|
First week of “relax” and meetings to celebrate my well-deserved holidays. Having been for so long on the infrastructure world, logically I’ve been catching up and meeting people from banks, private equity firms and infrastructure investors, in general. In a coffee with investors talking about how I could help them in the future, I was asked something like… why would I be a good advisor for them. I was thinking that we were practising the art of conversation and coffee tasting and this caught me totally out of guard. “Because I scored you many goals” – without thinking. Not the best answer, I’m afraid, but they loved it, and we could continue our coffee. And you know that I love coffee… Well… I correct. You know that I love good coffee… And why did they like my answer? Well… This is a constant in business. If you wonder, why the FBI uses hackers to protect their IT system or help them to “spy” on others’ computers… well… I’m sure you can guess. The best security guys can perfectly be former robbers. So, I guess that someone wanting to buy infrastructure, or any other thing would love to have a seller from the other site of the table advising them. I know where all the tricks and flaws could be in an asset. I’ve delivered many. It’s like buying a house… you would love to have a former real estate agent with you. Don’t you? If so, and you want to learn a few tricks about infrastructure, you need to take a look to this. ​The 15 Top Lessons of a PPP Project Nightmare - The audiobook​ 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. |
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Talking to good friends in Ferrovial and health & safety, we end up comparing cultures. Comparing projects. And disasters… UK. In the 2000s. Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Budget: more than £4 billion Big… very big project, with lots of complexities and workers. Every engineer knows that… If something went wrong… it wouldn’t be small. So, they treated safety like a system… for real. Not a slogan. Daily briefings. Clear reporting lines. No ambiguity on responsibility. And… Anyone could stop the...
Canada. Mid-2010s. Milton–Madison Bridge Not a PPP, but a serious piece of infrastructure. Old steel truss bridge. Built in 1929. As an engineer… I love it. Around 13,000 vehicles per day. But… like all old bridges… It was structurally done. Fatigue. Corrosion. Narrow lanes. No shoulders. A bad accident waiting to happen. So they decided to replace it. Nothing new. But… they chose a method most people would avoid. Slide-In Bridge Construction or SIBC The idea is brilliant. Build the entire...
I’m reviewing a project right now. A mess. Close to failure. Fixing situations like this… is my bread and butter. But the real question is not: “How do we get out of this sh*t?” It’s: “How did we end up here… again?” Because this is not random. Every country has it. Every sector repeats it. And no… it’s not because people are stupid. Governments hire smart people. Companies bring top talent. Advisors look impressive on paper. And still… Same problems. Same patterns. Same endings. So what’s...