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I caught sight of John Armitt in the Olympic Village the other day. The Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority is one of many with responsibility for delivering the London Games on fact-funding missions to Beijing.

It seems you can't turn a corner without bumping into a person from LOCOG - the organising committee for 2012 - who are also here in force, learning how to run an Olympic Games. I imagine some wish they hadn't come! They must be wondering what they can possibly do to come anywhere close to emulating this show.

Beijing has put an almost infinite value on the Games as a symbol of China's emergence into global power, throwing money and people at everything. But London will continue to have every penny it spends subjected to the most intense scrutiny several times over and each job delivering a little part of the London Games is already being shadowed by bureaucrats who are themselves being monitored by other civil servants.

It is a recipe for inertia and - as with so much else in Britain right now - we seem more concerned with monitoring processes than achieving excellence in delivery. Never mind the quality feel the width of the bureaucracy!

But back to Beijing and an enduring memory of these Games will be something that cost comparatively little. At every doorway, along every corridor and linerally dotted around the Olympic Park are a legion of blue-shirted volunteers. Invariably young, Chinese and permanenty cheerful these helpers have significantly enhanced their country's reputation for welcoming visitors.

At first I suspected that it might be a little fake - they seemed like grown up dolls uttering one of a handful of phrases every time the string is pulled as someone passes by: "welcome to Beijing"; "have a nice day" etc. But having stopped to speak to many of them it became clear that they are genuinely as happy as they seem, proud of China and welcoming the world.

They should be happy because over 100 people applied for every volunteer post - and since there are over 20,000 of them, it would appear that the population of a sizeable city wanted to work for the Beijing Olympics for free.

If London is to avoid the ignominy of becoming the Eric the Eel of Olympic Host cities those in power need to rationalise the structure and stop the many fragmented bodies which share responsibilities from fighting each other; spend less about funding the checking and more on delivering a great Games; play to London's strengths and make features of all its iconic landmarks; and make sure that we find thousands of young people who can smile 24/7, will be perpetually helpful, and will work tremendously hard for nothing other than a couple of shirts. Hmmmm! Perhaps we can settle for Eddie the Eagle?