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THE BIG INTERVIEW
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NICK SMALLWOOD Andrew Saunders meets the CEO of the UK’s Infrastructure
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and Projects Authority, who’s clear that the difference between success and failure for a project comes down to getting the basics right. What can be so difficult about that?
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t’s hard for anyone, whatever their political stripe, to accuse the current government of lacking ambition when it comes to major projects. Levelling up, ‘build back better’, net zero – the key planks of Prime Minister Johnson’s agenda for wholesale economic recovery, reform and sustainability are all dependent to a great extent on rolling out a new generation of big-ticket infrastructure projects fit for the 21st century and beyond. But, as every good project manager knows only too well, bold promises are one thing, making them happen quite another. And the man tasked with making sure that the UK has the project capability required to match the scale of its national vision is Nick Smallwood, CEO of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). It’s probably the most influential job in UK infrastructure, and one of the toughest. It’s no secret, after all, that the vast majority of major projects across the world bust schedules and budgets almost as a matter of course. Some
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Photography: Will Amlot
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never get finished at all. “Globally, the benchmarks will tell you that around 75 per cent of projects over £2bn or so are typically over on cost and schedule, and typically by a large amount. I would call those train wrecks,” Smallwood cheerfully admits. But, characteristically undaunted by the scale and complexity of the 130odd multibillion-pound projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which he oversees – including controversial headliners HS2 and Crossrail – Smallwood is adamant that the picture of overruns painted by those global figures is very far from inevitable. “The counter is also true – that 25 per cent are successful.” The difference between success and failure is plain, he adds, and while major projects remain inherently challenging to deliver, the needle can be moved in the other direction. “When you look at the 25 per cent that do deliver on their outcomes, you will see some very clear and obvious information. Successful projects really get the basics
“I had the very strong view that we needed to step up the performance of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, focusing more on benefits and delivering better outcomes”
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right. They have competent people – strong programme and project delivery managers. They are very clear on the outcomes they are trying to achieve, and they are ruthless in their pursuit of those objectives – they are not swayed from their path by late changes, ‘good ideas’ or stakeholder changes of mind. They really stay the journey.” t’s an observation borne out by Smallwood’s 37-year career delivering complex projects for Shell (culminating in the role of VP project engineering – de facto global head of the project discipline), the world’s fourth largest oil major, and one that he immediately brought to bear at the IPA when he joined as CEO in August 2019. “I had the very strong view that we needed to step up the performance of the GMPP, focusing more on benefits and delivering better outcomes than we had before. If you have the right capability and the right capacity, you can do more.” Central to building both capability and capacity is ensuring that the right
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