Mar 25, 2010
5 comments
Grow Revenue with Project Management
Good project management can be the missing piece in revenue growth.
Here is a simple test to know if project management could help you grow revenue:
How long does it take you to generate a list of all projects you’re working on?
If the answer is anything greater than 5 minutes, you could benefit from more formal project management and project management software.
A quick case study that demonstrates this point.
A client of ours targeted a division for revenue growth over the next 5 years. They allocated sales people and marketing dollars to capture the opportunity. They saw a market opportunity to grow this division significantly.
Management, though, was worried that the division wouldn’t be handle to handle the growth. They were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to fulfill all the new orders.
Why were they worried? They asked a simple question.
They asked the head of the division to show them a list of all current projects.
The head of the division said she’d get back to them in a day or two.
That’s when red flags started to go off.
If it took the head of the division one to two days just to compile a list of what was going on, there was clearly no process in place. They were flying by the seat of their pants. Without process, the division couldn’t scale. That’s why management was worried.
If growth came, they might get lucky at the beginning, like they have been. Key individuals and long-standing relationships could be relied on to push the work through. But longer term, things will start to break. There are only so many items those key individuals can do. Tasks will fall through the cracks. Deadlines will be blown. Customers will be upset. And all the money spent acquiring new customers will go down the drain.
Project Management is a Foundation for Growth
Management knew they had to create a more mature and uniform process. They needed to formalize their processes into projects and implement project management software to keep things together and provide instant access to information. This initiative became part of the overall investment in revenue growth for that division, as critical as sales people and marketing dollars.
Once complete, the head of the division was able to generate a list of projects in one to two seconds, instead of one to two days. The division was on firm footing to grow revenue.
So if you want to see if a lack of project management is holding back growth, see how long it takes to put together a list of all ongoing projects. If its anything longer than 5 minutes, you have a problem.
