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Project Manager based in Manchester UK

ESA launch fuels global warming debate..

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The successful launch and deployment earlier today of the European Space Agency’s Cryosat-2 satellite represents a tremendous achievement for the organization. The satellite will measure and track ice thickness in the polar regions providing invaluable data for environmental scientists. Hopefully this data will prove , one way or the other, that global warming is indeed a fact and is caused by man’s activities and needs to be addressed politically in a united and effective manner.

The Scientific project has been ably led by Professor Duncan Wingham of the University College London who commented:-

“Today, it’s just a real pleasure; and I speak on behalf of all the scientists who will use the data to just thank all of those many people who contributed to this mission. Personally, it’s been a fabulous ride for me,” he told the assembled guests at the German centre.

Congratulations Professor Wingham & all at ESA for the successful launch of this incredible Scientific venture.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Masterchef..lessons for PM’s #pmot

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MASTERCHEFI don’t know about you but I love BBC’s Masterchef, not just for the food and the cooking skills but the lessons it has for Project Managers.

And before I hear you scream “not another popular T.V program – tenuous Blog link story” please bear with me, bear with me.

First of all I love the passion. The contestants exude passion about food and cooking, we experience the love of their craft and their pain when their expectations are not met. One scowl off John is enough to reduce the strongest contestant to tears. As project managers we need to display the same level of passion for our project deliverables.

Secondly I love the drama of execution as the dish is put together to arrive at the nominated time, cooked perfectly, presented beautifully and demanding to be eaten. The time management skills on display would put the best project manager to shame and if we could deliver our projects to the same standard we would be very happy PM’s indeed.

Of course, like any project, things can go wrong and mistaking sugar for salt will end in disaster, a lesson in attention to detail there.

At the end there is only one winner but the runners up all learn from their mistakes, another attribute of good project managers.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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All change at British Airways..

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bacrashIs the current industrial strife at British Airways indicative of a poorly managed change process ?

Change which is imposed rather than negotiated is rarely successful. In fact any change process needs to go through fundamental stages to succeed and the unrest at B.A would suggest that these key stages have been ignored.

Change is inevitable but its successful implementation requires real management skills.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk
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No feedback is negative…

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customer feedbackI was recently asked “how do you deal with negative customer feedback ?”

If you are interested in your customers (as every business should be) no feedback should be considered ‘negative’ and all feedback welcomed.

Customer feedback is an excellent source of improvement and should be welcomed at every stage of the product development process.

Samples should be supplied to the customer as early as possible and any feedback should be used to fine tune product development.

Get close to your customers and welcome their feedback, no one will appreciate this more than the customer themselves.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Great idea…but why won’t it sell ?

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stupidinventionThis is one of the most common questions in the world of New Product Development and is often asked after the developer has spent thousands of dollars in development costs.

Here are some possible answers:-

1) Who says your product is “great” ?  many  companies develop new products because they think it’s a great idea – unfortunately no one else does. It may seem obvious but New Products have to meet a market demand in order to sell. Just because your design engineer thinks its a great idea doesn’t mean anyone else does.

2) Does anyone know about your great new product ?  What is your Marketing and Advertising strategy. Unless your Innovation is publicised how will anybody find out about it ?

3) Is your product overpriced ?  What is the nearest competitor selling at ?

4)  Is it priced too low and perceived as cheap ? Ask yourself this question – When you buy a car do you buy the cheapest model available ?

5) What level of service and support do you offer with your product ? – Is the competition offering a better warranty or service.

All common sense but sense aint that common.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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The Innovation game…

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innovationInnovation is the name of the game; especially in the competitive world of consumer electronics. The only way to remain competitive is to continue to produce new, relevant products which the customer wants.

Apple is a terrific example, before the release of the ipod Apple was a company on decline; despite the fact that it had the worlds best desk top computers for graphic design and desk top publishing they were too expensive for the home computer market which was cornered by IBM clones.

Then along came the ipod, the revolutionary pocket music player which was cool, trendy, affordable and  desirable.

The rest is history and Apple also leads the field in Smartphones with their iconic iphone. Recently they have released their latest product, the touchscreen notebook – the ipad.

These are terrific examples of product Innovation in the highly competitive field of consumer electronics which show that a company which continues to innovate will continue to thrive.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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The Brain Machine….

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brainmachineThere has been lots of recent talk from politicians, particularly The Conservative Party, about rejuvinating British Industry. Indeed James Dyson, the renowned inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which bears his name, recently issued his  Ingenious Britain  report on the subject.

Such debate is welcome and well overdue. With manufacturing in the U.K shrinking to around 10% of GDP we urgently need a strategy which focuses on what we do best – Innovation.

There is no way we can compete with Far East manufacturers on cost (labor or Capital) but we can and do compete strongly when it comes to Innovative design and technology. This is partly due to our strong engineering history and professional project management skills. It is also down to our open and democratic culture which leads to a rigorous debate of ideas.

We have a wealth of scientific and engineering talent in the U.K which we can exploit to deliver new and innovative products to the worlds markets.

We need to rev up the Brain Machine.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Are you a good project manager..?

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Training29According to the PMI definition :- ‘Project Manager – The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objective’

So what makes a good project manager. According to PMI good project managers are:-

1) Task Focused

2) Able to manage deadlines

3) Politically aware

4) Able to compromise pragmatically

5) Good communicators

6) Able to inspire and motivate others.

We wouldn’t argue with any of the above but what do you think ?

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Outsourcing at any cost ?…..

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In July 2009 Sun Danyong comitted suicide by throwing himself from his 12th flloor apartment. Sun’s apartment had been ransacked and he claimed in a text, immediately before his death, that he had been badly beaten.

Sun worked for the massive Taiwanese CEM Foxconn (Turnover |$10 billion) which manufactures Apples iconic iphone. He was rumoured to have been suspected in the theft of an iphone prototype. The incident sparked an Audit by Apple but to date no visible action has been taken.

iphoneThis incident highlights the ethical dilemmas posed in Subcontracting. How do we deal with massive corporations which often dwarf our own ?  How do we balance the need to reduce manufacturing cost with the need to deal with undemocratic regimes with questionable human rights records ?

Do we do business at any price ?

Like most dilemmas the answer lies with the consumer. Western consumers are increasingly conscious of the ethical and environmental impact of their actions, where does that food come from, what is involved in it’s manufacture ? Who benefits and who gets hurt ?

This conciousness will extend to all areas of consumption including electronic products and it is those companies which pursue an active, ethical and evironmental policy which will ultimately benefit.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Outsourcing trends point to further job losses…

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SPA032The outsourcing market is a large, diversified and complex model but it is still possible to discern some notable trends:-

1) The manufacturing industry in the West looks likely to continue to shrink, according to Electronics Times the U.S semiconductor industry lost 107,000 jobs between 2001 to 2009 and some predictions estimate a further loss of 146,000 jobs from 2008 – 2018 – Scary stuff.

2) The latest Labour Market Outllook report from CIPD suggests that 10% of all UK companies intend to outsource some work in 2010 with 41% of I.T companies planning to outsource key activities.

3) According to the Bangkok Post the Outsourcing market was worth $24.9 billion at the end of Q4 2009 up 8% on the previous year.

4) An interesting observation is that Chinese & Indian companies are looking at Outsourcing within their own National boundaries. This is perfectly understandable given both countries vast size and untapped resource. We may see a gradual migration of economic activity from coastal areas inwards.

All of the above highlights the need for Western companies to accellerate Innovation to stay ahead of the value curve.

It also suggests that Western governments need to look very carefully at their strategy for Manufacturing and Innovation if they want to preserve what remains of the High Technology sector to provide skilled employment in the future.

As per usual Cash is King.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk