It doesn’t take long, when talking with the Dutch about how they do things, for the word “polder” to come up in the conversation. More specifically: the Polder Model.
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For which Wikipedia has a pretty good definition:
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The polder model is a term … first used to describe the acclaimed Dutch version of consensus-based economic and social policy making, specifically in the 1980s and 1990s. The term quickly took on a wider meaning, to denote similar cases of consensus decision-making in the Dutch fashion. It is described with phrases like “a pragmatic recognition of pluriformity” and “cooperation despite differences”.
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I’m assuming that, historically, this has something to do with the fact that the Low Countries are low. They’re rather easily flooded. And flat. So there’s no high ground for the rich and powerful to separate themselves from the people below. Everyone has a stake in public infrastructure like dykes. Especially dykes that protect reclaimed land from the sea – or polders.
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Therefore, there has to be a buy-in by almost everyone when decisions are made. Or at least something like 75 percent approval.
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This results in a lot of meetings – ‘tables,’ they call them, and legislative structures that depend on consensus. But it also allows them to make decisions and move on with broad support. And given that the Dutch know they can do very little of global impact all on their own, they’ve developed a strategy for how to work well with others – the Dutch Way. Turns out that this is a good strategy for doing business in a global world.
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Best of all, they figured out a way to make money with it. They market their skill at logistics.
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The Wiki again:
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Logistics is the management of the flow of resources between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet some requirements, for example, of customers or corporations. … physical items as well as abstract items such as time, information, particles, and energy..The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, material handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software..The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation..
In The Netherlands, logistics is already a very big business thanks to their strategic location: a € half-trillion industry, worth 10 percent of GDP, with 12 percent of jobs (813,000 of them). And it’s perfect for the Polder Model – communication, cooperation, adaptation. Finding ways of working together and sharing.
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So in 2008, the government launched a strategy – specifically, a Logistics Action Plan for the Netherlands. By 2020, the Dutch expect to be the top European provider for supply-chain coordination.
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To do so they set up ‘platforms’ – places where all the various interests can come together to share. (We’ll examine one of those platforms on light rail later in this series.) They funded universities to specialize in this field. Already, 45 professors do. The idea: to valorize knowledge, getting it out of the classrooms and journals, and into the hands of small and medium-size businesses.
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They also established Dinalog – the Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics, structured to bring together businesses, enterprises, universities and governments. Dinalog is the (physical and virtual) place where the private sector will cooperate with Centers of Excellence (the universities) to create a kind of grad school for real life.
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The Dinalog Academy, for instance, does master classes, grad-student and young-professional exchanges, (including the social aspects of a cooperative culture). The Institute also handles demonstration projects, research grants, business hubs – even financing and pooling projects. Some of it sounds like the what you read on the covers in the business section of airport bookstores. “Synchromodality,” for instance. Collectively it’s called ‘Open Innovation.’
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Dinalog, in short, is a ‘Conversion Factory’- analysing material in the academy, matching it up with enterprises, facilitating the dialogue and bringing people, especially the younger ones, into the process.
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Seems all rather obvious? Who would object to more coordination and cooperation, more sharing for mutual benefit?
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Ever tried to get Canadian railways to talk to each other? Or trucking companies? Or different levels of government?
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Maybe it’s time we found a way to go Dutch.
