You know how it usually goes


PPP = Prolonged, Painful, and Pointless.

But not this time.

Somehow, against all odds, cultures, and acronyms…

The New Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia didn’t just avoid disaster — it delivered.

Let me break it down for you:

  • Australia’s most expensive hospital project at the time.
  • $2.3 billion AUD.
  • A maze of private, public, and clinical stakeholders.
  • 800 beds. 40 operating theatres. 100% public access.

The predictions?

“Too complex.”
“Healthcare PPPs always end in tears.”
“Get ready for claims, arbitration, and political carnage.”

But guess what?

They finished it.

And not just finished — they pulled off a clinical-grade, digitally-integrated, energy-efficient mega-hospital that actually works.

The secret sauce?

  1. A private consortium (SA Health Partnership) that didn't play the blame game.
  2. A government team that didn’t change the brief 64 times.
  3. A dispute resolution process that got used before lawyers smelled blood.

Crazy, right?

How couldn’t I have thought about it?

A PPP that respected scope, handled conflict like grown-ups, and even came out functional on the other side.

How could it be possible…

Anyway.

Some still say it was luck.

I say it was proof that PPPs can work… if you don’t staff them with saboteurs.

Do you want some blood?

Take a look to the lessons below?

$99.90

The 15 Top Lessons of a PPP Project Nightmare

Learn about:
The number 1 killer of Projects
Why this was not going to be just "another construction project, mate"... Read more

​

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 👇

Read more from Vicente Valencia

October 1962. A room in Washington. A few men in suits. Coffee. Cigarettes. Maps of Cuba. What can go wrong? Welcome to the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the permission of any meeting between Trump with his advisors, the most dangerous meeting in modern history. The problem? The Soviets had possibly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. 13 days to decide. Simple, right? Destroy the sites. Show strength. Win. That’s what half the room wanted. The other half? “Let’s not start World War III on a Tuesday...

You must speak up. Not in theory. Not on LinkedIn. In the room. Because there’s a lie many professionals tell themselves: “If they valued me… they would know what I think.” Wrong. “They should figure out” Again, wrong. That’s not intuition. That’s resentment… in disguise. Assume ignorance before malevolence. Read that again. People are not ignoring you. They simply don’t know what’s in your head. And you’re not helping. We live in a culture that avoids friction. People stay quiet. Nod. Let...

Sometimes I’ve walked into meetings where you could smell the blood from miles away. In one of those meetings, the SPV chair looked like he had just fallen off a tree that same morning. Stuttering like crazy. Like a guy from my hometown we used to call “The Stutterer”… el Tartas de mi pueblo. Impossible to take seriously. Looking at his papers. Looking at the screen. Searching for inspiration in the PowerPoint he put together the night before. He already started badly… talking about the...