Is this a badge of prosperity?
Or confidence?
Or both maybe?
Arriving into Manchester on the train, I counted 23 cranes towering over the city.
I love Manchester. I’m not a Mancunian by either birth or upbringing, though I grew up not far away & visited often.
As a young musician, the Royal Northern College of Music was a regular haunt. My first memorable trip to the theatre was to see John Thaw in All My Sons at the Royal Exchange.
For more than 25 years I’ve lived & worked in or near Manchester.
I saw at first hand the amazing resilience of the city & its people after the IRA bombing in the 90s (so sadly tested again just last year, of course). And I was part of the team that opened The Bridgewater Hall.
The city recently played host to Bee in the City – an exhibition of over 100 giant bees – an appropriate celebration of the, erm, buzzing creativity & industry of the place (the worker bee has been Manchester’s best-known symbol since the Industrial Revolution).
It feels like a city with boundless energy.
Yet I was still surprised to count that many cranes as my train pulled in. It’s a salient reminder that standing still is never an option, in life or in business.
Do you agree? If so, what do you do to keep pushing on?
Originally posted by Phil Slorick on LinkedIn