation.

High Instability

Instability is a prevalent characteristic of the nation. This instability is the result of political and economic factors. On the political front, since 2002 there have been acts of intense conflict and intimidation between the pro-Europe and pro-Russian politicians. Since corruption is unfortunately one of the few stable variables, politicians from the losing party are regularly found corrupt,

imprisoned and later released when their party comes to power. The cycle is then replicated with the opposing group. Public institutions are not politically independent, so at each change of power, the directors of public institutions are also replaced. As a result, members of institutional agencies, confronted by the insignificance of their short-term nominations, perform their duties in a lethargic manner and shy away from making long-term decisions. In addition to this, the instability creates an

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unstructured work culture with elements of negligence, carelessness and unreliability. Examples of this include mismanaged city works and mismanaged natural disasters.

Weak institutions

“Moldovan civil society remains largely locked into an inertia of passivity and institutional weakness” (Freedom House, 2007). Although efforts are being made to improve NGO-government cooperation, the cooperation with lower level public institutions, remains weak. There is a deficit of access to information, both at the level of public authorities and among citizens (Freedom House, 2007). From personal experience, the available information oftentimes differs between the

administrative bodies. For instance, there were situations in which we received contradictory information from different governmental bodies about the existence of and application

requirements for a government founded program. The information ranged from a directive to get our NGO included in the program to the program not being in existence.

Weak Civil Society

Moldovean civil society is weak. Although over 3,720 NGOs are registered, only a fraction of them are active. This is due to a lack of civil activism tradition and a lack of financial resources. The sustainability of NGOs has thus far been possible with foreign financial support. The absent tradition of social activism combined with the poorest European country rating, makes the existence of private Moldovean donors–including business people donors—rare. The insignificant donations generally go to charities (Freedom House, 2007).

These realities are a result of the USSR centralized government structure, in which civilians were not empowered to be proactive in the development of the republic. The propensity to donate to charity comes from the population’s high level of religious affiliation (96% of the population claims affinity to an Orthodox Christian denomination (US State Government, 2017)), which encourages people to support the poor through charitable donations.

Urban Concept Chisinau (UCC) is a non-profit organization that was established in the summer of 2016. Its goal is to connect the efforts of various agents, such as businesses, civil community, administrative bodies, educational institutions, and donors, in order to restore the neglected public spaces of Chisinau. A core belief is that the revival of abandoned areas, when executed by a broad array of local stakeholders, can be an empowering tool for Chisinau’s society as

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a whole. Public spaces are the face of the capital and their renewal can serve as a symbol of societal progress. Renewal of such spaces via cross sector collaborative efforts also functions as a symbol of societal harmony, and to some extent, expresses a shared sense of patriotism. Also, importantly, the restoration process and the end result of restored public spaces, can be personally valuable for the engaged stakeholders. For instance, participating students may develop their skill sets, businesses may obtain PR coverage, and artists may explore their creativity during development of such projects. Communities and businesses closely situated to the renewed spaces may enjoy access to previously scarce recreational areas and higher store traffic. Thus, although neglected public spaces are only a fraction of the nation’s problems, we believe that targeting this issue may benefit various agents

independently, as well as benefit the society as a whole.

To date, with the help of the civil community and the support of small construction companies, UCC has refurbished an abandoned sports field. Images of the project’s execution and the before and after state of the field can be viewed in figures 1 and 2. At present, UCC collaborates with the Department of Urbanism and Architecture to develop the final architectural drawings of a community square that will be built on a currently abandoned space. The sketches that have been presented to date are shown in figure 3.

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UCC’s efforts to date have been successful. However, for long-term success, a well thought through stakeholder engagement plan is required. Although stakeholder engagement and

management is relevant for all companies, in the case of UCC, effective stakeholder engagement is paramount. This is the case since UCC on its own has very limited resources and the projects that UCC seeks to execute require resources and skills that go well beyond UCC’s capabilities. As explained before, this imbalance between the organisations assets and project requirements is a conscious choice made to enhance the involvement of other parties, and therefore increase the symbolic meaningfulness of joint efforts in the development of projects. However, that does not change the fact that in order to succeed, UCC must engage with various stakeholders to fill in the gaps between the skills and resources it has and the ones required by the projects it envisions. Consequently, a methodically derived stakeholder engagement plan is essential. It can help UCC determine which stakeholders it wishes to engage, what its expectations of those stakeholders should be, what UCC can offer its stakeholders in return, how it wishes to engage them, and finally, how it wishes to monitor stakeholder relationships.

Before addressing these stakeholder engagement issues, it is useful to explore the function that UCC is attempting to serve as an organization. Mainly, it is important to understand the context in which UCC operates and to ask why UCC management believes that there is an opportunity to connect various parties. Such a preliminary analysis will help clarify the value that UCC seeks to uncover in connecting stakeholders for the development of its social projects.

B. Research Objectives and Approach

The aim of this thesis paper is to develop an engagement plan for the stakeholders of UCC. The key questions we seek to answer are:

- Who are the stakeholders UCC should focus on?

- What are UCCs expectations of those stakeholders and what can UCC offer to those stakeholders?

- What are the engagement plan and the related action plan for engaging with stakeholders? - What are the tools that UCC can use to monitor stakeholder relationships?

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- We examine the political and economic context in order to explain to the reader the

opportunity that UCC has identified in connecting various parties to restore public spaces in Chisinau

- This thesis uses research materials that aggregate multiple primary and meta-analysis papers in order to provide a theoretical framework for analysis. The theoretical material will guide the discussion, guide the examination of the main elements (stakeholders, engagement methodologies, etc.) and support the formulation of recommendations.

- Research interviews build a bridge between theory and reality. Interviews serve as the source of the data that we use to analyse stakeholder needs and forms of engagement.

The theoretical research material has been gathered from numerous articles, selected for their relevance to the topics we discuss in this paper. These relevant topics include:

- Identifying entrepreneurial opportunity for social enterprises. The two main papers that we used to explore this topic are, Structural holes: The social structure of competition, by Burt, and Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship, by Boyd and Winn. - Motives for social alliance. We unravelled these using the papers, Social alliances: business

and social enterprise collaboration for social transformation, by Sakarya, Bodur, Yildirim-Öktem and Selekler-Göksen, and A resource-based theory of strategic alliances, by Das and Teng.

- Stakeholder identification, analysis and elaboration of stakeholder engagement plans. We used the teachings from the following theoretical works: Freeman and Edward’s book, Strategic management: a stakeholder approach, Bryson’s article, What to do when

stakeholders matter, and Mitchell, Agle and Wood’s article, Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: defining the principle of who and what really counts.

- Value proposition development. We used the techniques described by Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda and Smith in their book, Value proposition design: how to create products and services customers want, and Sinek’s book, Start with why: how great leaders inspire everyone to take action.

For data on stakeholders, we have conducted semi-structured research interviews with the following stakeholders:

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- Twenty community members (face-to-face)

- Sixteen students of the department of Urbanism and Architecture, UTM - Three faculty members of the department of Urbanism and Architecture, UTM - Two Municipal Council members, one of which is the Mayor of Chisinau - Four members of the regional council

- Two members of the municipal landscape execution body, “Spatiile Verzi”

- The CEO and the marketing manager of the pharmacy “Farmacia Familiei” which has sixty-seven locations in the capital alone and close to 150 locations throughout the country - Mural painter Radu Dumbrava

- Director of local NGO, Oberliht

- Director of local NGO, Asociatia Corala - A member of local NGO, Chisinau is Me

- The director of the independent grocery store located in close proximity to a planned future project of UCC

We met with these groups individually. With some groups, in particular the faculty members of the Department of Urbanism and Architecture, the mural painter, Radu Dumbrava, and

community members, we met on multiple occasions. Meetings with the community took place in group settings and also at the individual level. A group meeting was set-up to discuss a number of proposed community projects; we also discussed these projects with some members, individually, either because they could not attend the group meeting or because they wished to continue the conversation, separately. During interviews, we sought to identify the interest factors and reluctance factors for stakeholder participation in one-off projects and multiannual programs. As an

introduction, my partner and I explained the concept of our organization and informed the group about upcoming projects. We then asked for feedback (both positive and negative) and explored other types of projects that the stakeholders were most willing to commit themselves to.

The questions, in broad terms, are reconstructed below: • Do these planned projects (square, mural) appeal to you? • Would you benefit from such a project and how?

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• How do you see your involvement in this project? Would you like to participate and do you have thoughts on how you wish to participate?

• What else is needed to make this project succeed?

• Would you like to see this concept developed further and translated into an annual program, which seeks to revive abandoned public spaces within the capital?

• Do you know any other parties that would be interested in participating in such projects? The responses to these questions have been summarised and can be found in the addendum (see Addendum Tables I and II).

In order to obtain insight into ways of engaging embassies, international foundations and NGOs, we have researched their websites and asked for guidance from directors of local NGOs, Asociatia Corala, Oberliht and members of European Association of History Educators.

C. Framework

The thesis framework includes six steps. These are summarized in figure 4 and listed in more detail below:

(1) A discussion on market inefficiencies—which in effect, are the reason for a decaying city and the existence of neglected and abandoned public zones. This reality is the basis of UCC’s opportunity to create value by connecting various parties that seek to revive abandoned public spaces through its projects. This is where we explain how UCC can position itself as connector of various parties and exploit market inefficiencies in a way that benefits

individual stakeholders and the society as a whole.

(2) In order to identify and analyse relevant stakeholders, we develop a salience model analysis. This ensures that we have considered stakeholders that have legitimacy, power or urgency, as it relates to UCC and its activities. In order to simplify the analysis and also identify the interdependencies between stakeholders, we will then develop a power/interest graph and an influence map.

(3) For each of the stakeholders, we will identify the potential value exchange between them and UCC.

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(4) We will develop individual value propositions for each of the stakeholders to see how we can accommodate their individual needs while maintaining overall coherence with UCC’s proposition.

(5) The next step is to draft an engagement plan and an action plan. This will serve to identify levels of engagement, timing of engagement for each stakeholder, and will describe means of engagement.

(6) Lastly, we will conclude with a plan for stakeholder relationship management and recommend a set of internal and external KPIs.

In order to cover these points we rely on various theoretical materials, which are summarised below, arranged by theme.

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II. Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundation

A. Analysis of Opportunity

In his book, Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition, Ronald Burt explains that actors have an opportunity for competitive advantage when they are connected to parties that carry

information and resources but that by themselves are poorly connected or organized (cited in D.

Krackhardt 1995). The poor connection is labeled as “structural holes.” The author explains that

opportunity exists when an actor’s connections are surrounded by structural holes and the actor himself

is not surrounded by structural holes. This concept, the visual of which is presented in figure 5, is a good depiction of what UCC is trying to accomplish. As we will see in the analysis, UCC tries to position itself in a manner that connects presently unconnected or poorly connected stakeholders, and via this connection, create individual stakeholder value and common social value.

Market imperfections are also discussed, in more detail, by Cohen and Winn (2007).

According to them, market imperfections create entrepreneurial opportunities that can be exploited by identifying them, discovering their causes and creating solutions. Although their framework focuses exclusively on environmental degradation themes, the authors’ thinking can be extended to include social welfare themes. They list the following market imperfections:

- Inefficient firms. Firms reach only a fraction of potential efficiencies. Some examples include unnecessary and expensive waste generation, use of expensive and newly extracted resources versus cheaper, recycled options. Their argument, also supported by Williamson (1991), is that economizing helps reduce economic waste.

- Unaccounted for externalities. These may be positive or negative and exist when the prices of products and services do not accurately reflect their costs and benefits. Examples include when a landscape renewal project benefits the neighbours by offering a pleasant visual experience, or when the ground water pollution caused by mining and textile dying operations leads to fresh water pollution, acid rains, smog, and ozone layer depletion.

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- Flawed pricing mechanisms. Markets fail to account for the true value of natural resources. For instance, clean air and water, renewable energy resources and regulated climate are undervalued or unpriced.

- Imperfectly distributed information. Information asymmetry occurs when “individuals possess different information with respect to resources, markets and opportunities” and is a main enabler of entrepreneurial opportunities (Kirzner 2000, cited in Cohen and Winn, 2007). The examples given are uninformed buying decisions of energy consumers that do not know their consumption level or how to optimize it in order to reduce costs and benefit the environment. Examples of an entrepreneurial solution include certifications (e.g. energy efficient label) and rating systems (e.g. star rating systems).

Although the examples are focused on environmental themes, the concepts that are described in the list of market imperfections provide a good basis from which UCC can explore value

creation opportunities between its stakeholders—identifying unoptimized use of resources, unaccounted for externalities, flowed pricing and potential for a more effective distribution of information. For instance, some stakeholders may have unused capacity that they wish to offer to UCC in exchange for public relations material. Also, we will see that abandoned areas create externalities through unoptimized real estate prices and business profits.

Theories of motives for alliance formation provide useful exploration topics for value enhancing exchange. These are summarized below:

B. Rationale for Social Alliances

As cited by Sakarya et al. (2012) social alliances “are voluntary collaborative efforts of actors from two or more economic sectors in a forum in which they cooperatively attempt to solve a social problem of mutual concern” (Waddock, 1991). “…partners adopt a non-economic objective that focuses on improving social welfare, and they involve at least one non-profit partner (Berger et al., 2004)”. The framework identifies two schools of thinking that may be used to analyse the motives for forming social alliances. The institutional theories (Dimaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott, 2011) suggest that social alliances are formed because partners seek to find the “right means of social engagement.” Organizational actors carry beliefs and assumptions that must be managed. Adhering to a reputable partner can increase legitimacy and thus facilitate the pursuit of a SCR project. The resource-based view suggests that alliances are formed because of resource scarcity. Rather than

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“go-it-alone strategies”, via alliances, partners complement each other’s capabilities with capital and non-capital resources. These may include financial, goods, services, resources and also knowledge, connections, reputation and past experience resources (Yan & Gray 2001).

Another motive for social alliance formation is identified by the transaction cost view

(Kogut 1988, cited in Das and Teng, 2000). According to the transaction cost theory, social alliences are formed to minimize the agregate costs of alliance partners, either by bringing efficiencies into production or by minimizing transaction costs that may occur during transfer of ownership of goods and services.

The three motives for social alliances are summarized in Table I, depicted below.

In order to identify the stakeholders of UCC, categorize them and develop an engagement plan, we will use a combination of theories on stakeholder identification, categorization and engagement, described in the section below.

C. Stakeholder Identification, Categorization and Engagement

Freeman defines stakeholders as anyone who can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. He (Freeman, 1984, p.77-101) argues that in formulating a strategy and determining what their companies stand for, managers must analyse their stakeholders, their

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values and the firm’s societal context. He views the stakeholder relationship as a reconfirmation of cohesion between the company’s purpose of existence and its social context. He argues that managers should be free to cooperate with stakeholders rather than be encouraged to play a

stakeholder dilemma game. He believes that the mentality of “try it, fix it, do it”, used in interacting with customers, should also be applied in interactions with stakeholders. He thus sees stakeholders as actors that managers should seek to engage in order to reach their organization’s objectives. Recommendations offered by Freeman include:

- Designing and implementing

communication processes - Explicitly negotiating and

seeking voluntary agreements

- Generalizing the marketing approach to serve multiple stakeholders

- Being proactive to stakeholder concerns and trying to influence the stakeholder environment - Allocating resources in a

manner consistent with stakeholder concerns - Thinking in “stakeholder

serving” terms

As a monitoring tool, Freeman suggests using an “issue-scorecard” (see Table II) that is aligned with the strategy of the organization. The scorecard tracks relevant KPIs by stakeholder category in order to monitor progress or change in stakeholder relationships.

Moore’s (1995) and Frederickson’s (1997) idea, reported by Bryson (2004), suggests that “the overriding purpose of public organizations is to create public value through meeting the

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organization’s mandate and fulfilling its mission.” An organization does so by organizing

[stakeholder] participation, collecting input on strategy, building a proposal-based coalition, which implements, monitors and evaluates strategic interventions.

Bryson cautions that one must decide for himself which of the stakeholders to include in a stakeholder analysis. He recommends that as a minimum, one should involve those who hold key information that otherwise cannot be obtained, and those whose participation is necessary for the implementation of the initiative. Bryson outlines a number of methodologies for identifying and analysing stakeholders. These may be used in combination or separately.

The 5-step process consists of the following phases: 1) Preliminary analysis to identify an initial list

of stakeholders. The interest versus power grid (see figure 6) can be used for this purpose. The model identifies crowd as stakeholders with little interest and power, subjects, as those with high interest (except for general inquisitiveness) and low power, context setters, are agents with high power and low interest, and finally, players are agents that have bother high power and high interest.

2) Public gathering of stakeholders who can identify additional relevant stakeholders

3) The group critically discusses stakeholders with current or future potential power, legitimacy or urgency, that may be missing, discusses positive and negative aspects of engaging the proposed stakeholders, and determines engagement methods

4) Get everyone on the same page

5) Determine groups of stakeholders who will have special roles to play in the change effort, such as sponsors, champions advisory, support providers, etc.

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Bryson (1995) recommends analysing stakeholders by:

1) Listing, for each of them, the criteria they would use to judge the organizations’ performance and/or listing the stakeholders’ expectations of the organization

2) Identifying (using color coding) the success rate a stakeholder would assign to the organization based on its needs/expectations

3) Specifying how each stakeholder influences the organization 4) Listing what the organization needs from each stakeholder

5) Ranking stakeholders, potentially via the help of the salience model (which is described at a later stage)

Another useful tool is the influence map (see figure 7) developed by Eden and Ackermann (1998). The analysis starts with the interest versus power grid.

Arrows are drawn between stakeholders in an effort to identify influential relationships. In order to maintain the relevance of the exercise, two-sided arrows are possible, but discouraged. The exercise helps identify the most influential stakeholders that an organization should consider paying close attention to. An example of such

an exercise is shown in the image at right, which outlines the power relationship in an organization’s IT system change process.

Bryson informs us about the Participation Planning Matrix (see table III). The matrix divides a stakeholder’s involvement in the following activities and by the following means:

Activities

- Organize participation

- Create ideas for strategic intervention - Build winning coalition around

proposal development, review and adoption

- Implement, Monitor and Evaluate strategic interventions Means - Inform - Consult - Involve - Collaborate - Empower

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The exercise requires one to fill in the boxes with the names of selected stakeholders and separately create an action plan document that identifies how to follow-up with each of the stakeholders. An example of such a template is illustrated above.

The Salience Model (Mitchell, Agle, & Wood, 1997), presents a methodology for classifying stakeholders based on the power, legitimacy and sense of urgency that those stakeholders possess (see figure 8). The more of these characteristics stakeholders possess, the more salient they are believed to be and the more attention an

organization must pay to them. Those that possess all three characteristics are labeled as definite

stakeholders and are considered most crucial. Those

that possess two of the three characteristics are either dominant (possessing power and legitimacy), dependent (possessing legitimacy and sense of urgency) or dangerous (possessing power and sense of urgency). Stakeholders that only have power are labeled as dormant. Those that only have

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legitimacy are labeled as discretionary and those that only have a sense of urgency are categorised as demanding stakeholders. The authors consider stakeholders that do not possess any of the three characteristics as non-stakeholders.

The authors provide the following recommendations on managing different stakeholder categories: - keep dominant stakeholders informed by offering cyclical meetings, reports or briefings - acknowledge dangerous stakeholders who may use illegitimate coercion if their requests are

not being addressed

- do not ignore dependent stakeholders. Although they may seem benign because of lack of power, dependent stakeholders may seek support from an otherwise uninterested dominant stakeholder, and in this way, gain dominance

- priority and immediate attention must be offered to dominant stakeholders

- consider stakeholder dynamics by which stakeholders can gain salience by forming coalitions with stakeholders that carry different characteristics

We will use the salience model and the interest power diagram to classify stakeholders and prioritize them. We will then use the teachings of Freeman and Bryson to dissect the stakeholders’ profiles by identifying their needs. We will use Bryson’s activity-means table to develop the

engagement plan, and finally, develop a relationship management framework based on monitoring relationship KPIs.

In order to develop a consistent organizational value proposition, and also be able to address the needs of stakeholders, we will use stakeholders’ profiles to develop value propositions. For this task we will use the theoretical materials of Osterwalder and Sinek. These are summarized in the next section.

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D. Value Proposition Model Development

Osterwalder (2014) proposes a systematic and comprehensive value proposition map exercise (see figure 9) that can support an entrepreneur in the development of a value proposition. The exercise requests one to outline the profile of a customer by specifying:

- the job a client attempts to

perform when using a product. These jobs may be functional, social, emotional or financial - the pains a client experiences when performing the job using available products or services

on the market. This may include frustrations, unwanted mental engagement, risks, physical pain, and so on

- the gains that a client wishes to experience in using a product or service. These can again be social, financial, emotional or functional, such as positive emotions, sense of respect, pleasant surprise about the ease of use

Once the customer map is complete, the exercise moves to defining a fitting solution. The first element is the description of the products and services offered. The second is the listing of pain-relieving features, which explicitly outlines how the product alleviates the pains of the customer. Finally, one outlines gain-creating features of the product. The product map is designed to fit the client profile. Since a variety of solutions may exist, prototyping and adjustment should be used to fine-tune the value proposition.

The author cautions that a business model fit and a product market fit is also crucial. The business model fit refers to the requirement that the product solution fit with the other elements of a business strategy, such as the channels, customer segments, customer relationships, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure and revenue stream. The product market fit refers to the requirement that the product fit the context of the market. For instance, a web product might be desired but if access to the Internet is limited or restricted by a government, the product may fail solely because of poor timing in bringing the product to market.

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Sinek takes a different approach. He

recommends starting any value proposition development with the question “Why?” and later moving to questions “How?” and “What?” According to him, most

companies make the mistake of focusing on the product itself and lose touch with the problem the product is solving. The “why?” question allows one to contemplate the purpose of the business or product. It helps one understand the problem the business is attempting to

resolve. Only once that question is answered should the manager move on to determine how the organization may go about resolving the problem and then later, identify the product offering and its features. Sinek’s Golden Circle approach is depicted in figure 10.

Osterwalder takes a detailed approach, which is useful in addressing the stakeholder’s needs. Sinek, on the other hand, allows us to keep a big picture mindset and stay focused on the reason of why UCC exists. A good value proposition should be able to fit both approaches.

III. Chapter 3: Analysis

A) Market inefficiencies – A Source of Opportunity:

Moldova’s instability, weak institutions, and unengaged civil society were discussed in the introduction section. These factors create a void when it comes to addressing social welfare issues. Businesses, being profit seekers by default, cannot be expected to take on social welfare programs, either. On the other hand, depending solely on international financial support is also unsustainable. Such a dependency may benefit the city and its citizens in the short-term, but will not create long-term solutions in which locals develop a systematic way to address social problems, in this case, decaying public spaces.

During interviews with various stakeholders we identified that parties were focused on self-serving interests. The civil community members cared about recreation areas for their children; neighbouring businesses wished to view well-maintained spaces next to their offices; artists and students wanted the opportunity to display their work; and teachers wished to provide to their

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students with real-world practice material. Most of the parties interviewed also had altruistic wishes to make the city look better, yet those were not prioritized over their individual needs.

In order to succeed, UCC must develop a program that taps into the self-serving interests of its stakeholders, all the while pursuing the common good. Since such a pursuit is complex, difficult, and does not directly pursue individual interests, these groups do not individually benefit from taking on this challenge. An independent organization like UCC can therefore, not only identify the elements and means that bring parties together, but also position itself for long-term exploitation of this newly created network of stakeholders.

To place this thought in academic language, UCC should develop a repetitive, sustainable program that will systematize the links between presently unconnected parties, and as such, exploit a structural hole that exists due to the complexity of aligning self-serving interests with those of social welfare. Figure 11 shows this concept visually. It displays the initial state where parties are

unconnected and the desired state where UCC is positioned in the middle and connects the initially unconnected parties.

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Certain parties’ self-interests are fully independent of the interests of other stakeholders. Other self-interests are intertwined with the interests of other stakeholders. Since our objective is to find the connection points between the self-interests of stakeholders, we will explore the points of connection by discussing Cohen and Winn’s four market imperfections, which can be exploited for pursuit of the common good.

According to Cohen and Winn (2007), market imperfections create opportunities for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, as solution creators, find methods to reduce market imperfections. Although the authors focus primarily on environmental and social entrepreneurs and economic agents, their thinking can be extrapolated and applied to NGOs like UCC. Below, we outline the market imperfections that UCC can potentially tackle. These were derived from the interviews we had with various current and potential stakeholders and the experiences we have had thus far in our collaboration with stakeholders:

Inefficient firms – how does one tap into unexploited resource capacities?

UCC can attempt to use unexploited resources from different agents for the execution of its social programs. For instance, one project constitutes the renewal of an abandoned territory that is located in a densely populated area of the city. UCC collaborated with the Department of Urbanism and Architecture at the Technical University of Moldova, which had students develop

architectural sketches for a new park. Without the UCC project, students would have continued working on conceptual projects that would have permanently remained on paper. A photo of a few students that have been collaborating with UCC is shown in figure 12. In order to obtain

construction materials, UCC collaborated with the municipal government, who resolved to provide recycled wood and recycled pavement blocks that would otherwise have been discarded or stolen. We seek collaborations with commercial partners who have unexploited capacity that can be utilized in our projects. For instance, a company of interest is Caparol, a paints producer who might have unsold paints that could be donated for drawing murals on deteriorated buildings. Also, construction

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companies may have unused equipment and specialists which we may borrow. Other commercial agents may be greenery nurseries and construction materials producers.

Flawed pricing mechanism: how does one create a system where the market can account for the true value of well-maintained public spaces?

The decaying city and the passive attitudes of businesses and communities suggests that the perception exists that actors are better off focusing on maintaining and improving their private properties rather than public ones. Some of the opportunities we identified were to highlight the value created by well-maintained public areas. These may be as follows:

- The property value increase due to attractive surrounding public areas

- The property value increase due to new recreational areas for families and children

- The increased profit potential of commercial agents due to increased pedestrian traffic and consequently, increased store traffic

- The increased involvement of administrative bodies in space maintainence, due to perceived civil community and commercial party involvement

Another flawed pricing mechanism is the use of tax money. The high level of coruption in Moldova poses great risk of tax money misuse. A recent, encouraging governmental program stipulates that 2% of all income taxes will be available for the works of NGOs. As of 2016 tax payers can stipulate on their tax returns to which NGO they wish to grant their 2% (Centru de Resurse Juridice din Moldova, 2016). So, UCC, as the beneficiary of these proceeds, can become, in effect, a pricing mechanism corrector. UCC can apply the funds toward restoring public spaces, which should otherwise have been restored by the public authorities.

Unnaccounted for Externalities: how does one elliminate negative externalities and/or enhance the positive ones?

Pilot renewal projects can have substantial unintended positive effects on the larger community. Just after our first project was completed, members of other communities became enthusiastic about the idea of building similar projects in their neighbourhoods, and the restoration of an abandoned sport field was completed. Since our objective is non-monetary in nature, we consider this empowering effect on the community a sign of success in itself. One of our

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seating areas within a small radius of its pharmacies. This serves as a way for the pharmacy to address negative externalities, which may arise if people associate the pharmacy with unmaintained spaces. Unfortunately, their success is limited. A few weeks after replacing the seating areas, they were once again damaged by neighborhood adolescents. We believe that in addition to effectively eliminating the negative externalities that arise from the existence of such abandoned areas, UCC can also address the adolescent behaviour. Since in large part Moldovean families cluster in neighbourhoods, we envision that the parents and grandparents of the neighborhood adolescents will be the volunteers for local projects. This could potentially serve as a means to winning the adolescents’ respect and admiration for the restored areas.

Imperfectly distributed information – how can UCC become an information distributer? As Cohen and Winn report, imperfectly distributed information is the main driver for entrepreneurial opportunities. From its early stages, UCC has exploited this driver:

- From an unengaged community, the members of the neighborhood where we developed our first project became empowered to think of the future. Of their list of 4, future projects, 2 of them are in collaboration with UCC. UCC provides them with a connection to the local authorities that pass and approve petitions. UCC also operates as the community

spokesperson in all discussions with various agents, such as educational institutions, governmental authorities and business communities.

- UCC acts as an information disseminator to Technical University of Moldova. Although willing, the staff members did not know about the opportunity for their students to work on existing urban challenges. Together we have developed a vision for a long-term program, where yearly, students will get the chance to work on a newly assigned territory.

- The pharmacy we mentioned earlier, although interested and relatively active in maintaining public areas within a small radius of their pharmacies, was not aware of the opportunity to partner with community members in order to pursue greater value creation.

Thus, in many aspects UCC’s role is one of information gatekeeper (between the various agents that collaborate in UCC’s projects).

These points are summarized in tables IV and V displayed below. The analysis presented in this section is relevant since it shows that there are multiple value creation opportunities that UCC can tap into to create an attractive value proposition for its stakeholders. Given the variety of

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stakeholders, some market inefficiencies discussed in this section are more relevant than others. We classify market inefficiencies and value creation opportunities by stakeholder in table V.

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B. Stakeholder Identification and Stakeholder Analysis:

i)

Stakeholder Identification:

Stakeholder theories use the firm as the nucleus of stakeholder analysis. In this way,

traditionally, there is a differentiation being made between internal stakeholder (suppliers, customers, owners, employees) and external stakeholders (communities, media, competitors, customers). In the case of UCC, I propose a slight shift in thinking. I view the formation of an official NGO, as means to officiating the objectives and actions of UCC. Thus, when we think of stakeholders in the context of UCC we can think of those who can affect or be affected by UCC’s raison d’être. Moreover, since the objectives of our organization carry with them beneficial social aims, we can extend this thinking to suggest that the NGO itself is a product of trying to connect the interests of those that can benefit from UCC’s reason for being. Since UCC connects these stakeholders via shared objectives, UCC’s stakeholders are both internal and external. This concept is visually displayed in figure 13. While UCC stakeholders sometimes act as promoters and volunteers, UCC must still engage with these parties as with other external stakeholders. This consideration becomes especially relevant should UCC eventually need to create a membership group of involved stakeholders that would highlight their own participation in the overall social movement. Such a group would be branded independent of UCC in order to address the image needs of each relevant stakeholder.

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In order to identify all UCC’s stakeholders we use the Salience Model. This model classifies stakeholders based on their characteristics of power, legitimacy, and sense of urgency. The

characteristics are dynamic and may differ from project to project, and sometimes, may change during a project. For instance, while an artist may initially have little power over UCC, once he is commissioned for a job, he gains certain power, and managing him may require more attention. Thus, performing such an exercise is tricky and ranking may quickly become outdated. Nevertheless, this model provides a good way of ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are identified and that no relevant stakeholders are ignored in our analysis. In figure 14 we can view the following stakeholders

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that were identified for UCC: Construction materials manufacturers; paint manufacturer, Caparol; tree nurseries; mural artist, Radu Dumbrava; municipal landscape organization; Isaak Roet Family; municipal architecture organization; embassies and consulates; international NGOs; media; project-neighbouring communities; Pharmacy, Farmacia Familiei; municipal government; Department of Urbanism and Architecture; Community Grocery Store, Cuza-Voda 16/1; local NGO, Oberliht; and Association, Asociatia Corala. Although we initially considered Internet providers as

stakeholders, our salience model analysis determined that these parties are non-stakeholders. In the next section we seek to analyse UCC stakeholders by performing an interest power map, an influence map, a stakeholder grouping by interest, and an analysis of potential value-adding exchanges between stakeholders and the UCC.

ii)

Stakeholder Categorization and Analysis:

a)

Interest Power Map:

In the development of the interest map, my partner and I have used the following definitions: Interest refers to stakeholders’ self-interest in the activities and successes of UCC. Interest does not indicate simple inquisitiveness but carries with it the definition provided by Adam Smith, involving actions that elicit the most personal benefit. Such benefits may arise from the need to explore one’s creativity and develop one’s skills, the need to feel needed, needs arising from ethical principals, such as the need for self-esteem, needs for wellbeing for oneself and one’s children, personal or business financial needs, political influence needs, employment safety needs, and so on. Possession of power is considered possession of the ability to influence the success or failure of UCC’s programs. Such power may include the ability to influence others, the ability to provide financial support, and the ability to provide value through volunteering. The placement on the interest-power map (see figure 15) represents our current assessment of stakeholders’ positions based on the interviews we conducted and the intrinsic characteristics of stakeholders. Since the

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positions are dynamic in nature, and can be affected by our engagement methodologies, these positions may change. The current categorisation is as follows:

Crowd (low power/ low interest)

• Gradina Visului • Facebook fans

• Local NGO Chisinau is me

Subjects (low power/ high interest)

• Association “Associatia Corala”

• Local NGO Oberliht

Players (high power/high interest):

• Mural Painter Radu Dumbrava

• Department of Urbanism and Architecture

• Communal Grocery Store on Cuza-Voda 16/1 • Pharmacy “Farmacia Familiei” • Municipal Government • Students • Project Neighbouring Communities

Context Setters (high power/ low interest) • Isaack Roet Family • Municipal Landscape Organization

• Caparol paint manufacturer • Group: Media

• Group: International NGOs

• Group: Internet Providers • Group: Nurseries • Group: Embassies • Group: Construction materials manufacturers • Municipal Architecture Organization

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The stakeholders identified as “group” and underlined are groups of potential partners. The actual prospective list can be found in the addendum (Addendum Table III). We have indicated

stakeholders who hold the low interest positions in red, because they have not been engaged. We believe that many of them will move up on the list after we initiate a well thought through

engagement plan. Such engagement might be needed once we clearly identify what UCC needs from these stakeholders. This will be discussed in greater detail when we develop a participation-planning matrix. Thus, unlike the interest/power map suggests, those stakeholders are not context makers but rather, unengaged stakeholders, which are powerful because their involvement can have a big, positive impact on UCC’s efforts. For instance, engagement of media can create good PR that can build legitimacy. Engagement with greenery nurseries and manufacturers of construction materials can save UCC substantial financial resources.

The influence arrows exercise (see figure 16) accentuates the influence some players have on the success of UCC. Such a depiction shows how the absence of a player may have a domino effect on the rest of the agents. For instance, the family of Isaac Roet has a heavy influence on many players including the local grocery store, the pharmacy Farmacia Familiei, the municipal government, and various resource providers. This is due to the fact that the Isaac Roet prize, which was won in the Netherlands (and not locally in Moldova), created legitimacy for UCC. The international prize also acts as an empowerment tool for local donors, sponsors, and volunteers, who view it as a core that they can connect to. Thus, one can notice rather quickly that if the relationship with the family of Isaac Roet does not continue, and if that spot is not replaced with another legitimacy and

empowerment-enhancing agent, UCC’s efforts might be substantially, negatively impacted. Another observation is that there are a substantial number of high power stakeholders that UCC can focus their efforts on. UCC can therefore, remove from future analysis, the stakeholders with low power, mainly: Asociatia Corala; NGO, Oberliht; NGO, Chisinau is Me; Facebook fans; and Gradina Visului.

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The overall recommendations that emerged from this exercise are to: 1) try to strengthen the relationship with the family of Isaak Roet and seek a second legitimacy enhancing international partner, 2) for the simplification of the exercise, remove from the next analysis, stakeholders that appear with low levels of influence: Asociatia Corala; NGO, Oberliht; NGO, Chisinau is Me; Facebook fans; and Gradina Visului.

b)

Stakeholder Categorization based on Stakeholder Interest:

In order to simplify the analysis, we have grouped the stakeholders (see table VI) based on the following interests:

- Altruistic wish for a better city - Self-esteem - Family wellbeing - Sense of prosperity - Use of creativity - Skill development - Job safety

- Direct financial benefit - Indirect financial benefit

- PR

- Political appeal

- Promotion of organization values - Promotion of Western standards

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The interest list has been derived from the interviews we conducted with stakeholders, along with their inherent characteristics. For instance, while businesses were open during the interviews about their interest in financially benefiting, governmental institutions did not single out their political interests, yet that interest reflects common sense and is thus included in this list. It is however important to note that this list of interests is not exhaustive. Also, with this grouping we risk labeling interests too strictly and disregarding various subtleties. Yet, this classification helps move the analysis forward in a digestible form. It remains in the discretion of the reader and user of this

framework, to dissect the subtleties of each stakeholder and to adjust the engagement accordingly. Based on the interests grouping we obtain the following stakeholder groups (also summarized in Table VII): students and

artists, businesses located in proximity to UCC projects, businesses that have products or resources of interest to UCC, educational institutions, western values promoters, residents, governmental execution bodies, and media.

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Now that we have clarity on the stakeholder groups for UCC, we can move forward with the analysis to identify the value creating exchanges that can take place between UCC and its stakeholders.

c)

Value Exchange Analysis:

Figure 17 depicts the value exchange map in which we can view the potential exchange values between UCC and its stakeholders. UCC is depicted in the middle as the organization that is the recipient of stakeholder value and the one offering values to its stakeholders. We have used icons to denote the types of theoretical value creation that could exist between parties, mainly resource-based, transaction cost-based and institutional-based value creation. In the same image we include examples of what some exchanges could entail in practice. The identified exchanges are based on the interviews we conducted with stakeholders, who were asked how they see their involvement in UCC projects.

UCC offers residents of Chisinau recreational area, and in return, they offer to UCC volunteer time for the execution of projects, and possibly, 2% of tax proceeds that will be used towards the creation of recreational areas and their maintenance. UCC provides educational institutions with a theme for new educational modules, mainly “development of public spaces of Chisinau”, and access to practice sites. In return, the educational institutions, via their faculty, offer professional skills. Depending on the institution, these may be architectural, landscaping,

construction or artistic skills. The faculty also acts as coordinators for students’ time and efforts in developing products for UCC, such as architectural sketches, construction estimates, and works of art that may be displayed in the recreational areas developed by UCC. Indirectly, by publishing information about our common projects on their social media, and by being a partner of UCC, educational institutions also offer legitimacy to UCC. Also, at their discretion, faculty members offer consulting and volunteer time to oversee the execution of their students’ work. UCC offers

businesses within close proximity to its projects, well-kept areas that attract more store traffic. UCC ensures that a businesses’ involvement is used as public relations material. In return, businesses offer financial support, some maintenance of those areas, volunteer time, and a sense of legitimacy. The same overall idea is applied to each of the stakeholder groups.

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Now that we have determined that a value creating opportunity exists for UCC (to connect various parties in the pursuit of reviving abandoned areas), have identified the stakeholder groups, and have discussed potential value creating exchanges between the parties, we will advance to the next step, in which we seek to develop a cohesive value proposition that is in line with stakeholder profiles and UCC’s mission.

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C. Value Proposition Development:

UCC’s mission responds to Sinek’s “Why?”

UCC exists for the purpose of restoring neglected public spaces in Chisinau. A core belief is that revival of abandoned areas can be an empowering tool for Chisinau’s society as a whole.

The “How?” is partially developed in this thesis paper. UCC collaborates with various parties to gather means and support used for the revival of abandoned places.

“What?”, or the actual product offering, must accommodate all stakeholders that are involved. Based on the interviews we conducted with stakeholder groups, we sketch the profiles of each of the stakeholder groups by identifying the objective they are trying to accomplish, the gains they may hope to realize and the pains they experience, or are anxious about experiencing, while on the job. We then attempt to formulate value propositions that fit the stakeholders’ profile, are consistent with the organization’s mission, and are considerate of the other stakeholder groups. The group profiles along with the group value propositions are summarized in table VIII.

Through conversation with various stakeholders, it emerged that the community prefers projects that primarily focus on courtyards where they are the main beneficiaries of the projects; other stakeholders prefer highly-trafficked areas. Businesses, artists, students, and Western values promoters, prefer areas with a large number of beneficiaries. Businesses see highly-trafficked areas as an opportunity for additional profit. Artists and students view those areas as attractive exhibition space and western values promoters seek to optimize investments by “dollar per person reached”. With this in mind, UCC will seek to develop projects in highly public areas where residents that live nearby can use recreational spaces for themselves and their children. There are shared anxieties surrounding the use and maintenance of restored areas. It thus becomes evident that the recreational areas must be furnished with sturdy and maintenance-free fittings. The developed areas must also have plans for managing disorder. These may include signs to encourage cleanliness, trash bins, police patrolling and video cameras.

Education institutions need to appear progressive and to offer resonating academic modules to students. This matches well with UCCs ability to offer relevant, city/area-related issues that can be resolved using student talent. Another attractive aspect for these actors is that the theme

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provided by UCC allows for the possibility of developing a systematic, annual program, through which the academic module can remain intact while the practice zone changes.

During interviews, students and artists stated that they care that their efforts and products are acknowledged and properly displayed. They also view the collaboration as a means of obtaining experience that may be used in future when seeking employment. UCC must therefore ensure that each of the involved students is accredited. To do so it may list the involvement of all students on plaques located in the developed areas. UCC should also consider developing a certification program for active students.

In order to appeal to businesses and their need to make a profit, UCC must not only improve the areas surrounding businesses, but also be considerate of businesses’ need for branding and PR. Branding may include signage that list the sponsors of a project; it may also be more subtle, such as including within the project, themes that resonate with a sponsor’s brand. Examples include painting benches in the color scheme of a certain business, naming or designing park areas in line with the look and feel of a brand. Also, importantly, UCC must be conscious of a business’s need to have their involvement PR-ed; UCC must be proactive in portraying their involvement in its external communications. This must be done after a business’s preapproval of the messages that will go out. These approaches will work as much for businesses located in close proximity to UCC projects, as for those that have offices at distance. In the case of the later, PR material becomes the main product that UCC can offer to those parties.

It is somewhat harder to aggregate the profile and determine the value offering for the international organizations, such as embassies, international funds, and international NGOs. Applying for their grants is the best way to facilitate the match between their objectives and UCC’s activities. In order to appeal to them, UCC must ensure a good image and meet all the necessary grant application requirements. As a bare minimum UCC must obtain an ANBI status1_{, keep the}

UCC website up to date with its activities and successes, and maintain and publish project-specific reports and annual reports.

1_{An ANBI status is given to not-for profits after meeting an extensive set of prerequisites. These include: division of}

power, integrity, no significant director compensation, an up-to-date policy plan, control over expenditures, and met administrative obligations.

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The profile of the governmental institutions suggests that UCC must refrain from expecting and requesting extensive support from these parties. Although their involvement is crucial, UCC must solely expect from them bureaucratic task assistance, such as obtaining documents, orders and certifications. Activities that do not deviate from an established municipal annual plan may also be proactively requested. All the additional support UCC has obtained to date, and hopefully will continue to obtain, should be viewed as ad hoc. That is not to say that UCC should not attempt to create a stronger relationship with governmental executive bodies. To date, however, expectations of this party may backfire and prove unreliable. At the same time, UCC must be cordial with these stakeholders and portray them to the media and to the community in a favourable light. Otherwise, the bureaucratic process may become impenetrable and place UCC’s efforts in peril.

Finally, in order to obtain favourable media coverage, UCC must be proactive and seek to invite reporters for site visits and suggest interview material.

In this section we addressed the interests of each stakeholder, individually, and also sought to align their individual value propositions with UCC’s mission to revive the abandoned spaces of Chisinau. Now that we have developed a cohesive value proposition, we move the analysis to the next step, where we determine a stakeholder project engagement plan and the respective action plan.

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D. Project Engagement Plan & Action Plan:

In addition to project-related engagement, UCC engages the parties with whom it built a relationship of trust and long-term planning, in program development initiatives. This level of engagement is additive to the project engagement plan. We will touch upon this subject at the end of the project engagement section.

We have adapted Bryson’s engagement steps and means to fit UCC’s project milestones and stakeholder profiles. These have been adjusted as follows:

Bryson Project Steps: • Organizing participation

• Creating ideas for strategic interventions (including problem formulation and search for solutions) • Building a winning coalition around proposal development and adoption

• Implementing, monitoring, and evaluating strategic interventions UCC Project steps

• Organizing participation – launching of the initial idea • Project vision development

• Project alliance development • Project planning

• Project execution • Project evaluation

In addition to Bryson’s Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, Empower, we added an additional means of engagement, which we titled, Bureaucratic Approval, with the promise: We will seek to obtain from you all the necessary approvals. This has been added to accommodate the

Governmental Executive bodies that do not match any other engagement means suggested by Bryson. The stakeholders’ location in the engagement table presented below (Table IX) depends on when stakeholders feel the need to become involved, how they feel they need to be involved and also on the level of value they can deliver at each project phase. For instance, whereas at the initial phase of organizing participation, a limited number of parties are engaged by being informed, seeking approval or consultation during the later stages, a larger number of parties become engaged by means of collaboration. We will now go over each phase in detail in order to clarify the

stakeholders’ level of engagement at each stage of the project. As we do so, we will also elaborate an action plan.

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Project Step 1: Organizing participation – launching of the initial idea

At this step, businesses located within close proximity to projects, governmental executive bodies, community members and educational institutions, are engaged to discuss potential project

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ideas. Since it is only the initiation phase of a project, businesses are informed about the potential of getting involved; governmental executive bodies are contacted to ensure that the municipality is open to having a specific area revived; educational institutions and residents are met with to gather initial feedback on ameliorating a given space.

Below are the action points related to this project step:

- The members of the governmental executive bodies (aka. municipal and regional offices) are met with to ensure that the proposed project location is considered legitimate and will not be used for other purposes during the next five years. UCC obtains a signed petition that enables it to continue to gather support from other stakeholders to further develop the proposed idea.

- UCC sends invitations for collaboration letters to businesses in close proximity to the project location.

- UCC plans a separate visit with educational institutions to gather feedback on the proposed location, the level of interest, desire to get involved, and encourages initial project

brainstorming.

- UCC plans a community meeting. 10-14 days prior to the organized meeting, it posts invitations on information boards of residences in close proximity to potential project locations and commences unofficial recruitment for the meeting. During the meeting the initial idea is discussed in order to gather feedback on the level of interest and the

community’s desire to get involved. Initial project brainstorming takes place.

- UCC sends invitation letters of collaboration to businesses in close proximity to the project location. UCC meets with them in a group setting or independently, depending on the business’s size and availability for the meeting.

Project Step 2: Project vision development

During the second step of the project, the project’s vision is developed; UCC’s objective is to develop a shared vision with the involved stakeholders. The deliverable of this stage is a finalized architectural sketch that is accepted by all involved parties. Thus, at this stage, the engagement with educational institutions, residents, businesses located in close proximity of projects, students and artists, is collaborative and we seek to incorporate the stakeholders’ advice and recommendations to the maximum extent possible. Engagement with the governmental executive bodies, however, continues in a bureaucratic form, whereby we engage them to obtain historical charts of the site and