International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments

Sambac Energy

At Sambac upper management came from the two owner companies in alternate years. In the previous chapter the differences in culture and style between the two companies was noted. When an entrepreneur manager was in charge, projects were initiated without much preplanning. The local in-country employees and managers had little direction. Projects would get started, but few would finish successfully. Some projects became sidetracked into purposes that were totally different from the original purpose.

When the next manager appeared from the other company, all projects would stop and be subjected to review. Since this manager was used to a more bureaucratic approach, mountains of paperwork had to be generated to start a project. This took so long that many projects were not completed at the end of the year. And the cycle started all over again.

This example points out the need for a structured method for defining projects. However, the method cannot be excessively bureaucratic due to the cultures in many countries where the focus is on the short-term. The approach in this chapter was employed to analyze each project and to select which projects should go ahead.

At Sambac the method for overall project selection and the project slate was also implemented. This resulted in many benefits, including:

• The transition of management from Alpha to Beta and vice versa was made easier since the analysis of the project slate was carried out and made available to each country.

• There was a more active effort to kill off projects. People became aware that just because a project was underway, there was no protection for it from being cancelled if it was not progressing satisfactorily.

Whitmore Bank

As you recall from Chapter 1, Whitmore wants to deploy credit card operations in a number of countries. This is a very large project involving many elements. To give you an idea of the complexity here is a simplified list of areas.

• Implement a modern data center and systems for credit card.

• Implement authorization networks.

• Establish an organization structure for credit card in each country.

• Identify potential customers.

• Develop marketing campaigns.

This was first considered as one large project. It became impossible for management to cope with. The decision was made to create subprojects that interrelated. How this was set up is a subject of Chapter 5.

E-Business Example

An international construction firm decided to embark on e-business. An initial problem was to define the direction. Where to go—business to consumer, business to business, or intranets? Rather than argue endlessly, several alternative purposes were defined along with relevant specifications of scope. As a result of trade-offs, it was decided that internal intranets along with some business to business offered the best opportunity. Business to consumer was deferred until the consumer market increased.