Breaking News:

Dubai International Project Management Forum: What a tremendous event this was! The 10th anniversary had the biggest attendance yet with over 3000 delegates. Plenty of 'big-name' speakers and a huge amount of inspirational and though-provoking content. It is certainly one of the largest and dynamic business events on the global P3M calendar. Here's a couple of sound-bites:

1. '75% of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 is NOT yet built.' I was delighted to offer a perspective on organisational (business) value in the 'Jobs of the Future' stream.
2. '47% of SME's in Dubai are led by woman'.

More information on the event, including speakers, from here: Dubai.

Organizational Change Training: Come join an indepth series of conversations and learnings via an in-person immersion workshop over 2 days in Scottsdale, USA on 24-25th February. Iain has been retained by PMI Training to deliver this advanced organizational change focussed workshop on creating successful and sustainable transformations. Check out this link and take advantage of the 'early bird' pricing, flight deals, and hotel discounts. 

Mastering Value Creation & Delivery Training: Come join an indepth series of conversations and learnings via an in-person immersion workshop over 2 days in Scottsdale, USA on 26-27th February. Iain has been retained by PMI Training to deliver this advanced business management centered workshop on creating and delivery business value by blended and balancing opex and capex expenditures. Check out this link and take advantage of the 'early bird' pricing, flight deals, and hotel discounts. 

Stakeholder.News publication: Last year, Stakeholders.News published an 'recommended to read' article on Iain's 'The Business of Portfolio Management - Boosting Organizational Value' book to it's newsletter subscribers. Publishing Director, Mr Javier Peris of Valencia in Spain went on to state "It's a masterpiece Iain. Congratulations." Humbling indeed and completely unexpected.

Portfolio Mgmt & EPMO Training: This popular combined learning programme has been revised to reflect current trends in EPMO's and in advanced portfolio management. Expect the conversations to challenge current approaches and explore how EPMO and portfolio leaders can enhance organisational performance and deliver sustainable value. Get in touch to learn more.

On-Demand Learning Webinars: Over 53,800 people around the world have gained business and P3M insight from a series of webinars that is centered on Iain's '3P's to Success' business philosophy. That philosophy is detailed in his top-selling business book 'The Business of Portfolio Management - Boosting Organizational Value' which continues to sell well globally in all formats. The five webinars, are hosted on PMI's Projectmanagement.com platform. Search on 'Iain Fraser' and enjoy!

Selected Older Headlines:

55th One-Stop Conference: Iain was again invited to deliver the closing keynote presentation at the 2024 event in Auckland last October. Organised by BrightStar, the One-Stop conference is a 2-day full-on event for people in finance roles or similar. The topics of value creation and value delivery were Iain's focus and key mesaging. 

PMINZ National Conference: Congratulations go to PMI NZ on the success of its 2024 National Conference held earlier this year. This was the first 'in-person' event since the covid pandemic and boy could you tell! There was a great buzz and energy amongst the delegates as once again they were able to gather to share knowledge, learn, and network. Other than during the lockdown years, the PMINZ National Conference has run annually since 1995. Iain accepted an invitation to deliver a keynote address titled 'Becoming a Value Amplifier'. He also facilitated a 1-day workshop centering on boosting business results. He was also asked to join an expert panel that discussed the current state of P3M governance.

Library Donation: Iain has recently donated his entire business library collection, some 250 titles, on leadership, strategy, business, portfolio, programme, and project management related books to the Graduated School of Engineering at the University of Auckland. This donation will allow all students to access information and knowledge as they pursue their graduate studies at no extra cost to them.

Global Megatrends: PMI recently issued a research report on emerging global megatrends. It identifies and details six areas of focus that all leaders should consider and discuss in terms of organisational impact. Despite being sponsored by PMI the content equally applies to board members, executive teams, and operational teams. Many organisational leaders are likely to identify areas that require change within their respective business plans, markets, sectors, as well as geographies. The report is much more than an operational signpost for the project management community. Read the report here.

Speaking: PMI's hugely respected and global Leadership Institute (LI) invited Iain to speak at its recent Alumni Annual conference. The virtual event was attended by leaders from across the globe. A packed agenda saw Iain in a 'lightening talk on leadership' session with the great Spencer Horn that set the tone for the the day that followed. The LI program is seen by many to have a mini-MBA focus that trains those with recognised potential to be strategic leaders of the future.  

Whitepaper Award: Iain is delighted to mention that his 5-part series on portfolio management and business effectiveness has been awarded by the PM World Journal (PMWJ). The highly-respected PMWJ publication has a large global audience and is considered by many to be the global voice of portfolio, program of work and project management. The award is for the series titled 'Boosting Organisational Value Through Smarter Portfolio Management' which was influenced by the top-selling 'The Business of Portfolio Management' book authored by Iain. 

Sound Bites from Dubai International PM Forum...

'By 2060, 32% of landfill waste will be from the construction sector. Already 13% of new materials goes to landfills without being used'.

'The UK is No 3 in the global adoption of AI after the USA and China respectively. Other countries seemingly are much further back. Water and electicity resource and capacity will be in huge demand for AI success'. 

Climate Change and Carbon Emissions...

It was interesting to learn that 71% of the worlds carbon emissions come from households with transportation, energy, and food consumption producing the largest amount of emissions. This information from Benji Hall of Cogo during a recent presentation on collecting carbon related data.

Still with the above title, it was noted in a recent BBC News article that a bus company in Scotland, that operates a fleet of electric buses, uses deisel powered generators to charge the fleet. This is due to the apparent high price of electricity. Talk about unintended consequences!

Become a Value Amplifier...

Business value and its management are increasingly terms being used in the business environment. They should be! Whilst some organisations are chasing the latest thing or fad, courageous leaders are seeing the need to combat the VUCA-induced world in a proactive manner by focusing on business value. With that though comes the need to make sure that the culture of the organisation is sound, flourishing, and integrated.

To Iain business value and its management have gone beyond the traditional 'hard-wired' definitions associated with monetary or ratio aspects. Today value must be considered as "the perceived benefit, tangible or intangible, to stakeholders". This should include value to customers and value to staff & brand.  

Blending the above together with a philosophy of doing business that is based on the '3P's to Success' (purpose, people, performance) will see most organisations flourish and get ahead. 

Random Thoughts...

• The disruptors of the VUCA world are forcing us all to change faster than ever before. This type of change requires courageous leadership using the combination of head, heart, and gut decision-making. Be strong!
• Short-term nimbleness will lead to longer-term organisational resiliance.
• Future leadership needs to focus more on purpose and culture and on populating those through the organisation.
• Organisational governance needs more 'active directorship' so that directors are nimble and positioned for change by being overlapped with the ELT.
• There are those that see the good in all, and then there are those that moan, complain, and find fault in just about everything. Unfortunately there seems to be more of the later than the former. Time for change!
• Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part!

Really Random Stuff...

Value, business value, value management, value-driven, value creation, value delivery, portfolio, portfolio management, value-driven portfolio management, governance, P3M governance, strategy, strategic plan, strategic goals, strategic acumen, business plan, business objectives, VUCA, disruptors, lean, nimble, flexible, Enterprise PMO, EPMO, PMO, value management office, programs, projects, project controls, training, speaking, public speaking, mentoring. They should be!