Increase the Bottom Line for Free? No Thanks
You would have thought that if you told most bosses or CEOs that there was something they could do which would:
- Save precious time which could then be used for other things
- Reduce costs
- Reduce waste
- Save money
- Increase revenues
- Increase profits
- Improve cash flow
- Enable them to steal a march on, or gain a competitive advantage over their competitors
- Deliver business benefits quicker
- Reduce the risks of projects running over time or budget
- Increase staff morale
- Give greater employee job satisfaction,
they would jump at it.
If, in addition, you told them that this would require no extra resources – material or people, then you’d have thought the only question would be, ‘ How soon can I have it?’
Bizarrely, this is not the case.
Shortening projects / shortening time to market is something that does indeed tick all of the boxes above. Nor does it require extra resources – merely a change to the way the current resources are used.
Why then, is everybody not trying to do it?
It seems to me that there are a variety of reasons:
- People don’t actually believe it’s possible – most bosses and project stakeholders think they’re lucky if projects come in on time and within budget.
- Nobody figures out what getting the project done early would mean financially.
- Many projects aren’t planned and estimated properly – if they’re not planned and estimated properly they can’t possibly be done quicker.
- Getting projects done quickly is not in the ‘official’ project management literature, the Project Management Institute’s PMBOK [Project Management Body Of Knowledge].
- The emotional investment people have in the way things are done at the moment – ‘What’s wrong with the way we do things at the moment?’ syndrome.
- All of the people involved in the project are afraid that if they do the project fast they’ll miss something important.
- Especially in high-tech organizations, very smart people can often regard very simple ideas as being of no value.
- Again in high tech organizations, very smart people often can’t believe that simple ideas would work where complex ones have failed.
It’s a pity – because for those bosses and project stakeholders who are going to be first to embrace this disruptive idea, there will be a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow.