Kapil Lalwani is senior bid manager at Balfour Beatty Capital. He is currently working on Balfour Beatty’s bid to build the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital
6am: I’m up early and the first thing I do is reach for the phone to call my wife, Sheetal, and Anvita, our five-month-old daughter.
They’re in India visiting family for six weeks, and I miss them hugely and try to speak to them as much as possible. Speaking to them first thing means I start the day with a smile.
7am: Leave the house for the commute to our Liverpool office in The Plaza, in Old Hall Street.
9am: My working day starts with an internal meeting to plan for our next Meet Balfour Beatty event. These events give us an opportunity to engage directly with local businesses so that we can develop relationships and strengthen our supply chain within the Liverpool city region.
10am: I take a few minutes to catch up on emails.
10.30am: For the Royal Liverpool University Hospital bid, we’re working with our partners in a number of different areas, including facilities management, legal, architecture and healthcare planning.
Strong communication is really important, and today we’re hosting a core team meeting which is a chance for all our partners to come together and update one another on progress.
Today’s meeting follows an update meeting with the Trust that took place earlier in the week so Jean, our project director, updates the team on the Trust’s response to our bid approach.
With so many different disciplines involved, it’s a long meeting, but a crucial chance to catch up and agree our next steps.
12.30pm: I pop out for some fresh air and grab a sandwich while I’m out.
1pm: I’ve earmarked the next couple of hours to do some preparation work for a conference that’s coming up. Sustainability is an important group-wide agenda for Balfour Beatty and this year we are one of the sponsors of the conference.
Balfour Beatty is hosting a panel discussion and we are developing some presentation material for the session. I’m particularly interested in the use of renewable energy sources in the current healthcare projects.
3.45pm: The time difference between the UK and India means that by the time I get home it’s the middle of the night over there, so while my girls are away I schedule a daily Skype call. It’s a joy to see Anvita’s face and to catch up with what they’ve been up to. I still marvel at how easy it is to connect via video when they are thousands of miles away.
4.10pm: Julie Hollings, Balfour Beatty’s regeneration co-ordinator, calls me to discuss opportunities for mentoring. I’m interested to hear about a project that is running in Tameside where we have just completed the new hospital.
As part of an ongoing commitment to the local community, Balfour employees are delivering CV and presentation workshops in local schools.
Julie wants to get a similar project up and running and is keen to capitalise on my project management skills.
5pm: I have a quick catch-up with Mark Howden, who’s our head of regeneration.
He is keen to get my opinion on how best we can support a community organisation in the city that has approached us.
5.45pm: Tonight I’m off to a dinner with a local business support organisation, so I head over to the Radisson hotel to freshen up and don my black tie.
As I’m new to the city, I’m hoping it will be an opportunity to meet people, as well as relax with colleagues.
