Innovation doesn’t respect discipline or sector boundaries.

However, to do this we’ll need to transform not only our approach, embracing new, MMC methodologies such as Design for Value and Platform construction, but also the way we work together across the public and private sector.Collaboration will be key to success, as we begin our journey reshaping construction into an industry fit for the future..

The rise of the Construction Innovation Hub.My journey in government began in 2010.I was involved in the nuclear sector when I was first approached to be an advisor in the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change.

I quickly transitioned to a forerunner of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority where I spent nine years in central government before taking on my current role as Programme Director for the Construction Innovation Hub, with the aim of delivering the Construction Sector Deal.I’ve worked through three different governments - Labour, Coalition and Conservative - but through them all there has been an increasing focus on the importance of infrastructure and transforming construction.. One thing I’ve noticed through this period is that we tend to think of ourselves in the engineering community as being innovators.

We think we're quite good at working out what needs doing, but actually, the real skill, and one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my time in government, is that working out what to do can be quite easy.

It's working out how to get it done that becomes hard.. At present, our focus is on transforming construction into a more future-facing sector.However, with the likes of the Hub’s Defining the Need workstream and with a number of digital configurators in use, we are starting to put the enablers in place to facilitate this.. Can we look to digital marketplaces that already exist?.

There are plenty of examples from which we can learn; the combination of standard components, digital tools and e-commerce has numerous precedents.While none of them is a perfect fit for construction procurement, they all have certain synergies with a potential marketplace for Platforms and it is worth exploring them.. Amazon.

Amazon is of course the most famous digital marketplace, and the one most people are familiar with (except Alibaba perhaps, depending on where you are reading this).But it is not necessarily the best example to learn from.