Many industrial firms are implementing fundamental changes in their organizations to increase the efficiency of their product development processes. Here we focus on the relations between project management models and the permanent organization and processes of the firm. The case of the French firm Renault is being studied. This firm implemented a transition, from a classical funtional organization in the 1960's to project coordination in the 1970's and autonomous and powerful project teams since 1989. Such advanced project management has deep and destabilising effects on the other permanent logics of the firm (task definitions, hierarchic regulations, carrier management, functions and suppliers relationship). Therefore a phase of "projectification" is now under way to adapt these permanent processes to the new context.
In this book, leading authorities on project organizing explore the growing deployment of projects and other types of temporary organizations, with a focus on the challenges created by projectification. The way projects are coordinated and handled influences the success of innovation and change within organizations and is critical for strategic development in our societies, yet it is often at odds with the institutions of traditional industrial society. Drawing on both theoretical perspectives and real-world cases, this book sheds light on the transformation toward a project society and explores the effects, opportunities, and conflicts it has created. As change continues, the authors make a case for renewing institutions and mind-sets and provide a foundation from which to discuss societal changes for the future. This is an invaluable book for researchers and students in project management and organizational theory programs, as well as professionals involved in the management of projects.
Researchers have long recognized that standard approaches to project management are ill‐suited to address changes in the environment or business needs, particularly in innovative contexts characterized by uncertainty and complexity. Instead of being concerned with the efficient implementation of a deliberate strategy, a project in such a context becomes a process for strategy formulation. Three imperatives for project management arise as a result: managing the explorative phase, managing the involvement of stakeholders in the project, and managing the project in relation to the strategizing process of the firm. We propose that design thinking, a recent evolution in the field of design, can make some important contributions to these imperatives. Design thinking has been highlighted by practitioners as well as academia as a novel methodology that is potentially valuable for improving innovative outcomes, whether they are products, services, or strategies. We examine and articulate these possible contributions through 10 propositions that could form an agenda for future experimentation and empirical research on innovation project management.
This paper analyzes how multiproject management can build up and develop a low-end disruptive strategy. It is based on a deep longitudinal analysis of a case within the automotive industry, namely, the Logan case developed by the Renault group. The results bring new insights into both the multiproject management and innovation strategy fields. On the project organizing side, it characterizes the complex and in some way ambiguous relations between the firm governance and the pilot project initiating the disruptive strategy. The case also formalizes project-lineage management as a way to expand the initial move into a diversified range of products and a multi-continent deployment, while keeping the key specificities of the pilot project. On the innovation strategy side, it demonstrates how disruptive strategy and organizational ambidexterity research fields can benefit from input from the project organizing domain.
In the literature on new product development, most existing studies on the end of the design process concentrate on managing ramp-up in the field of manufactured products. This situation poses a problem at a time when our economies increasingly depend upon services and products are more and more related with sophisticated services that provides value for customers and producers. This article examines the management of the final phases of the design process of an innovative product-related service. Our research thus makes three contributions: 1) An analysis of the implementation process shows that the simultaneity of the production and consumption of a service means that three types of learning -technical, sales and uses -take place at the same time. Launch management strategies have thus to be adapted. 2) An analysis of the data collected confirms this difference by bringing to light great contrasts in these different aspects of learning. 3) This led us to identify a field that needs exploration by researchers in product and services innovation: the design of the sales process.Furthermore we underline two scenarios to manage the launch of innovative product-related services.
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