Implementing IPD in Nuclear Mega Projects with Carol Tansley | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford | S1 EP 11

09/25/23 • 39 min

In this week’s episode, Riccardo and guest co-host, Corail, sit down with fellow alumna, Carol Tansley to discuss her Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on the institutional barriers to adopting integrated project delivery (IPD) on a nuclear mega project. Carol's impressive career, spanning two decades, is rooted in executing major programs for the UK Government Department for Work, HMRC, and DTI. As a recognized authority in large-scale IT and business transformations, her expertise took her to the Middle East, notably participating in the groundbreaking nuclear project in Abu Dhabi, marking the inauguration of the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. Ninety-seven percent of nuclear major programmes go over time and over budget, so how did Carol (with no nuclear background) participate in delivering one two days early? This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

“IPD may represent a methodology that would work has been proven to work in first of a kind environments. And while we have the field conditions now to embrace that, we need people that are willing to go out and embrace these new ways of working and seek to implement them.”

Key Takeaways:

The role Eternal Beginner Syndrome plays in complex nuclear programmes.
The perceived barriers against adopting new models and how cultural and cognitive biases can masquerade as genuine obstacles.
Carol’s experience at Nuclear Week in the UK parliament and the future trends of the nuclear industry—energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change.
Attracting the younger generation to the nuclear sector to support climate solutions and the expected 40 percent growth rate.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community:

Carol Tansley on LinkedIn
Corail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedIn
Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

You're listening to navigate the major programes, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University’s Day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Carol Tansley was appointed Vice President X energy UK new build projects in September 2022. In this role, she oversees all x-energy's activities towards establishing the XE 100 as the prominent I temperature gas reactor technology in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining IX energy, Carol served as the operational readiness Control Center Director for the early successful Emirates nuclear energy cooperation startup of the Barakah nuclear plant in the UAE. She was also the new Newa energy company director of strategic programs. Prior to this, she served as a senior director for PwC in the UK and UAE, as well as working at Accenture delivering some of the UK is largest public sector change programs. She recently graduated with distinction from the University of Oxford, with an MSc in major program management. Carol's research focuses on causes of poor performance on nuclear mega project, and potential benefits of adopting relational contracting models.

Corail 02:05

Hello, Carol Heller, Ricardo, I'm super happy to talk to you today. And thank you so much for the opportunity to interview Carol on your podcast, Ricardo, I think we all met in Oxford during the MMPMcourse. And it was wonderful to learn about Carol's experience about the nuclear industry, which is one of the most complex industries, you can find say, I think the listener will be so happy to hear about Carol's story and what you have to say are all about the future of this industry. First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about your background and how you fell into the nuclear sector. I know that there is a little value at the start of th...

Key Takeaways:

The role Eternal Beginner Syndrome plays in complex nuclear programmes.
The perceived barriers against adopting new models and how cultural and cognitive biases can masquerade as genuine obstacles.
Carol’s experience at Nuclear Week in the UK parliament and the future trends of the nuclear industry—energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change.
Attracting the younger generation to the nuclear sector to support climate solutions and the expected 40 percent growth rate.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community:

Carol Tansley on LinkedIn
Corail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedIn
Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

Corail 02:05

Previous Episode

Can PPPs incorporate collaborative contracting? | With Riccardo Cosentino and Jim Bernard | S1 EP 10

In this week’s episode, Riccardo switches chairs and guest host, Jim Barnard, asks all the questions. Riccardo shares insights from his Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on the use of collaborative contracting into major programmes, specifically PPP structures. Riccardo and Jim delve into the complications and complexities of risk management, adversarial situations, stakeholders and shareholders and private financing.

“When you have collaborative contracting, you almost waive your legal rights or your rights to pursue legal remedies. And so, all of the parties are around the table. There are many advantages of collaborative contracting, but the simplest one is, instead of hiring lawyers to sort out disputes, you’re redeploying those resources to actually solving project problems.”

Key Takeaways:

The price of winning contracts in the PPP market and how the public sector entity comes into play
Why collaborative contracting provides better odds for finishing on time and on budget, but equity has to take more risk
PPP and politics, how do we navigate it?

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community:

Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn
Jim Bernard on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

You're listening to navigate the major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations

happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm

your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most

recently, I graduated from Oxford University Said business school, which shook my belief when it

comes to navigating major problems. Now, it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press

the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and

the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see what the

conversation takes us. Hello, and welcome to a new episode of navigating major programs. Today

we're going to be doing things a little bit differently. My friend, and one point guest of the show as

agreed kindly to be hosting this podcast. And we'll do a role reversal where I'm going to be doing the

presenting and Jim Barnard is going to co-host the show. And today we're going to talk about a topic

that is very close to my heart, which is the use of collaborative contracting into major programs,

especially into PPP structures. I've done a full dissertation at Oxford as part of my master, major

program management, and I decided that it'd be good to walk you through my findings and my

conclusion. Anyway, let me introduce the host for today. Jim Bernard. How you doing? Jim?

Jim 02:00

I'm great. Riccardo, thanks for having me. Big fan of the podcast, obviously had the chance to be on a

previously so very much appreciate the opportunity to be host this time.

Riccardo Cosentino 02:11

So today, as I said, I'll be a be doing the talking. And you'll be doing the asking. Maybe I can start? I'll

jump right into it unless you have a specific question for me. And maybe I can give a bit of a bit of an

overview of my research thesis and some of my findings and some of my conclusions.

Jim 02:34

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Yes, summary will be great, a perfect place to start. But some of our folks listening may not be

completely familiar with even the concept of collaboration. And I know having read your dissertation

that you get into some fairly technical and detailed topics relative to finance and how structures are set

up and that type of thing. So for those of us either less familiar or kind of new to the topic, if you don't

mind, let's start as basic as possible.

Riccardo Cosentino 03:03

Okay, well, let's start with, let's start with what prompted me to research this specific topic, the probably

a good place to start here. I you know, I'm a professional the work in public private partnership over the

last 20 years. So again, a lot of knowledge about the topic, I have structured and finance many

transactions that use non recourse financing. And a couple of years ago, my company decided to exit

the what we call the lump sum turn...

Next Episode

The Cost of Bad Leadership in Major Programmes with Riccardo Cosentino | S1 EP 12

In this episode, Riccardo Cosentino takes us behind the scenes of developing the Navigating Major Programmes podcast and shares why he started this podcast—well before he was ready. Taking us through his career in infrastructure (and the brief moment he almost became restaurateur), Riccardo highlights his leadership learnings and how graduating from Oxford Saïd Business School’s MSc Major Programme Management dismantled his imposter syndrome, a necessity in becoming an effective leader. You’re going to want to grab a pen and paper for one because Riccardo shares practical leadership tips that will help you get your team’s performance to the highest level.

“Ultimately, the cost of leadership training is insignificant compared to the cost overruns or schedule overruns major programmes encounter every day.”

Key Takeaways:

Imposter syndrome and why starting a podcast helped Riccardo overcome it
Does a personal brand have a place in major programmes?
How to successfully use LinkedIn within the infrastructure industry
Why leadership training should be required in major projects

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community:

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

You're listening to navigate the major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino I brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of navigating major programs. Today will be my first solo podcast, I will have no guests today. So you will be listening to me rambling away hopefully won't be rambling it will be interesting, interesting topics that we cover in this podcast. I started. I started this podcast very recently, and I have no previous experience in podcasting. I'm an avid listener, but I never, never led or recorded podcasts before. Reason why I started this podcast. Mostly I wanted to elevate the conversation about major programs, I wanted to have a platform where we can think through major programs, we can think through issues associated with major programs. I also wanted to give an opportunity to some of my classmates and future classmates and past classmates to have a platform where they could present the research. As many of you know and carried out I finished a master's degree Oxford called MMPM mastering major program management. And while I was doing my dissertation, it occurred to me that many of my classmates were also doing very valuable research. But unlike a PhD, this research doesn't really get published, some of the dissertation are about the quality that can be can be published in in journals. However, a lot of the dissertations don't quite meet that threshold. However, it's very, very interesting research that should have a platform to be presented. Rather than just ending up on a shelf on somebody's on somebody's bedroom or living room. This is why I started the podcast. Starting the podcasts was very nerve racking for me. It took me it took me almost a year to find the courage to actually record the first series, the first five episodes, I actually recorded the very first episode two years ago, but then never had the never had the courage I guess, to follow through with the rest of the episodes. So I sat sat on this project for a very long time, it was very nerve wracking for me, I procrastinated, I postponed the recording until I was really what would happen is what was at Oxford graduating from my, from a master's degree. A lot of my colleagues and classmates were congratulating me for having a strong presence on LinkedIn a...