About

Are you struggling to execute strategy because you’re struggling to deliver projects? We work with organisations that have vital projects to deliver but ned help in improving performance of their project teams.

Our project management services focus on helping the following people:

  • IT Directors and CIOs
  • Programme Managers and P3MO Managers
  • Finance Directors and Budget Holders
  • Bid and Account Managers

IT Directors and CIOs . . . 

I help technology companies reduce project delivery costs by 10 – 20% while reducing risk of late delivery. With the average large I.T. project overrunning by 45% and overspending by 7% this is a critical issue for most businessesi.  

One of my recent clients, a manufacturer of high-value consumer products operating in over 80 countries worldwide, was struggling to implement its Big Data strategy. With my help they delivered their new cloud-based analytics environment in seven months and saved £330k (11%) from their project budget. As a result, they are now using their new analytics platform to support their global expansion.  

Programme Managers and P3MO Managers . . . 

I help Project, Programme and Portfolio Management Office (P3MO) Managers to execute strategy by improving project team efficiency. P3MOs are under constant pressure from executive leadership teams to demonstrate value, with the constant threat of being disbanded for not demonstrating enough value to justify their existence.  

One of my clients, a major U.K. financial institution, was taking an average of three months to get new projects planned and into execution stage, impacting their ability to deliver their portfolio of around 200 projects. With my help they were able to get projects launched in weeks instead of months and reduce silo working through improved collaborative planning. As a result, they were able to launch projects 40% faster, while identifying and stopping around problematic projects sooner. 

Finance Directors . . . 

I help Finance Directors and Information Technology (I.T) Directors avoid the nightmare of overspending projects by improving on-time project delivery.  

One of my clients, a multi-national insurance company, needed to migrate its Data Warehouse within nine months with a no-slip end date; failure to do so meant having to upgrade its existing platform at a cost of over £3M and threatened to derail its strategy for migrating to the cloud. Expectations were low: six years earlier a similar data migration caused major disruption for the user community that took months to fully resolve. With my help my client was able to move to a hardware platform that was 60% cheaper, on time and with no disruption to business activities. 

Bid Teams and Account Managers . . . 

I help Account Managers convert winning bids into successful projects and services. One of the biggest frustrations of those trying to deliver on a successful bid is fulfilling the commitments made at the bid stage. This often leads to unreal expectations, frustrated clients and tarnished relationships. 

One of my clients, a technology consultancy company, won a bid to provide a new medical screening system. The procurement overran by six months, but the consultancy committed to deliver by the original implementation date. With my help my client delivered the new system a week before the agreed date and 30% under budget, allowing them to avoid penalties for late delivery and commence earning income of £500k/month for the new service. 

My Bio

I’m a project management consultant, coach and author of several books, including ‘Stakeholder Management’. I work with both public and private sector organisations and I specialise in organising and facilitating collaborative planning workshops that create credible plans, generate commitment and build in effective governance.  I also provide training, coaching and mentoring to help develop the skills of the next generation of project leaders. 

What makes me different?

I’ve devised a number of techniques which I use in my business and with my clients. These include:

  • Index Card Planning‘, my proprietary approach to collaborative project planning. It’s what I’ve used to plan projects for my clients for the past 10 years. It’s fast, it’s fun and it works
  • My ‘Project Manager’s Play Book‘. It’s my way of applying project management concepts and techniques to real-life projects, so that my teams take appropriate actions at the right time
  • Stakeholder Sector Analysis‘, my take on stakeholder analysis. Over the past decade it has become clear that almost anyone can wield enormous power through social media to impact large organisations in ways that they couldn’t do before. My stakeholder analysis approach explicitly looks at external stakeholders, making it easier for you to identify them and develop strategies to engage with them.

My project management books

I’ve turned a number of my ideas and ways of working into books to help people achieve better results. I’m the author of several books on project management, including:

  • The Project Planning Workshop Handbook
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Project Definition
  • Project Manager
  • Project Control

Would you like to work with me?

If you would like to achieve similar results to my clients the first step is for us to just have a brief chat.

  • I’m happy to talk to you, in confidence, about your situation and what you’re trying to accomplish. I won’t waste your time on trying to sell myself or my services to you. Instead, we’ll spend time trying to figure out what is right for you
  • If I don’t think I’m right for you I’ll tell you.
  • If I think there’s someone in my network that would do a better job I’ll introduce you to them.