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You didn't know this about the Chunnel
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The Channel Tunnel, or "Chunnel," connecting the UK and France, was one of the most ambitious engineering feats of the 20th century. Over £9 billion or about $21 billion today. 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) of tunnel under the English Channel. Politicians smelling the blood of taxpayers… Paradise for corruption and things that can go wrong. During the project, some lonely managers noticed something strange. The daily records for soil removal from the British side of the tunnel didn’t add up. Thousands of cubic meters of chalk and dirt were being excavated, but the number of dump trucks required to remove it kept fluctuating wildly. Some days there were too many trucks, and on others, there were too few. They decided to investigate. Trucks were "disappearing" before completing their assigned trips to the dumping zones. Curiously only on the British side… Pirates! Well… In the Kent countryside near the British side of the tunnel, fertile soil was at a premium. Word had spread among farmers that the chalky spoil being excavated from the tunnel was perfect for enriching their fields. Every night, farmers were sneaking onto the construction site and bribing drivers to "accidentally" dump their loads on private farmland instead of at the official disposal sites. Some drivers were reportedly paid £50-£100 per load, and the farmers, thrilled with their new topsoil, happily spread it across their fields… This illustrates the unexpected challenges of managing logistics on massive construction sites. As well as creativity of local communities, my friend, in "participating" in infrastructure projects… And missed business opportunities… I created a document with the more important lessons learned of my last project. Probably not as spectacular… but some of them equally laughable.
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Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
You’re dropped into a project. No time. No context. “Figure it out.” Good. There are only 3 questions that matter. I repeat, only 3. Not 10 or 20. Just 3: What needs to be done? Who is doing it now? Is that the right person? That’s it. That’s the whole job. And by the way… That’s every serious managerial role. If you answer those 3 properly, you win. If you don’t… Welcome to the world of: Long hours. Endless meetings. Zero real progress. You’ll be stuck working on the 80%… That delivers 20%....
I get it. I’ve been CEO. I know what ego feels like. That urge to change things. To leave your mark. To justify the big salary. I get it. But changing things that already work? Just to prove you exist? No. That I don’t get. Look. I’ve been speaking with people across PPP and Real Estate. Different countries. Same story. “Like beheaded chickens.” Clients changing direction mid-procurement. Swapping teams halfway through. Rewriting strategy… in the middle of a transaction. Yes. That bad. Even...
Most consultants are expensive spectators. Nice slides.Clean Excel models.Zero impact. They show up.They talk.They disappear. And the project?Still stuck. In the mouse wheel… running but still in the same place. It may be the perverse incentive of maximizing gains by increasing scope and delaying everything… although that’s for another days. Look… In big projects, nobody pays you for your time.They pay you for one thing: Movement. Decisions made.Problems killed.Risks reduced.Money saved....