One of the most prevalent myth in the SME sector today is
‘Project Management – oh! That’s not for us. We don‘t do projects’. This is a key factor which prevents an
organization to move from a ‘good’ organization to a ‘great’ organization.
Organization exist because entrepreneurs wish to generate
value. And to generate this value consistently year on year, organizations perform
to defined Business Strategies. These business strategies generally stem from
the Thought Leadership of the organization. Questions like ‘Do we want to
grow?’, ‘Where do we want to grow?’, ‘Do we invest in technology?’, ‘Do we
introduce new products or do we capitalize on existing range?’ are debated,
discussed and idealized. These ideas give a direction to the business to expand
and create value for its shareholders.
A crystallized business strategy paves the way for programs
and projects. Let me give an example here.
Consider an Auto Company. A business strategy for this company is to
generate growth by introducing vehicles which have lower associated running
costs over its competitors. This Strategy would give rise to Portfolios,
programs and ultimately Projects.
Portfolios are a combinations of Programs and Projects. In our above
example there could be 2 portfolios.
Commercial Vehicles and Consumer
Vehicles
The Consumer vehicles Portfolio may have Programs under it like
Green Vehicles and After Sales Service
Further the Green Vehicles program may have projects under it like
Improve Engine mileage ; Lighter
metals for body and Alternative fuels.
This entire cycle may is depicted here
Only effective and efficient implementation of such projects
will support the business strategy. We as a team have a great responsibility towards
such implementations. Having said that, we distinctly lack the necessary skills
in managing such projects. Project Management is distinct from Operations
management and the approach toward implementation of projects is a science by
itself. Projects and Operations
management are clearly distinguished under
Project
Manager
|
Operations
Manager
|
Role ends with the Project
|
Routine
|
Temporary Team
|
Stable Organization
|
Many different skills
|
Specialized Skills
|
Work not done before
|
Work repeatable
|
Time, Cost and Scope constraints
|
Annual planning cycle
|
Change Management
|
No Changes Management
|
The Indian Perspective
•
Government data suggest that a majority of
projects—close to 60 per cent—are plagued by time and cost overruns. If current
trends continue over the Eleventh and Twelfth Plan periods (2008 to 2017),
McKinsey estimates suggest that India could suffer a GDP loss of US$ 200
billion (around 10 per cent of its GDP) in fiscal year 2017.
•
In the fiscal year of 2010–11, the Ministry of
Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) revealed some disturbing data on
time and cost overruns in central sector projects. The MOSPI report showed
that around 50 percent of projects could not complete on time and 33 percent of
central sector projects could incur costs beyond the original budget.
Inefficient management of projects threaten to stymie India’s dreams of
becoming an economic powerhouse.
•
The infrastructure sector has highest contribution to GDP, however project
management practices are yet to realize benefits in this sector.
Infrastructure which is expected to grow to 9% of GDP attracts less than
10% of certified project managers while IT sector about 5% of
GDP attracts nearly 50% of project management
professionals.
What can we do in Shalina?
Shalina may consider setting up of an internal ‘Centre of
Excellence for Projects’. Some of the existing and budding managers can be
trained on Project Management and they can play significant role in this Centre
over and above their defined roles. This Centre can support projects and
project managers with templates, trainings, change management, resources, coordination
and controls.
After all Projects are in existence all over Shalina and
definitely need to be managed better, don’t they?
