A confident and realistic city

Greg Clark, a specialist on city building, investment and strategies for globalisation based in London. Photo / Supplied

International cities expert Greg Clark's success mantra: "One plan, One Voice, One Identity" was eagerly lapped up by long-time Auckland Super City champions Sir Ron Carter and Michael Barnett and senior Cabinet Ministers in Helen Clark's Government when he ran his ruler over New Zealand's biggest city at the pivotal "Symposium for Auckland" in 2006.

Clark has visited and reviewed more than 100 cities and regions around the world in the last decade or so. His independent insights helped convince the Clark Government that it was time to do something about a dysfunctional Auckland.

Clark's pedigree is first-class: He chairs the OECD's Cities and Regions Forum and is a former chief executive of the London Enterprise Agency: "One London".

The London-based globetrotter has found himself an enthusiastic new convert in Auckland Council interim chief executive Doug McKay who met him in Auckland last month.

In his most recent Auckland-focused presentation, Clark said it was essential the city built a development trajectory which leveraged its strategic advantages, honestly assessing its weaknesses so it could tackle them or avoid constructing a future which depended in some ways on them.

Auckland had to be confident and realistic about its future position in the world and address national tensions; aiming perhaps to be the world's leading smaller global city, and nurturing more high-valued added activities.

The Clark recipe: Ten habits for a successful Mayor of Auckland

1. Vigorously promote Auckland's image and identity.

2. Plan actions and set priorities.

3. Do not spread the jam too thin.

4. Be collaborative.

5. Focus on delivery.

6. Be open-minded.

7. Raise the investment rate.

8. Be willing to create new entities to deliver priorities if no willing entity exists.

9. Be prepared to change the rules.

10. Pursue re-election without compromising the task at hand.

On the importance of Cities

"Eighty years ago, 25 per cent of the world's population lived in cities, but within 20 years 75 per cent of the world's population will live in cities and surrounding metropolitan areas. This rapid and dramatic change requires us to learn a new art of making cities and regions work. It is accompanied by a period of globalisation and interdependence between nations giving rise to a new international division of labour, with many economic functions re-locating across the world, and population mobility at all time high."

"For cities, and their regions, to succeed they have to grow, attract and retain high value economic and cultural activities, and talented people. To do this they have to become distinctive and well connected destinations, with a high 'quality of place', that sets them apart. This doesn't happen by accident."

* From the New Zealand Herald feature, 'Project Auckland - our city'