Small is beautiful, the SME advantage

I started out my career at two small engineering companies. I had a great time working on anything and everything, and a lot of the time being a one person Project Management Office. Although these companies were small in the number of employees, they were executing major projects, with values into tens of millions sterling. Naturally, I learnt a huge amount in those years, dealing with customers, suppliers, sub-contractors and installation contractors. I was dealing with difficult Stakeholders without even knowing what a Stakeholder plan was.

One of my favourite projects was my part in the design and build of a new foundry in the UK. That company had seven employees and entrusted me to be a designer, a contract manager, and a site supervisor, all while still under 25. The senior team members supported me, but ultimately, they left me to get on with the job, only stepping in if I said I had a real problem.

The great thing about SMEs is their ability to be lean and nimble and as I say above, to give free reign to their employees to do interesting work. The disadvantage is they often feel investment in their systems and their people will not generate a tangible return. They fear they will be sold ‘big company thinking’ by training companies and consultancies. And if they incorporate such practices they will lose their competitive advantage and their agility.

My own experience is that by avoiding good project management processes and by not investing in their people, small businesses leave themselves at the mercy of larger organisations. Particularly if their customers enjoy a confrontational approach to contractor management.

Although I had a great time while working in SMEs I see now that had they invested in their execution processes and their people I would have been better prepared for those difficult Stakeholders. And I would have made better decisions along the way.

Good consulting is not ‘one size fits all’. By inviting targeted expertise into a company it can improve and turbo charge how the project team perform their work. Incorporating best practice and attaining an insight on how large organisations run their complex projects can quickly give the project team of an SME the tools they need to run their projects more successfully. Without them losing their lean and agile approach.

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