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WP President Kim explains the benefits of project management in his speech

President Kim Jong-shin of the Korea Western Power Co., in his speech at the breakfast meeting of Top Managers held on February 22 at Inter-Continental Hotel in southern Seoul, said the essential tasks for a business firm are survival, prosperity and having a quantum leap.
In his speech entitled, "Project Management and Global Competitiveness,"he said business environment has been changing all the time due to rapid changes in technology, uncertainty, increased risk, keen competition, globalization and variety of stakeholders and elevated expectations.
To show an example, he pointed out that of the 100 largest business firms in the country some four decades ago in 1965, only 12 are still in business. They are Samsung Trading, LG Electronics, Kia Motors, Hyundai Construction, Daelim Industry, Hanwha, Cheil Industries, Hankook tire, Daesang (formerly Miwon), Kolon, Taihan Electric Wire, and Taekwang Industry.
By age, business firms used different tools to ensure their survival, the WP top manager said. In the 1990-2000, they were re-engineering, six sigma, strategic planning, benchmarking, and TQM. In the period from 2000 to 2004, they were strategic planning, benchmarking knowledge management and SCM. From 2005 to the present, they are strategic planning, CRM, outsourcing and detailed segregation of customers.
To indicate what project/project management means to modern managers, he quotes a number of well-known business leaders around the world, especially, in the United States. Warren Bennis said corporations will become more project oriented in the future. Tom Peters said project management is surviving these turbulent times. It had now arrived at center stage. Paul Dinsmore went as far as to say that "everything is a project."According to a poll on the necessity for PM in the United States, 94 percent of the respondents said it made a big contribution to corporate organizations. 54 percent said it improved the financial results, while 50 percent said it made project and process better. 36 percent said it advanced the degree of customer satisfaction, while 30 percent said it made increased employee satisfaction.
What is a project's Kim defines it as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service with key words being temporary, unique and progressive elaboration.
What is project management's He said it is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements, with competing demands for scope, time, cost and quality. Time could be short and large, the same as scope, while quality may be high and low the same as cost, he noted.
Then, what is project management knowledge area's The WP CEO said it is an integration of scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk, and procurement. First, PM knowledge area is made of jobsite development, management plan development, implementation orders and management, supervision of work and control, integration change and control and the completion of project, the WP CEO said.
He went on to say that PM Basic Concept consists of a project initiator and sponsor, project input, initiating process, monitoring and control process, a planning process, execution process, closing process, project deliverables to end users and project records to process assets.
The history of project management is like the historic cycles of human history. Giant projects in human history includes a pyramid, and stone henge. A pyramid built some 4,700 years ago took 20 years to finish it with some 100,000 workers in hard labor.
The modern PM is traced to the defense industry managed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1950s; NASA's space exploration project in the 1960s; the U.S. Energy Department's energy development project in the 1970s; the industrialization of the entire North America in the 1980s; and the spread of industrialization and globalization of the industry from 1990s to the present.
Project management organizations include International Project Management Association, set up in 1965, one of the global organizations with 36 member countries in Europe with more than 40,000 employees. Project Management Institute, set up in 1969, a global PM organization, which publishes PMBOK Guide and PMP certificates. It has 247 chapters in 66 countries with more than 200,000 members in 154 countries.
Korea Project Management Association was set up in 1991 as a representative PM organization formerly known as PROMAT. It has 52 organizational members and more than 3,000 individual members. It presents project awards every year, publishes a technology magazine and hold symposiums.
For an example of project management in the country, President Kim pointed out the construction of a nuclear power plant with 1,000 MW capacity, costing 1.8 trillion won per plant and with an annual interest rate of 8 percent for its funds. He said from 1.4 billion won to 3.4 billion won per day could be saved if construction period were cut short, saving 400 million won per day in interest rate on funds. Power saved also amounted to from 1 to 3 billion won per day.
"If you don't want to be a failure as a CEO, you got to have the capability to integrate businesses,"said Professor William Malleck of Stanford University, President Kim quoted as him saying.
Kim said the American professor noted that CEOs fail due to their inabilities to effectively bring together various projects under their charge.
Dr. Harold Kerzner, during his lecture entitled, "project management courses with Dr. Harold Kerzner, pointed out that corporations now have come to understand that the principles of project management can be applied to the implementation of strategic plans and operational plans as well. Now, the PM would get the attention of top managers, President Kim quoted the professor as saying.
He defined the portfolio as the collection of projection groups or programs designed for effective management of works related to achieve the strategic business targets. The definition for Portfolio management is a process of identifying, selecting, prioritizing and outsourcing projects that enhance the organization's strategic vision. nw

Korea Western Power President Kim Jong-shin delivers a speech at the "breakfast meeting of top executives"at Inter-continental Hotel in Seoul Feb. 22.