My company a leading global provider of office furniture and services that create great places to work. They believe in innovation, design, operational excellence, smart application of technology, and social responsibility. In these five areas, my company creates concepts that change the traditional workplace. However, concepts, although critical to the process, do not by themselves help my company to achieve their mission of creating great places to work. Only through the careful selection and execution of projects do these concepts become reality, first for themselves, and then for their customers.
Projects Within My Company
My company believes that in order to show other companies how to create great places to work, they must first lead by example. As the recipient of numerous awards for the workplace, they have achieved this objective year after year. Whether it is the design of a new product, the renovation of a facility, or the implementation of leading-edge technology, My company uses project management to help turn concepts into reality.
My company selects and prioritizes projects based on the connection to their overall corporate strategic plan. The strategic plan, broken into one, two, and five year sections, addresses all aspects of the business and is updated on a yearly basis. During the yearly update process, projects are submitted as potential candidates through a series of change board meetings. Each project is reviewed for its potential impact on the strategic plan. Projects that closely align with the most important aspects of the strategic plan are given the highest priority; all other projects are placed in a virtual “parking lot” and may be revisited later in the cycle.
Once the initial selection process is complete, project managers update budget estimates, and the total costs are rolled up and compared to overall sales projections. Typically, the combined cost of the projects that are initially selected exceed the sales projections. So another phase of selection and prioritization is initiated. Once project costs and sales projections are aligned, the project work is approved and scheduled for the next fiscal period.
My company reviews the project work on a quarterly basis to ensure the deliverables are meeting the desired results as outlined in the strategic plan. If gaps in the expectations are identified, my company adjusts the project priorities to generate greater focus on the projects that more directly impact the strategic plan. In addition, budget projections are updated and compared to sales performance; projects may be added, delayed, or removed based on the updated projections.
Project managers are held accountable for bringing projects in on time and within budget. However, time and budget are typically second in priority to meeting the quality expectations of the project. This can often put the project manager in a challenging position, especially as new challenges present themselves during the course of the project. Project managers are encouraged to communicate potential problems with management as soon as they become aware of them—especially if the problems could negatively impact the implementation of part of the corporate strategy.
Projects With My Company's Customers
My company helps other companies implement projects that create great places to work. My company has established a global network of dealers who partner with the customer to turn concepts into reality. As part of the dealer certification process, each member of the dealer sales organization completes training on my company’s sales methodology. The training helps the sales organization identify customers who view creating a great place to work as a strategic advantage. Once identified, the sales organization can partner with the customer to learn about their business and to develop workplace concepts that are unique to their environment.
The my company sales organization will often assist customers with the development of their own workplace strategic plans. They provide a consulting service designed to teach each company to think about the workplace as a competitive advantage. Although the consulting group is from my company, they are product and solution independent; their focus is on strategy development as opposed to product selection.
Through the sales and consulting efforts, ultimately some companies will choose to partner with my company for their workplace needs. Each dealer organization is required to maintain a project management staff who is trained on the project management methodology. The methodology is a comprehensive project management methodology designed to assist the customer through each step of the workplace implementation process. The process begins once a customer places an order for an office environment. A project manager is assigned from the local dealership and they begin regular planning sessions with the customer. The project manager coordinates activities from multiple resources including manufacturing, facility design, maintenance teams, transportation, union workers, electricians, and many other contractors needed to successfully implement a new workplace design. The project manager’s ultimate goal is to turn the concept that was developed by the sales organization and the customer into a reality, on time, within budget, and as expected.
For larger customers who have their own facility management group, my company provides consulting services to teach the company how to taylor the HMWR methodology to their own unique requirements. Instead of a project manager from the dealer managing the implementation of a new workplace, my company’s internal team will partner with the customer’s facility group to manage the implementation of a new workspace. The key goal during the implementation is to transfer knowledge to the customer’s facility team so they are able to effectively manage their own workspace implementations in the future. This is a fairly new aspect of my company’s business and is being readily embraced by some of their largest customers.
Bringing It All Together
On a yearly basis, my company holds a symposium for their internal project managers and for the project management staff within their dealer organization. The symposium provides a great opportunity for project managers from around the globe to ask questions and to share project experiences—both positive and negative. In addition to updated training on the HMWR methodology, project managers participate in a series of sessions intended to help them streamline the design and implementation process for their customers. Designers and product specialists are brought in to discuss the latest trends in the workplace. In addition, some of the customers who have implemented my company's workplaces during the previous year attend to provide feedback. Many of the project managers view this as one of the most important aspects of the symposium; the feedback they receive from the customer is invaluable.
My company has a wonderful history of creating great places to work, and they will continue to bring innovative and exciting changes to the workplace. Ultimately, whether my company is implementing changes within their own organization or helping their customers make changes, project management will remain the key to turning their workplace concepts into reality, now and for many years to come.
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