BUILDING CUSTOMER-BASED PROJECT ORGANIZATIONS

How to Ensure That the Customer Is Truly Your Number One Priority

How do winning organizations such as General Electric, Ericsson, and Nokia use project management to reduce time to market, trim inventory and supplier costs, and minimize obsolescence in their product lines? Why do so many companies fail when trying to do the same?

In Building Customer-Based Project Organizations, two inter-nationally recognized project management gurus reveal the secrets behind these fabulous successes. Jeffrey Pinto and Pekka Rouhiainen demonstrate that building and maintaining long-term customer relationships is the key to successful project management, offering a method and an implementation strategy that companies can use to streamline their development and supply chain operations.

This manual for success shows project managers how to:

• Place the customer at the center of the company's operational strategy
• Use customer needs to drive project development and supply chain management
• Deliver greater value to the customer and the business
• Increase efficiency, responsiveness, and profitability

By following the clearly stated principles and methodology presented in Building Customer-Based Project Organizations, companies in any business sector can "get it right" the first time and build long-term customer relationships that will continue to increase profitability far into the future.

JEFFREY K. PINTO, PhD, is a professor of management at Penn State Erie, where he holds the Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene Fellowship in Management. He has won international acclaim for his research in project management, which Fortune labeled the number one profession in corporate America for the coming decade. Pinto's ten previous books include The PMI Handbook of Project Management and Successful Project Managers (both from Wiley).
PEKKA J. ROUHIAINEN, PhD, is a professional project manager with Aker Rauma Offshore, Oy. Dr. Rouhiainen received his PhD from Tampere University of Technology in Finland. He has over twenty years of project management experience and has worked on or managed numerous multimillion-dollar projects. Currently located in Houston, Rouhiainen has extensive exposure in international project management.

Why a Customer-Based Approach Matters.

Background: The Challenge of Project-Based Work.

What Is Project Success and Failure?

Project Critical Success Factors.

Managing the Supply Chain for Projects.

Value Chains and Projects.

Project Stakeholder Analysis.

Creating Customer-Based Project Organizations.

Putting the Model to Work: The ARO Story.

Building the Customer-Based Project Organization.

Index.