UK Project Management Round Up

Credit Crunch Impact

As the global credit crunch bites ever deeper, the Association for Project Management (APM) has released the findings of its survey into the impact of the economic down turn on the project management community in UK.  So far, the news is generally positive with just over half of respondents reported either no impact or minimal impact.  However, over a quarter of respondents experienced some degree of difficulty - 13.3 per cent indicating that their projects had been ‘greatly affected’ by the downturn. Respondents cited government investment in infrastructure projects as being something protecting project professionals from the worst effects.

It would appear that the businesses are faring worse than projects with almost 40 per cent reporting that the business sector their organisation is in had been affected and some 18 per cent said they had been ‘greatly affected’.

Most at risk are smaller firms. “As with all recessions, it will be the larger companies that will be in a better position to survive and, as such, small business will lose out,” one contributor said. But even big-name players are feeling the pinch. “Work in the aerospace industry has not seen, as yet, any cancellations of programmes; the main pressure has been on cash-flow and looking to delay spend, especially as this has to funded by the organisation I work for,” said another.

Pressure on resources, including people, investment and technology, is also being keenly felt. When asked how they viewed the balance of project management activity in and out of the UK, the majority had experienced a net export in people, investment and technology. Overall business activity in the export market, for example, was more than double import activity: 32.6 per cent net exports compared to 12 per cent net imports.

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