'Capitalism' is in the news. And, not for the first time we're hearing about how corporations have an obligation more reaching than just the traditional shareholder value -- meaning profit maximization.
Community impact is now in the mix, more so than in the past, and that may mean capitalism will be paying attention to multiple factors beyond profit maximization:
- Environment -- a steady standby, to be sure
- Diversified workforce -- at least as diversified as the local community
- Job stability -- meaning, careful about robotics displacing workers
- Job location -- meaning, careful about remote working, virtual teams, and the lot
- Educational opportunity -- perhaps a mentorship with the local intern program or university
- Social justice -- meaning a safe workplace, and support for social justice in the community
Not so fast!
There is flow-down to consider. Since at least 1992 -- ancient history for many of you -- the "Balanced Scorecard" has been a feature of business score keeping. And with it, a deconstruction and flow-down of corporate goals throughout the business.
And so, we can anticipate that such will reach to the PMO.
Cost-Schedule-Scope-Quality
Wait! In the PMO, our thing is cost-schedule-scope-quality. Where do we fit that other stuff in?
- First effect: Scope -- some of these things will inevitably get cranked into our scope statement. Fair enough. But, scope connects to cost and schedule ..... don't forget that!
- Second effect: Cost -- it takes money to do some of these community things.
- Third effect: Velocity, meaning rate of throughput, meaning: schedule. No doubt some of these community things are going to slow us down .... but, perhaps a trade worth making.
At the end of the day, project metrics should -- and will -- reflect this larger landscape.
As examples of how such capitalism objectives might flow down to the PMO, maybe we don't remote as much as we could and keep a more robust local presence. Such will increase velocity because bandwidth has been added to
team interactions and communications, and cost may be reduced a bit
because remoteness is not free
Maybe we adjust the supply chain to be locally more than we need to -- in effect: buy local.
Maybe we hire less experienced but local people and invest in their development. Such may adversely effect velocity and cost in the short run but pay community benefits in the long run.
Steady on! Maybe we need a business culture from the C-suite that supports all this!
Steady on! Maybe we need a business culture from the C-suite that supports all this!
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