Reflection on “Most Valuable Players! by Peter Fretty, May 2012”
This article discussed a different and global term that is considered to be the latest trend not only in project management, in all aspects of the business as well, to be focusing on, which is the Value Creation. I would personally define this term as satisfying any unmet need for customers; and in simpler wording, giving people what they want and need even if they didn’t ask for it.
The value creation is not limited to the final customer or final product, it can be applied as a concept in the work environment, which was found also to be a direct reason of continuous process improvement, including reducing cost, cycle time and optimizing the technical capability, and that from my own experience can create a competitive strategic advantage for that company in the marketplace, and that is why it should be highly taken into consideration in the mega projects because of its complex nature.
According to the article, there is a particular process that can help in creating value, and it goes through different stages. The first stage is represented by understanding the requirements and risks in the project; the better understanding to your stakeholders, the less surprises you will face, and the better results that you will get; however, I found from my own experience that the customers sometimes don’t know what they want exactly, and you might do everything they asked for, but still they would not like the results, and this is where the role of risk management comes to play; one of the techniques that we used in AIC is trying to educate the customer, and open their eyes about what they ask, in other words, helping the customers understand themselves better, and getting them involved more from the very start, not to lower their expectations, but to adjust it and make it real.
The second stage is exploring areas for Improvement. In order for the team members to better understand the firm’s status in the market place, they are recommended to run a SWOT analysis, to be able to understand the project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I find also the SEPTE analysis to be very important to have a better understanding for the external environment of the market place; social, economic, political, technological, and environment impact on the project. All these tools can generate strategic data, and this data can be used by the project managers to baseline the workflow, and then continue to develop a value stream map that resulting in value creation.
That all leads us to the third stage which is defining the possible solutions, and the best way to do so is to get the team members involved in finding solutions; however, those solutions should be aligned with organization’s objectives, mission and vision. I find that the main goal for any project is to keep business going directly or indirectly. Some of the general goals and objectives for any business are reducing cost, waste minimization, and maximization of ROI.
Finally, the final stage is prioritizing opportunities, and in order to do that, as a project manager, you should have a very good understanding to the needs of your client, because it will be almost impossible to go with all the improvements and apply all solutions at the same time, reminding yourself that you should never provide a feature that no customer will appreciate, because that will be a waste of resources, knowing that exceeding the customer expectations, will make them come back for more contracts. It is also good to keep in mind that sometimes when it comes to applying solutions, that could send a shock wave through the firm, and in order to overcome that, the project manager should avoid overachieving and multi-tasking, lack of respect to the team members, and he/she should motivate everyone to focus on the long-term profits.
