A Whole System Approach to Major Projects – End Game Thinking

In the late 1980s Jan Carlzon transformed SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) into the best in Europe from what had been “the sickest of sick men”. He said, “the first 15 second encounter between a passenger and the airline sets the tone of the entire company in the mind of the customer, it is the ‘moment of truth’”. Similarly, in whatever industry a major project is undertaken, however well the project is delivered, irrespective of time and budget savings, there will come the ‘moment of truth’ when the project becomes part of everyday life and almost instantaneously will become a success or labelled as a failure. The opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow is a classic example – the well-executed project was overshadowed by problems with baggage handling. So much so that the BBC asked: What went wrong at Heathrow’s T5? This seminar will examine whether the major projects community ought to work harder to understand the system that the asset they are delivering is part of not just so that the ‘moment of truth’ feels like a success but so that it is more likely that the outcomes and wider benefits will be delivered. Given the timescales of Major Projects do we lose some of that clear thinking we had at the start, and sort of muddle through at the end?

This event will cover:

• What it would really mean if we took a whole system approach to major projects.
• Planning for transition into service.
• Managing stakeholders, media and customers.
• Behaviour – understanding that success is about more than the iron triangle and knowing how to align behaviours accordingly.
• Case studies to illustrate success and failure related to this topic.