Due to the financial crisis most of companies in Europe are focused in decreasing organizational costs, firing people, reorganizing human resources assignments, and reducing investments in their organizations. Most of projects that started by the last quarter of 2008 were stopped in 2009.

Panic has become a common behavior from different companies worldwide. That news is bad but the worst news is that the main reason is not because all those companies were in a bad financial situation, most of them were healthy financially talking, but it is because they observed the affected companies effects and tried to prevent potential crisis for them.

I have seen very few companies worldwide that being financially healthy that has been focused on training and preparing their project professionals for future worst times. Most of companies have been focused on bad news and negativism every day; instead start thinking about new ways for future survival. Communication media are not being helpful on that.

However it is very curious because I observed many project professionals in Europe attending PMP preparation programs in order to be PMP (Project Management professional) certified. Many of them are unemployed. Project professionals unemployed are focused on training and preparation to find a new job, but big companies are not hiring but firing people. It is a paradox, because our society works like a wheel, I mean if big companies don't invest in new projects they will not be able to generate business for third parties, and so far...

Then I believe companies need to innovate for survival. The way companies do business today is changing more and more, so they need to be creative and start new projects for innovation. The environment has changed, and the expectations too. They must prepare their professionals to deal with a high amount of uncertainty all time, they need to prepare their people for managing risk and contingency plans.They must develop professionals to be ready to work on teams, very dynamically, and ready to learn and generate new ways and ideas for the future.

If you work as a project manager in a organization I suggest you the following:

1. Think positevely and invent: Propose to your management new ways and ideas to innovate. Be enthusiastic about your proposals and new ideas
2. Be persistent: Executives are busy people. You must remind them "Innovation is important"
3. Be patient: All new ideas sale takes time

So we should start something new, we should start some innovation projects, do something diferent, business necessity generates creativity to invent new things. The question is if is there any difference between managing an ordinary business project and managing an innovation project?

Project management is the trigger to implement new ideas and there are several tools and techniques that make this process more effective. In most organizations in Europe, there is a relatively high level of competence in project management; however the understanding of how to manage an innovation project is not always as clear. Europe has the potential to succeed in the global market place, but to succeed; European companies have to be masters, not victims, of change. Learning as an organisation is the only way to make sure that the organisation can change what it does and the way it does it fast enough, and well enough to capture the opportunities and overcome the barriers to growth, so they must innovate. It is important to understand the differences between a regular project and an innovation project.

In my opinion this train is passing only one time. The time is over; organizations must use project management discipline to survive. The must execute recovery projects, investment projects, new products development projects, change management projects. So they must use project management to move forward. Companies who are smart and prepare their people on project management skills will exist in the near future. Companies who don't care will not be able to survive. Project management discipline deals with uncertainty, innovation, creativity and ethusiasm to build up new ways and initiatives for a great future.

Positivism and good attitude will help organizations to build up a better future worldwide, so organizations need to develop project manager skills for their people now in order to be prepared for a potential financial worst future. They must manage by projects; there is no other option right now. Project management will help organizations to build up a better society worldwide if worldwide organizations invest time and effort preparing their professionals in project management skills. Executives are the key to implement that strategy, executives must manage properly their project portfolio in organizations, being more selective and prioritizing the most key projects for their organizations. Project selection methods need to be more exaustively applied now more than never for organizational success.

Managers, upper managers, executives, are your time to make a decision about your company's future. Invest in project management now or die as a company.

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Still having trouble selling the idea? This presentation has some suggestions for selling presentation when management isn't buying. If your organization needs a formal process in place fast, check out these ideas for Implementing High-Impact, Low-Overhead Project Management for fast results. Don't forget to let everyone know how they can adapt those processes to fit their projects.