This week, Kier鈥檚 outgoing finance director displays uncanny vision in his purchasing restraint, Sisk鈥檚 chief exec offers a fair excuse for at least one late payment, and Google asks for a half-price architecture deal
Taking the Gove out of government
Given that Tory leadership hopeful, at the time of writing I must add, Michael Gove has admitted snorting cocaine in the past, I did wonder if his fondness for the stuff was acquired during his stint as a columnist for 好色先生TV. But Gove says it all occurred 20 years ago 鈥� so long before his pieces appeared on these pages a decade ago. One, from October 2009 and headlined 鈥淭he evil that men do鈥�, recalled his Scottish Presbyterian upbringing where he was assured hell awaits 鈥渕iserable sinners鈥�. He must be a terrible disappointment to the hellfire and brimstone sermonisers (not to mention the Tory membership, if they are not the same thing).
Guns and tulips
A letter in support of the Foster + Partners鈥� Tulip tourist attraction destined for the Square Mile is fulsome in its praise of the architect and the developer, Brazilian banking billionaire Joseph Safra. 鈥淎 great new addition to London and the country as a whole, to offset some of the more dreary parts of London,鈥� thunders John Necholas鈥� missive to City planners last month. The scheme actually got planning permission the month before, but never mind. 鈥淭he developer and architect should be knighted instead of some of these no-talent small-time 鈥榬ock stars鈥�.鈥� Like Sir Paul McCartney, for example?
No thanks, I鈥檓 good
A notice on the London Stock Exchange last week says that outgoing Kier finance director Bev Dew decided to let shares options handed to him in October 2015 lapse. I thought financial directors were supposed to show their support and wade in, in this case at 拢11.27 a share. That would have cost Dew 拢17,986 if he鈥檇 bought all 1,596 shares at that price. Last week, in the wake of another profit warning, Kier鈥檚 shares sank to an all-time low of 150p. That would have left Dew nursing a loss of 拢15,592 if he鈥檇 bought them at 拢11.27 each and then hung on to them all this time. But he didn鈥檛. I wonder why.
Dating can be tough, they say
John Sisk鈥檚 chief executive, Stephen Bowcott, tells my hack that his company was once late paying an invoice by a whopping 410 days. Not something to shout about, surely, when you鈥檝e just been booted off a government fair payment initiative? 鈥淭he invoice had the wrong year on it,鈥� Bowcott explains. With errors like that, I wonder if the supplier concerned is still in business.
Why pay more?
A star turn at this year鈥檚 British Council for Offices conference, held last week in Copenhagen, was local boy Bjarke Ingels. The man behind BIG, the architect working on Battersea Power Station as well as Google鈥檚 new King鈥檚 Cross building, reveals the US tech giant can be as keen to get value for money as the next client 鈥� despite being worth billions of dollars. Ingels told delegates that after a couple of office jobs for the firm, 鈥淕oogle also said why don鈥檛 we try to see if we can use the same principles and provide the same qualities with roughly half the budget.鈥� The delegates all seemed quite familiar with this kind of request 鈥�
All our troubles seemed so far away
Staying in the Danish capital, former foreign secretary William Hague also took to the stage at the BCO with these opening remarks: 鈥淚 left government in Britain four years ago 鈥� please notice everything was running fine when I left 鈥� Majority government, stability, staying in the EU, economic growth [but] everything was about to go wrong.鈥� It seems such a long time ago.
On the level
Denmark is known, among other things, for being flat 鈥� so the 60-odd Cycle Challenge riders arriving at last week鈥檚 British Council for Offices conference in Copenhagen probably thought the three-day trip starting from Gothenburg in neighbouring Sweden would be a doddle. But it turns out there were some 20 falls on the journey, one bizarrely involving two French poodles. No bones broken, luckily. It was organised and sponsored by Alinea, whose team included partners Mark Lacey (left) and Carl Giles (centre), who organised the ride for the BCO, pictured with Mike Ashley lookalike and partner Alastair Kenyon.
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