About Ivan Hurst FCInstCES
My Career
This web site is primarily about my work, my career, my passions, my interests, and the people I have met along the way. By describing this in such detail it demonstrates how I can help my Clients.
Quantity Surveyor
Primarily I am a Quantity Surveyor in the Civil Engineering and Railways elements of the Construction industry. I started my career over 4 decades ago. Most of the time it has been a rewarding and fulfilling time. Initially I moved around the country wherever the work took me, but for the last 20 years I have been based in Epsom and commuted to work.
Main Specialties
- The early part of my career was with main contractors, building roads and bridges, or highways as they are now known. A particular interest at the time was earthworks, including the measurement, theory, and claims.
- Latterly my career has involved railways, with Clients, Contractors, Consultants, and Designers. Track is my special interest area within rail.
- Throughout my career I have been interested in the collection and manipulation of data. This includes helping develop holistic project life cycle tools, creating industry codification structures, generation and defense of claims. The current developments regarding redrafting the Uniclass structure and the advances in Building Information Modeling are particularly interesting.
- More recently I have extended individual training and mentoring to include more widespread knowledge sharing. At Hyder I instigated and commissioned a 'Global Commercial Management Services Community' and a Knowledge Base.
Precis
I am a Senior Commercial Manager in the Rail / Civil Engineering sectors of the construction industry with a career spanning four decades. I have worked for Main Contractors, Clients, PQS Consultancies, and an Engineering Design House. This gives me a wide and holistic appreciation and understanding of the industry in both pre- and post-contract elements. Specialties include rail systems, and roads and bridges, in approximately equal proportions with respect to time.
Amongst many other projects, I have worked on both The Shard and London Bridge Station Redevelopment, pictured left, award winning, and the King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme, train shed roof, pictured below.
I am passionate about excellence, innovation, and data. The collection, organization, and dissemination of data is fundamental to an organization, a community, a society. Data packaged with parameters and a little insight is knowledge. Creating and using tools to enhance decision making, improve efficiency, and exceed quality expectations is important to me.
Caring about people, their aspirations, needs and wellbeing is part of my nature. Give people the right environment and they will excel. This applies to people who report to me, those I report to, associates, clients, and suppliers, and of course me. I do acknowledge that there are challenges the more remote people become, as the sphere of influence weakens.
During my career I have been involved in a number of team events, team role and psychometric tests. I have been described as a ‘tamed Rottweiler’, a ‘Plant’, ‘Completer Finisher’, and ‘Data’. In a very recent free online test at 123test the top 4 results for me were Innovator (19%), Executive (17%), Expert (14%), and Analyst (11%). Follow the link to take the test yourself. The tests have changed over time, as have my results. I recall that at my first introduction there were six team roles, but now there are nine. I have looked at the revised Belbin Team Roles but have not taken the test recently. I am interested in team dynamics, the Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development, cultural change management, and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). However, I do not consider myself and expert or practitioner. Get the team right for the task, and it will perform.
I also enjoy complex problems. This is a trait that I can trace back to my schooldays. Many people have suggested things like 'KISS' and 'simplify', however, I do not believe you can make a truly complex problem simple, unless you ignore significant elements of the problem. There is an inherent risk in that approach. However, I do consider that a complex problem can be managed so as to appear more simple. In spreadsheet terms, this could be expressed as having a user friendly input end, and reporting section, but an even more complex, but hidden, middle section, or engine. The debate goes on.
My Company, Ivan Hurst Consulting Ltd
An extract from the home page of my company website, ivanhurstconsulting.com. I have taken down the website as I have dissolved the company following my retirement. I did not want to sell the company on as a going concern with my name, but without my involvement. Also, I did not want to semi-retire. Having retired, I don't know how I found time to go to work. :-). I am not short of things to do.
The page gives an idea of the areas I covered.
I enjoyed my time working for myself on a variety of projects, in a range of positions.