4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
From the Sydney Opera House to a basic kitchen renovation there are thousands of examples of construction projects large and small which go horribly over budget.
Professor Bent Flyvbjerg has compiled a database of 16,000 projects, and by his reckoning only 8.5% them meet their initial estimates of cost and time. He talks to Sam Fenwick about his new book, “How Big Things Get Done”.
Presenter / producer: Sam Fenwick Image: Sydney opera house; Credit: Getty Images
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| 0:00.0 | Who's your pick for the all-time greatest African goalkeeper? See if your choice made the list on match of the day, Africa, top 10. |
| 0:08.7 | Let's get into it. Starting next week. |
| 0:13.6 | Today, what happens when your kitchen renovation goes horribly wrong? |
| 0:18.0 | When they started building, they realized that maybe they want to do these other |
| 0:21.5 | things also, which is often what happens. And this kitchen renovation in Brooklyn ended up actually |
| 0:27.5 | costing a million dollars. There are thousands of examples where construction projects large |
| 0:32.2 | and small have gone way over budget. It was a score of towering shells. |
| 0:37.9 | It was a cluster of seagulls spreading concrete wings. |
| 0:41.1 | It was a huddle of sailing boats with billowing concrete sail. |
| 0:45.0 | And it was an unmitigated bitch to build. |
| 0:48.0 | All you can do when things start to go wrong, you can only throw more money after it. |
| 0:51.8 | This is Professor Bent Flubier. |
| 0:54.4 | And today on Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me, Sam Fenwick, |
| 0:58.6 | he shares the secret of how to get big things done on time and in budget. |
| 1:08.7 | The Olympics is one of the biggest events a country will host. |
| 1:12.9 | Millions of dollars are poured into the construction of new stadia, |
| 1:16.5 | accommodation blocks and buildings to house the world's media. |
| 1:21.2 | But since the 1960s, the total cost of hosting six weeks of games has grown. |
| 1:27.0 | The average overspend is nearly 160%. |
| 1:30.3 | The current holder for one Olympic record no one wants, |
| 1:34.4 | the biggest overspend, is the Montreal Olympics. |
| 1:37.9 | It went over budget by 720%. |
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