A look into the kitchen of project management

How to be an effective manager? Does knowing the theory make you a better manager? What makes a project successful?

These were some of the questions that the MSM event “Showcasing Global Projects” aimed to answer on Tuesday 23 September during a series of workshops led by external experts as well as MSM faculty.

“There are many definitions of management and many techniques of management and project management, but the art of management itself is something that is quite intangible,” Director Projects & Consultancies at MSM, Mr. Meinhard Gans, told the audience of about 90 MBA and Executive Program students as he introduced the event.

“There is not one recipe for all organizations and situations, and that is why it is valuable to share experiences and exchange knowledge. Our purpose today is to give you the opportunity to take a look into the kitchen of management practices and to enter in dialogue with several kitchen cooks,” Mr. Gans explained.

The afternoon was organized around three rounds of five parallel sessions and a wrap-up gathering in the business lounge. The topics of the sessions were as interesting as varied, from how to manage a very large infrastructural project (Jeroen Maas, A2 Maastricht), to the challenges met in establishing a business school in Yemen (Miriam Frijns, Nihil Admiraria), to creating sustainable supply chains through public-private collaboration (Jeroen van Wijk, MSM), to implementing innovation and project management in healthcare (Daphne Swakhoven), among others.

Each session included a time for discussion at the end, so that participants could ask questions and interact with the speakers.

Jeroen Maas, environmental manager of the complex and ambitious A2 highway project currently under way in Maastricht, gave a detailed overview of the various components of the assignment, focusing on innovative aspects. “We decided to design a collaborative plan that would bring all the parties together as equals and would address all the issues,” Maas said. “Another very important and innovative aspect of our approach was that agreed to be as open and transparent as possible about our plans and procedures. We operate a comprehensive website in Dutch and English, we have built an info-center for the public and regularly organize public events and visits on site.” For Maas, the choice for transparency has been the key to the success of the operation so far. “We are practicing transparency almost to the level of the absurd, but we could never have accomplished as much as we have otherwise.”

Patrick Mans, Senior Manager Research Operations at MSM, walked his audience through the various issues that he was challenged to solve during a consultancy project in the framework of the MSM Management Lab. Mans gave a vivid and detailed account of the assignment, describing the relevant actors, their personalities, the problems they faced, and explaining how he identified and tackled the various bottlenecks, and also how he dealt with a small mistake he made. Mans’ open and interactive style of presentation was very well received by the audience, who actively participated in the session by commenting and asking questions.

Rui Santos, MSM lecturer and Vice-President CESO Development Consultants in Portugal, gave two different presentations, the first on the shift from expert-based to knowledge-based projects and the second on an EU Tacis-project aiming at establishing a school for civil servants in Moldova in the 1990s. Commenting on the TACIS project, Santos offered some important take-aways for participants: “Beware of projects that include a political component - ‘leave politics to politicians’ he said -, pay attention to the aspects of ownership and participation when designing the project, and don’t be obsessed with efficiency, because the only way to sustainability is effectiveness.”

Following the various presentations, a final networking session in the business lounge enabled participants and speakers to continue their discussions in a more informal setting.

“The presentation on ‘Innovation and Project Management in health care’ was very enlightening,” said Benjamin Mulu Musonda, MBA31 student and director of the Zambia Weights & Measures Agency at the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry in Zambia. “Even though the speaker spoke mainly about technical innovations on tangible tools and equipment, I could see possible applications in my own field of work, where we are dealing with more abstract products such as rules and regulations. In this regard, I found it very insightful to learn about new ways to think about and implement innovation and management processes.”

For Rebecca Namagga, an accountant in Uganda, it was the story of the business school for women in Yemen that inspired her the most. “As a woman, it was very useful to learn from another woman how we can stand our ground and overcome the many challenges that come along the way. One of the important tips the speaker gave us was that we as women should always make sure to add value when we say or do something, so that people notice us and want to make us part of projects.”