By Robert Youker
Revised February  2006
Originally presented at ESC, Lille. France, August 2005

For many organizations the capacity to effectively and efficiently manage projects from conception to completion should be considered a core competency.  This means the entire project life cycle not just the implementation phase. Thus project management includes selecting the right projects as well as good implementation.  Some people call this Strategic Project Management or just Strategic Management. 

First we must distinguish between organizations whose whole business is time based contracts, which means all of their business is projects and regular companies where projects are internal like developing new products.  Project Management is certainly a core competency for a construction company where all of their business is projects. 

Professor Sebastian Green, Dean of the University College, Cork, Ireland in an interview in the Spring 2005 IPMA Newsletter, Project Management Practice defines Strategic Project Management as completing “projects which are of critical importance and enable the organization to have a competitive advantage”. There are three attributes to a core competence: it adds value to customers, it is not easily imitated and it opens up new possibilities in the future.  Strategic PM includes the selection of the right projects as well as effective implementation.  Thus we have a continuum of Strategic Objectives and Plan – Portfolio Management – Project Management – Organizations PM Capability.  This takes an organization from Goals to Results. Doing this well can be a core competency.  He says, “Project Management should be promoted to General Managers as the ability to manage across the functions, blending technique procedures with judgment”. 

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Robert Youker Global Advisor Robert Youker is an independent trainer and consultant in Project Management with more than 40 years of experience in the field. Mr. Youker is a graduate of Colgate University and the Harvard Business School, and has studied for a doctorate in behavioral science at George Washington University. His project management experience includes new product development at Xerox Corporation and project management consulting for many companies as President of Planalog Management Systems from 1968 to 1975. He is retired from the World Bank where he developed and presented Project Management courses in Washington DC as well as in China, Pakistan, The Philippines, Turkey, Iraq and in various African countries.  Most recently he was the author of the Instructor’s Resource Kit on The Implementation of Development Projects on CD ROM, released by the World Bank in 2006.  Currently Bob teaches PM courses for the International Law Institute in Georgetown, Washington, DC.