CORPORATE MOBILITY REVIEW; How Business can Shape Mobility

Abstract

This research is based around months of conversation with business leaders across major sectors of the Australian economy. It constitutes a business-led response to the challenge of mobility which is increasingly constraining the productivity and viability of Australian business. As part of the Sustainable Mobility Project, corporate involvement in mobility is investigated at all scales—from the smallest changes in company policy, to strategic new ventures in research and development. An extensive review of the literature is conducted to identify global trends and best practice in corporate mobility management. Transport challenges affecting a range of stakeholders like employees, customers, visitors and suppliers are discussed and various mobility initiatives evaluated. Mobility issues like flexible work, location policy and precinct-level travel management are also considered, before looking to new futures in urban passenger transportation and related opportunities for business participation. This literature review is coupled with an interview program conducted in Q4 2016 on ten organisations across unique industry sectors. Concurrent stakeholder engagement with Sustainable Business Australia member companies provided valuable ongoing feedback and ensured that emerging ideas could be adequately tested. The findings revealed a divergence across the business community’s involvement in mobility. Whilst some companies had a coherent strategy in place operationalised through worthwhile initiatives, others paid lip service to mobility issues and failed to translate the challenges they identified into action. There were some exceptional, forward-thinking leaders innovating to enter the future mobility marketplace with visions and targets set until the end of the century. Based on these findings, recommendations were then developed for businesses across sectors with the aim of generating dialogue and debate amongst the business community. These include: (1) collaborate across three dimensions—vertically within one’s own value chain with suppliers and customers, horizontally with competitors and other sectors, and orthogonally with government and industry associations; (2) challenge the status quo—whether it be on work practices, company culture or mobility solutions to lead new thinking across the organisation; (3) devise a mobility management plan—regularly survey stakeholders across the business (employees, customers, visitors and suppliers) on a range of indicators to understand their mobility requirements, and use this data to inform mobility initiative development; and (4) innovate to compete in the new mobility paradigm, adapting the company business model and seizing new opportunities as markets evolve. The key lesson here is that there are ample opportunities for business to shape mobility and that it is never too early (nor disadvantageous) to start the conversation.