The Perfect Storm for The Project Economy
Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.
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Topics: Change Management, Organizational Culture, Organizational Project Management, Strategy
The winds of change were strong before the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by three macroeconomic trends, the need for projects and project managers was increasing. These three trends are:
- Accelerating rates of technology adoption
- The switch to alternative energy sources to maintain GDP and meet emissions targets
- Infrastructure projects for population growth.
These movements occurring together were spawning an explosion of projects to turn ideas into reality. This increase in project demand was christened The Project Economy by PMI in 2019.
To be fair, these trends and strategies for handling them had already existed for more than a decade. Globalization and business transformation have been discussed extensively. Eric Ries documented his lean startup methodology in 2008 as a way for organizations to adapt and experiment with new ideas and perform market tests. It provided a framework for rapid adaptation and customer-centric design that is baked into many of today’s strategies.
COVID-19 Hits
Then COVID-19 changed how the world works, learns and communicates. The digital migration became a stampede as organizations were forced to work online or curtail collaborating and communicating. Digital transformation, an already hot market segment that moves traditional products and services online, was suddenly set on fire.
Organizations had to transform and go …
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