Foreword

Kathleen B. Hass

This outstanding work closes a huge and costly gap in our 21st-century business practices, that of managing and capitalizing on complexity. It represents a real-world, practical guidebook for senior managers and executives to furnish and continually nurture the environment for success in the 21st-century global economy. If you are a member of senior management and you want to prepare yourself to handle complexity in this competitive global ecosystem, this book prepares you to take responsibility and to take action.

Executives of standout companies, businesses that have flourished in spite of the financial crisis of late, have learned to capitalize on complexity. The first thing they did was to admit to the following six points:

1. Projects execute strategy by implementing the changes needed to react to the relentless dynamics of the marketplace.

2. Successful projects are critical to our economic survival.

3. As executives, strategy execution is our job; therefore, diving into the world of projects is our job!

4. Projects are investments and part of a portfolio that has an investment strategy that needs our attention, support, and expertise.

5. Complexity is here to stay; it is only going to get worse; and we must learn to not just manage complexity, but also capitalize on it to remain competitive.

6. It is through creativity and innovation that we will enable a company to capitalize on complexity.

This work is groundbreaking in that it deals with establishing ...

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