One of the things that we didn’t discuss in class is managing projects globally. Working for a multinational company as a global project manager, most of the projects that I work are global projects with very different challenges. The common challenges are navigating time zone/ holidays and dealing with cultural differences. However, as all team members are part of the same organization, familiar with the org culture and the financial goals are same and clear, it is easier to pull the project forward. But, I always wonder how difficult it would be to manage global service projects as the pressure will be high, time will be short (as it addresses immediate need) as the project is operated on donations.
I read an article about a project that was managed by the WSP (a global business providing management and consultancy service to the property, transportation and infrastructure) for the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) to re-house approximately 11,000 people who lost their homes during the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia. The company managed the reconstruction of almost 21 villages – rebuilt around 4000 homes.
Initially, there was a conflict in the objectives between the Indonesian government and WSP. The government wanted better quality material to be used to build homes but WSP insisted that it builds communities and not just houses (Schools, churches, homes, etc.). The goals that were given to the WSP by the CIDA (Canadian international development agency) were to 1. Inform the client about the planning and construction process (options and risks) and 2. Deliver the professional services to manage the project to complete successfully and in time.
The major challenges to the project was the immense pressure to complete the project as there were so many associations involved, the project was being funded by donations, and the urgent need to put these homeless people back in safe communities. Another major issue was to stay within budget – as this was a foreign project, the budget numbers were built based on second hand or third hand information and was not as accurate as it should have been. Also, the project was in remote areas and there were lot of unknowns and extra challenges associated such as poor availability of material, poor access because of flooding, damaged roads and bridges and communities that wouldn’t corporate because of previous bad experience. WSP also found that all the subcontractors were behind schedule and the goals were not clear for all the members.
WSP stopped all project activities for a while to analyze the situation and to come up with clear goals, action plan, action items, deliverables, timelines and owners. They communicated all of the above to all parties involved so that everyone was clear of the goals and the target dates. WSP also did research of similar areas that were affected by natural disasters and found out more about the homes and building materials used and made recommendation to builders to use a different system build approach to complete the project faster and cheaper.
The major project success came from making partnerships and alliance with the local community and using their local consulting and contracting services to complete the project. WSP did a voice of the customer approach to listen to the preference, issues and suggestions of the locals. WSP maintained this relationship for almost a year after the project was completed and made improvements based on the feedback received from the people.
Reference: https://www.apm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Reconstruction%20after%20the%20Indian%20Ocean%20Tsuna
This first paragraph in the post really struck home as I have several ongoing projects with key stakeholders and business partners in all different parts of the world. One project in particular involved team members in our U.S. based research facility in Chicago, our Industrialization office in Taiwan, a software technology partner based in Finland (in which the lead programmer lives in Sweden), a hardware partner also based out of Finland but are basically ex-pats living in southern China, another hardware partner that focuses on a key component with engineers based out of Italy and San Francisco, and three additional manufacturing partners in China. Emails are by far the best means of communication, but with so many language differences and time zones things easily spiraled out of control. We ultimately concluded that we would conduct weekly calls with rotating times to avoid one or several contributors from being forced to take the call while out of the office.
I’ve never been personally involved with a global impact project, so learning a bit about the nuances behind handeling something at that scale really intrigued me. I would be curious to learn how you managed the interpersonal relationships between the team members and the individuals that participated in your global project. Managing a 2nd/3rd party estimation for budget seems like a high risk in of itself, were the numbers coming in close to accurate when doing a post review? I’m certain that a small change in trajectory early on would impact your long run, how did your team work within that concern. It’s amazing to see that you were able to participate in such an awesome project. World is a better place for your efforts :)!