Lightning fast

BLOG

Singapore 22^nd November 2011

Singapore has the distinction of being one of the lightning capitals of the world according to today’s newspaper! No less than an average 186 days of lightning strikes Singapore every year. Quite a high frequency! There have indeed been many thunder storms
lately, but I did not realise it was that much! Some of the sights are quite impressive, I must say.

Workwise we need to act “lightning fast” as well at times! In this part of the world a rather common way of working! Unfortunately this is more the result of ignorance and awareness by clients who think in short term dollars first. But what is wisdom, what is right or wrong? How often do we not get a request to get things done yesterday…all the time, right? It’s the nature of the beast in our business around here. Faster, faster, faster! Doesn’t anybody care about quality? Is it always about quantity? One of the main reasons I rebranded myself under KLD is to allow myself and my team more time to create quality rather than quantity. Service the client to satisfaction, rather than running after the facts without a win-win situation for anyone. Manage expectations. So a large part of my time is spent educating my clients about the added value of quality by properly planning the process of design and
implementation.

Today we met with a potential client who wanted a concept by the end of the week! And we are not even appointed yet! But even so, should we hurry to get a (basically speculative) design concept in without having an appointment in our bags? We are being told that the project go-ahead will depend on the local government accepting the design concept. Of course lighting is only a small part of the whole master plan approach as we are talking about redeveloping a heritage site and breathe some new life in a site that has slowly lost its lustre over the years and quite frankly can do with a sparkling new overhaul as it looks and feels old and run down. I did put in my few little cents worth and will prceed only on a master plan level without losing too much time and effort into it.

I can be (lightning) fast if necessary but to make sense I have to make sure I know exactly what the target is!

In Light Watch some striking pictures from the Singapore skies when we have those thunder and lightning days!