There's a leadership academy for managing big projects; there is even a chief procurement officer.
For major manufacturers or firms managing big projects, however, the increase in transportation costs "is much more significant," he said.
They may prefer to do deals with firms with a long track record of funding and managing big projects from start to finish.
Not only do serious weaknesses remain, in managing big projects and in securing value for money, but the pressures for change are greater than ever.
Such new units would need to be staffed by people with 'soft skills', meaning with strong political sensitivity, rather than, as in the old days, people whose skill lay in evaluating and managing big projects.
The housing corporation was used to managing big projects, but in housing rather than ship renovation.
Thales, a defence and aerospace firm, is using a former radar expert, for instance, and Louis Berger France, an engineering firm, often uses retired engineers to manage big infrastructure projects.Softer industries also make use of Experconnect.
The government's current spending, too, is coming in below plan.One reason for the investment shortfall may be that government lacks the ability to manage big investment projects, following sharp cutbacks in the senior ranks of the civil service in the mid-1990s.
And it doesn't help, says David Wagner of the University of California (UC), Berkeley -- pictured left -- that we don't know how to manage big software projects effectively.
