Mobility Center(s) of Excellence (MCE)

In the past two decades, a lot of technological, economical and demographical changes have occurred in both developed and developing nations. The implications of these changes are well understood for developed nations yet it is not clear how those changes would impact on developing nations. South East Asia and ASEAN region with a 600 million population is the region that has been growing significantly economically and it is projected that the economic growth will continue at an average of 16% annually for the next next 5 years. The economic growth brings along other types of demand especially in the field of mobility need and urbanization which has an immediate outcome of high economic growth. A very good example is the city of Jakarta, as a capital city of one the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, which is ranked number one in terms of car traffic congestion worldwide.

A combination of economic, demographic and technological changes would necessitate thinking strategically in regard to mobility in developing countries particularly South East Asia and the ASEAN region as one the fastest growing regions. Specifically there are some important questions to be addressed:

• How the driver-less and intelligent vehicles would affect the mobility in ASEAN region considering the new economic arrangement for free flow of goods, people and money in the region?
• Generation Y has been growing along with IT advancement and Internet penetration in the region and instant connectivity is the obsession of new generation. How does the Y generation consumption pattern differ compared to developed nations and whether the same consumer behavior can be expected in this region? Whether the view of the Y generation consumer to capital goods would be the same as developed countries and those new business models like Zipcar, autolib, airb&b would be able to succeed in this region or would there be localized business models addressing the mobility issue?
• How sustainable mobility should be balanced with local government’s goals for employment and social welfare improvement?
• Taking into consideration all the new changes in the environment, how policy makers should think strategically about mobility in the region?
• Whose responsibility is to provide compelling mobility solutions? Whether automakers should play a key role or would there be a new player like energy providers to provide a sustainable and compelling mobility solution?

 

MISI’s core capability

There are many management consultancy institutions that study the future of mobility in various regions. Obviously MISI is not a consultancy institute and intends to position itself as a research-oriented institute to look into the research implications of all the trends and driving forces for future mobility. The consultancy firms are expected to study the future trends and driving forces and we at MISI can take those driving forces and specifically define research projects to expand the knowledge boundary in value chain and supply chain design and strategy. In other words, MISI strive to develop principles and theories around mobility challenges in Southeast Asia and provide underpinning mental models to drive practices in this area.

Taking into account the changes identified by management consultancy firms, MISI’s role is to investigate how those changes and driving forces should be incorporated into two broad areas as follows:

• Mobility Solution Value Chain or System Design: How the value chains and systems should be redesigned and reconfigured to ensure those driving forces is incorporated? What are the components of a mobility solution provider’s value chain? How the system’s components should interact with each other?
• Mobility Solution Demand Fulfillment: what are the implications of the driving forces on passengers and freight mobility? How the freight and passengers flows should be managed to meet the all stakeholders’ needs?

In last couple of years, MISI has been able to identify the most prominent trends and driving forces that would shape the future of mobility and it has also been able to study and understand the automotive industry ecosystem in global, regional and domestic levels. Having studied the automotive global value chains, one interesting finding is that the automotive value chains have been shifting from an OEM-driven value chains to supplier-driven one. It implies that the supplier and mega suppliers’ role in the future of mobility is becoming more prominent and it has many implications on the future of mobility value chain design.

This research has enabled MISI to initiate some high-level studies on strategic mobility and how South East Asia and ASEAN region will be impacted by implications of strategic mobility.

MISI’s capabilities to be leveraged for this research endeavor can be described as follows:

• Highly experienced faculty and researchers from the automotive industry.
• Having MOUs with most prominent universities and research institutes in Southeast Asia.

 

MISI’s Strategic Mobility COE Vision

We envision being the first academic institute in Southeast Asia to conduct fundamental and applied research to contribute into future-oriented people and goods mobility.

 

MISI’s Strategic Mobility COE Mission

By MISI’s capabilities on fundamental and applied research, SMCOE intends to produce high-quality research on how multi-dimensional changes in the environment affect mobility solution of value chain/system design and mobility solution of demand fulfillment. By accomplishing this, MISI is able to cover full range of mobility implications both on value chain design and demand fulfillment.

 

Expected output

In order to actively be involved in this research initiative, MISI plans to deliver the following output:

• Create periodical write-ups and publications that are leveraged around the main theme of strategic mobility and are targeted to address the implications on ASEAN region.
• Proactively get engaged with policymakers and companies involved in th mobility issue in the region.
• Conduct practical and theoretical research and develop knowledge on strategic mobility in the region.
• Organize conferences and workshop on strategic mobility in Southeast Asia