Project Management Read Case Studies Project Management

Project Management

Read case studies Project Management Institute, Inc. (2007) PMI® case study: project management improves Lenovo's strategy execution core competitiveness [Online] Project Management Institute, Inc. Available: http://www.

Project management comparison: Lenovo vs. planning Canada Games 2005

Every large endeavor or organization contains challenges for the project manager. In the case of Lenovo, the Chinese computer firm was faced with increasing competition from its major competitors Dell and HP. Lenovo needed to fundamentally alter its standard operating procedures and approach. No specific financial constraint was placed upon the reform: it was resolved that to continue to remain competitive and to generate revenue, changes were needed. In contrast, the 2005 Canada Games was a time-specific project with a specific start and end date. The organizers had 40 months and a $23.4 million budget to bring the games to fruition.

Lenovo fundamentally changed the approach of project managers at its organization, prioritizing "expanding into new markets, solving underlying problems, enhancing organizational efficiency, integrating strategic resources or improving employee satisfaction or capabilities" and the facilitation of cooperation between different departments to realize organizational goals (PMI® case study: project management improves Lenovo's strategy execution and core competitiveness, 2007, Project Management Institute, Inc.: 2). It formally established a Project Management Office (PMO) to coordinate these strategic projects. It earmarked specific funds that were to be devoted to project management alone and funded PMP® certification exam for managers so they would know how to systematically apply project management standards. In short, Lenovo made a substantive commitment to project management in terms of money, time, and manpower.

In contrast to the permanent nature of the challenges embarked upon by Lenovo to deal with specific market pressures, the Canadian Games are a nonprofit organization. Every year, there are different challenges based upon the situational nature of the games. In 2005, the abundance of volunteer forces and the expansion of the games resulted in a change of its project management approach. "This new model would have to provide a simple methodology, which could easily be applied by volunteer project managers in each of the games' 16 operating divisions while maintaining strict project management best practices" (The 2005 Canada Games, 2007, Project Management Institute, Inc.:, 2). As with Lenovo, quality control was a concern, as was accountability. Regular reports were issued to top executives through the formal reporting techniques to ensure that necessary tasks were being accomplished on time for the Canada Games to be a success.

While Lenovo was striving to increase cooperation between different departments as part of its efforts, with an attempt to create new ideas and projects, for the Canada Games, the primary desire was realizing planning objectives. The 'creativity' of planning and decision-making had already taken place, now the mammoth operation itself had to be undertaken in a systematic fashion. The schedule of the Canada Games was fundamentally more compressed than that of Lenovo, requiring tighter management. Its scope was also finite in nature -- rather than nurture talent and build a brand, its goal was to put on a specific event with a beginning and end date.