The Pipeline Issue 8. September
Another month down. Another month of frankly bizarre marketing choices from yours truly. I had put together a rather funny series of movie posters that had been dewatered but figured it’s probably best to not risk falling foul of any sort of copyright law. Alas, you’re going to have to take my word that they were great. (My favourite was just ‘world’, starring Kevin Costner).
Don’t worry though, we’re also working on the promised case study (and others) for distribution. Just waiting on sign offs seeing as they are for large projects helmed by even larger corporations. So, if you’re getting tired of the slightly humorous posts on the various Alba social pages, you won’t have to endure them for much longer. Hang in there.
Team Member Spotlight!
This time around it’s our Yard Manager – Will! He’s been doing great work keeping our yard organised and in good shape.
Speaking of Alba’s main yard, I capitalised on the sunny weather (about 10 minutes between the usual showers) to take some pictures of the yard during a ‘clean-up’ and reorganise. Here are some shots from that little adventure. I’m working on a little project that will include more ‘behind-the-scenes’ images of the company and the work we do – not that there’s been much of a scarcity on that front, but you know….it’s sort of the point of this newsletter and much of our social media content.
In other news, we’re seeing the impact of the uncertainty surrounding HS2. It’s a project that we’ve worked on, alongside many of our clients and frequent collaborators, so it’ll be interesting what decisions will be made moving forwards and how any changes to ‘the plan’ ripple across the greater civil engineering and construction industries. That’s about it for industry happenings, other than a number of large projects getting the green light: new flood measures in Essex, a Gatwick framework agreement, and some increasing momentum on developing sustainable alternatives (which we’re also working on – stay tuned!)
All that is to say, the dewatering industry seems to move at its own pace until it doesn’t. At which point, it’s all hands-on-board as we look to mobilise and put everything together. It always comes together, but that’s all down to the hard work of everyone in the company, while I pluck away in the background with other projects and make fake movie posters in my spare time. It’s been interesting coming to this industry from one that was often very, very predictable in terms of seasonal changes. This is altogether much more reactive, with Alba being predominantly bought on as a subcontractor if/when we’re needed – which can be at a moment’s notice. It’s work that needs diligence, organisation, and careful consideration to do well, with an ability to cater to a variety of challenges with solutions that are driven entirely by results. There’s often a lot of equipment that needs to be moved up and down the country, manpower that needs to be organised and shuffled around, and logistical considerations that go over my head entirely.
So, I’m very much glad that I’m managing the front-end side of things: interacting with people, making sure people bump into us online, keeping you all relatively entertained. Hopefully. Ultimately, it’s been a busy month! With the next few months looking to be much the same. (Has there been a newsletter edition where I’ve said it’s been quiet?)
Anyway, see you next month! I’m hoping to corner one of the dewatering experts to get a Q&A going. We’ll see if I manage it.
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