Project Management(PM)
Unleashing the Power of Project Management
A Four-Part Series
By Aaron J. Shenhar
Executive Summary
Projects are the engines that drive innovation and change. Yet top management ignored them for a long time. Thus many projects today do not meet their objectives. In order to unleash the hidden potential that exists in projects companies must learn how to manage project in a highly adaptive, flexible, and strategic way. This change can make projects one of the most powerful competitive assets of modern corporations. In this series of articles we outline the potential that exists today in project management and what organizations can do to take advantage of this power.
PART 1: THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITY
Although projects have been around for thousands of years and project management as a discipline about fifty years, there are two reasons why projects and project management are becoming more and more important today to almost all organizations and businesses. First, the share of on-going operations in most organizations is on the decline, while the share of projects is rising. This trend began already in the early 1900s during the industrial revolution, and it is accelerating in almost every organization or industry: Not only do product lifecycles become shorter; today’s customers require greater variety and more choices, forcing companies to offer more products. In addition, market globalization is forcing businesses to respond to local markets and to low-cost competition around the world.
The second reason why organizations need to look closely at their project management is that across the board you may find that most projects today do not meet their time and budget goals and many do not meet their business objectives. Study after study shows that only one out of three projects is really considered successful. Thus, if two thirds of the efforts going into projects do not create the expected value, there is clearly a reason for concern. Continue Reading
Licensed to Drive
Is Project Management a commodity or a craft?
Some days back I visited the Regional Transport Office of Bangalore North district, more commonly called RTO office. For those unfamiliar about my part of the world, RTO issues driving license if you pass their written test and driving test.
Bangalore, and I guess many of the cities in India, is teeming with driving schools. As the name would suggest, these folks teach you how to drive. In Bangalore and again, probably in other Indian cities, driving schools have, in a way, exceeded their brief. They also help you get the driving license. It is not uncommon to see a driving school agent chaperoning young would-be drivers around the RTO offices, filling up forms on their behalf, making them rehearse the driving rules and in general making them feel at-ease. With the passage of time, this has been stretched to such an extent that many would-be drivers go to a driving school, not to learn driving but to get a driving license! Continue Reading
I designed the gear box for this vehicle
Knowing your customer’s business.
I drive around in a Mahindra Scorpio shown here. It gives me unfair advantage on the roads in Bangalore where the right of way is based on the size of the vehicle! Lest you think so, this blog is not about the comforts of Scorpio or the horror called Bangalore traffic.
It so happened, some days back I rode in this SUV with my friend who is a mechanical engineer. As he got down, he looked back at the vehicle for a moment and said “Tell you what, my team designed the gear box for this SUV. Mahindra chose the design from a couple of prototypes we had made. Today, all the Scorpios in the country run on my gear box design.” Otherwise very restrained, my friend had to struggle to hide his sense of pride when he said that. Continue Reading
