Corporates working together - just think what we could achieve
The end of the year fast approaches and like many of us I am reflecting on “what have we achieved?” and “what shall we aspire to next year?”
Regarding the Corporate Members Leadership Group (CMLG) I am more than happy with some aspects. There appears to my eyes to be a much greater ‘organic involvement’ from the members. We are seeing corporates work together on subjects and bring them to the CMLG to discuss and work through some issues.
This is precisely what it is about for me, using the offices and enabling mechanisms within APM to help facilitate wider debate and get the corporate resources more engaged – just think what we could achieve if we managed to align all the human, financial and capital resources within our organisations.
The CMLG represents key organisations who share APM’s passion for improving project outcomes. Members reflect the pan-sector nature of project management and works with the association by acting as a critical friend, sharing in the creation of resources, influencing others and challenging APM to derive and deliver a programme of improvement measures.
We are also laying the groundwork for greater interaction within the research and academic community and next meeting we will benefit greatly I think, from the expos of the APM strategy so that we can look for greater alignment and interaction there.
Looking forward we can undoubtedly do more: I want to see more of the above, ‘deeper and wider’ and we need to use the strategy work to influence and drive a much more integrated joint approach. This of course takes time and trust and openness need to be further developed, but the good signs exist.
We are also starting to travel a bit more around the sites of the various organisations and I hope to see more of this. Our profession is about delivering products and services and seeing this come to life reminds us that what we do makes a real difference.
Paul holds a BA from Leicester University, an MBA from Cranfield and for over 20 years has held a variety of senior and influential roles in project management. These include high profile positions as programme director of complex programmes such as Nimrod MRA4 for BAE Systems and the A340-500/600 for Airbus UK. Paul’s other roles have included head of project management, UK and rest of world for BAE and director, programme and project management for Fujitsu UK/Ireland. He is currently VP, Bids and Programmes for Thales UK and Chair of the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS). Paul joined APM in 2000 and was awarded a fellowship in June 2009. He is currently chairman of the the Corporate Members Leadership Group (CMLG), which represents key organisations who share APM’s passion for improving project outcomes.
1 comments
Log in to post a comment, or create an account if you don't have one already.
A phone rings in CEO's office, or an email arrives. The CEO's PA fields these, some pass this crucial filter, others do not. A key challenge for APM's leaders is to be in the group that survives the filter. Given that some of APM's corporate members invest tens, even hundreds of millions in project activity annually, APM should pass the filter, and yet..........It would be good to know that CMLG members could walk into their CEO's office and engage on matters of value to both the CEO and APM. I know some can, and yet.........Historically APM has not achieved good levels of C level engagement, changing this is a major challenge.