Back bites and other bits: 8 November 2006

X-rated construction

Constructing Excellence could be seen as taking collaboration a step too far after Back Bites was alerted by one industry source to a link on its website that mistakenly directed the user to a porn site.

A link to Sigma Projects, a collaboration between BSI, Forum for the Future and the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility, gave a whole new meaning to integration when clicked upon by the Back Bites team.

Unfortunately, we are neither at liberty to publish the link – nor to comment on any of the content…

Name change

Last week, we pointed out that it was known as Team McAlpine, and wondered whether this indicated that lead contractor Sir Robert had ditched the first part of its name.

This week, a letter from Malcolm H.D McAlpine disabused us of such notions.

“Dear Sirs,” he began.

“Further to your report in Wednesday’s issue, we would like to make it clear that our team discussing the contract for the Olympic Stadium is now clearly labelled as the SIR ROBERT McAlpine team.

“We have certainly NOT decided to ‘ditch the first part of our name’ for this or any other activity, and are proud of it in its full form.”

Glad to hear it. And we’re happy to set the record straight.

A golden year

George Bamford, youngest son of JCB’s Sir Anthony Bamford, has put the finishing touches to the new JCB 2007 calendar.

The calendar features 12 shots of silhouetted women covered in dripping gold paint. Apparently, the paint symbolises JCB.

The concept for this year’s calendar took a creative group eight months to plan. Bamford shot a selection of models over five days, while a make-up artist poured the gold liquid latex over them.

JCB’s PR agency says the calendar uses the female form to help “portray many of the company’s brand values, notably ‘a touch of humour’”.

The calendar costs £19.99 and is available from JCB’s online shop from 15 November (www.jcbshop.com).

Number of the week: 55,000 - Average salary, in pounds, of a typical UK construction professional working in the United Arab Emirates.

[Contract Journal, 8 November 2006, p 48]