The Journey to Success
Large global infrastructure projects provide vital aids to modern living. Such projects are driven by passion and innovation; they become critical milestones in the careers and legacies of all who participate, says Graham Olver, Chief Operating Officer of WYG and Chairman of British Expertise.
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or those who are involved in huge projects, they become all consuming. Whether they are transport links, extraction of natural resources, public buildings or wastewater solutions, they change the lives of those who live in their environs. Each one has arisen out of a need perceived by an individual or group of individuals and the successful ones take on a life of their own.
Infrastructure: The strategic
enabler A megaproject can take years, sometimes decades to complete. Many of the projects link directly to programmes that focus on the delivery of Millenium Development Goals; some come from explicit Strategic Infrastructure National or Corporate Plans. Most benefit from master planning, legal and financial support and budgetary allocations and are delivered through explicit projects and programmes. They are all complex and interconnected but have to be communicated simply to many stakeholders. The successful outcome lies in the effective structuring of the layers of complexity of its economic and social make-up. It employs hundreds of people, utilises a supply chain that can span the breadth of industrial manufacturing and embraces a complex and structured financing and funding
system that is vital to its successful conclusion. These great projects start with a vision of a better future. They are ideas formulated out of conversations, meetings, chance remarks that address a need that is currently not met. They sometimes emerge from community conversations, NGOs, political platforms for change; perceived
GRAHAM OLVER
l Graham Olver is Chief Operating Officer of WYG, a global programme, project
management and technical consultancy. He has over 25 years’ international business and major joint venture/ PPP, M&A and infrastructure project experience in over 40 countries (including power, transport, hospitals, schools, water and waste water). Previously he was Commercial and Operations Director with Skanska Infrastructure Development, a division of Skanska AB and has held senior commercial and legal Director positions at Thames Water, Thames Water International and ALSTOM. Graham is Chairman of British Expertise and also a barrister-at-law.
24 GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY 2014 | ISSUE 01
by some to be a pipe dream or fantasy to others the opportunity or decision can be a matter of life or death; a meaningful life or a life of drudgery; a chance to make money to feed your family or to starve.
Creating momentum An idea needs momentum and
enough people who are committed to make it happen. Sometimes this is at national level; other times it starts with a small group of people with ambition, a pipe dream or a fantasy that captures the imagination of the audience and quietly begins to germinate. Then someone at the right moment with the ambition, authority and vision takes on the idea and starts to build a coalition around that thought, and it begins to take shape and, equally importantly, it starts to have momentum.
Working within a development
framework A good idea is never just enough. There are vital attributes that all good ideas need. The first is a protective incubation as new ideas are fragile and need a support system to evolve and grow. They need to be strong enough to withstand “positive negativity” whether political or from the community, in other words the dynamic tension as people look at alternatives and start to ask “what if?”. They have to be allowed a
global-opportunity.co.uk
OVERVIEW
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GRAHAM OLVER
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