Our mgt had received a call from the client that our SOW sign-off was on hold due to geopolitical concerns. This was an unexpected hurdle. Apparently, the risk team was concerned that President Trump’s policies might lead to measures against China, affecting our cloud instances in Asia area. This posed a risk for our project in HK and the project everything is currently on hold.
I'm not sure if I'm impacted in any way, but it seems geopolitical concerns might increasingly affecting projects, particularly with recent policy changes.
This is an example of an event which should be planned for - given that there are still more than 2 months till the new President gets sworn in, there is sufficient time to identify risks impacting in flight projects and to respond to those, even if the response is just to accept the risk.
And given how close the polls were leading up to the election, the risks caused by a Republican win could have been addressed before election day.
Kiron
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1 reply by Mike Frenette
Mar 25, 2025 12:09 PM
Mike Frenette
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It has now been about five months since this post and the threats to project (and national) stability are becoming much clearer as the actions of the administration become more concrete. Tariffs, counter tariffs and retaliatory measures are playing havoc in many areas related especially the procurement of goods and services.
In my province, the government is terminating some service contracts, for example. Many are aware of the Ontario termination of the Starlink contract, which could have many effects for those with projects implementing products in places that that require strong internet connections.
There are also those who have contracted with product suppliers from out of country, and these contracts will be under a microscope at renewal time.
The good thing I suppose is that there will now be new opportunities for national suppliers to fill the gap, increasing stability and maybe even decreasing costs.
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace CorpsYaounde, Centre, Cameroon
The Trump win will obviously come with the potential to impact running projects and upcoming ones. Here the PM will have to adapt to the new changes Saving Changes...
Angela ScottDirector| Process Improvement Lab, LTDWarrington, Eng, United Kingdom
Your company will need to thoroughly review your client's concerns, separate the risks into their smallest parts and come up with mitigation plans for each. How your company addresses exchange rate risk, for example, may be different from how they might handle increased taxes and tariffs.
Ideally, the HK cloud center has its own strategy/ risk profile which includes its unique geopolitical risks. Reviewing this may help you qualify the client's concern - what disruptions do they feel are likely or unlikely? Do they feel the data itself is at risk, or the cost of providing services? I've read there could also be inflation on the dollar - will other geographies be at an advantage or disadvantage?
HK in particular has been under constant pressure from China. The Chinese government requires access to Apple's Chinese consumer list, and leveraged this against HK protesters in 2019. (https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articl...litical-risks/) But that's just Chinese politics, nothing US-government related.
I was working with a Russian team when Putin invaded Ukraine. No one on the team had anticipated the risk of war. While the client worked to protect their employees and ringfence their global assets, we needed to quickly gain stakeholder support to implement and gain benefits through other geographies.
Saving Changes...
Mike FrenetteManager, IT PMO| Halifax Water (retired)Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nov 12, 2024 3:16 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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This is an example of an event which should be planned for - given that there are still more than 2 months till the new President gets sworn in, there is sufficient time to identify risks impacting in flight projects and to respond to those, even if the response is just to accept the risk.
And given how close the polls were leading up to the election, the risks caused by a Republican win could have been addressed before election day.
Kiron
It has now been about five months since this post and the threats to project (and national) stability are becoming much clearer as the actions of the administration become more concrete. Tariffs, counter tariffs and retaliatory measures are playing havoc in many areas related especially the procurement of goods and services.
In my province, the government is terminating some service contracts, for example. Many are aware of the Ontario termination of the Starlink contract, which could have many effects for those with projects implementing products in places that that require strong internet connections.
There are also those who have contracted with product suppliers from out of country, and these contracts will be under a microscope at renewal time.
The good thing I suppose is that there will now be new opportunities for national suppliers to fill the gap, increasing stability and maybe even decreasing costs. Saving Changes...
Rudy RodriguezTechnical Director| Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsUnited States
For me, this trade war has impacted my projects in that we are having to adapt and increase contingency budget for dealing with the "unknown-unknown" risks of projects requiring heavy capital purchases, especially technology. Has anyone adjusted budgets in a specific way to account for what we don't know? Saving Changes...
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