“I wasn’t asked to do it. I was told”

I was driven more by pride than fear. We were determined it would open on time. We didn’t even go there with the consequences of failing. I knew what was expected of me.

Contract? None. A handshake. I don’t even think there was a handshake, actually. We had a cost plan and some initial concept drawings and once we were happy we went ahead with the build.

I wasn’t asked to do it, I was told. But I would have been gutted if it wasn’t me. I’ve worked for three family businesses in my career, and in each I’ve done work directly for the group and there is no doubt, they are the hardest clients to work with. But they can be the most rewarding schemes.

When your client is your chairman it puts additional pressures on you. I maintained my normal workload, but this was more intense.

It totally dominated my life for 70 weeks, which was the build programme. I was here most days and, towards the end, weekends and holidays to make sure it was done. That must have been difficult for my team as well to have me there that much.

They were a demanding client, no doubt about it. Did they change their mind? Yes, but that’s a client’s prerogative. Did they always make decisions on time? No, but then, neither does the rest of the industry. The art was to accept that and get on with it. Derek Higgins, our chairman, said don’t start until you’re ready but once it starts I want it built, because we should be out working for our clients.

We didn’t want to be more demanding on our subcontractors. We felt that if we had to be, we’d failed. Or they’d failed to recognise the importance of this project. Some were slow to recognise that.

We hoped subcontractors would go the extra mile. By and large they did. It’s when things went wrong that you think, well, hang on, shouldn’t you be trying to impress me a little more than you are?

It makes you wonder how in tune the supply chain is to its client when you’re not on a spotlight job like this.

It was a very ad hoc relationship with the client once we’d done the initial brief. There were no formal progress meetings. We knew what they wanted. Our architects understand how the group thinks.

You need to get as far as you can inside the head of your client. Until you make that effort you’re going to fail.

With eight weeks to go we discovered our carpets were moored up on the east coast of the United States. That caused a two-week delay.

I hate to admit it but we accepted that was beyond our control. We’d absorbed changes, we completely redesigned the heating system, the company reorganised its group structure during construction. But if you haven’t got carpet, you can’t put desks down. I moved in two weeks before anyone else and waited for people to come in and moan and find things wrong. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

No one’s career has been blighted by it. All we lost was sleep. And a bit of hair. And I started smoking again.