I first met Mr Li in a smoke-filled office in Beijing in 1992. The room was thick with cigarette smoke. Ashtrays overflowed on the desk and windowsill. Mr Li lit a new cigarette from the end of the last one with the casual efficiency of a man who had repeated
“Ganbei!” Vice-Director Xu roared, and a dozen shot glasses went up, clinking our way to a good outcome. The bitter liquid seared a trail across my rumbling, empty stomach. The dawn flight from Beijing was the next step on our journey to de-risk an entire global supply chain. A high-stakes
Corporate HR was in place. Key staff recruited and trained. IT systems live. Legals all in place. Sales and marketing mobilised. Business processes documented, roles and responsibilities defined. In a small Asian country, a new refinery stood ready. Product commissioning complete. Four hundred staff ready to go. A billion-dollar capital
South Korea launch, US global company I did not understand this at the time, but the Korea market entry was never a delivery challenge. It was a political process disguised as a project plan. We only discovered that when we reached the door no amount of execution could open. Demilitarised
A recurring frame for executives accountable for outcomes, not activity * What assumptions in this project are irreversible? * Who can stop this initiative without explanation? * What risks would never appear on a dashboard? * If this failed tomorrow, what would I wish I had challenged earlier? Sponsors can apply this lens explicitly
Misclassification Is the Silent Killer of Projects Many projects do not fail because they are badly managed. They fail because they were mislabelled as projects. Early in the life of almost every major initiative, a decision is made — someone asks what kind of thing is this? And the organisation reaches
Every organisation eventually produces its own Jawbreaker — a perfect idea that no one is allowed to question. Jack, M-Corp’s US Chief Engineer, felt the Brazilian heat creep down his neck as he stood on the factory floor. The air was heavy with melted sugar and quiet frustration. For over
The factory cafeteria was fragrant with feijoada—black beans, pork, and rice. This was where many decisions got made. Eduardo ran Operations. Bernardo ran Maintenance. Both were engineers. Both were local. Both knew how things actually worked. My Beijing startup role had calcified into routine. Six days a week. Nothing
Delivering a Minimum Viable Product (When Everything Else Fails) By June 1993, Beijing had swapped snow for steam. Our chocolate factory was officially “nearly ready.” The problem was that the air-conditioning system required to make chocolate was sitting in Beijing Customs. Everyone knew why. An incentive was expected. Mr Li
Start Up Project - Manufacturing Operations in China Christmas morning, 1992. Heavy snow drifted across the construction site in Shibalidian, south-west Beijing. The factory shell should have been finished months earlier. Instead, half-built walls stood among piles of unused materials. Mr Li assured us everything was progressing according to plan.
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