{"id":14,"date":"2010-11-05T14:37:40","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T18:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2015-02-18T07:58:28","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T12:58:28","slug":"stuff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal"},"content":{"rendered":"

This page will evolve over time… <\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Personal:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

This page is much more about \u2018me\u2019\u2026\u00a0 Notably, it will expand on my interests, and views, and make observations on the things that occupy my somewhat complicated and peripatetic mind.\u00a0 Realistically, I absolutely understand that this is an indulgent and narcissistic use of web space, but I will try to make it at least partially relevant to my academic activities, and I suppose you can always leave if it is not \u2018your thing\u2019\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0I know some academics are involved in ‘blogs’, in ‘Twitter’, and in all sorts of other social networking…\u00a0 I have a<\/span> ‘LinkedIn’<\/a><\/em> account, which I use for academic connections that contribute towards my research activity.\u00a0 This means that most of my LinkedIn<\/em> connections are academics from around the world who are involved in teaching or researching aspects of Project-based management.\u00a0 I also have a<\/span> ‘Facebook’ <\/a><\/em>account, which I use to keep in touch with family, my children (actually, the way I said that infers that my children are not ‘family’ – absolutely not true…), and friends that I have known for many years.\u00a0 I do have a ‘Twitter’<\/a><\/em> account, although it is fair to say that I do not ‘tweet’ regularly, and I usually cannot think of anything that may be of significant interest to the ‘twitterati’.
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\u00a0I do not ‘collect’ LinkedIn<\/em> connections or Facebook<\/em> friends, so unless you are a research or teaching colleague in PM, or an old friend – I would prefer that you did not ask to ‘friend’ me.\u00a0\u00a0 However, my email address is available from the\u00a0<\/span>details<\/a> page on this site, and I am always happy to hear from academics, students, or business managers (and of course ‘friends’) who wish to keep in touch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Superyachts:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have been interested in the project-managed construction of very high value Superyachts for some time, and they make in interesting and challenging subject for serious academic study.\u00a0 Essentially, change in projects is tied to what project managers call the ‘Iron Triangle’ (thanks to Dr. Roger Atkinson of Bournemouth University – a good friend and ex-colleague of mine –\u00a0 for the leading paper about this), which governs the relationship between time, cost, and quality or scope in the management of projects.\u00a0 Essentially, if one of these elements change, one or both of the others also have to change.\u00a0 This means that – for example – if a project manager wants to deliver a project more quickly, he either needs more money (to pay for increased resources – e.g. labour), or has to reduce quality or scope.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is fine in many areas, but Superyacht contracts are usually based on a ‘fixed price; fixed delivery date’ contract, where quality has to be of the highest standard, and where clients often try to increase scope, but without having to pay a higher price.\u00a0 The fact that the points of the ‘Iron Triangle’ are essentially fixed in this way makes the way that Superyacht project managers manage change within the contract an interesting and challenging research area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SAMAR<\/p>\n

An added advantage of this type of study is that you get the opportunity to see – and indeed sail on – some remarkable yachts that are normally impossible to access.\u00a0 The Superyacht industry is a secretive business, and the opportunity to visit a superyacht like ‘SAMAR’ (pictured above) is one that does not often occur.\u00a0 This yacht is 77 metres long (around 252 feet), and is opulent beyond words.\u00a0 It was under construction at one of the yards that was part of the early research for this study, and has been more widely documented in Boat International<\/em> magazine (November 2007 issue).\u00a0 There are some very impressive interior photographs…<\/span><\/p>\n

Another UK yard was working on the refit of Eric Clapton (the rock guitarist’s) yacht ‘Va Bene’<\/em>, which was rather nice for me, as I have been a fan for almost forty years.\u00a0 It is nice to know where some of the money I have spent over the years on albums and concert tickets has gone !!!<\/span><\/p>\n

This research was carried out using funds from a grant awarded by the British Academy, and the paper that documents this research has been published at Project Management Journal<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a link to the <\/span>published paper<\/a> on my <\/span>‘Publications’<\/a> page\u00a0 This is nice work if you can get it, and all in the name of academic research…<\/span><\/p>\n

2014 Update<\/strong> – I am hoping to resurrect aspects of this research shortly, but with a US slant…\u00a0 Watch this space…<\/p>\n

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Music, and the Guitar:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Confession:\u00a0\u00a0 I have been trying to play the guitar for many years (since I was about sixteen), and I am still struggling with it.\u00a0 The spirit is willing, but the technique is weak !!!<\/span><\/p>\n

The guitar looks great, and it has been set up by a good guitar technician so that it plays well – it just doesn’t get played well by me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sometimes try to convince myself that it is because I am left-handed, and guitar books, tabs, and chord diagrams are written for right-handed players, but in my heart of hearts, I know that I don’t practice enough, and I have a very limited supply of musical talent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"small<\/p>\n

Actually, I have two guitars – the rather cool looking ‘classic sunburst’ EB-335 style hollow body electric one that you can see here, and a relatively recently acquired Dean Performer electric\/acoustic guitar.\u00a0 Neither of them are played enough…
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There is no excuse.\u00a0 I have access to guitars.\u00a0 Most days, I pick it up and spend ten minutes or so strumming and fiddling with it, and going back over the two or three things I can play that sound like tunes (or bits of tunes).\u00a0 However, realistically…\u00a0 I have a long way to go to achieve my goals…<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Music is a different matter altogether.\u00a0 I have a significant collection of ‘sad hippie music’ on my iPod, and on my laptop.\u00a0 I also own the CD’s for most of it, and I still have a modest collection of what the youth of today calls ‘vinyl’, but what I and my generation refer to as LP’s (an abbreviation for ‘Long Playing Records’, for the young amongst you).<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the music I listen to is the same stuff that I have been listening to for 40 years or so – late 60s and 70s Rock and Prog-Rock (now there is a term from the past !!!) music by classic British and West Coast American bands.\u00a0 Trust me – I have some odd stuff…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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More to come here…\u00a0 This page still under construction<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This page will evolve over time… \u00a0 Personal: This page is much more about \u2018me\u2019\u2026\u00a0 Notably, it will expand on my interests, and views, and make observations on the things that occupy my somewhat complicated and peripatetic mind.\u00a0 Realistically, I absolutely understand that this is an indulgent and narcissistic use of web space, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1679,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sleyb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}