Mantra for Entrepreneurial Project Management

Prameela KumarDelivery ManagerE.I DuPont Pvt. Ltd.

Title of the Paper:

Growing with the organization.

Theme:

Entrepreneurial Project Manager

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial Project Manager, Project Leader, Strategic intent, Foresee breakdowns, Leadership

Pipeline, Growth Iteration Model.

Abstract

An entrepreneur cannot afford to lose sight of any dimension involved in achieving the goals and

sustaining the achieved growth. Similarly, entrepreneurial PMs cannot execute the projects just watching

the triple constraints. They have to see beyond the project goals and should be able to gauge the impact

(positive or negative) on the organization’s growth. Entrepreneurial PMs need to understand where

projects fit in the organizational roadmap. They have to link the abstract strategic goals to absolute project

outcomes and should have the courage to own it. Owning the outcomes of the projects as if their own

success depends upon it makes them more committed than their counterparts. Entrepreneurial PMs have

to understand the expectations of the team and should be able to know their pulse at any given time. This

cannot be achieved without strong observation skills and genuine networking ability. Entrepreneurial PMs

should develop inherent skills for making educated guesses to foresee the challenges lying ahead, in

addition to the risk registries. To be able to respond proactively rather than react hastily to situation

requires sincere conviction on their judgments so that they can get the buy in from team members,

stakeholders & in some cases customers. Entrepreneurial Project Management requires one to be well

versed with the processes and at the same time be able to spot the bottlenecks in them.

Organizations should develop a strong support structure to groom Entrepreneurial Project Managers and

provide them with the right growth opportunities.

Table of Contents

Title of the Paper:........................................................................................................................................1

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3

See the big picture.......................................................................................................................................4

Think out of the triangle..............................................................................................................................4

Organization Culture...............................................................................................................................4

Changing priorities...................................................................................................................................4

Discover blind spots.................................................................................................................................5

Act together................................................................................................................................................5

Build Team...............................................................................................................................................5

Engage early............................................................................................................................................5

One cannot know all................................................................................................................................6

Organizational support................................................................................................................................6

Challenges...................................................................................................................................................7

Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7

Introduction

This paper explores key factors for an entrepreneurial project management behavior that can significantly

contribute towards attaining strategic goals.Various studies show that entrepreneurial project managers

are able to connect project objectives to broader organizational goals. What differentiates them from their

peers is that they are passionate to succeed and hence are more committed to the objective goals of the

project.This paper also indicates on how the organizations can benefit from developing and promoting

entrepreneurial behavior in project managers.Organizations should provide enough support and structure

to their existing entrepreneurial project managers to make sure they remain engaged and contribute. A

well rewarded and thought out development plan can contribute significantly in creating a win-win

situation for the organization as well as individuals possessing entrepreneurial management skills.

See the big picture

PMI reports that “less than two-thirds of projects actually meet their goals and business intent. In fact, it is

estimated that for every $1 billion spent on a failed project, $135 million is lost forever…unrecoverable.”[1]

Often teams involved in the projects that failed to attain goals also failed to understand the strategic intent

they were working for. A team starting from project manager should be able to answer clearly why they

are doing a project in an organizational context. As for an entrepreneur,work is pointless if it doesn’t

benefit the business, entrepreneurial project manager should see clearly the business intent a particular

project is serving. And that’s not just enough, it’s equally important that they make the team understand

what their work is contributing towards.

A project team developing material for bullet-proof jackets should see their work as “saving lives” not just

“creating plastic/fibers”. An entrepreneurial project manager can definitely make their team see more

meaning in their work.

A team that understands that how their work is contributing to the organizations strategic goals or to the

society is easier to motivate. An entrepreneurial project manager knows this and makes use of it. Often

heard complaints and excuses of team motivation could be cut down, if a project manager adopts the

entrepreneurial approach of seeing and making others sees the big picture.

This can’t be achieved unless organizations clearly layout their strategic intent and make sure it is lucid

enough. Mapping the performance indicators of the business to key performance index of the

projects/programs could provide the organizations with some very useful metrics on how well the

business intent was understood and identifying high potentialindividuals capable of seeing the big picture.

Think out of the triangle

Entrepreneurial project managers need to think out of the triple constraints. Time, Cost and Scope are not

the only constraints or factors to keep in mind in today’s dynamic world. There are people, process, and

tools constantly pushing the constraints outwards. One could still argue that these can be contained

throughapt planning and estimation however it does not end there. There are other powerful elements

that can influence the project outcome in all different directions.

Organization Culture

Entrepreneurial project manager understands other dimensions of the project. Projects happen in an

organization. Big or small doesn’t matter, organizations do have cultures and project outcomes are

significantly tied to the culture in which it is executed. Entrepreneurial project managers not only learn but

adapt to it. They understand how it may influence the project outcome. They know how to overcome the

road blocks due to it and how to make use of it to project’s advantage. They navigate through the

organization jungle to collect the buy-ins of key sponsor’s increasing the chances of project success.

Changing priorities

Changing priorities could lead the projects to be put on hold, scraped or couldput pressure on

compressing the schedule. Entrepreneurial project manager keep an eye on them and constantly adapts

to the changing priorities of the organization making them better prepared to handle changes. They could

participate in the decision making processes providing their own insights. This is more plausible in smaller

organizations versus the larger ones. In larger ones, navigating through the layers to make their voice

heard is another virtue that entrepreneurial project managers possess. Director –Growth Initiatives in a

multinational company says “Foreseeing the uncertainty hump and preparing your team for it is a very

important quality of a project leader”.

Discover blind spots

He also mentions “Looking around the corner to discover blind spots is another virtue that project leaders

must possess”. Asking questions and drilling down details and then zooming out to see how andwhere

the breakdowns could happen in a larger scheme of things would make the risk registers much healthier

and reliable. Understanding the dependencies puts them in a better position to manage risks. This is an

exercise that an entrepreneurial project manager would do regularly, not just at the planning stage but

throughout the project life cycle. For this to happen he/she have to be involved with the team and get

hands dirty in execution time to time.

Shedding complacency of managing just the triple constraints is what entrepreneurial project managers

do. They dare to think out of the triple constraints triangle and their personal agenda to bring in value to

the organization. Sometime it may mean agreeing to scrap a project or sometime it may be standing in

the way of it.

Act together

Entrepreneurial Project Manager is driven by his/her own passion to succeed, and to succeed they know,

it can’t be done alone. They need a team of skilled individuals who would be as committed to the success

of the project.

Build Team

Teams are made of people with different skillsets, different aspirations and different loyalties. Teams

could be cross functional, virtual etc. Entrepreneurial Project Manager knows how to create the

environment in which the team can be successful. They build relationships, earn trust and create

synergies. They know how to tap on the strengths of each team members. They understand how the

individuals can be influenced and how to empathize with them. Often when the team consists of

individuals who are not direct reports, they know how to manage with influence. Country CIO in a

multinational company says “Managing with authority is easy. Managers who fail to manage with

influence are limiting themselves to a smaller arena. The measure of success for a true project leader is

not just that how efficiently a project was delivered but also how many relationships were made or

destroyed, how many more or less would want to work for you again, and how many people were

recognized or were left out during the journey.”

Engage early& regularly

Program Manager in a software consultancy firm says “Individuals have different perspectives about

things, when they work in teams they still carry their own perspective. A successful project leader needs

to understand this and respect that because different perspectives working towards a common goal bring

in innovation.” The key is to engage them all early and create an ownership. Entrepreneurial Project

Manager knows that once the team owns the project, the commitment towards making it a success

increases.They rely upon the fact that once they create a collaborative environment and build a

committed team, project outcomes are often above expectations. There are stake holders other than the

team that is executing the project. These are senior executives, customers, end users who need to be

kept informed or engaged at the right things and right times. Senior executives should know how the

project is adding value or realizing the business intent so they could be the project evangelists when

needed. Engaging customer early on to study their behavior and to map the project outcome is something

that an entrepreneurial project manager would not miss. Missing on this critical information could lead to

bad surprises as in case of New Coke. When the New Coke was launched, company decided to withdraw

the old Coke from shelves in order to make way for their evolutionary product. Hardly everthey realized

that this may backfire at them with more than 8000 complaints on a single day. Company had to put back

the old coke re-branded as Classic Coke and it took them three months to do so. [2]

One cannot know all

No one person or team can do it all and Entrepreneurial Project Managers are no exceptions. Some

projects may need many subject matter experts/teams. They know when to get out of the way of the work

and hand the baton to the expert the situation asks for. They foster situational leadership in the team and

know how to be accountable for that. When a sense of autonomy prevails in the team, everyone feels

empowered and motivated.

Putting the act together is what Entrepreneurial Project Managers do the best. For them execution is not

left to the lower level people, all are together in it.

Organizational support

Unfortunately, organizations do lack a system to clearly segregate different categories of PMs. Larger the

organization more true it is. A study conducted by CEB among 753 PMs concludes that best PMs are

entrepreneurial. “Entrepreneurs are the only category of PMs that consistently meets or exceeds

stakeholder expectations for project business outcomes delivery” and yet 73% of top quartile project

managers were unsatisfied with the development opportunities provided to them by the organizations [3]”.

Organizations need to build upon the support system for this class of Project Mangers. Identifying and

providing them with the right training / guidance could prove a wise investment.

Organizations should create a process of identifying the right candidate in a systematic way. There should

be formal process of mentoring/coaching/training that would help them build their strengths.

Organizations should evaluate wisely these selected set of people providing them with challenging yet

affordable assignments. A senior leader in a multinational company says “make them climb the cliff and

make sure they don’t fall of it.” That is to say provide them with the opportunities that are challenging

enough to toughen them, because growth never comes from being comfortable.

Figure 1: Growth Iteration

This should be a repetitive cycle where, each time the parameters would change according the level of

experience, level of organizational opportunities, and organization’s competency & capabilities needs.

Smaller or growing organizations would fare better in implementing this model as they have lesser layers

to cut through in any directions. Vice President - Engineering of a growing software company says “our

organization has great many examples where we identified such potential candidates and invested in

them. Today they are great assets to the company”.

Identify

Coaching/Mentoring

Evaluate

Challenges

Greatest challenge faced by the entrepreneurial project managers is the lack of growth opportunities.

Many leave the organizations in search of better recognition and growth. A gap for an organization that is

not easy to fill in. The void created until that time could contribute few project failures and fire-fighting

drills.

Organizations, notably large ones, would struggle to keep the growth iteration system simple and less

bureaucratic. A simple system can become quickly become highly complicating and slow justby the sheer

number of people involved in the system. The system should remain nimble all the time to be effective

and worthy.

Another great challenge is how to be fair in the whole process of identifying and growing the right people.

How to make sure all sets of right eyes are involved and watching. How to make sure favoritism is not

creeping in and devaluating the whole system.

Organizations would invest time and energy in developing these structured growth iteration systems only

if they make it one of their priorities. With so many high priorities lined up, these things often take a back

seat. Senior executives would have to create the need of such system in the organizations where they tie

in their leadership team’s performances to the growth opportunities generated.

Conclusion

One of the ways of achieving sustainable growth is through well executed strategic projects that bring in

value. Entrepreneurial Project Managers understand the strategic goals of the project and are hence

more capable of fullfilling the business intent. They can motivate the team better by making them see the

broader scheme of things. They understand other subjective dimensions of the project and could handle

them better. They possess a positive attitude and energy that helps to create an environment for

everyone to thrive and contribute. For them planning is not the only thing they are responsible for.

Execution is the most important piece of the puzzle. They know how to be accountable for the outcomes

of the project. Their commitment is higher as the project success is linked to their own success in their

minds. Biggest challenges faced by the Entrepreneurial Project manager are lack of system to categorize

them, lack of growth opportunities, and lack of organizational support to their innovative thinking.

Any organization willing to support and create a system to promote entrepreneurial approach could profit

significantly through well executed value adding projects. For entrepreneurial project managers in such

organization this would mean aset of opportunities for growing with the organization.

References

[1]http://blogs.attask.com/wired-innovations-insight-blog-5-secrets-to-killing-work-chaos-and-how-to-fix-it/

[2]http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/inform/Coke_Case_Study_Workshop_Task_EK.pdf

[3]https://www.pmo.executiveboard.com/Members/Popup/Download.aspx?

cid=100993221&s=PMO_Supporting_Entrepreneurial_PMs_Webinar