Project management today is not quite the same as it used to be in past decades. Budgets are tight; competition is fierce and time frames demanding. And the penalties for failure are severe.

I recall a fundamental tenet that was preached in the past by a technical guru I respect. His axiom: Projects can be Good, Cheap and Fast – pick any two. In today’s competitive environment, the prizes go to those who can deliver all three, without compromise.

Project management tips

You’ve probably heard the expression, "Think outside the box". It relates to the puzzle which shows 9 dots which you have to connect using only 4 straight lines, without any disconnect between the lines. Many people assume that they are limited to stay within the box, and end up finding it impossible. But it’s easy – if you go “outside the box.”

Good project managers don’t “assume” any limitations – budgets, people, time, distance. Many supposedly basic requirements can be changed, minimized, or even eliminated. Every practical possibility must be considered, without sacrificing quality and performance.

I recall one consistently successful project manager who used free resources and excess inventory around the plant in ways that no one thought possible. He expanded time through working shifts around the clock. He was tough, but always fair with his people. They enjoyed working for him and competed to be on his team. They were proud to be on budget, on time, every time! To succeed, he simply went beyond normal hierarchical limits and conventional thinking – he operated "outside the box".

Technology makes a difference

There is no trick to what I am pointing out – just plain, Internet age common sense. Let me relate a real-life example.

Winning market-share in digital cameras

When Sanyo lost the battle for market share in video cameras to Sony and others, they recognized that they had a lot of talented electronics and imaging people on their hands. Rather than lose them to competitors, they invested heavily in digital camera development, and came up with several significant advances. And then, rather than invest in promoting the relatively unknown Sanyo name, they figured that recognized cameras such as Olympus and Nikon could probably outsell the Sanyo brand. So they made marketing alliances, which quickly got results.

With resolution improvements, expanded memory capabilities and plummeting prices, the market for digital cameras has been outstripping that of conventional film cameras over the past few years. Kodak, the photography leader, was at great risk from a technology twist that arrived in less than a decade.

In ’96, George Fisher, the then relatively new CEO of Kodak, recognized that his company had better come up with a good digital camera fast, or risk losing market share to Casio, Sony and a hundred others. Fisher asked the Kodak development projects group how long it would take to develop a new digital camera. They said 3 years – a reasonable estimate in a conventional sense.

But, recognizing the company’s predicament, Fisher went “out of the box”. He gave the project to a rookie manager – with orders to come up with a new digital camera within 6 months and put it into high-volume production to be available on the shelves by Christmas ’97. Today Kodak is still a player in the burgeoning digital camera business. Without that first high-speed development project, it would be toast.

How was it done? The results came through round-the-clock, Internet-based project management and product development teams at several worldwide Kodak development centers and alliance partners around the globe. While some slept, others were working and handing off results to others in the chain. Modern project management technology and new concepts of marketing alliances provide the answers.

In today’s fast-moving business environment the companies which do not, or cannot, see the possibilities for new growth lose market share to those who can. Happily, there are people who recognize the opportunities. They become the new leaders of tomorrow.