Kroupa, PMP, project manager at insurance giant
Allstate, Chicago. “You have to be more creative about
building relationships to get the work done.”
KNOW IT ALL
Over the years Chicago has forged its own brand of
project management—one that plays well in today’s
business environment.
“In New York, you’ve got Wall Street, the financial district, fashion, the glamour stuff. Here in Chicago, you’ve got
insurance, pharmaceutical, telephony and candymaking
companies. As a project manager here, you cut your teeth
having to know everything,” Mr. Kroupa says. “You put on
your business analyst hat in one room and you put on your
system analysis and designer hat in another room, then you
go down the hall in your matrix environment and put on
your developer’s hat. You need to draw upon all of your
experiences to ask the right questions at the right time.”
Given the current economic state of affairs, on-time
and on-budget are no longer enough. Project managers
are looking at every aspect of their projects’ processes
and using whatever works, even looking across industries
to glean new tactics to incorporate into their game plan.
Katrina Markoff started Vosges Haut-Chocolat in
her kitchen in 1998 and quickly gained a reputation for
world-class chocolate by incorporating unorthodox
taste combinations like wasabi, ginger, chipotle
chilies—and even applewood smoked bacon. Today,
Vosges sells more than three million chocolates a
year. Just as the company assembled its unique
recipes by borrowing flavors from around the world,
Vosges’ vice president, Jason Scher, built his project
management strategy from techniques he took from
the construction trade.
“There are a lot of parallels to be made,” he says.
One of the ways Vosges tries to set itself apart, for
example, is through its elaborate packaging. But creative forces can spin out of control without strong leadership. So when it comes time to launch a project to
design that packaging, Mr. Scher applies project management principles from construction—paying close
attention to material costs and conveying those to his
creative teams.
“Communicating to them the necessary costs, budget
and schedule is key. When changes that they make are
going to affect all of the above, giving them a lot of
information to make educated decisions is crucial,”
explains Mr. Scher.
But to foster the kind of true innovation that can set a
company apart, the team also has to feel it’s being heard.
“To run a successful project from start to finish, you have
to let the ideas come out without shouting them down,”
says Mr. Scher. “It’s important to not get bogged down in
what can’t happen or the details of costs in the early stages.
Those things shut off creativity very quickly—it needs to be
about possibility and ideas.”
Project managers in Chicago—like everywhere else
in the world—are learning to adapt and stay focused on
the project management fundamentals.
“These days it’s more about communication than
control,” says Jason Fried, owner of Chicago-based
software developer 37signals. “Best practices, shorter
timelines, better products. Stop the bickering. Stop the
politics, because you may not be around when the
smoke clears. Stay focused on doing simple things, not
the sexy stuff. There’s no rocket science here. It’s back
to the basics and focusing on the things that matter:
What do you need to get your project done?” PM
APRIL 2009 PM NETWORK
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>>ON THE MAP: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA
