The 2010 Winter Olympics project team got some bad news last week, thanks mainly to the growing worldwide recession.
Toronto, Canada-based telecom company Nortel filed for bankruptcy after posting a CA$3.14 billion loss last November. As of now, however, the company is saying it will remain a sponsor.
Also, earlier last week, the host city of Vancouver, British Columbia, also had to seek out CA$450 million from the government to help with over budget projects, including the athletes village.
All that negative press led to the resignation of Jody Andrews, deputy city manager for Vancouver in charge of the Olympic Village project.
And the Vancouver Organizing Committee board held a special meeting to create a new recessionary budget.
Editor's Note: This post is part of a yearlong series on the 2010 Olympics. For more information, read past posts and checkout PMI.org/features.
Toronto, Canada-based telecom company Nortel filed for bankruptcy after posting a CA$3.14 billion loss last November. As of now, however, the company is saying it will remain a sponsor.
Also, earlier last week, the host city of Vancouver, British Columbia, also had to seek out CA$450 million from the government to help with over budget projects, including the athletes village.
All that negative press led to the resignation of Jody Andrews, deputy city manager for Vancouver in charge of the Olympic Village project.
And the Vancouver Organizing Committee board held a special meeting to create a new recessionary budget.
Editor's Note: This post is part of a yearlong series on the 2010 Olympics. For more information, read past posts and checkout PMI.org/features.
I think we should look at the current economic downslide as an oppurtunity and work more effectively to achieve the goal. We need to refocus on the three core project management aspects namely Time, Cost, Scope and yet not letting our eyes off from the all important aspect of Quality and risk management.
We need to prioritise the items into groups say 1,2,3 with items on higher priority at group 1 and with lesser priority at group 2 and so on.
We then channelise our energy to those items which are higher on priority. In the meantime, various alternate and effective solutions for items under group 2 and 3 should be worked out which can bring down the cost. The scope for these items should also be looked at for any adjustment which can be made.
By doing so, I feel we can come up with more effective solutions to make the project a great success inspite of all odds.
Regards and wishing all the best for the teams involved.
Thanks, Kelley, for posting this note. It is important for the profession in many ways. I read about the Nortel bankruptcy in the FINANCIAL TIMES. Yesterday's FT said that they would at least come through to provide the promised communications.
The big issue seems to be the risk associated with the post olympic value of the construction. Basically, the housing markets are what help developers sell investors on investing in the Olympic villages and the community facilities. In Vancouver (and also in London for the 2012 Olympics), the housing markets remain a big risk, so it is nearly impossible to interest private investors in putting money into the facilities. The result is that the governments are having to foot the bill.
In Vancouver, this is leading to a potential downgrading to lowering of their credit rating, making it harder still for the government to borrow the money. In London, it means that they are releasing loans and reserves to pay for the villages.
I think that PM's are still going to be working on the projects, but they may very well be working with far more government oversight, particularly in ANY infrastructure or public project. It means a very rigorous look of how project money is spent. This is NOT the time for a poor performance of PM's. Scope creep must be offset by better requirements planning; slides in economic conditions must be offset by better vigilance and risk management; and budget overruns have to be contained. this is a great time to prove the worth of PM's and the worst time to fail.
Kelley, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Editor’s note: See more of Greg’s perspective on the impact of the economic crisis on the project management profession in his blog, A CEO’s Perspective on Project Management.