Robert Merry, an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years and now also runs training courses on project management, gives his personal slant on the stone industry this month.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012. Survival in business may be a lottery this year, but I guess we should be used to the occasional lottery by now.

So what to look forward to. The Olympics? Obtaining tickets was a lottery in itself. I am too old to compete and my children are disinterested in sport. I know the first bit’s hard to believe. Do I not look a natural athlete? We have tickets, but none for any event inside the Olympic park. Basketball in North Greenwich, Rowing in Buckinghamshire and volley ball somewhere else – Edinburgh probably.

We applied for more than 20 events, praying we’d get something, but praying equally hard we didn’t get all of them because we couldn’t afford it.

Another popular lottery this year will be watching England play in the European Championship. I am currently looking for a larger prayer mat in the January sales. The last one clearly didn’t work for my Olympic ticket bid and it is England I’m supporting.

Employees of the Carillion Energy Division all entered the ‘I pray I keep my job’ lottery. All 4,500 of them were served notice of possible redundancy at the end of 2011 after the Government cut the feed in tariff (FIT) by 50% for solar power produced electricity.

When the tariff was originally announced, Carillion (among others) did the math. They had bought an Energy company and started to expand, seeing a new industry on the horizon – one that would not only be profitable, but would contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, helping towards the Kyoto Protocol levels.

But then greedy energy companies started to put pressure on the Government, as they saw their profits being reduced by roof-fulls of solar panels. “We charge people for electricity, we don’t pay them to produce it for us.” And so, yet again, big business wins and there goes another brilliant initiative.

I will be standing outside the Olympic Park on Hackney Marshes, lotto ticket tucked neatly under one arm, my soap box firmly under my feet, bathing in the glow of the firework display at the opening ceremony, imagining what it’s like from inside. Glad, in some ways, I will be heading up the A40 for the rowing heats. Not sure why yet.

With so much to look forward to in 2012, here’s a little prayer to help you on your stony way.

The Stone Prayer

Our stone

Which art in stone yards

In containers on the high seas

On building sites

In private houses and in showrooms

Hallowed be thy name to BSEN12440

CE marking will come

On site, as well as in the yard

Give us the money to pay our bills,

And forgive us our court cases against those who won’t pay

As we forgive those who take us to court for non payment

Lead us not into pretending it is fitted to BSEN 5385 Part 5

When we know we’ve never even read it

For stone is always glorious

It’s only us humans who use and abuse it and cock it up

For ever and ever

Arabescato

Robert Merry ran his own stone company for 17 years and is now an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager. He also delivers training programmes on all aspects of Estimating and Project Management – details and dates on the website www.stoneconsultants.co.uk.
Tel: 0207 502 6353 / 07771 997621 robertmerry@stoneconsultants.co.uk