You’ve identified and prioritized the parts of your business that drive performance, you’ve talked with your customers and team to identify what’s not working, and you have a list of improvement projects that will solve key problems, turn the dial on performance, and grow your business.
Well done. You’ve taken the first step to deliver significant improvements in your business performance.
You’re now at the point where you convert those great ideas into real dollars; project delivery.
70% of projects fail to deliver the targeted improvements in performance. 70%!! In real terms, 3 of every 4 projects that you will undertake to drive improvements in your business will fail. This figure is staggering, but very real!
The kicker to this is that project failure costs are a double hit for small & medium businesses.
You not only incur the costs that directly impact your bottom line:
- the cost of the project team’s labour,
- plus the costs of parts & materials,
- plus the cost of your time,
- plus the cost of the less than expected (or nil) revenue gains from the failed project,
- plus the cost of lost revenue from value adding activities that could have been undertaken.
…But you also incur the large, unmeasurable, cost your team’s feelings of failure, reduced motivation and productivity, and the loss of frustrated staff.
You cannot afford to get project delivery wrong!
So how do you get it right? Strong senior leadership, using a robust project delivery method, and having the right people on the project team.
Strong Senior Leadership
You must have the support of the most senior people in the business. If you are that most senior person, you must give your undivided support to the project team.
Delivering a project results in a change in the way your organisation operates. Senior leaders must truly and actively support the change that will be delivered.
This means – being very clear and consistent on why the project is being delivered, what the project team will and will not deliver, providing them with the time, resources and budget to deliver those outcomes, actively resolving concerns and issues with the project, and visually supporting the project at all levels of the business.
This is fundamental. If you do not have strong senior leadership support do not start project delivery.
Using a Robust Project Delivery Method
You must deliver your project the right way from the start.
Project delivery methodologies provide a structured, step by step process on how to manage your project from start to finish. These methodologies ensure you clearly define what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it, they will keep you on track, and will ensure the full, expected results are delivered.
Having the Right People on the Project Team
You need to build a project team that has a balance of technical, people, and project management skills.
Think about the changes that are occurring through the delivery of the project. You need people who have the technical skills to make the required changes, the people skills to engage, communicate, and train your staff to embed the changes, and the project management skills to ensure the changes are made according to plan and on budget.
About 3 Ps in Profit
Our Vision: Enabling more Australian small & medium businesses to succeed & thrive through genuine partnerships that deliver performance improvement & growth.
Our Mission: Improving & growing Australian small & medium businesses by focusing on the three fundamental elements that drive performance; planning & alignment, processes & systems, and people.
Want to find our more? We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your performance improvement objectives and how we can help you achieve them.