Project Management

Execution and closure

Henrik Barth
 Set your project team up for success
-which world of work do you belong in?
The Four Worlds of Work in 2030

Source: Workforce of the future – The competing forces shaping 2030, PwC,
www.pwc.com/people
Project management vs Innovations - Friends or foes?

Idea
Idea X
Y
Idea
Z
Lateral thinking – looking at things in a new way

“In traditional reasoning,

we progress logically from
one step to the next.
In lateral thinking, you
must deliberately abandon
this process in order to
eliminate inhibitions.”
Edward de Bono
Lateral vs Logical thinking
Lateral Logical
Wealth of ideas important How solid are they?
Looks for least obvious Focuses on most obvious
answer
Seeks to challenge methods Sticks to proven methods
Thought processes take Moves vertically, step by
sideways moves step
Looks for as many Uses judgement to select
solutions as possible and reject ideas
Lateral Thinking Puzzles I

There are six eggs in

the basket. Six people
each take one of the
eggs. How can it be
that one egg is left in
the basket?
Creating the project group
 The project group

Cultural differences?
A team or just a group?
Norms and rules?
Values and attitudes?
To lead innovation Projects -mission impossible?
What characterize successful
innovation projects?
• An explicit time-based strategy
• Top management commitment and support
• Adequate preparation: mobilizing commitment and resources
– Project evaluation, analysis and planning  strategic reference group
• Efficiency at indirect development activities
– Project control, project administration and co-ordination can account for up to 50% of
total project development time
• Adopting horizontal management style with increased decision making at
lower levels
– Reduces approval delays
• Committed project leader
– Project leadership and skills in business and technology

Source: Barth and Melin, 2018; Barbieri and Alvares, 2016; Rothwell 1994
Dominant design – important feature
for innovation projects

QWERTY
 The dynamics of innovation in industry
–the case of the typewriter
Scholes (1868)

Remington (1874)

Remington Caligraph (1878)

Remington Portable No. 1 Caligraph No.3

Underwood (1893) Hammond

Underwood nr 5 (1899)

Dominant design Failures

 Product vs process

Product innovation
Rate of major innovation

Process innovation

Fluid Transitional Specific

phase phase phase
Source: Utterback, 1996
Managing innovation projects in the fluid,
transitional and specific phase – same thing?

Before? After?
Rate of major innovation

Fluid Transitional Specific

phase phase phase
The fuzzy front end of product
development - industry dependency
SG1 SG2 SG3 SG4 SG5

Volvo (850) project

Losec project
Time

Source: Barth and Berggren, 2001

Lean implementation framework –
customise the process for your project

Source: Barth and Melin, 2018

Lean implementation and challenges

Source: Melin and Barth, 2018

Lateral Thinking Puzzles II
You are driving down the road
in your car on a wild, stormy
night, when you pass by a bus
stop and you see three people
waiting for the bus:
 An old lady who looks as if
she is about to die.
 An old friend who once
saved your life.
 The perfect partner you
have been dreaming about.
Knowing that there can only be
one passenger in your car,
whom would you choose?
Barriers to innovation projects
• Barriers that prevent firms from being
innovative are often related to resource-based
arguments.
• Barriers occurring during firm's innovation
processes are of various categories (for
example timing of market introduction, in-
house competencies etc).
Barriers to inovation –the Swedish case
• Highly centralised decision-making system
• Over-dependence on one or two key
individuals
• Inadequate repetoire of managerial skills and
training
• A paternalistic culture
Comparision of Swedish and Irish
SME’s

Organisational
1 2 3 4 5
levels
Employees in
4 13 50 92 73
Sweden
Employees in
5 15 34 65 90
Ireland
Source: Barth, 2008
Barriers to innovation development
Tangible Intangible
Lack of Planning and Lack of managerial
Strategy skills, resources,
Internal

capabilities etc.

Institutional, export & Lack of favourable

External

financial barriers business networks,

culture etc.

Source: Barth, 2008; Barth et al 2017; Ulvenblad et al 2021

Innovation projects – moving from (just)
manufacturing to service and digitalisation

Product
Service
System

Product(s) Service(s)
and and
Service(s) Product(s)
Product(s) Service(s)

Source: Baines et al., 2007; 2009

Lessons learned on executing and
finishing innovation projects
• Mindset – attitude and commitment for the task
• Adaptability – changes happen all the time
• Evaluate – input for making decisions
– Do formative (on-going) evaluations, not (only) at the end
of the project
– Implement/change during the project, and lessons learned
for next project
• Active in all stages, especially in the end of the project
– Reports, dissemination, communication of results
– Project handover: from the project manager to the
deliverable owner/end-user
Lateral Thinking Puzzles III
A hotel detective was walking along the corridor of a large
hotel one day. Suddenly, he heard a woman's voice cry out
“ For God´s sake, don´t shoot m e John!” Then there
was a shot. He ran to the room from where the shot came
and burst in. In one corner of the room, lay a woman who
had been shot through the heart. One the other side of
the room stood a postman, a lawyer, and an accountant.
The detective looked at them for a moment and then
went up to the postman, grabbed him and said “ I am
arresting you for the m urder of that wom an” .
It was, in fact, the postman who had murdered the woman,
but how did the hotel detective know? Never before had
he seen any of the people in the room.
Thanks!