This document summarizes a case study by The Evans Group LLC analyzing why a business project lasting eight months was not as profitable as initially projected. They first looked at how the production and scheduling were set up ("executable reason") and found that the key person responsible for scheduling took ill and delegated the work to someone without full training. Throughout the eight months, senior management only appraised staff on whether tasks were completed by deadlines rather than asking if the process was working or how it could be improved. As a result, the project was only barely profitable due to lack of oversight and adaptation of the initial scheduling and process.

1. A LESSON ON EXECUTION
Chip Evans, PH.D.

2. Chip Evans, Ph.D. www.theevansgroupllc.com
A LESSON ON EXECUTION
Client A has an important business project that required eight months of work to achieve the final profit.
To prepare for the work one person was in charge of the “scheduling” of the work to be done for over
30 middle managers, all whom were responsible for the development of the product.
Throughout the eight month project the middle managers received numerous reviews and appraisals
from the ownership about their specific performance in relation to the end goal of the project.
At the end of the project The Evans Group LLC was brought in to analyze why it was not as profitable
as first projected.
Most clients would assume we looked at cost of goods, or
production time, as our first analysis. Of course we did this,
but only after a review of what we call “EXECUTABLE
REASON”; this means we looked first at how the production
and scheduling were set up, and secondly at the cost of
goods sold and employee performance.
We noted that few middle managers over-performed and
newer middle managers underperformed uniformly. A flag
went up.
When we went back to the initial “scheduling and process development,” we found that the key person
that always did this work had taken ill, and the work delegated to another employee.
This employee, not trained in the entire scheduling and process so critical to projects, did the “set up” to
the best of their ability, and for the next eight months all staff followed the process.
During the appraisals and interviews of staff as the work developed, no senior management ever asked
the question, “Does what you are doing work?”... OR …. ”How would you improve?” Instead, the
appraisals were simply completion guideline based; ie ... this was to be done by Date A, this by Date B,
with no question back as to why or why wasn’t the goal was achieved.
In the end the project was barely profitable. Ownership blamed management on “not following up”.
The Evans Group LLC blamed ownership for not understanding one cannot execute well without a
constantly updated and analyzed plan.