{"id":637547,"date":"2019-01-31T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ieinsights.cherrypickpre.es\/?post_type=articles&p=637547"},"modified":"2019-03-12T10:33:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T09:33:44","slug":"strategies-from-words-to-deeds-thanks-to-pmos","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/articles\/strategies-from-words-to-deeds-thanks-to-pmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategies: From Words to Deeds, Thanks to PMOs"},"featured_media":642892,"template":"","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[]},"schools":[29,30],"areas":[16,24],"subjects":[],"class_list":["post-637547","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schools-business-school","schools-executive-education","areas-competitiveness-growth","areas-strategy"],"custom-fields":{"wpcf-article-leadin":["In today\u2019s fast-changing environment, adapting planning to the execution of strategic plans is a complex undertaking. Project management offices are the best tool for guaranteeing that projects arising from different departments within an organization are implemented correctly. The defining feature of these units is their ability to ensure that the company\u2019s vision and strategy are implemented quickly and appropriately within the organization."],"wpcf-article-body":["The world is changing, and people and companies are changing along with it. Stark differences\u2014even in comparison to the very recent past\u2014are now readily apparent, and in recent years the pace of change has been much more frenetic than in the previous decades.\r\n\r\nThe corporate world has abandoned 20-year business models and shifted towards models with a horizon of just 20 months. In today\u2019s rapidly changing world, we cannot be sure that any industry or product will still be around a few years from now.\r\n\r\nThe key to survival, therefore, is not just to define a good strategy<\/a> but to implement it quickly and seamlessly, before it\u2019s too late. Many companies have adopted a key tool that helps them achieve the best possible strategy implementation: the project management office (PMO), which I personally like to define as an organizational structure oriented towards portfolios, programs, and projects.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSurviving the transformation<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCommunication, transport, banking, energy, retail... Every sector you can imagine has undergone\u2014or is undergoing\u2014its own unique transformation. For many organizations, survival and competitiveness<\/a> depend not on size but on the capacity to adapt. These companies are measured not in terms of what they produced in the past but what they are capable of producing. One clear example is the market valuation of Tesla\u2019s capacity to produce future cash flows.\r\n\r\nIn many cases, it is obvious that the strategy<\/a> behind a company\u2019s objectives is essentially hot air: execution is completely decoupled from planning, and there are no projects that lend meaning to the established strategic plan. Projects are what make departments tick, so management must undergo its own transformation, abandoning outmoded approaches such as Gantt charts and the PERT technique. That\u2019s where agile methodologies and \u201cholistically\u201d organized teams come in. With these approaches, the hierarchy is de-prioritized, analysis focuses on the whole rather than the parts, and all team members take part in a balanced decision-making process.\r\n\r\nA quick word about agile methodologies: they haven\u2019t actually invented anything new. Everything they apply is derived from the lean and kanban philosophies, which arose from the world of industrial production in the automotive sector.\r\n
A project manager must be prepared, within the context of a project, to execute a strategic vision and report back to general management.<\/blockquote>\r\nWhat should project managers and PMOs be like?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAs leaders, project managers should be perspicacious, well-informed, and capable of designing strategies<\/a> for change. They must be familiar with strategy and financial<\/a> management, know how to implement business plans through projects, and be efficient in their direction and management of projects. A project manager with this profile is sure to make a sustainable impact on the bottom line.\r\n\r\nEquipped with a great business vision, a project manager must be prepared, within the context of a project, to execute a strategic<\/a> vision and report back to general management. And they must do all this simultaneously, at the dizzying pace of today\u2019s decision-making processes. In other words, PMOs must be as strategic as the business model itself.\r\n\r\nA strategic<\/a> PMO is a fixed unit with a permanent role; it doesn\u2019t just pop up whenever a project begins. It defines agile lines of action and practices\u2014with varying degrees of complexity, depending on the type of activity\u2014to ensure that all projects \u201cspeak the same language.\u201d Within the methodological framework thus defined, the purpose of a transformative PMO can be summed up as follows:\r\n