Source: Journal of Product Innovation Management, Volume 15, Number 3, May 1998 , pp. 279-286(8)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Books reviewed in this issue:

Jack Foster

How to Get Ideas

Robert J. Graham and Randall L. Englund

Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quest to Manage Project Management

Linsu Kim

Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea's Technological Learning

Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern

Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen

David Tanner

Total Creativity in Business and Industry: Road Map to Building a More Innovative Organization

Brief Notes in this issue:

Howard W. Oden

Managing Corporate Culture, Innovation, and Intrapreneurship

Everett M. Rogers

Diffusion of Innovations (4th Edition)

Books received for possible review in a future issue:

Vijay K. Jolly

Commercializing New Technologies: Getting from Mind to Market

Ralph Katz (ed.)

The Human Side of Technological Innovation: A Collection of Readings

Christopher Meyer

Relentless Growth: How Silicon Valley's Innovation Secrets Can Work for Your Company

Robert Pool

Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology

G. I. Rechlin

Trapped in the Net: The Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization

Donald Reinertsen

Managing the Design Factory: A Product Developer's Toolkit

M. L. Tushman and P. Anderson (eds.)

Managing Strategic Innovation and Change: A Collection of Readings

Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quest to Manage Project Management, by Robert J. Graham and Randall L. Englund. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Publishers, 1997. 254 1 xvi pages. $32.95.

As the title implies, this book is about managing project management, not about managing projects an important concept that the authors effectively weave into every chapter in this book. Its purpose is to get upper management to understand how and why to develop project management as an organizational competency. Its key strengths are (1) its comprehensive treatment of key issues from the role of strategic direction across the project portfolio to the need for cultivating project management learning, (2) its practical recommendations for change, and (3) its easy-toread examples. Its key limitation is that it may fall short of creating a compelling case for upper management by relying a bit too much on the concept of a project-based organization and by sometimes painting upper management as inept. The result is a good reference to draw on in educating upper management on the importance of these concepts but not a book that the CEO won't be able to put down.

While the book is inclusive of all kinds of projects, its relevance to product development professionals is obvious. Product development efforts are almost entirely project based, and this book is clearly targeted to a large degree to upper management in large companies that have many product development projects in play. As the authors indicate, “projects and project managers create new products, new procedures, new reward systems, new features for old products, and new businesses. The key feature of projects is that they represent something new” (p. xi). This book will be relevant across industries from high tech to low, from product to service, and from consumer to industrial or business to business. Product development professionals who will probably find this book most useful are the people responsible for getting better results from their product development processes and managers who are responsible for managing project managers. The book is well organized with an overview chapter that includes a call to action and an overview of the remaining chapters. The next seven chapters go on to describe each of the elements of creating an environment for successful projects. Laid out as pieces of a complete puzzle to signal their importance as a system, the elements include:

Giving projects a strategic emphasis

Management practices that influence project success

Developing and supporting core teams

Organizing to support project management

Developing project management information systems

Selecting and developing project managers

Developing a project management learning organization.

The remaining two chapters target implementation. Chapter 9 illustrates how Hewlett-Packard is deploying these concepts across the corporation and is based on the personal experience of one of the authors (Englund). Chapter 10 concludes with a practical approach for implementing many of the concepts contained in the book.

Chapter 1 makes the case for creating an environment for successful products. It begins with an insightful admonition to the reader that the elements of this environment must be held together by authenticity and integrity. “Authenticity means that upper managers really mean what they say.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0737-6782(98)00004-6

Publication date: 1998-05-01

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Business

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers