During an intermission of Andrea Bocelli’s concert tonight, I was comparing his concert tour project manager job to my own high tech project execution. How much difference, how big of a headache would it be and would I want to do it, I asked myself.
Initiation: I wonder if it was Andrea Bocelli who woke up one morning and say “Hey what about a world tour since I have this new CD coming out and a tour will promote also make more money”. I guess that has to be the project success criteria: to ensure $X millions can be made from tickets and marketing sales.
Planning would take at least a year. The program manager will be assembling his project teams worldwide. Areas of responsibilities would include orchestra, transportation, food and lodging, medical, PR, marketing, sales, technicians, immigration, administrative, wardrobe, etc. Some of the assumptions would be that Andrea Bocelli will be disciplined enough to practice everyday to maintain his top form as a class act, top of the line product and that there are not labor union / music union strikes at concert locations.
Execution – I would guess their project execution will start when the entourage arrives at a location. Immigration, hotel, limousines, radio/TV interviews went by without a hitch. The crescendo of the project will be when the curtain goes up. All the seats in the audience are full and everyone on stage hit their notes perfectly, from the strings to the arias sung. The project execution was a success but was the project itself a success.
The main difference here I see is that the result is almost real time, in measuring the project success, by the number of standing ovation and encores. For a high tech product or any manufactured products, the result will take longer to collect after a successful project execution. Because of the instant interaction with his customers, Andrea talks, share jokes with his customers and give them what they want to hear. He can instantly gain their loyalty. I confirm this fact by the long lines after the show buying up his CDs, DVDs, sweatshirts and caps.
Closure – I wonder if Andrea will hold a meeting for the ‘project closure’ with his program managers to get a report of each project execution the next day. Feedback from media, sales numbers, lessons learned and evaluate the steps needed to take in order to improve for the next destination. My feelings tell me that because it is probably a family ran business, trust, loyalty, synergy and passion runs high so it is very different from a corporation. This will help in risk management and conflict resolution I am sure.
Then the show continued so I stopped comparing and enjoyed the show. For me, it was a very successful date for the evening as my daughter was clapping her hands off during the encore of Vivo Per Lei and Con Te Partiro. I’d stick to what I do now and enjoy this kind of moments with my daughter. 🙂
Author: Andrew Chan, PMP
