A report. Many stupid comments. A few that made sense were worthy to consider. One that a great point. One that put my heart to risk of sending an order to the arm for a straight punch. That’s the life of the consultant. This is where I was recently. Not a fan of answering stupidities. But I’m a nerd when I have to analyse the deeper meaning of people’s actions. Breath. Another breath. And things started to make sense. Then I realized what the problem was about. Length. The report was too...
2 days ago • 1 min read
In a meeting. Not long ago. Something cost 15 one month ago, and then… now it costs only 10… No matter if I’m talking about millions or billions. It’s the same. This is what crossed my mind… Do you want an award? Or… a pat in your back? Or being fired? The question to you. What would you do? Well… in my case, I wanted to be polite, be positive and constructive and all that sh*t that MBAs teach around the world. So I just said politely. “If that’s true, you should be fired”. Yeah… I had to...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Early brief: “Deliver a shiny new light rail through Sydney’s CBD. Easy. Everyone loves trams.” Translation: scope unclear, assumptions heroic, risks buried under PowerPoint. They signed a PPP anyway. The CBD & South East Light Rail (CSELR) looked great on slides. A 12-km network. Wrapped in a neat PP. Design, build, finance, operate, maintain. The promise: reliable transport, urban sparkle, political selfies. But, as usual, then construction met reality. The contract drawings and utilities...
4 days ago • 1 min read
It was the early 2000s. In Disunited Kingdom the formerly known as UK. The government wanted to rebuild hundreds of schools. Big dream. Big politics. Usual suspects. Of course, as per the playbook, before launching the program, they ran a market-testing exercise to “hear the voice of the private sector.” Lovely. And the market said what the market always says: “Of course, I can, it’s possible. I cannot be fired or lose my bonus… so, I confirm that we can design, build, finance, and maintain...
5 days ago • 2 min read
I have 4 airbnb apartments in Auckland. 3 perfoming well. 1 slagging. Quien no llora no mama or who does not cry, he is not breastfeed, or less literally, if you don't cry, you don't get fed. I sent an email. What’s going on? I’m disappointed. What I can do to help. In 48 hours or less, the calendar in the slagging apartment is full. No response, just facts. Like magic… back on track. This situation is not unusual. In my 20 years managing projects and people, I’ve seen this almost every day....
6 days ago • 1 min read
Codie Sanchez once explained that “If you want to know where future fortunes will be made, don’t look at markets; look at rooms” And she continued: “Wealth follows proximity. The closer you are to capital, information, and ambition, the higher your expected return. If compounding is the eighth wonder of the world, proximity is the ninth.” This is probably the best piece of advice I have received in the last 12 months. Economists call it agglomeration, the phenomenon where productivity and...
7 days ago • 1 min read
A couple of weeks ago, someone that I know commented this: “Vicente, I’m sick to death of my job… every Monday I feel like jumping out the window. And what it’s worse… now they want to reduce staff and I don’t know what to do” She wasn’t exaggerating. And from what I understood, it wasn’t the first time she’d said — or thought — something like that. And surely not the last. Built-up exhaustion. Unpaid overtime. A boss who confuses “leading” with being a pain in the ass. And a salary that...
8 days ago • 1 min read
I once read that in one TV show a liberal made a proposal to a communist. “Let’s split the world in two. You keep whatever you want, but let’s separate. You do what you have to do, and we’ll do what we have to do. Then, after ten years, let’s see where each of us stands.” Speechless. Wonderful, isn’t it? Because of these TV shows, it’s been more than 15 years that I don’t have a TV at home. Because, there’s something even more wonderful. And that the “liberal” or the “communist” did not see....
9 days ago • 1 min read
When I was sent to the “world”, I had no “puñet€ra” idea. Not much internet. Navigating with your phone was like hoping to get into the love cam in a Cold Play concert. A lottery. That if you won it… it’d not bring nothing good. Travelling was hard. Complex. No Teams. No nothing. But there I was. In a first meeting, in front of people that doubled my age. To discuss about business, financing… and likely tax evasion. It was my third day on the job. And my third day in PPPs. I would have loved...
10 days ago • 1 min read