Project Management with wings
| I have recently read a non-fictional book entitled “The Invested Investor”, written by the successful UK-based investor Peter Cowley. I strongly recommend the book to anyone that wishes to learn the basics of angel investing. The author covers the life cycle of an investment, from the first round of investment (seeding) until the startup closes shop (most frequent case), is turned into an operational medium-sized business (sometimes) or is acquired by a big player (rarely).
Most of concepts explained throughout the book are related to the art of investing: funding, valuation, venture capital, options, shares, CLV/CCA ratio, etc. However, some other concepts are also applied in the project management arena. In fact, the author claimed that an invested investor must have good project management skills in order to succeed. I selected and described below the top three concepts that are shared in both disciplines. Team Everything starts with the Team. Without a team, there is no startup and there is no project. But not any team will do the job. The features that a project manager or an investor look in their teams are actually the same: passion, drive, knowledge, willingness to learn and listen, transparency, honesty and ability to inspire. In other words, whether is developing a new phone app in a startup that has not reached breakeven or carrying out multimillion dollar projects to transform a city landscape, goals will not be met unless there is a strong and committed team behind them. Pivot Pivot is when a company changes direction and its fundamental offering because the original business model is not working. Pivots are expensive and difficult because they usually carry along more investments and a modified vision. It is important to note than pivoting is not a sign of failure. In fact, most businesses pivot on their way to optimizing the model. Pivoting can also occur – and actually quite often – during a project’s life cycle. At the end of the day, project management enables the translation of a company’s vision into reality. A change in environmental factors or regulations, a shift in consumers’ habits, the release of a novel competing technology… all of these are factors that could pivot the project. Pivoting is carried out by modifying project’s triple constraint – more funding, extended/modified scope, additional resources and/or time – or by killing it straight up. The same concept could be extrapolated to program and portfolio levels, where pivoting the company strategy will inevitably pivot the value stream represented by its portfolio of projects. Documentation Writing cheques is not something that can be done lightly. Funds are transferred from the angel’s account to another account without the certainty that it will ever produce a return. Before the money is kissed goodbye, two documents are set in place; the term sheet which is a mostly non-binding document that sets out the deal to be completed between investors and founders. And the shareholders’ agreement, which is a legally binding document signed by the investors and founders defining how ownership of the company is distributed between the parties. This gated approach resembles the two gates typically found in the initiation and planning phases of a given project. In this manner, the term sheet is equivalent to the project charter – with the difference that the latter is binding – and the shareholders’ agreement is comparable to the project plan. |
Stakeholder management. Emotional Intelligence & Knowledge matrix
| The Power & Interest grid (P&I) is a simple and effective stakeholder analysis tool that categorizes stakeholders according to their degree of interest and power in the project. The end goal of such a tool is to identify key stakeholders who can make or break the project. Power and interest are project specific variables. A stakeholder with a high interest and little power in project A can score totally opposite in project B. Typically, one of these four approaches is applied depending on the score: monitor, keep informed, keep satisfied, manage closely. Despite the usefulness of this tool, could stakeholders be mapped out according to project independent variables? At the end of the day, it is frequent to simplify things and define coworkers in two dimensions: emotional intelligence, EI - are they in control of their emotions and show empathy to others? - and knowledge – how much do they really know? A matrix that plots these two variables is useful in putting together a balanced team and opens up the possibility of identifying synergistic effects amongst stakeholders.
Group 1: High EI & High Knowledge These individuals are likely to be the best fitted in leading (sub)teams. In addition, their wealth of knowledge combined with outstanding EI skills makes them the best candidates to mentor junior or less experienced members, especially from groups 2 and 4. They require minimal supervision and make working with them a rewarding experience. Most likely, they will be on the wish list of future projects or endeavors. Group 2: High EI & Low Knowledge Stakeholders in this group have the right mindset to allow further personal growth and development. Their lack of knowledge is compensated by their continuous commitment to hard work. Opportunities to expand their knowledge must be considered to keep them motivated; this could be done by an ad-hoc training program including shadowing a knowledgeable stakeholder from groups 1 or 3. Group 3. Low EI & High Knowledge The wealth of knowledge that these stakeholders bring to the table is well needed. However, stakeholders that fall in this category tend to make noise, bypass communication lines and could eventually become a threat to project’s well-being. Assigning them an SME role, as opposed to a leading part, should cover their feeling of importance (it is assumed that every stakeholder wants to feel that what they do matters) and thereby minimize the occurrence of disruptive situations along the way. Group 4: Low EI & Low Knowledge Also known as rotten apples. The value added is small compared with the amount of supervision they require. Chances of project derailing skyrocket if too many of these are in the same team. A balanced training comprising soft and hard skills together with the inclusion in a mentoring program are initiatives to consider in order to slowly but surely turn this bad apple into a tasty and juicy one. In some cases, the metamorphose occurs only in one dimension, EI or knowledge, shifting to Groups 2 or 3 respectively. |
Airbus A380. The downfall of a doomed product
Categories:
Project Management
Categories: Project Management
| Six months ago Air France announced it will phase out its ten Airbus A380s by 2022. Rarely has an airline been as unhappy with the Airbus giant as the French, who are in general taking every Airbus aircraft. Other carriers like Singapore airlines - which received the first A380 back in October 2007 - has also started to replace these aircrafts with A350s. Lufthansa and British Airways will likely follow soon. As a consequence, Airbus will stop producing the world's largest passenger airliner as of 2021. Why is the Airbus A380 being phased out earlier than anticipated?
Start with the why Just like famous author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek writes in his book, start with the why. Why was the development and production of an Ultra High Capacity Airliner (UHCA) needed? Was Airbus A380 an innovative product that could challenge the air travel industry? The first studies date back from the late 1980s and were joined by both Boeing and Airbus. The former dropped out after a few preliminary meetings due to sound differences in their vision of aviation industry. On one hand, Airbus was betting on the spoke-hub model in which traffic planners organize routes as series of "spokes" that connect outlying points to a central "hub". On the other, Boeing believed that the future would follow the point to point model which emphasizes flying between two cities directly regardless of their size. The fewer routes required in the hub and spoke requires also bigger planes. Even though both models are used by airliners for transporting passengers from one point to another, the growth in the spoke hub model that Airbus was expecting did not occur. Every assumption is a risk, and this is no different. Back to the drawing board The Airbus A380 project launched in 2000 with a budget of 9,5 billion euros. The first prototype was released in 2005. However, serious issues with the electrical wiring were found. By then the project cost had skyrocketed to 18 billion euros. The delivery of the first commercial unit was delayed up to three times. In June 2005 a delay of 6 months was announced and then again in June 2006. Finally, the first A380 was dispatched in October 2007. The Program Manager and Airbus CEO made a good scapegoat and got fired. Tom Enders, the incoming Airbus CEO, said in 2019: "If you have a product that nobody wants anymore, or you can sell only below production cost, you have to stop it". A thorough and continuous analysis of the market trends along with other environmental factors (in this case, mostly politics) could have provided a landscape in which threats could have been turned into opportunities, and weaknesses intro strengths...but during an earlier phase, in the drawing board. Future is uncertain Just like the Concorde stopped flying in 2003 despite being a profitable business, Airbus A380 could perhaps be retrofitted and get a second life in the future. If this is the case, it will be best to take a good look at the assumptions and ask WHY. |
Life Goes On: making the best out of Self-Isolation
| One third of world's population is confined. The impact of this pandemic on the economy is yet to be seen, but most economists picture a more than likely recession looming our way. On the positive side, everyone agrees that - it may take more or less time - but we will come out of this situat Contact old friends and expand professional network That cousin you were planning to call but it was never a good time, that old friend from university you promised to WhatsApp but never found a good reason to do so, that colleague from your previous employer with whom you got along so well but that you have not seen again after switching companies... Now it is a fantastic opportunity to reach out to them. In terms of professional network, it is a good practice to build it when it is not needed, so for when it is needed is then already too late. Explore LinkedIn and reach out to individuals or companies that might play a role in your present and future. Pick up hobbies or procrastinated activities Reading books (educational, novels, essays, etc.), watching TV shows or series that were sitting on the on the to-watch list for months, picking up hobbies to which not much attention could be paid due to the lack of time (painting, reading, playing an instrument, etc.)... All of these, and many more depending on the personal circumstances, will favor an efficient use of time - plus something will be learned. Like essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow". Take in introspective look at yourself... and plan ahead This is by far the most difficult exercise since it requires diving in the inner soul of each individual. Similarly to a scrum retrospective at the end of each sprint, the same principle could apply to life. At certain time intervals, it is a good practice to look back and assess whether we have managed to fulfill the goals that we have set for ourselves. Are we where we wanted to be? And more importantly, to reflect on the direction forward. Someone once said "If you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there”. Reflecting on an apparently simple question such as "What do I want out of life?" allows the introspective process to begin. This pandemic is causing mankind to put the way we live under the magnifying glass. The positive impact on the pollution levels, for example, is making mankind reflect on whether we could live in a more sustainable manner and what we would sacrifice in our life style to accomplish this. If mankind is doing this exercise, why not also us individually? Stay safe everyone. |
ion. As long as it is possible, most people are doing remote working which allows saving time on a daily basis (in the U.S., the average, one-way commute time is 26 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau). How can this time be used to create additional value? The following list presents a few options. I look forward to hearing more from you in the comments section below.Principled Negotation - So old, so relevant
| The skill set of a Project Manager must include the ability to negotiate. Negotiations are the means by which parties can resolve conflicts and thereby arrive at a mutual satisfactory solution. The problem is that often project stakeholders engage in positional bargaining, a negotiation strategy that involves holding onto a fixed idea or position regardless of any underlying interests. In fact, arguing over positions turns out to be inefficient, relationship endangering and might lead to unwise agreements. An alternative to this is called Principled negotiation. This name was given to the interest-based approach to negotiation set out in the best-known conflict resolution book, Getting to Yes, first published in 1981 by Roger Fisher and William Ury and advocates four fundamental principles of negotiation.
Every negotiator has interest in both the substance and the relationship. Often the relationship becomes entangled with the problem. Thus, it is imperative to separate the relationship from the substance in order to kick off an effective negotiation.
Quite self-explaining. The identification and discussion of interests is a wise manner to route the negotiation towards a conciliation of interests and not positions.
Instead of forming a premature judgement of the ideas thrown during a negotiation it is best to ensure an understanding between inventing and deciding. Also, instead of searching for a single answer try to broaden the options (a circle chart can be useful for this purpose). And instead of thinking that “solving their problem is their problem” create an environment that enables making decisions relaxed.
In negotiating to purchase a particular car, we would want to look at what that car sells for at other dealerships. The objective criteria are nothing less and nothing more than factual pieces of information, independent of the parties in the negotiation, that are relevant to what should or should not be agreed to in that negotiation. Principled negotiation produces wise agreements amicably and efficiently. Principled Negotiation is further enhanced by applying the eight following pillars of negotiable wisdom:
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