I am training my artificial intelligence model based on GPT-4o, whose task will be to advise municipal/city authorities in making strategic decisions.
Some municipal leaders (and not only them), when talking about implemented investments and other projects, often emphasize how much they cost or will cost, and ignore other aspects.
An interview with Leonel Correia da Silva, Mayor of Câmara de Lobos, one of the municipalities of Madeira, made me realize that the rapid influx of tourist traffic&investment can be a challenge even on remote, oceanic islands, as long as they are attractive to the world and sufficiently connected to it.
This time I trained in strategy the authorities and top management of the Pielgrzymka Commune. Welcoming, committed people, with whom I enjoyed working. And we had a good laugh at some examples from local government life 🙂 And how is development created here?
Training on the construction and implementation of the development strategy of communes, i.e. on the strategic governence of the development of communes, is the most important training for their authorities.
Thanks to my experience in local & regional development strategies, this year I was appointed for the second time as an expert of the European Research Executive Agency.
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” said the Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” by L. Carroll, a lecturer of the Oxford University. And she was very right.
Work is underway on the Wroclaw Development Strategy for 2050. This is a SUPER-IMPORTANT plan that will determine not only the directions of Wroclaw’s development, but will also influence the development of the Wroclaw metropolitan area and even the region.
When in February 2023 I was finishing a two-day training on strategic governance of city development for the authorities and management of Miasto Jelenia Góra, the Mayor Jerzy Łużniak asked me: “Will you support us in building a new Strategy?”
Can public strategic governance be learned? Or do you have to be born with a talent for it?
We ALL need educated public authorities and officials, at all levels, from state to municipal. And it’s not about some education, but about good quality education, appropriate to the duties, real, modern, practical, solid and regularly updated. Private and professional life, prosperity, environment, space and safety of EACH OF US depend on it.
“Manage the public affairs as if you had no private interests” and “Liberty can not be sold for all the gold of the world”. These two mottos, visible (to this day) on historical buildings of the authorities of the Republic of Ragusa (today’s Dubrovnik), together with excellent strategic governance, brought it centuries of prosperity and undisputed power.
During the European Economic Congress Katowice, Poland, I will have the honor of presenting awards to the winners of TOP Municipal Investments. This is a Poland’s nationwide competition for the most pro-development, bold, strategic investments of municipalities, counties and regions. We, as the Consultative Board, have already chosen our favorites, but your opinion also counts
One of the conditions for developing a good strategy is to listen to residents and entrepreneurs, especially leaders and decision-makers.
I don’t just develop city development strategies. Mayors also let me review their projects. I’ve done two recently. The idea is that I find their imperfections, the authorities correct them and the strategy becomes better – for residents, business and the environment.
A draft amendment to the *Environment Protection Law* has just been submitted to the Polish Parliament, obliging the authorities of all 2477 communes to set not only social, economic and spatial strategic goals in their strategies, but also “climate and environmental” ones!
Roseto is a small city in the USA (PA) that surprised scientists in the 20th century. The mortality rate of its inhabitants, Italian migrants, was approximately 1/3 lower than the average. This phenomenon could not be explained for a long time.
The recent amendment to one of Polish legal acts determined that the MASTERPLAN takes into account in particular the spatial policy of the commune specified in the commune’s development strategy or the supra-local development strategy of communes.
As part of my travels in search of local development and inspirations for local & regional governments, I had the honor and pleasure of talking about Maltese local governments with the Acting President of Malta Prof. Frank Bezzina and with the Director General for Local Government in the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta, Natalino Attard
A lot is happening in politics, law, economy, technology, society, environment, etc. How can you find your way in this with your commune/city? What its development strategy you should develop, adapt and implement?
Scientific and teaching work is my main activity, apart from building and implementing strategies. I am the professor of The Wrocław University of Economics and Business (WUEB), one of the top in Poland. I have degrees of habilitated doctor of management and doctor of economics. In addition, I serve as: plenipotentiary of Rector, member of university committees, councils and committees, conference organizer and chairman, editor of journals, reviewer and supervisor.
My scientific activity is devoted to strategic governance in local and regional governments and to local development, and therefore is consistent with what I do in practice. I carry out my research while providing consulting services for communal, municipal, city, district and regional governments as well as their units, companies and associations. I also ran them as part of projects of my and foreign universities, Polish National Center for Research and Development, ministries , self-governments associations (e.g. Association of Polish Cities). I present their results at conferences and in articles and books (ca. 100). They are cited and used in local government practice. For example, my methods of strategic analysis of territorial units, as well as the systems for implementing and evaluating development strategies of these units are used in strategies of communes and voivodeships, e.g.: “Development Strategy of the Lower Silesia Voivodeship 2020”, “Podlasie Strategy for the Development of Nanotechnology 2020”, “Integrated Strategy for the Development of the Functional Area of the Odra Municipalities”. Some results of my research are under copy rights protection, e.g. “The algorithmic method of generating reference models for implementation of processual management in public sector units” (US Patent Office – No. 616722990).
I’m also an monitor expert of The European Research Executive Agency supervising R&D projects within Horizon Europe program (previously Horizon 2020). As an expert of the Polish The National Center for Research and Development, I evaluated incl. GOSPOSTRATEG national strategic research program. I also evaluated R&D projects of Polish Human Capital Operational Program 2007-2013 and the EU EQUAL Community Initiative.
I review scientific articles for journals from many countries e.g.: Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, Local Government Studies, Sustainability, Social Sciences, Urban Studies and Public Administration, Bulletin of Geography, Oeconomia Copernicana, Equilibrium, Advances in Economics and Business, Folia Turistica, Real Estate Management and Valuation, Optimum. Economic Studies, Land, Journal of Contemporary Management. I also review books, incl. published by the Warsaw School of Economics. I was an scientific editor of WUEB Scientific Works, series “Local and regional economy in theory and practice”. I am also a member of the international publishing boards, incl. Economic Alternatives journal published by the University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria.
I review doctoral dissertations, including foreign ones, e.g. from The University of Johannesburg, South Africa. I am also appointed to doctoral and habilitation committees.
I lecture on: local development strategies, local economy, regional economy, city management, city economics, local government interventionism, local government economic policy, administration and the public sector. I also conduct field exercises. More than 200 bachelor’s and master’s theses devoted to local governments were written under my supervision. In annual plebiscites, students of the WUEB recognized me as the “best specialist” (twice: 2012, 2013) and also as “the most demanding teacher” (2017).
I received the WUEB Rector’s Individual Award 14 times for my scientific and didactic activities.