“Strategic Engineering is the process of architecting and designing complex systems and products in a way that deliberately accounts for future uncertainty and context in order to maximize their lifecycle value.” – Strategic Engineering Research Group (SERG), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Strategic Engineering:
Asset Management &
Infrastructure Investment
A professional book for engineers, investors, policymakers, and strategists who invest, develop and manage the infrastructure the world depends on.
Every major infrastructure failure of recent memory was preventable
The engineering knowledge existed. The financial tools were available. The data was there. What failed was not technique — it was thinking, strategic and systems thinking. A power grid that came close to a total, catastrophic collapse during a severe snowstorm. Bridges deteriorate for years before crisis. Flood defences are overtopped by storms the models had long anticipated. Railway programmes double in cost because nobody controlled scope. None of it inevitable. All of it produced by governance systems that didn’t translate available evidence, strategic and systems thinking approach into appropriate action.
“Infrastructure strategy demands the integration of engineering, investment, economic and governance thinking in ways that none of the contributing disciplines currently requires of its practitioners.”
Engineers who cannot read a discounted cash flow model cannot make the investment arguments their technical judgements deserve. Asset managers who do not understand deterioration mechanisms are flying blind when they set maintenance budgets. Investors who cannot assess physical climate risk are systematically mispricing the assets they own. This book endeavour to address that gap.
A complete programme from foundations to the frontier
Written simultaneously for four professional communities — engineers, asset managers, investors, and policymakers — each audience finds the book familiar enough to be useful and challenging enough to expand their analytical range.
case studies
covered
Six parts, one integrated framework
Chapters build on each other but are independently navigable. Each part corresponds to a distinct layer of infrastructure strategy — from physical foundations through to the global investment frontier.
Seventeen cases. Eight countries. No success-story selection bias.
Each chapter is anchored by a real-world case chosen for analytical richness, not simplicity. Several are partial or complete failures — because that is where the frameworks reveal most.
One book. Four professional tracks.
Each audience finds the book familiar enough to be credible and challenging enough to expand their range. The design philosophy: A reader who finishes the book and feels that they already knew everything in it has either an unusually broad professional formation or is not reading it carefully enough.
Lifecycle and deterioration content will feel familiar. Investment appraisal, regulatory economics, and ESG frameworks will stretch. Core entry: Chapters 1–6, 10–11, 15.
ISO 55000 and financial modelling will align with existing knowledge. Physical deterioration and systems thinking will enrich. Core entry: Chapters 1–2, 5–9, 12.
Regulatory and governance material will feel most applicable. Whole-life cost and risk frameworks will be most analytically demanding. Core entry: Chapters 1, 3, 9, 12–14.
Financial and strategic content most familiar. Engineering lifecycle content most illuminating. Core entry: Chapters 1, 7–10, 12–13, 17.
Two delivery formats, one complete curriculum
The book is designed to support an executive short course (12–15 contact hours) or a twelve-week self-paced professional development programme. Each chapter includes learning objectives, discussion questions, and curated further reading.
“The infrastructure investment decisions made in the next ten to twenty years will shape the physical, economic, and environmental conditions of human life for the second half of the twenty-first century.”