Writing
Essays on property, construction, and the systems underneath. Written from inside the system, not about it.
The interesting ground is off the marked trail.
Thursday Nights
Seven of us around a card table on a Thursday night, one of them leaving for Riyadh. I'd waited twenty-five years to work overseas, and what it showed me turned out to be about me, not the place.
· 3 min read
Technology is the easy part.
The Window Was Open
A new team, no legacy, and every collaboration tool already installed and paid for. Within a fortnight we were running the whole thing through email. Nobody decided that.
· 4 min read
Fragmentation is a choice, not an accident.
Why the Property Sector Can't Seem to Evolve
A retail feasibility that wouldn't stack, no matter how we ran the numbers. What struck me wasn't the result. It was the room.
· 5 min read
The operating system always wins.
What Scale Reveals
Three of us looked into an excavation, heard a completion date, and laughed. Working out why it hadn't been funny took considerably longer.
· 5 min read
The operating system always wins.
The Gap Between Announcing Transformation and Actually Doing It
The data says the date cannot be met, and everyone in the room knows it. The question that follows is never the one you'd expect.
· 4 min read
Off Piste
New writing, roughly monthly. No noise.