Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
I wrote this article dismayed by the sorry state of affairs with respect to the lip service subscribed by corporate America to be entrepreneurial and risk failure as is known by the term intrapreneur, but acting quite the contrary.
On the other hand, I think project managers have been intraprenuers long before the term was ever coined and appropriate by corporate America. By definition, a project is a “new product, service or result” and even venture that a project manager is tasked with leading, managing and executing to finish.
But as my article points out, a typical corporate project manager does not lead and manage a project like an entrepreneur, but more like a typical cubicle dwelling company drone and is why in my opinion many projects fail.
Do you agree, think I’m full of it (or myself) or that I’m just outright wrong. I’d like to know, thanks.
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Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
I'd say you are partly wrong. PM's role is to deliver projects within an organisational risk appetite - they would be entirely out of line to expose their organisation to greater risk than it was willing to bear - and they'd also be wrong to be overly cautious in their approach if the organisation is willing to take a substantial level of risk. It is the organisation that sets the tolerable risk, not the PM.
Within that, the PM should indeed avoid being a cubicle drone, they should always be willing to ask the hard questions, but that is an entirely different matter. Leading effectively and well is not the same as being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a fundamentally high risk activity, involving committing everything on the basis of uncertain outcomes, and this is NOT what a PM should be doing unless they are specifically working on such a project and been given that mandate.
I'd agree that corporate America (and indeed much of the corporate western world) is poor at entrepreneurship and doesn't live up to the image on this they seek to present. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Great post, Don. You are not wrong; neither is Barnard. I see it as a leadership team challenge/opportunity and one of percentages. What percent of corporate PMs are cubicle dwelling company drones, what percent walk on water and delighted all involved in the project, and what percent are somewhere in between? Those leadership teams that create accountable, results-oriented, entrepreneurial project managers (and environments) will likely outcompete those that don't. Saving Changes...
