This document summarizes an article about why bad projects are so hard to kill. It provides an example of a bad project by Essilor, a company that spent over $50 million developing a composite glass-plastic lens over 10 years despite issues. The main reasons projects fail are poor project management and a strong belief by champions that persists despite warning signs. Collective belief among team members can undermine killing flawed projects. The document recommends increasing reviews, avoiding fear of commitment, watching for early warnings, replacing champions, and having termination plans to avoid wasting resources on doomed initiatives.

1. Date: 28th of February 2016
Project
Management
Why Bad Projects Are So Hard
To Kill
By Isabella Royer
Assistant Professor at University of Paris

2. Team Member
 Hadeer Mohamed
 Magda Haroun
 Mohamed Abdelfattah
 Sarah Asharaf
 Walaa Moahmed

3. AGENDA
1. Introduction.
2. Companies had Pained form Bad Projects.
3. Bad Project Example – ESSILOR Story.
4. Why Projects Fails.
5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??
6. Bad Projects Common Theme.
7. Kill or No Kill

4. 1. Introduction
Why Bad Projects Are So Hard to
Kill article contains a summary of
research into projects that had
significant warning signs that
something was wrong and were
still continued for a long time,
causing huge monetary losses
which called.
Bad Projects

5. 2. Companies had Pained form Bad Projects
Project Name Duration Cost!
Slectavission 1970 - 1984 $580 Million
Crystallization of
Gypsum
1985 - 1992
Nearly $50
Million
Glass and Plastic
Lens
1979 -1990
More than $50
Million
Boston Big Dig 1987 - 2003 $13 Billion

6. New Initiatives often gain momentum even as it becomes clear
that they’re doomed.
The reason : Blind FaithIn Their Success
Project by ESSILOR is a Good Example
for
BAD PROJECT

7. 1959
Invented the Varilux “progressive” lens, for instance, which corrects both
near- and farsightedness.
1974
Working on a composite glass-and-plastic material that’s lightweight,
shatter resistant, scratch resistant, and light sensitive.
1979
Essilor’s research manager takes a personal interest in the idea, and order
the creation of a trial lens & CEO support him
Based on the current sales of other Essilor products, internal estimates
predict sales of nearly 40 million units a year by 1985
3. Bad Project Example – ESSILOR

8. April 1980
Project is accepted for development and a target launch date is set for late
1981
September 1980
Bad news: glass supplier of composite lens, says that meeting the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration’s test for shatter resistance is proving more
difficult than expected. If this continues to be the case, company estimates
indicate that sales in 1985 will total just 10 million units
January 1981
Tendency of the lens to crack when mounted into the frame.
Despite the problems revealed in the pilot test, production facilities are
built, and trial manufacturing begins then another issue arises: Production
costs turn out to be twice what was forecast, which will make the lens as
much as 6 times as expensive as normal lenses
3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR

9. June 1982
Launches the lens, Opticians complain about the price and the difficulties of
mounting the lens. Essilor has forecast sales of 200,000 units by the end of
1982 But sales reach just 20,000 by that date.
1985
launches a second-generation lens meant to fix the separation problems to
fix the separation problems, but it fails to do so. Sales drop below 15,000
units a year
1986
modified composite material solves the separation problem, but the lens
remains difficult for opticians to mount in the frame
After a year of further research, the problem still isn’t solved
3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR
1987
Third-generation lens should be launched and separation problem has been
corrected

10. 1988
Sales grow to a lackluster 50,000 units.
1989
four new managers join the project. A new research manager replaces the
lens’s foremost champion.
new research manager evaluate the project recommends that the lens be
abandoned.
By studying market, sales will reach only 1.5 million units per year
September 1990
10 years since the first warning signs arose. It has cost Essilor
more than $50 million
3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR

11. 4. Why Projects Fails?
From the chart we can conclude that the main Factors leads fails
projects is Project Management Problem.
Reference: KMPG

12. 5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??
Emotional
interferenceOverzealous
team spirit
According psychological reasons:
Either due to :
 no courage to kill or fear to kill the project.
 Enthuasim of team by faith .
 Emotional interference “this happened due to contagious spread
of blind faith”
Fear
or no
courage

13. • The main reason is the managers’ rock-solid belief in the ultimate
success of ‘their’ projects. Which called Project Champion
• Championed by highly influential persons, this is then reinforced within
the organization, often resulting in collective belief (and blindness).
Risk will
disappear
Will still
succeed
Gamble
5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??

14. Collective
belief
This blindness persists because
collective belief undermines normal
organization procedures and safe
guards
This belief has stages:
1. Emergence: Project champion is
true believer who hold unyielding
conviction based on Hench not
strong evidence
2. Persistence: once it takes hold it
perpetuate itself
3. Consequences: the most danger of
it is not seeing the warning signs as
serious problems
5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??
Blind Faith

15. 6. Bad Projects Common Themes
 Significant Warning signs
 Took on life
 Strong Champion
 Too big to fail

16. 7. Kill or No Kill
• To avoid what happened to theses bad projects ,you
should have the tools of logical decision of to (kill or
no kill) decision which summarized as follows:

17. 7.1 Increase the number of review periods
• Review the project data regularly, analyze risk
frequently

18. 7.2 Avoid Fear of Public Commitment
• Sometimes there is a fear of killing project
because of huge public commitment

19. 7.3 Be alert of Early warning signs

20. 7.4 Exit Champions
• How would this exit champion role
look like? Royer suggests they are a
similar type of person like the
project champions.
• What distinguishes them is that
they don’t just ask questions about
the project, its status and outlook,
but actively seek for evidence that
something is wrong, and act on it.
• It is important to acknowledge the
importance of both the project
champion and the exit champion’s
role and keep them in a good
balance.

21. 7.5 Beware of cheerleading squads !
Project team should not consist only of believers.
Project team should include skeptics along with
believers.
Decision makers should be replaced over the
course of the project.

22. 7.6 Termination scripts
If you have to kill project terminate it strategically
,don’t make it so quick.
Collect lessons for coming projects

23. 7.7 Conclusion
1. Don’t make the same mistakes
2. Planning, review and acknowledge emotional
interferences
3. Transparency and honesty
4. Apply course correction
5. No excuse for colossal failures

24. Any Question?

25. Thanks…