Long Form

If you looked down the musical hit parade for 1955, it was comprised of bland, middle-of-the-road singers like Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Pat Boone, and Doris Day. But then 1956 arrived, and with it a young man by the name of Elvis Presley. Within the space of just a few, short months, he became a…Read moreRead more

I’d like to tell you a little story about my father-in-law. Back in the mid 1970s, he contracted tuberculosis. No-one was entirely sure, but the doctors suggested he might have picked it up from drinking raw milk when he lived on a farm as a child. Anyway, as a result of that TB, he initially…Read moreRead more

It’s the snowball effect. That’s what it is. It starts as one small thing. Insignificant. But it grows. In size, in speed. And suddenly, it’s too big and moving too fast to stop. That’s why you’re sitting there, thinking the unthinkable. Contemplating. Replaying it in your head. Trying to make sense of something that stopped…Read moreRead more

I’d like you to imagine that you are a football player. You are good. Very good, in fact. And that is why you’re playing in the English Premier League for a well-respected team. For the sake of this story, let’s say you are a midfield player with Nottingham Forest. As a player, you train four…Read moreRead more

A potential whistleblower on LinkedIn is apparently planning a tell-all book that will name names and expose the dark underbelly of the UK’s asbestos industry. If even half of what he is saying is true, the revelations contained within his book will cause a storm of unprecedented magnitude within the sector. Yet, in many ways,…Read moreRead more

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still standing. Although there is great speculation about how it was built and by whom, the pyramid stands as a testament to the skill of those that erected it. For millennia, that pyramid has stood…Read moreRead more

Do you ever get the feeling we’re going round in circles; that we’re trapped in an endless loop, doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again? If so, you are not alone. Ours is a sector in which everyone from the prospective employee and industry rookie to the managing director and entire companies…Read moreRead more

Is aspiration killing construction? That feels like an absurd question. Aspiration is good, isn’t it? But as you’re about to hear, aspiration isn’t just elevation. Sometimes it’s distraction. We praise ambition, yet send it packing off to careers that glitter, careers that feel alive on a mobile phone or computer screen. Meanwhile, jobs involving dirty…Read moreRead more

I am starting to believe that Volvo Construction Equipment now exists, at least in part, to disprove my industry preconceptions. I know that sounds unlikely, but they are proving me wrong with such regularity that it is starting to feel like a personal vendetta. When electric equipment first burst onto the industry scene, I predicted…Read moreRead more