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19.May.2008
Leaving On A Jet Plane
Today I have flown into Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for the first time. I have seen many articles over the years and many pictures of progress as the building has developed. The opening of the terminal was much anticipated for many reasons, not the least because the construction process set new standards in process and delivery.
Unfortunately all of this was lost when, on the terminal’s opening, a logistical weakness presented itself. Sitting in the north of the UK, I wondered how this could possibly have happened. Several of the Directors lost their jobs and the Chief Executive didn't get his bonus. It is interesting that the Board did not push out the Chief Executive and instead saw the bigger picture; after several years of poor profits the company has done well in recent times. It is sad that one error has had such an impact on the perception of this project.
When I arrived at the new terminal I was stuck by the quality and freshness of the building, which reaches high standards throughout. There is also considerable consideration given to the customer’s experience, which is refreshing. In the UK we are so keen to find fault and I had a strong feeling that the building would be associated with the shame that first week brought. Despite the focus on the negative, 99.9% of what has been achieved at Heathrow is fantastic.
I am sure T5 will be seen as a great asset to the UK and will provide a great gateway for the Olympics. In the UK we should try and focus on what is right and spend less time focussing on things which don't go well. We need to look at the big picture and the impact that bold developments have on ‘UK plc’. more…
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13.May.2008
Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside
I spent last weekend in Yorkshire and it ended up being a bit of a fiasco. I was picked up at Newcastle Central Station after spending the day in Leeds, to head back down to East Yorkshire and a cottage which we had booked for the weekend. To cut a long story short, when we arrived the recently refurbished barn conversion turned out to be nothing of the sort! The ‘recent’ refurbishment was obviously carried out in the last century if the avocado bathroom suite was anything to go by. We decided to move on and checked into a hotel for that evening.
The following day we managed to find an alternative cottage near Bridlington. This one was much more to our liking. What I found particularly interesting was that we ended up on a farm where the buildings had all been converted to a thriving holiday business. The husband and wife team who had the set up had sold their dairy herd several years earlier and had retired to run the existing farm as a holiday business. The wife even provided a fantastic menu which she would serve to your cottage if you so required.
They had also kept on a small number of cows, sheep and machinery which was particularly fascinating for my three year old who loved the idea of staying on a farm. This really showed intuition by the existing farm owners who identified how they could sustain their living going forward.
We spent the day in Bridlington on Saturday and I was fascinated by how busy the town was. Bridlington has invested wisely and has a very clear understanding of its target audience. On our arrival, we were hit by the fantastic smell of fish and chips which filled the air. My daughter was more interested in the pink bucket and spade and getting on the beach to start digging holes and we ended up having a donkey ride along the beach after digging for several hours for buried treasure.
Everything I saw demonstrated a community which was working well to sustain itself and enhance the best of its past. The promenade had been developed several years previously and there was an ongoing project to refurbish the existing Spa for future conferences.
Generally we have as a family looked for thrills and spills for the children in all sorts of exciting and expensive locations and it is good to know that doesn’t always have to be the case, if you can find them in your own back yard.
As our business now focuses increasingly on sustainability, it is great to pick out sustainable success stories in the most unusual locations.
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7.April.2008
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Last week felt like a week of planes, trains and automobiles for me because I was all over the place and very busy keeping all my plates spinning, so to speak.
At the beginning of the week I was down in Knowsley to discuss a new project which is a pathfinder for primary education. These are the kind of schemes that really fit well within the business today, allowing us to research and be innovative in the spaces which we create.
Knowsley have a really interesting vision and after asking us to show them examples of completed buildings in the UK using their model, it is quite clear that there isn’t a primary school in the UK or in the world that matches up with their ideas. What is really exciting is that the transformation which is taking hold within secondary education is now spreading into primary and the whole idea of competency and skills-based learning is becoming more and more prevalent.
On Tuesday evening I was at the Map Building Awards at Grosvenor Hotel. Our Gateshead Schools project was one of three projects to be nominated but unfortunately we were unsuccessful on this occasion. It always amazes me the scale of these events and this one in particular had 1,700 people in attendance.
On Wednesday we held the final of our _space to Think Differently Programme. Some of our team have been working closely with several North East Schools to further the development of the businesses they have set up as part of a Young Enterprise North East scheme. Over a period of five weeks we have had large clutches of students come into the office every Wednesday where they have worked with us on a particular topic, such as Marketing and Sales and Business and Financial Planning. A couple of my co-Directors joined me in the judging and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. The schools and the students were fantastic, with such enthusiasm and positivity and the high standard of work made the judging process very difficult. This is something we will make an annual event and after this year’s success, we will make the 2009 version bigger and better.
We finished the week with a trip to the races on Grand National Day. We booked a room for all of the _space Team at Gosforth Park at Newcastle to celebrate our half year results and whilst it was slightly chillier than the rest of the week, we managed to avoid the snow and an enjoyable time was had by all.
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