O’Rourke trials new approach

Roy Adams, who has just left the contractor after two years setting up a system known as Radical Design Delivery (RDD), told CM: ‘Ray O’Rourke has been keen to change the industry. He has been very much influenced by the experience of working for BAA and wanted to replicate that across his business.’

Under RDD Laing O’Rourke will set up frameworks within all parts of the supply chain, starting with consultants, to cut waste, improve health and safety, and increase efficiency. ‘Design and delivery have always been separated so you get stuff passed down the line in one direction,’ said Adams. ‘A big inhibitor has been the separation of key players in the industry.’

Adams joined Laing O’Rourke from BDP in 2005, where he spent 10 years as chief executive overseeing the architect’s huge growth. Now he has set up regeneration consultancy Entity Partnerships.

He said that having set up the RDD system, there were people better placed than him to implement it and he was also keen to move on and work in the regeneration sector. He voluntarily chairs a ministerial advisory panel in North Belfast that is overseeing the regeneration of a 30-acre inner city site. ‘I enjoyed being part of the Brighton Marina project and wanted to do more of it,’ he explained.

Entity Partnerships will work with regeneration bodies to help them develop the skills needed to pull the disparate bodies together and deliver.

‘There’s a huge investment in regeneration and there are all sorts of consultants who can do all sorts of things, but what you really need is alignment, to get people working together,’ said Adams.