Supekar, R. (febrero,2019).
Sustainable change : rather than run from disruption,
organizations can embrace it and thrive . PM Network, 3 (2) pp. 70. (AR70912)
Getting It Done PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN ACTION
Sustainable Change
Rather than run from disruption, organizations can embrace it—and thrive.
By Rajeev Supekar, PMP
J
apan’s energy landscape has turned
upside down in the past few years. A
country once dependent on nuclear
energy was forced to rush into
renewables after the 2011 Fukushima
Dai-ichi power plant meltdown, the worst nuclear
disaster since Chernobyl.
The disruption wasn’t planned, but project
leaders leaned into it. And the industry has taken
off: Today, renewable energy
accounts for nearly 17 percent
Wind turbines near
Minamisoma, Japan
of the nation’s electricity use,
according to the Renewable
Energy Institute. As someone
who’s managed renewable
energy projects in Japan for
years, here are three factors I’ve
seen help organizations embrace
the novel—with success.
1. PRIORITIZED RISK
MANAGEMENT
Innovation and risk often go
hand in hand, and the entire
team needs to understand risk
management’s importance.
For example, Japan, with its
hills and long seashore, has lim-
ited space for utility-scale power
plants. For one project I worked
on, from 2014 to 2017, we had
to move about 5 million cubic
meters (177 million cubic feet)
of soil to make hilly forest land
suitable for solar panels. When we ran into harder
rock than expected, we turned to controlled explo-
sives, which tested our risk management skills and
required shifting the sequence of development.
But thanks to an experienced team with solid risk
management skills, we completed the project early
and within budget.
70 PM NETWORK FEBRUARY 2019 PMI.ORG
PMN0219-e-Back.indd 70
2. CONTEXTUAL BUY-IN
For disruption to truly take hold, an organization
needs cheerleaders and change agents beyond the
company walls.
In Japan, the government’s proactive embrace of
renewable energy created the right climate for success-
ful change. It began requiring electric utilities to buy
some power generated from renewable energy sources,
with a goal of about a quarter of Japan’s electricity
coming from renewables by 2030. That government
buy-in extends to the local level. On a solar project I
worked on from 2017 to 2018, the project site was a salt
flat, which posed two problems: It was a bird breeding
area, and the salt water easily corroded steel. The city
government helped overcome these by prohibiting con-
struction during bird breeding season and employing
anti-corrosion measures for the plant’s steel.
3. EXTERNAL RESOURCES
In a nascent or innovative field, project leaders can’t
expect to find abundant homegrown talent. So they
must be willing to rely on outside expertise to drive
project success. That’s been the case in Japan, where
as late as the 1990s there were few native experts in
the renewable energy sector and large companies were
reluctant hire non-Japanese executives.
Today, the country has welcomed outside inves-
tors, manufacturers and integrator companies to
the energy sector, meaning that it’s not unusual to
see companies operate in English (and sometimes in
ISTOCKPHOTO
Spanish or French) and employ diverse staffs from
multiple countries.
Although disruption can often feel abrupt, project
leaders poised with the right mindset and willingness
to grow can help organizations write their own suc-
cess stories in the new world. PM
Rajeev Supekar, PMP, is general manager
(construction) at Trina Solar Japan Energy,
Tokyo, Japan.
1/14/19 12:17 PM