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A.D.L. in Director's place April 1985 In April 1985 applications were invited for a new post of Head of Division of Management & Business at Hatfield Polytechnic. It probably did not occur to me at the time that the creation of the post might be a response to my October 1984 and January 1985 communications to Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher. I did not apply. After the closing date for applications had passed, the Director asked to see each of the relevant staff who had not applied. He arranged to come to Balls Park and I was asked to see him at 1.30 p.m. on 29th April 1985. At about 10.30 a.m. on the 29th a white van entered the Mansion car park just outside the windows of the room where I and several colleagues were still temporarily housed while the Mansion was undergoing restoration. I happened to be looking out of the window and saw the driver looking around for a parking place and finally steering into the one labelled Director. On the side of the van was a large sign saying (quotation marks included):-
What was extraordinary was that for the past 15 years I had conducted a management exercise of my own devising based on a fictitious company called Alpha Displays Limited or A.D.L. The exercise was described in Chris Elgood's Handbook of Management Games and I received enquiries about it from other educational institutions, from Industry, from the British Institute of Management and from the Metropolitan Police. The Editor of a technical newspaper, Electronics Weekly, had run a feature on it as though it was a real company. I was so closely identified with the exercise that I was often referred to as Mr. A.D.L.! What an extraordinary coincidence that there was an A.D.L. van parked in the Director's space! Considering however the possibility that it might be contrived, what perplexed me that I might not have been looking out of the window at the time that the van entered. However, on the other hand it might have been intended as a signal to the Director, who knew of my A.D.L. association and would no doubt have seen the van when he sought his parking place. Tuesday 8 July
1986 Over a year later - actually just after I started my second, possibly successful, attempt to contact Mrs. T. - I went to County Hall, Hertford, to make some enquiries about the A.D.L. whose van I had seen. There I learned from R.B. of the County Architect's Department that a firm called S&B were the main contractors for the Balls Park Mansion work. They had put in the lowest tender of 6 and it was usual to accept the lowest. A.D.L. had not been mentioned in the County Council's contract with S&B - the roofing firm had been brought in later by S&B. S&B had notified the County Council that they had engaged A.D.L. - this was a just a formality. R.B. thought A.D.L. were the initials of the founder's name. They were very good on the old type tiles, roofs etc and employed alot of the older hands with the required experience. Wednesday 16 July 1986 I phoned S&B re A.D.L. They confirmed that the initials of the founders name were A., D. & L and told me his full name. I no doubt wrote the names down but cannot now find the record. Due to other pressing matters I explored no further. The A.D.L. parking incident may well have been coincidental but there can be no certainty in coming to that conclusion. |
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