Sticklers for detail are thick on the ground this week: billionaire property owners insisting their wires are not crossed, the company that won鈥檛 be called a contractor and a ferocious fight for a full stop
Hyde and seek
Good news for all those billionaires snapping up apartments in London鈥檚 best-known 眉ber-luxury development, One Hyde Park, in Knightsbridge. As well as the former-SAS security guards, the fur fridges and the 360潞 time-delay mirrors, residents can rest assured that even beneath the plasterwork, their abode is nothing short of perfect. One M&E contractor working on the scheme said they had never seen such attention to detail - which made working on the project something of a nightmare. Apparently, every wire is checked by a spirit level, and if it is not perfectly vertical it has to be redone before being plastered over. For the Candys, beauty is more than skin deep.
Better out than in
Aecom鈥檚 UK boss, Bill Hanway, once began an interview with this magazine sitting in his office, listening to jazz. Alas, it seems Hanway may have been getting a little too cosy in there of late. I am reliably told he has received a missive from on high to show his face more often around the business - bad news for a man who likes to hole up in his glass-walled retreat listening to the smooth sounds of New Orleans Dixieland. With an ever-growing workforce, there will be more people to please more of the time now. Come on, Bill, they don鈥檛 bite.
Put a stop to it
What鈥檚 in a logo? Quite a lot, it seems, especially if you鈥檙e Nick Shepherd, managing partner of Drivers Jonas Deloitte. When Drivers鈥� acquisition by Deloitte was first mooted, the assumption was that the new company would be called 鈥淒eloitte Drivers Jonas鈥�. But Deloitte鈥檚 marketing department was so obsessed with keeping its trademark green full stop after Deloitte that it simply had to stick it on the end; hence, we have Drivers Jonas Deloitte. Apparently, the negotiations over the pesky punctuation took as long as the integration talks themselves.
Loyalty for hire
It is clear that Peter Hendy, boss of Transport for London, is a keen user of mayor Boris鈥� new bike hire scheme. It would be unfair to say the
57-year-old Transport for London commissioner doesn鈥檛 look like the core target market for the bike rental project, but he is maybe stretching the demographic. Nevertheless, Hendy seems anxious to prove his loyalty to the scheme. He told fellow panellists at a transport fringe event at the Labour conference that he is keeping his proof of journey receipts to be able to demonstrate his dedication to Boris鈥� flagship policy.
Keep it clean
Carillion鈥檚 fight to remain known for support services this week caused much eye rolling among the contracting community. The company originally switched from a 鈥渃onstruction鈥� to a support services classification two years ago, which attributes more value to its shares and presumably some sort of kudos for being known as a company that doesn鈥檛 get its hands dirty. This week it successfully fought to retain the tag. So sniffy is Carillion about being called a 鈥渃ontractor鈥�, I gather, it is reluctant to talk to the construction correspondent on one esteemed national newspaper. Gosh, I hope I am still worthy.
The lone Ranger
Kulveer Ranger, the transport adviser to the mayor of London, braved the Labour party conference for the second year running this week, despite being Boris Johnson鈥檚
right-hand man. Labour shadow transport minister Sadiq Khan teased him: 鈥淚t鈥檚 again a pleasure to see Kulveer here at the Labour conference. I鈥檇 thought maybe he鈥檇 taken away some knowledge and wisdom from last year, but alas it didn鈥檛 happen.鈥� But Khan cut him some slack: 鈥淚 appreciate that here at the conference I do the easy questions and Kulveer does the hard ones.鈥� Transport for London鈥檚 world-weary boss, Peter Hendy, mulled this over for a second. 鈥淎nd I do travel information,鈥� he said, deadpan. It鈥檚 good to have the roles defined.
Send any juicy industry gossip to hansom@ubm.com
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