Why was it so difficult for Rose Industries to implement project management prior to John Green coming on board?

“Rose Industries believed in inbreeding.” (Kerzner, 2017, p. 59). This is another way of saying they had an organization with a deep belief in organic growth; hire at the lower levels of the organization and grow leadership through the ranks. The challenge with this is how to infuse fresh ideas into the organization. Rose Industries also demonstrates an unhealthy approach to organic growth. This is evident in that the policy for professional development is “Take a vacation and pay your own way.” (Kerzner, 2017, p. 59) While Rose Industries valued organic growth they made no investments in educating their employees, this all but ensures that the approach of the organization and growth would stagnate.

Rose Industries didn’t believe in project management, their information systems were outdated or did not fit the business need (Kerzner, 2017, p. 60), but because of the commitment to legacy thinking, these problems only came to light as the result of the business beginning to fail.

As per the case study there is no indication that Rose Industries ever implemented project management, they didn’t believe in it before John Green was hired and Rose International’s dysfunction led to John Green’s resignation.

Was Green correct in his four components of a good project management culture?

Yes, I believe that Green was correct in his identification of communications, cooperation, teamwork, and trust as four key components of a good project management culture. (Suda, 2007)
Project management was nonexistent at Rose Industries. The lack of modern and applicable information systems made communication difficult. There was a misguided WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) factor that had broken down cooperation and teamwork within the organization. Lastly, there was a general lack of trust within the organization.
I think John Green needs to focus on pivoting the motivation from WIIFM to WIIFU (What’s In It For Us?) (Chien, 2011)

Was Green too optimistic with his four-step approach?

This is an interesting question. On the surface, John Green’s five-year plan does not seem unrealistic, overly aggressive or optimistic but with forty-five years of history inbreeding, a dysfunctional culture steeped in organic growth and a static mindset there are huge obstacles to overcome.
Hiring PMP qualified external resources to build and empower a PMO within an organization that has not traditionally hired top-level external talent and empowered them and discouraged internal employees from obtaining the PMP designation will be a challenge. I question the ability to execute the four-step plan, without a more basic plan to pivot the organizational culture.
According to Heerkens, a supportive organizational culture has the greatest influence on the successful implementation of a project management culture and yet it is the hardest fulfill. (Heerkens, 2000) The organization culture is killing Rose International, yet there is little desire to change.

What is your prognosis on Rose’s chances to remain in business?

While I think the plan presented at the executive staff meeting should have been far more basic in terms of establishing communication and trust the reaction of Rose International executives and the lack of any desire to change the course of the organization given the clear trajectory of the company points towards a grim prognosis. John Green’s resignation and the executive staff commitment to a strategy that is clearly not working leads me to believe that Rose Industries will eventually cease to exist.

References

Chien, C. (2011, February 15). From WIIFM To WIIFU: Effective Communication to Your End-Users and Stakeholders. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from http://ezinearticles.com/?From-WIIFM-To-WIIFU:-Effective-Communication-to-Your-End-Users-and-Stakeholders&id=5926870

Heerkens, G. (2000). How to: implement project management in any organization. Paper presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, Houston, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project Management Case Studies (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Suda, L. V. (2007). The meaning and importance of culture for project success. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2007—EMEA, Budapest, Hungary. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Scott, remember that while Blockbuster was resistant to change they also had a financial driver that they could not overcome. In 2000, 16% of Blockbusters revenues were generated from late fees (Anderson, 2010), a revenue stream that would have disappeared in a move towards a subscription service. Rose Industries will like mee the same fate as Blockbuster but they may actually have more hubris than Blockbuster because I am not sure their organizational culture is being driven by the fact that they don’t know how to explain to wall street that they are giving up 800 million in revenue to pivot the business model.

Most people have heard some version of the Mark Twain quote “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

Rose International seemed to just not believe in ideas, hire those who can be fully assimilated, provide them with no outside education, etc. Not sure how much more messed up an organizational culture could be.

References

Anderson, M. (2010, September 23). Hubris – and late fees – doomed Blockbuster. Retrieved November 10, 2018, from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39332696/ns/business-retail/t/hubris-late-fees-doomed-blockbuster/

Brandolyn, you point out knowledge as a missing component for a good project management culture, but doesn’t John Green address this by planning to hire PMP certified individuals from outside the company?

I also found it interesting that Ralph Williams understood how serious the issue was and that Rose Industries needed a CIO to drive innovation, develop methodologies and build a PMO for project governance yet there was no real executive team commitment demonstrated beyond the decision to hire a CIO. I was equally surprised that John Green a 20-year veteran with one of the largest IT consulting companies int he world would take a position where he would have to sell stakeholders on his vision after he took the role, sure it happens but senior level executive will typically identify objectives garner executive team stakeholder buy-in on their strategy and understand execution runway before accepting a position.

Dana, I would call the culture at Rose Industries oppressive rather than conservative. Rose Industries believed in one way, their way. I believe the reason people paid for their own training is the probability that someone would leave this hellhole was pretty high. Rose Industries preferred assimilation over education.

I suppose if you were willing to accept the Rose Industries way, and agree to never have an original thought you could rise through the ranks, sounds scary, but I can assume that some benefited from it. I can only hope that Rose Industries will go out of business.