Opinion

Managing project management

By Andrew Moody (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-29 14:17

Veteran praises China for firm decisiveness and coordination

Steve Fahrenkrog,vice-president for regional development of the Project Management Institute

BEIJING - Steve Fahrenkrog believes China has left its economic rival India in the shade when it comes to delivering major projects.

The vice-president for regional development of the Project Management Institute said the success of the Beijing Olympics compared with the fiasco of the recent Delhi Commonwealth Games proved a point.

"I think the structure here in China allows for maybe a little more decisiveness than elsewhere and that provides an advantage for Chinese project managers," he said.

Fahrenkrog, who is responsible for PMI in both India and China, is quick not to lay the blame on Indian project managers but on the country's often-chaotic planning system.

"In India when they built the new airport in Hyderabad (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport), the national government was responsible for the airport and the state government the roads. The airport was ready but the roads were not," he said.

"They didn't have the same level of coordination at all levels of the government you saw here in China with the Olympics."

Fahrenkrog was in Beijing to receive the prestigious "Friendship Award" from the Chinese government, one of the highest honors a foreign expert - workers brought into the country because of their skills - can receive in China.

"It is absolutely a great honor. I am awestruck the Chinese government should consider me for this award. I am humbled by the fact and it is also a recognition of the great team we have here," he said.

PMI, which was launched in 1984, first developed links with China in 1999 and set up its first representative office in China in 2002. Around 34,000 of its 400,000 certified professionals are now in China.

Fahrenkrog is quick to point out that project management existed as a concept in China well before the arrival of his organization.

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"I would say it was very well developed in China considering the success the country had had with infrastructure projects in the 1990s. I think Chinese projects managers tend to be very demanding and I think that is partly why they are successful," he said.

He believes the nature of Chinese companies tends also to drive success.

"In my experience Chinese companies tend to be more hierarchical than in some other countries such as the United States and that to some extent fosters some of that will," he said.

Fahrenkrog, who joined PMI in 2000 after a 30-year career in the United States Navy, said he was pleasantly surprised when he first visited China eight years ago.

"After being in the United States during the Cold War I had a lot of misconceptions about China when I first came here. I saw a country that was much more advanced than I had read about in the press and the people were exceptionally friendly and helpful," he recalls.

"During the time since I have seen amazing changes and the things which have been accomplished here, I haven't seen in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. The ability to make decisions and get things done is awe inspiring."

Fahrenkrog said that this did not mean PMI, whose operations here are headed by managing director Bob Chen, could be complacent in China.

"If there is a problem here in China it is that when someone gets a credential (a PMI project management qualification) they think it is all done with, more so perhaps than in other parts of the world," he said.

"I wouldn't want to see a doctor who had had no continuing education over the past 10 years. Project managers need to be lifelong learners and need to be constantly keeping up with improvements in the practice of project management," he said.