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

Governments love plans. Ten-year plans. Twenty-year plans. In NZ, we are bold and we have now even a thirty-year plans. A great recollection of projects, without a vision. But still… Beautiful documents. Pipelines. Strategies. Dashboards. Digital systems. All useful. They normally forget one small thing… Very small… Almost invisible… Someone still needs to do the work. That’s it. Someone needs to understand the information. Challenge the assumptions. Structure the project. Run the...

You don’t need to be loud to be powerful. But you do need to stop hiding behind safe opinions. Mainstream opinions. Collaboration. Governance. Value for money. Quality. Those words per se mean nothing. They have been used so much that they have become empty. Give me an example. Be specific. What exactly do you mean? Give me your definition. If you believe something deeply, say it. Stand by it. Own it. And own the reaction too. The people who matter won’t always agree with you. But they will...

Not the usual story about engineering genius. When George Washington Goethals took control of the project in 1907, he inherited something close to a nightmare. The French attempt had collapsed. Two American chief engineers had already left. The workforce was enormous, multinational and frustrated. People lived and worked in brutal conditions, with disease, landslides, accidents, racial discrimination and constant labour disputes surrounding the project. Goethals was a military engineer. You...