The Purpose of the Book :The Forward Looking Manager in a VUCA world.
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I had mentioned ‘Junoon’ or the ‘Passion’ to do a work a project or any operation. Even writing this book was a ‘Junnon’ for me. However Junnon is something related to the individual, it drives us. When it combines with doing something for others, it then becomes a purpose.
Our purpose is to help others. When I started writing this book ‘The Forward-Looking Manager in a VUCA world’s, one and half years back, I had in my mind the struggling Project engineer or the executive or the manager who despite all his sincerity and hard work was up against losses.
The Operational /Project manager was always in a firefighting mode, surviving one storm after another. It was an accepted norm that Project Management meant he will be only chasing supplier or contractor for failing commitments in manpower or material, while all other planning and execution control was with other stakeholders or his superiors.
There was no empowerment of taking decisions with Project or Operational managers, and it was with functional managers who also had massive egos to deal with. Project/Operations was a power-struggle of various stakeholders who were wanting to get more recognition for their own identity. Nobody was bothered about end results. In other words, the Operation or Project manager was always in a reactive mode to survive in problems instead of doing some smart planning work or controlling all stakeholder executions to prevent those problems.
It was also the Project Managers, and Operation managers to themselves blame for this predicaments. They did not train themselves to be leaders to have their own space under the Sun. They failed to apply themselves with learning, and also refused to first take charge of the Head Office responsibility and later further percolate down to ground team leaders. In other words, there were no leaders under the leader in Project except one odd boss who controlled everything and took all on himself and did not get time to do justice to each decision. Rest all are expected to play a Zombie Role.
I also saw in many companies the failed commitments and Minutes of Meeting washed down the drain. Nobody refused, but there was no honor in complying what one said or committed. It was again an accepted norm that the reviews will be washed up with real issues slipped under the carpet till one day the cost increases so much that it is difficult to hide from the management.
Then the real culprits who caused the losses also go unquestioned with zero accountability. It was again an accepted norm that no questions of accountability will be asked all under the grab of tagline ‘great working environment.’ A good working environment does not mean that a few job losses of inconsequent people will only happen, but real culprits who caused millions of dollars losses refused to change.
Mostly, the companies the world over that is struggling are due to such inefficient project or operation in charges be it a site in charge or a project manager or operation manager or the Head Boss who resist change management. For them, it is all about to survive somehow and complete the project and not preventing losses or waste.
I have seen companies where accountability of Operation and Project in charges or HOD is less for causing so many losses that they had to lose orders to competitors or shut down operations as they suffered losses after losses. When the companies get shut down, then employees were not paid in due. King Fisher is a classic example with zero accountability of bad leaders causing losses and operations gone for a toss.
I saw a couple of Public Sector Projects that never ends, with triple the original cost with no closure anywhere. We bill them for increased delays, but we didn’t realize that those Public Sector Projects are milking our own taxes. It was again an accepted norm to cover up our own and government officials inefficiency, losses, and waste that is caused. Fortunately, respected Prime Minister is himself now monitoring these PSU Projects.
On the other hand, the Private sector directly charged penalties and heavy fines and that also hit us in our profits ultimately affecting our pay structure and incentives. I have also seen small players winding up business because they could not get paid by big players customers as penalties of lousy work were so much in smartly made contracts that they could not meet the Key Performance Indices or deliverable quality.
The most significant losers, in the end, were junior and middle rung or senior managers with inflation cost of living. All blamed the company but not realizing that they were themselves only responsible for causing all losses in some way due to bad operations and project practices and low-quality projects results. When a cost overrun is happening we fail to realize that it will hit us in the end.
The Top Management and Sales team responsible for bringing in new orders are struggling against new players who are quoting fewer prices in competitive bidding because these small companies can work lean without a bureaucratic structure. The irony is even if one gets an order booking at a lesser cost in a competitive bidding, the question is are they capable of doing the project at less cost. International orders require so much advance coordination to keep the cost within control.
Then why not change?
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So the purpose of the book ” The Forward-Looking Manager in a VUCA world” is to spread the awareness that it is possible to control the chain of Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous events that cause a loss and delay in our projects and operations. Let’s realize that ultimately VUCA cost us additional amount to resolve it and it will affect our company profits and our own lives.
Do read the book to understand and develop the skill sets of Armed Forces and good companies that are thriving in a VUCA world. If they can do well in adversity so can others. Learn the disruptive planning, execution and control methods in the book that can be used for advance coordination that is needed to ensure there is no VUCA that will cause rework or delays and add to cost.
The next generation of managers and engineers have to be the change agents and bring in best of working methods to survive in an ever-evolving world with VUCA happening regularly. Be the disrupter than being the one who is disrupted. Grow from being a manager to a leader to take charge of VUCA.
Happy reading
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