Enterprise project management is a hot topic in recent years. It is generally believed that enterprises can improve their management and business performance after implementing project management. Some domestic enterprises, such as China Luqiao, started the exploration and practice of project management as early as several years ago. Finally, the reporter specially invited Yao Haidong, one of the main participants in China Road and Bridge Promotion Project Management, to talk about the situation of Road and Bridge.
Yao Haidong: Chief Engineer of China Road and Bridge Engineering Company, MBA degree, senior engineer. He has served as project site engineer, project manager, deputy general manager and chief engineer, and worked in John Burrow &; Engineering consulting company and British P & amp； O bovis Project Management Company has worked for many years. Has more than 20 years of practical experience in international engineering projects.
What is the motivation for China Luqiao to implement project management in 2002?
Yao Haidong: In a word, the project management of China Road and Bridge was forced by the environment and seized the opportunity of system reform. China Luqiao was born out of the state government, formerly known as the Foreign Aid Office of the Ministry of Communications, mainly engaged in international engineering business, and gradually grew into a large state-owned enterprise with the reform and opening up. From the end of the 20th century, 265,438 to the beginning of the 20th century, a series of major events happened in the overseas market environment that were not conducive to our business. For example, the Iraq war led to the decline of our business in the Middle East, and the Asian financial turmoil almost brought our business in this region to a standstill. Probably all the driving forces of reform come from adversity. We cannot change adversity, but we can change ourselves. This is one of the main reasons why we implement enterprise project management.
In addition, a series of system reforms of China Road and Bridge have also created project opportunities for enterprises. The organizational structure and system reform of enterprises is not so much the choice of people as the choice of environment. Enterprises in business environment are like creatures in nature, they evolve for survival, or they will be extinct if they don't evolve. What managers need to do is to study how the environment chooses enterprises. For China Luqiao, our enterprise project management is to find a * * * fusion point between serving the country's foreign economic strategy and serving customers (foreign governments) under the impetus of government macro-control and market competition.
What is the organization and operation of enterprise project management? What is the biggest problem in the process?
Yao Haidong: At present, the organizational structure of China Road and Bridge is generally divided into three levels: corporate headquarters, overseas branches and overseas project teams. Like most large state-owned enterprises, corporate headquarters is basically a functional structure, and overseas subsidiaries and project teams basically adopt the project system. In my opinion, any enterprise is influenced by two major environmental forces, one is the government's macro-control called "tangible hand" by Keynes, and the other is the market called "invisible hand" by Adam Smith. The role of government macro-control is generally at the headquarters of state-owned enterprises, while the role of market competitiveness is at the grassroots level of enterprises, that is, our project team. Our overseas branches are the combination of several projects we undertake in an overseas market. The organizational structure of China Road and Bridge Company can be said to be an ecology adapted to the evolution of these two environmental forces: the upper level of the company is functional, and the grass-roots level is a market project.
In terms of process reengineering, we used to pay attention to the workflow of the department, but now we try our best to pay attention to the business (engineering project) process. The project manager's manual we compiled is written according to the project process rather than the professional classification. Select the project process, then determine the node work, and then determine the responsible person, forming a responsibility matrix with the business process as the main line.
The biggest problem encountered in the process of road and bridge project management is the problem of people. Carrying out a management mode, changing the organizational structure and introducing the idea of project management in enterprises is itself a shock and collision to the original ideas, ideas and organizations. As a traditional state-owned enterprise, there are many old rules, and most employees with project management awareness and experience work overseas. They are far away from their homeland and the headquarters of the company, and their size is relatively weak, so there is great resistance to implementing them at the headquarters. Because of this, the reform in this area is gradual. After most problems appear, they are generally decomposed first, tried locally, and then gradually developed. The most important thing is to grasp the degree, such as the understanding of project management by management and employees, the conflict of interests between department employees and project team members, and so on.
What is the effect of road and bridge project management?
Yao Haidong: The project management of road and bridge has achieved very good results. It can be said that if the project management of the enterprise had not been implemented, China Road and Bridge would not have achieved today. In terms of performance, such as the traditional contract amount, turnover, profit and other indicators have increased significantly. The focus of management has gradually shifted from local rules to the overall method to achieve the goal. The vision gradually shifts from looking inward to looking outward, considering not only the interests of enterprises, but also the interests of partners and owners.
Although the current project management has not reached our ideal level, the management system has become flexible, able to cope with market changes in time, and the efficiency and benefit of project management have also been greatly improved. After two years of project management, we stopped the bleeding point of losses and turned losses into profits. Since then, the contract amount has been increasing. Now the contract turnover is more than 10 five years ago, and it is still growing. This is of course related to the general trend of global economic improvement, but without a healthy and flexible management system, we will not be able to grasp the opportunities brought by market prosperity. So I think the project management we implement is actually to introduce a mechanism to adapt to the environment in enterprises. With a good flexible structure, we can better grasp the market and environmental opportunities and accelerate the development of enterprises.
Is it necessary or suitable for all enterprises to implement project management?
Yao Haidong: I think all enterprises need to promote project management. Due to historical reasons, most of our enterprises are inward-looking, giving more consideration to the inside of the enterprise and responding relatively slowly to the outside world. Especially our state-owned enterprises, like to soak in government protection or preferential policies. We often say that enterprise strategy, the project is the carrier of strategy, and the implementation of enterprise project management is the way to establish enterprise strategic management system and achieve strategic goals. Now everyone knows this and realizes that project management is a discipline and a profession. Besides, I think the project is an innovative process, because it begins with creativity and ends with the birth of a new thing. Project management is also a kind of culture. Of course, we should learn advanced international project management theories and methods, but more importantly, we should base ourselves on our own culture, which is the soul of project management in China enterprises. Enterprise project management is related to enterprise strategy, enterprise culture, enterprise organization, enterprise management ideas and ideas, which is of great significance to every enterprise. Nowadays, the world is changing at a high speed, and people's needs are diversified and personalized. No product or brand can meet the needs of many consumers, and no resource allocation can meet the needs of different projects. What enterprises should pursue is to create a special product or service for the special needs of each special customer. It's the project that can do this or close to it, and it's the enterprise managed by the project.
Please give some suggestions to enterprises that want to promote project management.
Yao Haidong: I think five aspects.
The first is to conduct a routine environmental scan. Environmental scanning includes the scanning of the business environment of enterprises and the scanning of national policies. It is the first step to fully understand the living environment of enterprises and recognize their own environment.
Secondly, we should make reasonable strategic goals. In fact, the implementation of project management itself is to set a clear goal for enterprises. Only when you have a goal can you make a plan, and only when you have a plan can you control everything.
The third is step by step. It takes time and process for an enterprise to change from functional management to project management. Project management does not deny the role of functional departments, and any enterprise's business activities need the support of financial and personnel departments. Functional structure has its own charm, otherwise it will not live to this day. Carrying out enterprise project management is a systematic process, and a local change will affect all aspects of the enterprise. Before the new system brings into play its benefits, impulsively launching drastic changes is likely to destroy the original efficiency and make enterprises fall into crisis. All changes can't be made overnight, and it needs time, place and people. In my opinion, there is no strict boundary between projects and functions, and there is no need for major structural changes. The general practice is to gradually reduce departmental barriers and weaken hierarchical boundaries, thus increasing cross-departmental and cross-level cooperation. Collaboration is a team spirit, and team is the main feature of the project.
The fourth is to adjust the personnel system and salary system. If you want to have project management, you must give the project manager a suitable position. In the personnel system of most departmental enterprises, there are only bureau-level cadres, but no senior project managers and project managers, so it is necessary to set up suitable posts for them. A famous job and a seat have corresponding salary scales. This is related to the sense of belonging of employees, so that the sense of belonging of our core employees falls on the project rather than the department.
The fifth is to change the business philosophy. Now everyone regards contract amount, turnover and profit amount as business objectives, and regards quality, safety, occupational health and social obligations as legal constraints and government regulations. When we implement project management, we should consider our purpose. What is our ultimate goal? What are our corporate ideals, business policies, values and ethics? Many people will say it's an empty slogan, a well-known cliche. Yes, the ideal is the skyline we have been pursuing all our lives, but we may never reach it. Values and morality should come from everyone's heart. What we have to do is to put these back in our business activities and put them at the core. Only in this way can we understand why we work so hard to make money.
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