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I don't know anything about this airport in Beijing. But comparing airports to Heathrow is just too easy. Any airport would look well managed compared to Heathrow.
Also compare Heathrow Terminal 5 with Madrid Barajas latest terminal. Both designed by the same British architectural firm, Barajas took about half the time to build, cost less and is an uncompromised design.
The building's nice, though.
Well one was built by a state elite gerontocracy who have centuries of being in charge and an utter contempt for the workers building the terminal and the ultimate users. and the other was buill by the chinese
Well one was built by a state elite gerontocracy who have centuries of being in charge and an utter contempt for the workers building the terminal and the ultimate users. and the other was buill by the chinese
Wow, nice twist. Didn't expect that at the end. Nice garden path sentences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence
/pedantry
The only real thing he studied in this comparison is rehearsal and timing. The British death marched to an unrealistically optimistic date while the Chinese were finished and testing long before the ship date. Socio-technical systems theory is interesting but he doesn't explain how the Chinese did this better. The Chinese aren't exactly known for empowering their workers.
If the workers aren't empowered, the success of the project is up to the leaders. Apparently the Chinese manager was more competent than the British one.
This statement contradicts the findings of socio-techical systems theory.
STS shows that competent leaders are leaders who empower their subordinates - this usually achieves better results than command and control.
The only real thing he studied in this comparison is rehearsal and timing. The British death marched to an unrealistically optimistic date while the Chinese were finished and testing long before the ship date. Socio-technical systems theory is interesting but he doesn't explain how the Chinese did this better. The Chinese aren't exactly known for empowering their workers.
It's true that the author didn't go very much into detail into the Chinese vs British thing. In fact, I believe that the whole thing just served more as a hook for the meat of the piece (systems theory).
But anyhow, strictly speaking, when dealing with complex systems, you don't -need- super empowered individual workers. You just need empowered sub-units (with the lowest level as possible), and in general the smaller the sub-unit (all the way down to the individual... sometimes) will make your system more robust (and possibly more efficient). So in theory, you're lowest empowered sub-unit could just have a single manager/leader who still holds all the authority, while all the remaining team members are 'merely' well rehearsed and trained.
So in the case of the Chinese, you could just have empowered managers leading smallish work teams who are 'just' technically sound. Which seems to fit the stereotype good enough I guess.
And on the side, one of the wondrous things about systems theory is that it applies as much to the thing you're building as well as the process to build it. You can have an end product that when finally done preform beautifully from a system's standpoint (robust, efficient, adaptable, etc etc), but development be an utter hellhole (and the reverse).
China is successful with these things because they have a large number of excess staff, and the staff are very obedient. Britain typically has too few staff, and the staff are very independent. A person who has been to a chinese restaurant in china will understand the difference.
Heathrow is a mess. Everyone who travels regularly to southern England does everything they can to avoid it when flying. I don't know anything about this airport in Beijing. But comparing airports to Heathrow is just too easy. Any airport would look well managed compared to Heathrow.
It takes me less than 15 minutes to get from the T5 tube station to sitting in the departure lounge waiting for boarding. It's almost as good as Eurostar.
(Although if you're from outside London it can be easier to get to Gatwick transport-wise)
Heathrow is a mess. Everyone who travels regularly to southern England does everything they can to avoid it when flying. I don't know anything about this airport in Beijing. But comparing airports to Heathrow is just too easy. Any airport would look well managed compared to Heathrow.
I disagree, City's better if you're coming from Europe, but Heathrow still the best airport to get into London from anywhere else, especially Terminal 5. T5 had a lot of problems when it started, but now it's by far the best major airport terminal I've flown from. It takes me less than 15 minutes to get from the T5 tube station to sitting in the departure lounge waiting for boarding. It's almost as good as Eurostar.…
I generally try to avoid Heathrow T3 though (and T2 and T4 never seem to have flights to where I want to go).