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Regional Focus | North West

MANAGING QUALITY

Building on your ambitions: AEW is branching out from executive architect and MacDonalds’ designer with this museum in Southend, Essex.

who trained younger architects.’ Happily for the practice it also turned into a business opportunity. But like many architects Wewer finds it easier to think of an MBA in terms of lessons he has already learnt rather than ways to maximise opportunity. His first practice, started in 1982, grew

rapidly for 10 years but then suffered extremely badly in the recession. ‘Poignant and important lessons were learnt at that time,’ he says. ‘I am now in my third recession and I have abided by those lessons.’ Things like understanding that growth goes in cycles not just a gently upward curve, how to grow within that, to avoid borrowing too much and ensure that you are owed more than you owe. ‘This is fairly simple stuff,’ he admits. ‘It’s

TO DO OR NOT TO DO, THAT IS THE QUESTION

I DID AN MBA AND… ‘My MBA helped me to improve my project management skills and manage administrative office work.’

Adeeba Khan, architectural manager at Spacez

‘It has enabled me to work directly with executive boards, and communicate with them

from their business perspective. …Think of the MBA as an additional layer of expertise.’ Isabelle Beaumont, Workplace Futures Ltd

‘If you are in mainstream architecture designing buildings, then the benefits of an MBA are limited. But for those who pursue a more diverse career path, it is

definitely worth considering.’ Jonathan Ainley, associate at Arup

I DIDN’T DO AN MBA AND… We have particular needs that a generalist MBA cannot address… They are geared for hairdressers and widget makers. John Kellett, principal at KR.eativ: Architects

Source: RIBA Group, LinkedIn WWW.RIBAJOURNAL.COM : SEPTEMBER 2011

not taught, but it could be.’ So would he have taken advantage of an architectural MBA back when he first started his practice? No, he says, but he does think it could have been useful for the practice. ‘In a medium-sized practice keen on becoming robust in business it would make sense to identify a practitioner who is interested in business management and send them off for the course. I can see a number of associate or director level architects here who might benefit… I definitely think it is of value.’ n

Mini MBA (piloting 2012): A.Markey@londonmet.ac.uk. Architectural and Construction MBA: www.brad. ac.uk/management/ribamba. Master in Architectural Management and Design http://tinyurl.com/4xc76ks

Stephen Hodder, winner of the first Stirling Prize, runs a practice of 16 based in central Manchester. ‘I have always taken the view that design skills have to be embedded,’ he says. ‘It is far easier to bring in management skills, this is a far more objective discipline’. Despite that he has had his management problems. His multi-million pound Clissold Leisure Centre in east London notoriously suffered cost increases, leaks, claims and counter claims and led to the closure of his London office. Could management training have averted this? ‘We had never done that size project before in terms of quality control systems and dealing with the client,’ he explains. ‘We needed systems in place beforehand.’ He never went out to recruit management experience but when his wife, architect Claire Hodder, later joined the practice she brought knowledge of a milestone-based quality assurance systems with control for briefing, appointments, fees, ways to monitor and record changes and checklists. Now working on £35 million projects Hodder is far happier with the tighter systems the practice has in place. Claire, now managing director, takes a leading role on areas like finance and resources. Hodder is all for less formal ways of accessing management advice. In the early years of his first practice his partner’s father acted as a ‘grey-haired sage’ and now he mentors local young practice Form Room Architects on such issues.