Abstract Science Construction’s business is in planning, developing and building road projects. The major of its clients are municipalities, city governments, and other public sector entities. While the bankruptcy rates for these clients is very low, when economic downturns happen, their ability to pay in a timely fashion also suffers. This leads to businesses such as Science Construction needing to take on additional debt and to find creative methods in order to stay afloat during times of recession. Methods such as selling accounts receivables at discounted rates and taking larger lines of credit through banks and other lending institutions are some of the ways organizations can remain viable when their cash inflows have turned into a trickle. Science Construction is asking the Turkish Courts to postpone their bankruptcy proceedings for a year while they attempt to restructure. Through this, suggestions such as forcing shareholders to pay their debt to the organization, gaining credi
Yes, I agree with the statement of the question above. The ‘hidden cost’ reminds me of the quote “if you think it is expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”.
“A better adherence to the standards” means the professionals have responsibilities to complete the project within its ‘budget’. As stated by Finn Orfano (n.d.) the standards point to the project planning standards is such a guidance that contains specific requirements of individual projects, such as thoroughgoing goals and objectives, budget and schedule, to ascertain all the team members could identify and comply it effectively and efficiently, including risk management standards with the purpose of minimizing disruptions and ensuring the smooth process (Orfano, nd.). Michelle LaBrosse (2010) mentioned when the project is guided by standards, it means the professional team members are having a commitment to follow the rules and regulations that are stated in the agreement.
Furthermore, as many factors that affect the project’s result, a project manager needs to learn the stakeholder impacts on their projects and being innovative to find out unexpected situations, for instance through the intense communication (LaBrosse, 2010). He needs to ensure that the project outcome meets or even exceeds the stakeholder expectations by implementing any necessary changes. If the outcome did not satisfy the stakeholders, there is a possibility that the professional needs to change the original objectives or even the clients would cancel or terminate the agreement.
The author concludes the article with the following statement: “in a world enamored with people -just doing it- and -thinking outside the box-, we need folks who still know how to learn the rules, understand why they exist and create a safe environment for all." Do you agree that innovative people cannot be also people that understand, apply and adhere to standards? Why or why not?
Adaptability is one of the management abilities in order to overcome the challenges that come along with the project (Parker, 2019). From my point of view, to be innovative is one of the requirements as a project manager in today’s global era where there are fierce competitions with dynamic challenges. A manager must be able to deal with the variety of unfamiliar situations especially for the problem-solving. Therefore, innovative people do not apply and adhere to standards, it does not mean they did not understand, but they need for being flexible to adapt to the fast-changing circumstances, find and apply the appropriate solutions, even though sometimes they have to disregard the standards. For example, Tesla’s Model S sedans with 'access to self-driving options'. It does not mean that the company was not aware of the standard safety, as Tesla CEO, Elon Musk specified that this style is not fully autonomous vehicles and warned people to drive carefully by keeping their hands on the wheel (McCormick, 2015).
I believe the crucial phase in the project life cycle phase is the planning phase. According to Adrienne Watt (2014), in the planning phase, the team members would develop the project solution through the proper objectives to meet the desired goals, including to estimate the expenses in budget preparation, the quality planning, human resources, identify and try to reduce the obstacles and failure rate, appropriate dateline and build communication to stakeholders.
Without adequate planning, the project would be like lost in the middle of nowhere without any directions, besides it would be hard to convince the stakeholders of successful project management. Therefore, this phase has a significant role as it would lead this project’s activities from start until the ending point, how the plan would be achieved and confirmed.
While for the fundamental knowledge area, I think managing the team-work is the most crucial part, where the manager must be able to find the right person for the right job. Dinnie Muslihat (2018) observed that the project achievement because of a good collaboration on teamwork, especially through communication, sharing ideas, and commitment. The way a manager does his responsibility to delegate people based on their experiences, individual work style, skill, and knowledge. Furthermore, he must encourage engagement among teamwork and coordinate to do the tasks, clearly specify the preferred outcomes, discuss timelines and deadlines.
The efficiency delegation is very important for the business continuity, as it would improve the decision making, reduce the work overload for managers, intensify the faster decisions, and build morale employees (Bhasin, 2018). On the contrary, the unsuccessful delegation would have some negative impacts, such as the performance degradation, the employees become less confidence and unhappy on their job as the inappropriate job responsibilities those cause the continuous failures.
References:
Bhasin, H. (February 2018). The Importance of Delegation. Marketing 91. Retrieved from: https://www.marketing91.com/the-importance-of-delegation/
LaBrosse, M. (2010). The Hidden Costs and Dangers of the Shortcut. Project Smart. https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-hidden-costs-and-dangers-of-the-shortcut.php
McCormick, R. (2015). Tesla owners are ignoring autopilot safety advice and putting the results on Youtube. The Verge. Retrieved from: https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/21/9589724/tesla-autopilot-videos-youtube-safety-advice-ignored
Orfano, F. (n.d.). Setting standards for project management and project plan. Bright Hub Project Management. Retrieved from: https://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/37861-project-management-planning-standards/
Roworth, G. (2017). Ineffective Delegation: The third critical business mistakes. Living Now. Retrieved from: https://livingnow.com.au/ineffective-delegation-business-mistake/
Stewart, G. (2013). When delegation goes wrong…. Lead Change Group. Retrieved from: https://leadchangegroup.com/when-delegation-goes-wrong/
Watt, A. (2014). Project Management. BCcampus Open Textbook project. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License.
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