Caesar had joined the organisation in 2010 from a strong career overseas including Deloitte’s consulting. In his role, he hired the new Business Development Manager and commissioned the business process mapping of all existing business processes and hired two contract business analysts to undertake this. According to the HR Director, he was expected to take over as Managing Director.
It is of interest that despite the pressures at OABC with his subsequent rise to Managing Director, Caesar had embarked on a PhD at Monash University.
Attitudes and Motivation
Caesar had already attended the Executive briefing prior to the pre- training interviews and wanted to be included in the PRINCE2 training course. His rationale for undertaking the training was to improve his knowledge of project management as “it was a skill which was transportable” (Caesar, Pre-Training).
According to Caesar, staff had been in OABC so long that they had not been exposed to ‘best practices’ outside. He endorsed the project management initiative of PRINCE2 training as part of the Senior Leadership Team stating that these project management skills would make a difference to the organisation’s ability to meet their strategy:
Although there are ideas, plans and strategies in place, OABC finds itself without the project management tools and skillsets within the organisation to actually make it happen effectively. (Caesar, Pre-Training)
He was interested in getting accurate data on return on investment for project initiatives, to build knowledge bases and to undertake post implementation reviews of completed projects:
We do not have accurate data on return on investment for our projects. We do not keep a knowledge database of lessons learned. PRINCE2 would assist us in this. (Caesar, Pre-Training)
Caesar stated that the rationale for commissioning the PRINCE2 training was to give staff the skills to deliver projects well which would support the business to grow:
If we don’t imbibe these skills and make sure that the vast majority of our people have these skills, it will hamper our ability to grow our business as a company in the future… Giving them skills would make them more confident in delivering results. The course would deliver tremendous benefits for the whole organisation.(Caesar, Pre-Training) Caesar acknowledged how PRINCE2 would provide a common language and a common platform for their organisation and would provide benefits to OABC in delivering projects (Caesar, Pre-Training).
Personal qualities
The following results were compiled during the pre-training interviews.
Caesar stated that most important personal quality was to be personable and possess a positive ‘can-do’ attitude. Caesar articulated that project managers needed to focus on solutions and not on problems. In his opinion, a key attribute of a successful project manager was that of displaying good people and leadership skills. It was important to carry a team as “people work for people”.
People don’t work for an organisation, people work for other people. (Caesar, Pre-Training)
It was necessary to have the skills to manage conflict and to work with limited resources. It was important to ensure that people were inspired to give their very best. This would take leadership. It was important to do things ‘with’ people and not ‘to’ people.
The outward signs or manifestation of a good project manager for Caesar were: not being stressed, being well planned, organized, staying calm and focused.
General Observations
From Caesar’s pre-training interviews, he believed that project team members wanted to be on projects with people who could make the team experience “fun” and engender a sense of belonging. He believed that the approach of being focused on solutions and to think and act as a business owner could be taught:
I believe that I can take salaried, employed staff on a journey to change their mindset to focus on solutions and to think and act as business owners. I believe that I can teach old dogs new tricks. (Caesar, Pre-Training)
After PRINCE2 Training
After the PRINCE2 training, the business analysts were tasked to put together a list of projects and their associated Project Briefs in accordance with the PRINCE2 methodology. These Project Briefs were provided to Caesar and members of the Senior Leadership team to make decisions on prioritization. However, Caesar and the Senior Leadership team still made decisions on project priorities in a reactive way rather than looking at the full portfolio of projects to be completed:
We have had a few wins at OABC in that Caesar has embraced it to a point. You still get the ‘knee-jerk’ practical reactivity you have to do this…We see the whole picture and we see what needs to be done. Caesar’s view is somewhat superficial as what needs to be done. It is reactive. (Mary and Martha, Post Training 5+)
In a telephone interview four months after the PRINCE2 training, Caesar stated that there had been slow progress in applying PRINCE2 methodology to projects as insufficient time was being allocated to delivering projects:
I have been ‘flat out’ and given the day to day demands of business as usual, there has been insufficient time set
aside for projects. So projects were running slowly. (Caesar, Post Training 5+)
Nevertheless, he was the sponsor of the ‘Flexible delivery option’ project which was being managed by the Business Development Manager, Mark who was a strong advocate for the PRINCE2 methodology:
Mark is managing the Flexible delivery option project and this has a business case and received business approval. I am fortunate to have a project manager who is a strong advocate for the PRINCE2 methodology. (Caesar, Post Training 5+)
However other projects in OABC had made no progress whatsoever. For example, the ‘Centralized Warranty Claim Processing’ project, being led by the Marketing Director was an example:
There is no progress on the Centralized Warranty Claim Processing project because the sponsor and the project manager are weak in executing projects. They did not attend the PRINCE2 course. (Caesar, Post Training 5+)
In October 2014, Caesar was appointed the Managing Director of OABC and spearheaded a changed business model for OABC which was a radical departure of how OABC had operated for over forty years:
We are going through a level of transformational change that has not happened in over 40 odd years in the company’s history… A level of change that has not happened since then. We are going through at a neck breaking speed. (Frank, Post Training ++)
There was some doubt that the changed business model had been thought through properly. The Business Development Manager, Mark commented that the new strategy was not based on detailed analysis:
The strategy is from the whiteboard – there was no analysis done. He (Caesar) sells himself as strategic but his behaviour is all tactical. (Mark, Post Training ++)
Throughout the period of the research study, Caesar paid ‘lip service’ to PRINCE2 and was observed by other participants to not apply the
methodology to his projects. For example, with the ‘Returns’ project, Caesar wanted to manage it using an Excel sheet rather than applying the full PRINCE2 methodology to delivering this project:
Huge issue of the ‘Returns’ project. He (Caesar) wanted to run it using an Excel sheet.(Mark, Post Training 5+).