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Excellent train, China. Where’s my hotel?
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I bring you today a useful reminder for anyone advising the public sector. Shanghai’s Maglev. It connects Pudong Airport with Longyang Road in about eight minutes. Eight minutes. Fantastic. Except, if you’re heading into central Shanghai, your journey continues... Even the city’s own airport guide explains the onward metro connection at Longyang Road. The train has finished its job. You haven’t finished your journey. Your suitcase remains unimpressed… Nothing to say about your hungry kids. Presentations love measuring the bit we’re building. Train speed. Road capacity. Hospital beds. Square metres of school. Etc. Beautiful numbers. Very photogenic. But the passenger wants to reach a destination. The patient wants treatment. The parent wants their child to get an education. None of them wakes up thinking: “I desperately need the government to improve its asset performance indicators.” Here’s how the trap works. The client asks you to assess a proposed asset. You assess it brilliantly. Your assumptions are documented. Your calculations are correct. Your report is immaculate. And nobody asks whether the asset, together with everything around it, will deliver the intended public benefit. You can produce technically correct advice that supports the wrong decision. Sorry to be harsh. But I hope that reflection make any public-sector adviser uncomfortable. You should identify the missing piece before your client approves the investment. Preferably before a minister announces it. Or before the elections… Afterwards, everyone becomes considerably less interested in nuance. I you think that’s useful advice, you should enter The Room. Procurement. Risk. Negotiation. Meetings. Difficult clients. Lessons for the moments when your job is to help someone make a decision they can defend and deliver. ​The Room. P.S. Your project boundary is where your contract ends. The consequences may keep travelling. PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
I continue in China. And looking at Chinese infrastructure, I came across a lovely reminder for our industry. The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge. More specifically, its immersed tunnel. A standard tunnel segment weighed approximately 80,000 tonnes. They precast the segments on Guishan Island, then used tugboats to transport them into position. If you like megaprojects, this is a must see. The project used extensive off-site manufacturing to help control quality and reduce disturbance to marine...
I’m writing this from China… I’m here for a trade fair… well… two. Tiles. Kitchens. Bathrooms. Doors. Windows. As you know, I’m building my real estate empire on the side. Which means moving my @ss, meeting suppliers, asking questions and starting from zero somewhere nobody particularly cares what I did before. Former CEO? Lovely. Board experience? Wonderful. Twenty years in infrastructure? Very impressive, sir. Now, how many toilets would you like? Fair enough. Look. There’s a lesson here...
Any project in the world has a meeting like this. The most senior person says: “I think this is an excellent opportunity.” Suddenly, everyone discovers they think so too. Extraordinary. Twenty minutes earlier, the project looked like a hostage note. Now it’s “a compelling investment proposition.” The spreadsheet hasn’t changed. The boss has spoken. 1961 During the planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion Presidential adviser Arthur Schlesinger had serious reservations. He put objections in...