How to select your project manager?

In the course of its development, every company goes through periods of transformation, whether to set up a new organisational structure, to manage a merger or acquisition, a restructuring, or to implement a new strategic direction.

These strategic transformations require dedicated, detailed management, which takes the form of a specific project in order to ensure success and avoid mishaps or diluted priorities. As this process is time-limited, it is essential to find the person able to manage and deliver such a strategic project.

In its search for a strategic project manager, a company’s first reflex is often to appoint an existing project manager, or to train an internal manager in project management.

Some companies already have project managers in technical or commercial fields; however, the scope of these projects generally remains limited to technical or administrative aspects, within a single department or the sale of a piece of equipment.
In strategic projects, the scope extends across several or even all departments of the company, and involves people from different hierarchical levels with varied skills. The impact of the project is major for the future of the whole company.

The generic notion of “project manager” can therefore be confusing and blur very different things. This is a trap: although the job title is the same, the experience required to manage projects of such different natures calls for very different profiles.

Promote or hire a project manager?

Experience shows that company management, when faced with this decision, often appoints an internal manager. This solution seems sensible at first sight, but it overlooks fundamental aspects:

1. The responsibility for managing a strategic project cannot simply be one more task given to a manager. Mixing tasks inevitably creates conflicts of interest and priorities between their primary operational responsibilities and the project. In this situation, the project is clearly at risk.
   This person must therefore be fully removed from their daily activity and dedicated solely to the project. Their initial position must be backfilled.
2. The complex management of a strategic project requires a background and proven experience in management. It is worth recalling that the project manager is responsible for a project, not for the employees who carry it out. The distinction may be subtle, but it is important.
   In a strategic project, the project manager must interact with company management and sometimes with external companies. Proven experience in business management and people management is therefore an unavoidable requirement, which is often hard to meet by promoting someone internally.

This first finding leads management to consider hiring a new employee as strategic project manager.
Since the duration of a project is by nature limited, this solution is not very efficient in terms of actual workload and the permanence of the position.
Moreover, the company must commit for the long term, taking on the risks and constraints associated with a new hire.

Choosing between an internal promotion and a new hire reflects an exclusively self-contained view of a company. Yet there is an often neglected route with underestimated advantages: renting a strategic project manager.

An elegant solution: rent!

Renting an external strategic project manager offers decisive advantages:

1. Skills: the external project manager brings long-standing, proven experience and know-how. Their tools and methods are immediately usable. Their experience in other companies and other projects is an asset in terms of “best practices” and advice. The company benefits from their expertise well beyond their presence.
2. Objectivity: the external project manager works for a limited period and will not build a career with you. They are not politically involved, which makes them more objective and removes the temptation to hide aspects that may be uncomfortable.
3. Neutrality: the external project manager takes a neutral approach. They have no personal interests and do not take sides in the event of tension or conflict. Their neutrality and managerial experience help defuse potential conflicts.
4. Cost-effectiveness and control: The company invests in the project manager’s services only according to the needs of the project, following the motto “as little as possible, but as much as necessary”. The investment in the external project manager is time-limited, while the results will always have a longer-term impact.

Consequently, the management of a company facing a strategic transformation should examine in detail the various scenarios and solutions available before choosing a strategic project manager.

The partners of Enatis will gladly help you with this reflection, with no obligation.

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