A Missed Opportunity

 

Most companies would jump at the opportunity to promote themselves, especially when the opportunity involves publicly accessible media. The project was completed successfully within contractual timeframe and delivered wholly as specified in the terms, with renewable maintenance of over 20 years. Everyone was gleeful. What a cause for celebration!

The project involves putting in place a high-availability, high-dependency, mission-critical infrastructure system. The highlight which was the integration of different sensor and scanning technologies to produce results, which previously were produced by a proprietary and purpose-built system (it is still the typical approach today mostly for that kind of need). The business succeeded in bringing together rival European and Japanese conglomerates to secure the contract. What more to shout about!

At the end of the project closing meeting, a by-the-way remark ‘we could do a press release of our achievements’ on the integrated technology and business collaboration amongst rivals. We even have a new acronym for a universally regulated system! That came from the customer. And they have an office for publicity. As you recall what my opening statement implied – the thoughts for publicity were quickly extinguished at the table.

So, what happened?

Without the fluff –

1. Managers were not keen to pursue additional work that were not specified earlier, and beyond the project timeline. The unplanned publicity work must be justified, completed quickly, and require repeated proof-reading, vetting, and multiple layers of approval.
2. Local experts were indecisive as to what were their technical accomplishments. They also lack the experience in publishing their work, to put it mildly. Even though a foreign partner has suggested on one occasion insistently, there is much to write for peer-reviewed journals.
3. There lacks a culture to write. IMO, to openly share.

The publicity could have been enormous through peer-reviewed technical papers and of course in the general media – and perhaps even claims of copyrights; but too late for patents if any is possible. Now, the lustre is no more.

What we can do –

1. Agree on the publicity beforehand. Commit to writing if needed. Plan for publicity – the contents as to what can and cannot be revealed. Besides – we need to plan for celebrations, and publicity is simply a quintessential component of project achievements.
2. Research on how to go about the publicity when in doubt. Present the facts – rational for publicity and sharing to all sponsors.
3. Appoint professionals to mitigate risks in matters of media or press releases. Yes, this adds to costs, but it is a necessity to say the least. The project should have had its occasion.

Have you encountered a similar incident?

(I may not respond in time but please indulge.)