2. Title of the Paper:
Growing with the organization.
Theme:
Entrepreneurial Project Manager
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Project Manager, Project Leader, Strategic intent, Foresee breakdowns, Leadership
Pipeline, Growth Iteration Model.
Abstract
An entrepreneur cannot afford to lose sight of any dimension involved in achieving the goals and
sustaining the achieved growth. Similarly, entrepreneurial PMs cannot execute the projects just watching
the triple constraints. They have to see beyond the project goals and should be able to gauge the impact
(positive or negative) on the organization’s growth. Entrepreneurial PMs need to understand where
projects fit in the organizational roadmap. They have to link the abstract strategic goals to absolute
project outcomes and should have the courage to own it. Owning the outcomes of the projects as if their
own success depends upon it makes them more committed than their counterparts. Entrepreneurial PMs
have to understand the expectations of the team and should be able to know their pulse at any given
time. This cannot be achieved without strong observation skills and genuine networking ability.
Entrepreneurial PMs should develop inherent skills for making educated guesses to foresee the
challenges lying ahead, in addition to the risk registries. To be able to respond proactively rather than
react hastily to situation requires sincere conviction on their judgments so that they can get the buy in
from team members, stakeholders & in some cases customers. Entrepreneurial Project Management
requires one to be well versed with the processes and at the same time be able to spot the bottlenecks in
them.
Organizations should develop a strong support structure to groom Entrepreneurial Project Managers and
provide them with the right growth opportunities.
3. Table of Contents
Title of the Paper: ...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................4
See the big picture..............................................................................................................................5
Think out of the triangle......................................................................................................................5
Organization Culture .......................................................................................................................5
Changing priorities ..........................................................................................................................6
Discover blind spots ........................................................................................................................6
Act together .......................................................................................................................................6
Build Team .....................................................................................................................................6
Engage early ...................................................................................................................................7
One cannot know all .......................................................................................................................7
Organizational support .......................................................................................................................7
Challenges..........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................9
4. Introduction
This paper explores key factors for an entrepreneurial project management behavior that can significantly
contribute towards attaining strategic goals.Various studies show that entrepreneurial project managers
are able to connect project objectives to broader organizational goals. What differentiates them from their
peers is that they are passionate to succeed and hence are more committed to the objec tive goals of the
project.This paper also indicates on how the organizations can benefit from developing and promoting
entrepreneurial behavior in project managers.Organizations should provide enough support and structure
to their existing entrepreneurial project managers to make sure they remain engaged and cont ribute. A
well rewarded and thought out development plan can contribute significantly in creating a win-win
situation for the organization as well as individuals possessing entrepreneurial management skills.
5. See the big picture
PMI reports that “less than two-thirds of projects actually meet their goals and business intent. In fact, it is
estimated that for every $1 billion spent on a failed project, $135 million is lost forever…unrecoverabl e.” [1]
Often teams involved in the projects that failed to attain goals also failed to understand the strategic intent
they were working for. A team starting from project manager should be able to answer clearly why they
are doing a project in an organizational context. As for an entrepreneur,work is pointless if it doesn’t
benefit the business, entrepreneurial project manager should see clearly the business intent a particular
project is serving. And that’s not just enough, it’s equally important that they make the team understand
what their work is contributing towards.
A project team developing material for bullet-proof jackets should see their work as “saving lives” not just
“creating plastic/fibers”. An entrepreneurial project manager can definitely make their team see more
meaning in their work.
A team that understands that how their work is contributing to the organizations strategic goals or to the
society is easier to motivate. An entrepreneurial project manager knows this and makes use of it. Often
heard complaints and excuses of team motivation could be cut down, if a project manager adopts the
entrepreneurial approach of seeing and making others sees the big picture.
This can’t be achieved unless organizations clearly layout their strategic intent and make sure it is lucid
enough. Mapping the performance indicators of the business to key performance index of the
projects/programs could provide the organizations with some very useful metrics on how well the
business intent was understood and identifying high potentialindividuals capable of seeing the big picture.
Think out of the triangle
Entrepreneurial project managers need to think out of the triple constraints. Time, Cost and Scope are not
the only constraints or factors to keep in mind in today’s dynamic world. There are people, process, and
tools constantly pushing the constraints outwards. One could still argue that these can be contained
throughapt planning and estimation however it does not end there. There are other powerful elements
that can influence the project outcome in all different directions.
Organization Culture
Entrepreneurial project manager understands other dimensions of the project. Projects happen in an
organization. Big or small doesn’t matter, organizations do have cultures and project outcomes are
significantly tied to the culture in which it is executed. Entrepreneurial project managers not only learn but
adapt to it. They understand how it may influence the project outcome. They know how to overcome the
road blocks due to it and how to make use of it to project’s advantage. They navigate through the
organization jungle to collect the buy-ins of key sponsor’s increasing the chances of project success.
6. Changing priorities
Changing priorities could lead the projects to be put on hold, scraped or couldput pressure on
compressing the schedule. Entrepreneurial project manager keep an eye on them and constantly adapts
to the changing priorities of the organization making them better prepared to handle changes. They could
participate in the decision making processes providing their own insights. This is more plausible in smaller
organizations versus the larger ones. In larger ones, navigating through the layers to make their voice
heard is another virtue that entrepreneurial project managers possess. Director –Growth Initiatives in a
multinational company says “Foreseeing the uncertainty hump and preparing your team for it is a very
important quality of a project leader”.
Discover blind spots
He also mentions “Looking around the corner to discover blind spots is another virtue that project leaders
must possess”. Asking questions and drilling down details and then zooming out to see how andwhere
the breakdowns could happen in a larger scheme of things would make the risk registers much healthier
and reliable. Understanding the dependencies puts them in a better position to manage risks. This is an
exercise that an entrepreneurial project manager would do regularly, not just at the planning stage but
throughout the project life cycle. For this to happen he/she have to be involved with the team and get
hands dirty in execution time to time.
Shedding complacency of managing just the triple constraints is what entrepreneurial project managers
do. They dare to think out of the triple constraints triangle and their personal agenda to bring in value to
the organization. Sometime it may mean agreeing to scrap a project or sometime it may be standing in
the way of it.
Act together
Entrepreneurial Project Manager is driven by his/her own passion to succeed, and to succeed they know,
it can’t be done alone. They need a team of skilled individuals who would be as committed to the success
of the project.
Build Team
Teams are made of people with different skillsets, different aspirations and different loyalties. Teams
could be cross functional, virtual etc. Entrepreneurial Project Manager knows how to create the
environment in which the team can be successful. They build relationships, earn trust and create
synergies. They know how to tap on the strengths of each team members. They understand how the
individuals can be influenced and how to empathize with them. Often when the team consists of
individuals who are not direct reports, they know how to manage with influence. Country CIO in a
multinational company says “Managing with authority is easy. Managers who fail to manage with
influence are limiting themselves to a smaller arena. The measure of success for a true project leader is
7. not just that how efficiently a project was delivered but also how many relationships were made or
destroyed, how many more or less would want to work for you again, and how many people were
recognized or were left out during the journey.”
Engage early& regularly
Program Manager in a software consultancy firm says “Individuals have different perspectives about
things, when they work in teams they still carry their own perspective. A successful project leader needs
to understand this and respect that because different perspectives working towards a common goal bring
in innovation.” The key is to engage them all early and create an ownership. Entrepreneurial Project
Manager knows that once the team owns the project, the commitment towards making it a success
increases.They rely upon the fact that once they create a collaborative environment and build a
committed team, project outcomes are often above expectations. There are stake holders other than the
team that is executing the project. These are senior executives, customers, end users who need to be
kept informed or engaged at the right things and right times. Senior executives should know how the
project is adding value or realizing the business intent so they could be the project evangelists when
needed. Engaging customer early on to study their behavior and to map the project outcome is something
that an entrepreneurial project manager would not miss. Missing on this critical information could lead to
bad surprises as in case of New Coke. When the New Coke was launched, company decided to withdraw
the old Coke from shelves in order to make way for their evolutionary product. Hardly everthey realized
that this may backfire at them with more than 8000 complaints on a single day. Company had to put back
the old coke re-branded as Classic Coke and it took them three months to do so. [2]
One cannot know all
No one person or team can do it all and Entrepreneurial Project Managers are no exceptions. Some
projects may need many subject matter experts/teams. They know when to get out of the way of the work
and hand the baton to the expert the situation asks for. They foster situational leadership in the team and
know how to be accountable for that. When a sense of autonomy prevails in the team, everyone feels
empowered and motivated.
Putting the act together is what Entrepreneurial Project Managers do the best. For them execution is not
left to the lower level people, all are together in it.
Organizational support
Unfortunately, organizations do lack a system to clearly segregate different categories of PMs. Larger the
organization more true it is. A study conducted by CEB among 753 PMs concludes that best PMs are
entrepreneurial. “Entrepreneurs are the only category of PMs that consistently meets or exceeds
stakeholder expectations for project business outcomes delivery” and yet 73% of top quartile project
managers were unsatisfied with the development opportunities provided to them by the organizations [ 3]”.
8. Organizations need to build upon the support system for this class of Project Mangers. Identifying and
providing them with the right training / guidance could prove a wise investment.
Organizations should create a process of identifying the right candidate in a systematic way. There
should be formal process of mentoring/coaching/training that would help them build their strengths.
Organizations should evaluate wisely these selected set of people providing them with challenging yet
affordable assignments. A senior leader in a multinational company says “make them climb the cliff and
make sure they don’t fall of it.” That is to say provide them with the opportunities that are challenging
enough to toughen them, because growth never comes from being comfortable.
Figure 1: Growth Iteration
Identify
Coaching/Mentoring
Evaluate
This should be a repetitive cycle where, each time the parameters would change according the level of
experience, level of organizational opportunities, and organization’s competency & capabilities needs.
Smaller or growing organizations would fare better in implementing this model as they have less er layers
to cut through in any directions. Vice President - Engineering of a growing software company says “our
organization has great many examples where we identified such potential candidates and invested in
them. Today they are great assets to the company”.
9. Challenges
Greatest challenge faced by the entrepreneurial project managers is the lack of growth opportunities.
Many leave the organizations in search of better recognition and growth. A gap for an organization that is
not easy to fill in. The void created until that time could contribute few project failures and fire-fighting
drills.
Organizations, notably large ones, would struggle to keep the growth iteration system simple and less
bureaucratic. A simple system can become quickly become highly complicating and slow justby the sheer
number of people involved in the system. The system should remain nimble all the time to be effective
and worthy.
Another great challenge is how to be fair in the whole process of identifying and growing the right people.
How to make sure all sets of right eyes are involved and watching. How to make sure favoritism is not
creeping in and devaluating the whole system.
Organizations would invest time and energy in developing these structured growth iteration systems only
if they make it one of their priorities. With so many high priorities lined up, these things often take a back
seat. Senior executives would have to create the need of such system in the organizations where they tie
in their leadership team’s performances to the growth opportunities generated.
Conclusion
One of the ways of achieving sustainable growth is through well executed strategic projects that bring in
value. Entrepreneurial Project Managers understand the strategic goals of the project and are hence
more capable of fullfilling the business intent. They can motivate the team better by making them see the
broader scheme of things. They understand other subjective dimensions of the project and could handle
them better. They possess a positive attitude and energy that helps to create an environment for
everyone to thrive and contribute. For them planning is not the only thing they are responsible for.
Execution is the most important piece of the puzzle. They know how to be accountable for the outcomes
of the project. Their commitment is higher as the project success is linked to their own success in their
minds. Biggest challenges faced by the Entrepreneurial Project manager are lack of system to categorize
them, lack of growth opportunities, and lack of organizational support to their innovative thinking.
Any organization willing to support and create a system to promote entrepreneurial approach could profit
significantly through well executed value adding projects. For entrepreneurial project managers in such
organization this would mean aset of opportunities for growing with the organization.
