16th March 2007, 07:29 PM
This is perhaps turning into another thread but:
Kevin - I agree that we are stuck with many things as hangovers from the 1970s to early 90s which are the root cause of the structural faults in British commercial archaeology.
The units from then were thrown headlong into a commercial world from a quasi-academic, grant-driven world; they were not market-created monopolies. there was nowhere near the same amount of money around then and I don't think many ever thought they would be the multi-million businesses they have become. Our ultimate problem is that we sold ourselves too cheap in the early days.
On the other point, as well as consolidation of providers, what we probably need is more clear market stratification, with small, medium and large companies operating at different levels, as in the construction world. However at present there is much crossover between all, which drives prices down. This stratification is starting to happen by default, especially as clients have become more savvy about ensuring delivery, sometimes but increasingly as concerned about resourcing to hit deadlines as much as price. There is room for niche companies in that market but the vast majority of commercial work is very bogstandard in the techniques necessary.
And....we need to get rid of Council-based contractors if we want to push prices up. They do seem to distort local markets downwards.
Kevin - I agree that we are stuck with many things as hangovers from the 1970s to early 90s which are the root cause of the structural faults in British commercial archaeology.
The units from then were thrown headlong into a commercial world from a quasi-academic, grant-driven world; they were not market-created monopolies. there was nowhere near the same amount of money around then and I don't think many ever thought they would be the multi-million businesses they have become. Our ultimate problem is that we sold ourselves too cheap in the early days.
On the other point, as well as consolidation of providers, what we probably need is more clear market stratification, with small, medium and large companies operating at different levels, as in the construction world. However at present there is much crossover between all, which drives prices down. This stratification is starting to happen by default, especially as clients have become more savvy about ensuring delivery, sometimes but increasingly as concerned about resourcing to hit deadlines as much as price. There is room for niche companies in that market but the vast majority of commercial work is very bogstandard in the techniques necessary.
And....we need to get rid of Council-based contractors if we want to push prices up. They do seem to distort local markets downwards.