Cash flow
Singapore, 2nd October 2014
One of the most crucial parts of running a successful company is the management of your cash-flow, something that has nothing to do with lighting design…well a bit I guess because you are only being paid if you deliver the goods that are expected from you. So assuming that you have delivered as per contract our greatest challenge remains always to collect the payments rightfully due to us. I say rightfully because that is of course our point of view, the reality however is that clients may have different views. You would be surprised how many reasons a client can come up with to delay payment. The longer money stays in your own pocket the better it generally is for your own company, so accounts departments and their CFO (Chief Financial Officers) are trained and focussed to make sure money is only leaving their accounts when there is no further escaping. There are exceptions but in general that is the attitude of all account departments, my own included!
Today’s blog subject is triggered by the fact that we finally managed to “extract” two long overdue (big) payments from the same client but for different projects. Big corporations have a habit of setting up separate entities for each project as to limit their liability in case something goes wrong. So while the client is the same, the accounting departments are split over the various projects and as a result we deal with different persons for different projects even though the client is the same. For months we have been negotiating and arguing…I could write a book about the excuses and reasons that accounts use for not being able to pay.
But what I have learned over the years is that accounts need to be talked to by account people; peer to peer. Somehow there is more respect, better understanding. When I sent out an email with a strong request to pay up even beefed up with threats that we may have to hold back on our services if payment is not received, it does not have the same effect as my own accounts staff sending out the same message. Perhaps they speak the same language and perhaps they feel they cannot “bully” their own counterparts as they are in the same game. So the morale here is get accounts to talk to accounts. Me as a boss I just need to address myself to the boss, not to accounts 🙂
Light Watch 5-166: We get paid to create beautifully lit spaces…we can’t do this alone. Without the architects, the interior designers, etc, our life would be very difficult. The UK pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010 was an incredible combination of light and architecture…
World Architectural Festival Singapore 2014
Singapore, 1st October 2014
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s event Singapore is hosting the World Architectural Festival from today at Marina Bay Sands. More then 2000 visitors from more than 60 countries are excepted to gather in Singapore to attend key note addresses, conferences, lectures, workshops seminars and exhibitions by some of the top names in the architectural industry. Unfortunately I am unable to attend but I can just imagine how interesting these presentations will be. From my perspective I feel that architects more than ever are showing a keen interest in lighting, specifically in daylighting and sustainability. It is the buzz and maximising the use of daylight in architectural designs, intelligent use of materials to better reflect lighting and create mood in spaces are the order of the day. I personally find that more and more architects think with lighting in their conceptual mind, which is great for us because it is easier to reach a common conceptual ground. It also has its draw back as some of them think that they (should) know it all and as a result patronise us about how we should go about our lighting. It is often a delicate path to walk, but in general it is very positive.
The enormous developments in LED technology have a lot to do with it as well. With LED’s becoming so compact, so more performing and so more easily integrated in architectural building components, it is not difficult to see the attraction and hence also so interest of architects in integrating lighting in their designs. This integration has also opened doors to LED manufacturers previously not involved in lighting at all. Tile manufacturers, furniture makers, building components and façade cladding specialists have ventured into LED solely with the aim to add an extra (lighting) dimension to their products. It is a brave new world out there and if you look at some of the architectural designs that are nominated for awards you will see new sustainable technologies being used and lighting, intelligent lighting and integrated day and artificial lighting are definitely part of it.
Light Watch 5-165: In a CNN report some of the nominated buildings were shown from subsequently Australia (1,2), Denmark (3), Guangzhou (4), Hong Kong (5), Japan (6), London (7), New Zealand (8), Korea (9), Sweden (10)
LED + LIGHT ASIA 2014
Singapore, 30th September 2014
Over a period of 3 days Marina Bay Sands is hosting the Architectural & Building Services 2014 event which brings together Arch Expo, Led+ Light Asia and International Facility Management Expo in one big event. I was an invited speaker at the LED + Light Asia conference, called Light Up in Style which was held today on the side lines of the event. The event is billed as the only trade show dedicated entirely to the LED/OLED industry in Singapore. With a practically full house it was very well attended even though the original speaker program was shortened to half a day.
The opening presentation was done by K.Seshadri, my one time colleague from my early Philips days in Singapore. We both moved on and Sesh is currently a lecturer and independent consultant providing various professional services to the lighting industry in the region. His years of experience has made him a sought after expert by government, institutional and private companies that seek his expertise in lighting. It was fitting therefore that he opened the proceedings with an witty interesting talk about new trends in indoor and outdoor lighting specifically touching on the various visual, emotional and biological aspects of lighting. For many in the audience this a very refreshing look at lighting and the importance of lighting in our daily lives.
I was the next speaker providing an insider look at lighting design for the lighting up of buildings and social spaces. Spoken from my extensive experience in the hospitality industry I specifically went into the many challenges we face as lighting designers as we make the transition from conventional to LED technology. While the LED Cowboys want to make us believe that LED now is the only solution and the transition to LED is as easy as pie, the reality is different. We are still learning to coop with the new technology. I was pleased to have most of my Singapore staff present as they do not always have the opportunity to hear me speak as that mostly happens abroad. At least they also got the chance to see their boss in action…
The morning session was completed with a presentation by Kenny Eng, Director of the Nyee Phoe Group who showed us how the erstwhile landscape nursery had embraced todays lifestyle to provide concepts that go well beyond just providing an tree with an PAR 38 uplight. Socially responsible his approach to landscape design involves nature, light and the community. It was a pleasure to share our expertise with an audience that seemed full of attention and appreciation. Thanks to all!
Light Watch 5-164: The speakers in action…
To have and to hold…
Singapore, 29th September 2014
I was away in Bali over the weekend to attend a friend’s wedding. I generally do not share too much of my private life but what made this something special is that lighting had everything to do with the success of the wedding day. The ceremony was held just before sunset on a dramatic cliff edge overlooking the sea, the drinks and congratulations when the day made its transition into the night with the dinner under romantic lanterns swinging from the trees. First of all it could have been raining…it was not…it was a beautiful day with blue skies creating a rich palette of colours and reflections, the lush greenery and flowers on land with the glittering sea in the back ground. When the sun started to set, the rich colours of the sky turned into their usual deep blue, purple, amber colours and yes…evens a small crescent moon was in attendance with little fishing boats and their lights gradually going out to sea for their night fishing. Garden lights popped up against a sky that slowly transcended from day into night.
The lanterns that were strung as a canopy of light above the dining tables, not surprisingly (or maybe surprisingly) were all with good old incandescent light bulbs, adding to the overall warm ambiance. A sight truly taken straight from a dream movie and lighting had everything to do with it. While I looked at all this with my professional lighting designer’s eyes, I could not escape the thought that the mood and ambience was pure and honest and put together by people with feelings and not engineered by lighting professionals…yes by event professionals probably, but with hart and with the limited capabilities (and budget) of the local site, complementing and enriching. It all felt right…something that we should all aspire, specifically as professionals.
As a professional lighting designer I am married to lighting…to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish… 🙂
Light Watch 5-162: Some of the beautiful sceneries that we will remember… (R+G congratulations!)
Signed, sealed and delivered
Singapore, 25th September 2014
In projects nothing is perfect and more often than not, certainly in big size projects, there is a discrepancy between design specifications, quantities and that what is finally delivered to site for installation. Add to that construction issues on site, changed detailing and you can understand that at times we end up with light fittings that can either not be installed or are no longer suitable in its intended locations. As we are rapping up stage 1 of one of our projects we have been asked to assist the client to determine exactly that. What was the design specification, what was ordered (and awarded), what was delivered to site and most of all what was or was not installed.
In a big project like this it can be quite a tedious exercise and not something that can be done from behind our desks. It involves checking of our final tender drawings and specs, the contractor’s as-built drawings and our own visual site inspection. We created a list for this occasion that lists down the light fitting, its location (as per our spec), whether it was installed and in case it was not the reason for its omission. The idea behind this is to provide our client a detailed overview of what was eventually supplied (rightfully) but not used. Since we have quite a number of variation orders which we certified as correct, we can then use the “over supply” as a bargaining chip in reducing the costs of the variation by asking the contractor to take back the over-supply.
You can argue that it is not the supplier’s fault that things got deleted after supply and legally the supplier can stand their ground, but goodwill and future relationships can go a long way and hence we discuss this directly with the lighting supplier to come to a satisfying arrangement that provides an acceptable and satisfying solution for all parties involved. Many of the products we specify could well be re-specified/ re-used in the second stage of the project, keeping everyone happy…
Light Watch 5-162: Things do not always appear what they are…
I will be away for a long weekend, so there will be no blog tomorrow 🙂
The LED Czars 2014
Singapore, 24th September 2014
I often talk about the LED Cowboys, but way up in their ivory tower the LED Czars are planning and plotting the future of LED while you and I are going about our daily work implementing LED’s in our projects. I am on to this because of the latest announcement from Philips lighting that has taken the financial world somehow by surprise. Philips is going to sell off their LED components manufacturing with the aim to create an independent stand-alone unit. They will not sell everything though, maintaining a 40% share, this I understand to maintain some control over the production and delivery as they themselves are the users of about 20% of the worldwide factory outputs. The deal is reported to be worth around 2 billion dollars.
There are a few interesting aspect to this decision. First of all Philips has acknowledge that today the LED market is a cut throat mass production market and that maintaining market share costs a lot of effort with little margins. Secondly the market has also dramatically changed. In the incandescent days the filament lamps had a limited lifespan guaranteeing manufacturers a continued demand for new lamps, Today however LED lamps have a near indefinite life so manufacturing depends on innovation rather ten replacement creating a total new ball game for manufacturers. It is therefore interesting and perhaps telling that Philips is eyeing to become an Apple-styled entity globally focussed on developing new trends and style concepts rather than being a mass producing manufacturer of LEDs. Let’s not forget also that Philips is one of the 5 initial LED manufacturers that holds key patents and copyrights in the LED technology and earns a solid part of their income through licencing. Focussing on a role as innovator and pursuing trendsetting projects therefore seems a choice with a clear vision. There is an obvious belief that there is still a way to go and innovate in LED world…
It will be interesting to see who follows this example. We already saw Siemens de-investing themselves from Osram with success and other may follow the same path. As I mentioned yesterday fact is that new LED start-up companies are popping up that give the established lighting manufacturers a run for their money with ultra-competitive pricing and surprisingly reasonable quality. Moving away from manufacturing lauds a new era in the development of the LED technology…
Light Watch 5-161: Philips has a whole website dedicated to the future of lighting full with concepts and ideas. Some of the concepts are open for crowd funding…http://origin.www.futureoflight.philips.com
The specification game
Singapore, 23rd September 2014
Specifying light fittings for our projects is a critical process that is not necessarily the same for each project that we do. While the thinking and design process maybe the same the execution and the formalities maybe different from case to case. The ideal situation is that you specify a light fitting exactly down to the brand, the type, the reference model number, even country of origin (some same products are manufactured in different countries) including where to buy the product. That leaves no margins for different interpretations and the end result is 100% your doing…you choose the fitting…assuming the installation is done properly as well.
Unfortunately the reality is different. The ideal situation rarely happens and most of the time we are faced with compromise situations where we have to value engineer our lighting design to find a satisfactory solution between the clients made available budget and the minimum acceptable quality and performance of the lighting. I come to this subject today as we attended a tender return and evaluation on one of our resort projects. The tender return box was officially opened this morning at the client office and for confidentiality and avoidance of any fraudulent activity all tenders had to be assessed and evaluated on the spot in the clients office. Consultants ad been requested to fly into Kuala Lumpur for this. One of our staff went there and I remained on standby in our office for any assistance as needed.
Because of the short time line and the limited clients budget we had earlier decided to put out generic specifications only without any brand indication, though with clear values to typical performance and quality criteria critical to the desired lighting end result. Our expectation was that the tenderers would then do the necessary research to come up with competitive and technically complying bids. To our surprise the contractors bidding for the project just provided a general lump sum for the fixtures without any specific light fitting details. Probably playing the game from their point of view banking on the clients “weakness” for a competitive pricing…we of course can accept nor approve a blank cheque for any sort of fixture and played the ball back today…
Light Watch 5-160: As part of my presentation I always introduce a comparative table explaining the various criteria that amount to the different appreciation of light fittings. For that we grade light fixtures from A to C with A being top of the range and C being the low end (“China-made” or copy products)…this helps explain value for money and the balance between quality and costs…
F1 – Sports and illumination
Singapore, 22nd September 2014
I made it back from Delhi just in time for Singapore’s F1 weekend. It remains something special and specifically as lighting designers we can appreciate the only night race being held under artificial lighting. Exactly because it is held at night it has that extra special feeling of being part of something unique. The lights help you focus on the track and the events surrounding the race. I was present at the very first inaugural race in 2008 when many were wondering if the lights would be good and safe enough for the F1 drivers. Today all the F1 drivers laud the Singapore Grand Prix as a unique track and even more, love racing under the lights. Similarly to golfing at night, somehow lighting up the race track or the fairway only, in my opinion helps focus your attention much better. Because of the surrounding night you are not distracted by peripheral activities, with lights illuminating just that part that you need to see for top performance. Lighting levels are very high (around 3000 lux) so more then enough for good visibility and TV recording. For those of you who followed the race on TV you will have seen the great clarity of the images. As an added bonus of the night, it allows to create illuminated feature light that stand out at night, such as the lighting of buildings, bridges, trees and added features such as balloons, cones, flames and even an illuminated Singapore flag.
The event has on-track (the racing) and so called off-track events which are predominantly the concerts. This year the event was graced by acts such as the Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Ziggi Marley and Jennifer Lopez; none of them really my cup of tea, but nevertheless enormous crowd pleasers. I was a guest at the Singapore Cricket Club on race day and enjoyed the views with a drink from the roof terrace of turns 10, 11 and 12.
The only thing that remains to be seen is how well the race holds up when it rains with obvious reflections of the lights in water a possible major issue. So far the last seven years the race has been a dry one, though on Saturday night it was a close call…with a major downpour happening just minutes after the end of qualifying. It did not dampen the spirits with everyone soaking wet attending the Robbie Williams concert…no one really cared…
Light Watch 5-159: Some images from both qualifying and race night in Singapore
Light + Design, Delhi 2014
Delhi, 19th September 2014
With thanks to my sponsor ELCOMA and the hosts, the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (or IIID), we started day 1 of the conference proceedings with the introductory keynote address from the director of the National Institute of Design, Mr Pradyummna Vyas. He made a point of sustainable technologies and the need to develop a made in India brand of products and services. This was followed by yours truly sharing my experience with the LED Cowboys and Czars this time modelled around the hospitality application and the challenges we face in using LED in our lighting designs. That was followed by renowned lighting designer Reiko Chikada who gave us her insider’s look at the process of implementing urban lighting strategies, pointing out the crucial role of city government and the necessary cooperation between all stakeholders to achieve success.
In the afternoon session we had an outsiders look at lighting and architecture by local architect Bijoy Ramachandran enlightening us with his clever use of daylight throughout his projects. Specifically the manipulation of daylight through architectural concepts and the introduction of operable louvres and sun panels were inspiring. This was followed by a Q+A panel discussion with the above speakers allowing the participants to further probe the specialists notably about the integration of international design expertise in the context of the local Indian culture. The attendance was great with a near full house; the response was very encouraging. There is a clear drive within India to push the country to the next level and if the feedback about the new government is to be believed, todays enthusiastic response will certainly help to get there!
I enjoyed the day which was capped of with a tour through the Light India exhibition that is held as the main event, which is supported by the Messe Frankfurt group. Speakers will later come together for a relaxing meal with the organisers to reminisce about this first successful day. The conference continues tomorrow with some more interesting speakers. Thanks again to all those who came to listen today with a special thanks to those who bought my book, I hope you will enjoy it and get some motivation and inspiration to make our world a better lighting world!
Light Watch 5-158: Impressions of today’s proceedings, the opening ceremony, the speakers, Q+A, the audience, the fair, and low and behold, even a new product from Panasonic promoting its unique lighting projection spotlight allowing to project the menu on the table or create nature scenes as background decoration to your dinner….
Travelling
Delhi, 18th September 2014
One may wonder whether the world is still safe to travel…As I am arriving in Delhi to deliver my talk at Light + Design tomorrow the world seems a more and more an insecure place. The Middle East with Gaza and the IS troubles in Iraq; the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the tragic events in Ukraine inclusive the shooting of MH17. The Pope at one point suggested that all these hot spots of violence are tantamount to World War 3…where has the world come to? Why does everyone seem unhappy? Even Scotland now wants to separate itself from the UK with the referendum taking place today…where does it stop? Is every one so egocentric, so power hungry, so intolerant? The world is a place to share and to live together, but governments therefore in the first place have a duty to create liveable spaces and a urban environment that promotes harmony and togetherness.
I am traveling the world in my line of duty, visiting clients that develop new projects assumingly to create something good, sustainable and useful (but not forgetting profitability) or holding talks (as I am doing tomorrow) sharing my knowledge and expertise to help improve the world (of lighting). Unfortunately the world is driven by greed and power and even the event I am attending is set up in the first place with commercial benefit in mind. But that is todays capitalist’s economy…
These are kind of sobering thoughts but some you can’t escape thinking about. That said I do look forward to tomorrow’s proceedings, meeting new people, sharing experiences with a positive eye to the future. India is a great country, I like coming here. It has huge potential, specifically because of the great divide between rich and poor. There is a big challenge for us to bringing our expertise to this country and help build a sustainable and liveable infra-structure and environment. I always find my trips to India very gratifying…looking forward…
Light Watch 5-157: Delhi impressions…India Gate, Red Fort, Street life, the Slums, the Temples…
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