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Strategic Business Initiatives Experience
 Catalyst
has helped a mid-sized utility develop and deploy a project offi ce to provide
consistent project deployment in its organization. Catalyst's support has
included elements such as position descriptions for project managers, developing
agreement among members of executive steering committee, project initiation
process, project management process, and project prioritization process.
A
division large
agribusiness firm has used Catalyst's services to improve its development and
implementation of growth strategy designed to double sales (with improved
margins) in the next decade. Through probing questions and coaching, Catalyst helped top managers identify its core competencies,
define its markets and industries, evaluate strengths and weakness with regard
to competitive rivalry, and develop a growth plan. Top managers at this firm
have continued to ask for Catalyst's help in facilitating tactical meetings to
evaluate growth opportunities and to develop a more formalized business
development process.
A large US-based
aerospace/automotive components firm had made a strategic decision to
consolidate manufacturing operations in Europe. Catalyst facilitated a project
acceleration workshop that resulted in a program plan for executing the
decision. Workshop participants included senior managers from all
affected European operations as well as US executives and technical
staff. The result was an agreed-to process for achieving the needed
results in a politically-charged and risky business environment.
Assessment of Project Delivery
Capability and Capacity - For a large architectural-engineering firm,
Catalyst conducted an assessment of company's capability for managing projects.
The work included interviewing representatives of each of the company's
strategic business units, working with a steering committee, and consolidating
recommendations into a unified strategy with specific steps for improvement.
The IT business unit of a global
energy company engaged us to help capture what it takes to be a successful
project manager in the company's environment. Having the right mix of talented
project managers for a changing business environment is important. Leveraging our research in the
area of project manager competencies, we developed and used an interview
assessment and analysis technique to help this client discern key success
factors unique to its environment. The information we developed clarified the
client's decision-making concerning the overall program to improve project
management capability.
Consulted as facilitator and project leader of a
six-person senior management team that developed an integrated
marketing program. We provided training in cross-functional teams and this enabled participants to work out differences
in perceptions of the market place and agree on a unified deployment of
limited resources. The establishment of the team marked a positive,
reengineered change in the business culture of this service provider
organization.
Consulted as facilitator to top managers in
evaluating regional engineering consulting business environment and developing
new strategies for distinctive advantage. Included key markets, internal
capabilities development, total organization integration, information systems,
and clarifying strategic objectives.
Mentored and trained key
professional staff
from four offices of a major consulting firm in the basic concepts and
techniques of project management. As part of the engagement, created a basic
project management template for proposals and mapped documentation links to
accounting function and upper management.
For a large consumer products company, we assisted
in a multifunctional project startup workshop. We assisted project
participants in taking a significant enterprise performance goal and break
the work into manageable chunks. The five teams were then able to develop
(with the support of the Catalyst facilitator) a detailed work plan and
approach for meeting the goals.
For a
Architectural-Engineering firm, we provided project management training for all
levels of the firm (CEO on down), as part of a strategic initiative to improve
operations.
Mentored a project team who
were transferring manufacturing technology and competencies from one facility to another. Included reconceptualizing the product to reinvigorate the business.
Major
IT Project Acceleration: This client's number one project of the year, a
major customer information system application implementation was foundering
during start-up. Catalyst provided a focused project acceleration workshop that
uncovered several planning improvement areas and identified specific recovery
steps for senior management who have since steered this project to an acceptable
level of control. Catalyst continues to be consulted concerning issues during
the progress of this program.
Coaching
and Mentoring: We assisted key players of a newly
formed project management office develop and execute skills and knowledge
necessary for leading a substantial change management program across the
company.
Catalyst assisted a major IT services company with the development and implementation
of a project management process, which called for the integration of three
major lines of business in adherence to a common practice. The process
address practices and procedures across the company's four-phase life cycle.
Program
Development for Process Improvement: Catalyst is helping a utility company
build its business process improvement capability. We are coaching the
establishment of a program approach to building the company's process
improvement capability, linking it to the context of balanced scorecard,
portfolio management, and an adjunct project management improvement program.
Established a program-project office for a major insurance organization that
supported scope, schedule, risk, and communications management processes to
150 projects. Developed other standard tools and reporting methods that
gave project stakeholders an objective information source for decisions.
Consulted with senior executives of an
entrepreneurial enterprise in the planning, development, and implementation of
seven projects over a 10-month period to facilitate the introduction of novel technologies.
Catalyst has been providing ongoing mentoring
support for a program manager and project teams for development of an Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system using PeopleSoft. Our work has included process
definition and redesign, requirements capture and documentation, project
planning support, procurement (RFP) support, and risk analysis.
Catalyst
provided a project prioritization technique to the IT support consultant of a
major consumer products company. The technique helped to quickly clarify
priorities. We received this note:
"I now have a prioritized list from the Division Executive Management
staff. Next steps are to perform the analysis and prioritize again based on different criteria. We're making progress! The Executive Management group
liked the technique and plan to use it throughout their functional areas.
"
Catalyst supported a project
recovery effort involving a comprehensive evaluation and re-planning effort for
an enterprise software deployment. Over a period of several days, we provided
our project acceleration workshop approach, and helped follow up in capturing
and documenting project planning details. Here is an update that our
client provided:
" We successfully went live with the fulfillment piece of our project yesterday according to
our Project Plan. It went phenomenally smooth yesterday with only a few printer glitches. We have 14
[user group] people that also have access to Oracle. I cannot thank you enough for the guidance that you
gave my team on the development of our WBS and Project Plan. As of last Friday, we were 84%
complete. The mood is very positive on this team as well as the other
[client] users. Again, thank you for your help."
For the Information Systems Department of a major
consumer manufacturing company, Catalyst facilitated two project startup workshops
improve specification of its requirements for proposals, to assure the projects
were properly selected, initiated and executed.
For a large insurance company, we facilitated the
design and deployment of a project initiation process. We applied the
principles of pipeline management and portfolio management as a conceptual
framework for creating a vision for developing systems capabilities. The
approach resulted in considerably improved internal communications and
decision making. The firm's Chairman recognized the result of this work. The
benefits to the client included:
- Better (more accurate and more complete) information for proposals and
project initiation
- Progress in developing each of the current projects
- Knowledge transfer from experienced project managers to client staff
- Initiating work toward developing and demonstrating a defined, common,
repeatable project planning process (with models and templates) that
improves communications and productivity
- Creating a work environment that fosters attention to risk, timely
communication, and improving from lessons learned
Provided process and facilitation for a joint user-developer
risk assessment for a major insurance company. Helped the project team
identify and carefully describe over 40 risk items. Of those, 32 were in the
"high" or "medium high" category. Then identified top 11
risks for further treatment. Most identified risks involved resource issues
and prioritization. Assisted in developing a risk response strategy.
Facilitated the project team to identify owners and action items for the risk
events.
Project
Office Reference Review: For a major publisher of project management guides
and references, Catalyst provided a comprehensive subject matter expert review,
because of our experience, research, and current knowledge of the project
management industry and its trends.
This is not a complete listing of Catalyst Management Consulting's
experience. Please check out the other experience described for Assessment, and
New
Product Development .
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