International Airport Expansion
Noting that an airport was skilfully replacing isolated damaged floor tiles in their main passenger terminal and just about to commence building a new one, I wrote to the airport management enquiring if they might like to have a contact for a designer of quality tiles. I pointed out that the company I was recommending had been awarded a contract by London Transport, in the UK, for re-tiling a well known underground station in the capital, which had experienced a serious fire resulting in fatalities. They responded positively.
The next stage was to pass on this interest to the design-unit in a UK tile company. It was one served by my nephew's courrier business so I had easy access to the chief research designer for that company. He was very positive and interested but the final decision remained with the senior management. After careful consideration, they did not sense they were ready, at that time, to move into overseas contracts. Thus the link was not secured.
This example does, however, illustrate the pattern in locating such potential contracts. The ingredients are: a keen sense of observation and a radar-like mind to spot possibilities for linking all the right people together. I'm sure there are many such incidents that occur constantly. We just need to be alert to them as there is often a need to move fast in order to capture such unique deals.
The new Terminal has now been in full operational mode for a few years and looks really smart. I've used it several times already.
http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/content/frankfurt_airport/en.html
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modalpages/2625.aspx
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