Happy New Year!

We hope you were able to celebrate the New Year and Christmas in style!

At Christmas time thoughts turn to travel as families and friends are reunited. In the UK the travel news has been sketchy, with some news stories about disrupted travel plans and wasted time on the roads and at airports. But time isn’t just wasted due to drones hovering over the runway at Gatwick Airport. Sometimes small changes in the “plumbing” – that is the infrastructure we take for granted that enables travel, can have big effect on journey times.

What is this infrastructure that people refer to? Contrary to what most people say, it is more than just the hard infrastructure of concrete. Crucial to the smooth operation is where different organisations meet – the joints in the infrastructure, this is where the problems occur, which in turn lead to delays, missed flights and longer journeys.

So if infrastructure improvements were so easy, why are they not done more quickly. Well before anything happens, the problem needs to recognised. This requires a simple but holistic view of how customers and clients are being effected by “leaky joints” between organisations charged with maintaining the infrastructure. This is where a picture or short animation can tell a thousand words by objectively showing the nature of the problem and the effect. Once the problem has been agreed then the separate issue emerges of “who owns the problem?” and “who will commit the investment?” This then becomes a test of trust, authenticity and partnership.

All of these issues we will discuss in our next blog.
Until then we wish you a very happy New Year!