{"id":8305,"date":"2012-01-13T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=8305"},"modified":"2012-01-06T13:58:06","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T20:58:06","slug":"projecting-leadership-in-the-age-of-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=8305","title":{"rendered":"Projecting Leadership in the Age of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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via flikr by u.elisa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IBM\u2019s Global CEO Survey, entitled Capitalizing on Complexity<\/em>, provides insights from over 1500 CEOs worldwide.\u00a0 Inside this survey come some startling observations.\u00a0 Just a couple of years prior, CEOs complained of an inability to see the change<\/strong><\/em> that was coming to their market, creating real difficulties in determining how to respond. \u00a0The problem seems to be that CEOs felt that the business world is \u201csubstantially more volatile, uncertain and complex.\u201d\u00a0 CEOs also mentioned that small changes in the way they do business are no longer sufficient to sustain business.\u00a0 According to the survey, over half the CEOs felt they can\u2019t manage the increased complexity that is yet to come.<\/p>\n

So how does one lead in this age of change<\/strong><\/em>? CEOs identified Creativity, Integrity and Global Thinking as the top three characteristics this age will need in its leaders.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at the most important one: creativity.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for Project Managers?\u00a0 It means you\u2019ll have to step out of your shell and embrace new ways of doing business.\u00a0 Since Project Managers are the point where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, they\u2019ll have to take the lead on creating this new business environment.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some suggestions on how to do just that.<\/p>\n

Most project managers don\u2019t have to worry too much about figuring out when they need to be creative.\u00a0 \u00a0Once the quantity of incoming projects slows down, revenue slows down, backlog gets burned and management gets fired up.\u00a0 Project Managers will be told to get creative to win business.\u00a0 So, creativity really does count.\u00a0\u00a0 There are three major areas to focus your creativity on: innovation, risk and the customer.<\/p>\n

Creativity in innovation isn\u2019t like it was when I graduated college.\u00a0 Companies once focused heavily on creating products internally that gave them a competitive edge.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the cost of the NRE for such development is deemed too risky, as management doesn\u2019t want to build a product that may miss the mark in meeting the customer\u2019s needs.\u00a0\u00a0 So how do we plan for that type of risk?\u00a0 You include the customer in the development of the product.\u00a0\u00a0 Companies aren\u2019t just selling products to customers.\u00a0 They are developing partnering relationship where they are in constant contact with the customer so every need is understood and addressed.<\/p>\n

As the project manager, you must stay connected to the customer and build a strong relationship.\u00a0 Your job isn\u2019t to just deliver the product or service that is on contract.\u00a0 Your task now is to anticipate the next need of the customer and provide a solution for it that your company can provide.\u00a0 For example, some technology companies are growing beyond just selling their products to selling their products at a lower cost so they can then sell a maintenance and support service contract for multiple years, turning a short term monetary gain into a long term cash flow.\u00a0 The project manager is becoming the sole interface to the customer, requiring experimentation in customer relationship management and communication to build rapport with the customer, but not just any rapport.\u00a0 You must build a friendship where your customer will present their problems to you to solve rather than sending out a request for proposal to numerous companies, which brings your competition back into the picture.<\/p>\n

Finding creative ways to attach yourself to the customer isn\u2019t the only consideration.\u00a0\u00a0 These new relationships are designed to keep customers on the books for longer periods of time, meaning you most likely won\u2019t see a huge inrush of new customers.\u00a0 Existing customers become the lifeline of the company.\u00a0 Sure, they\u2019ll go out to seek new ones but you can\u2019t risk losing the ones you have.\u00a0 This means that you can\u2019t take big risks with them.\u00a0 You still have to create new products and services but you reduce the risk by including the customer in the development.\u00a0 Some companies are fortunate enough to get the customer to share in the cost, while others only get their technical guidance on things like capability, functionality, durability, versatility, etc.\u00a0 In either case, you\u2019re creating a new offering and satisfying your customer\u2019s needs but with reduced risk.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t imply that you don\u2019t seek new ideas or simply forget innovation.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite with the exception that the risks are slightly more balanced because you get more input into the solution from the people who will buy it and you have the opportunity to influence their expectations to something you can easily meet with success.\u00a0 However, margins are shrinking and spending too much time on analyzing risk is costly.\u00a0 Project managers will have to analyze, make a decision and take action quickly.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the customer relationship, as previously mentioned is totally different now.\u00a0 In the past, we could simply build a product and guide the customer to the counter so they could select what they wanted from the menu.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have a #1\u2026biggie size!\u00a0 Our objective was getting as many people through the door as possible.\u00a0 But now, it\u2019s about keeping the same people visiting our store as often as possible.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if we gone back in time to the old \u201cmom and pop shop\u201d days.\u00a0 The customer walks in and you know everything about them, including what they need.\u00a0 Project managers must be able to understand the customer in great detail, ensuring every interaction is memorable and not clogged up with processes that make the easiest tasks overly complicated.\u00a0 The customer must feel like they are the most important aspect of your business, which shouldn\u2019t be hard to do since they really are.<\/p>\n

Project managers are quickly becoming the single point of contact for the customer, no matter where they are.\u00a0 They call you with any issue and you take care of it, each and every time.\u00a0 For the customer, every interaction is like reuniting with an old friend and it\u2019s the project manager\u2019s job to make that happen.\u00a0 Welcome to Project Management in 2012!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

IBM Institute for Business Value. Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study.\u201d May 2010. www.ibm.com\/capitalizingoncomplexity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IBM\u2019s Global CEO Survey, entitled Capitalizing on Complexity, provides insights from over 1500 CEOs worldwide.\u00a0 Inside this survey come some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1370],"class_list":["post-8305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-leadership"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}