Overcoming the Challenges in the Management Process: An Interview with Jim Foley

Overcoming the Challenges in the

Management Process: An Interview with Jim Foley

Overcoming the Challenges in the Management Process: An Interview With Jim Foley

In today’s increasingly competitive business world there is an alarming demand for highly skilled project managers.  According to industry reports, “It is estimated that more than 40 million new project managers are needed by 2020 across the globe” (“Increasing Demand” Chandra Dey).  In her article “Increasing Demand for Project Managers Globally and Its Impacts,” Chandra Dev explains that the growing demand for project managers is caused by the “scale and complexity of projects being undertaken nowadays”.  In addition to being in high demand, project managers can make a good living earning on average $91,440 a year, (Glass Door 2017) with the opportunity to earn more income.  Although project management can be a rewarding career path, there are also many challenges that project managers face when trying to achieve the goals of an organization.  To get a better understanding of how a manager gets thing done, and the challenges a manager faces, we sat down with Jim Foley an experienced project/program manager who works for a private federal contracting company called Technica.  In the interview, Foley discusses how he accomplishes his goals by planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, and brings up the challenges at each stage of the management process.  

Planning:

Planning is an important management function that sets goals and decides how you will achieve them.  Good organizational planning helps management use a company’s resources efficiently and reduce risk.  I asked Program Manager Jim Foley about what types of strategy Technica uses to get thing done, he replied, saying “We have a growth strategy.  This involves winning a contract, stabilizing the operation, make sure to do a good job so the customer views us favorably, and build a good relationship with the customers”.  Foley describes that the long-term strategic planning of the company is a growth strategy, and that the tactical and operational strategy are completing projects and satisfying the customer’s needs.  He explains that the challenge in the short-term goals is that sometimes they go undefined and when the scope of the project changes so does the original objectives of the contract.

           Throughout the interview, Foley brought up many different methodologies that his company Technica uses in dealing with its business.  Some of the methodologies used by Technica are used by different functional areas of management that he later interprets, they include, scenario analysis, forecasting, benchmarking, and SWOT analysis.  Benchmarking is very important for their growth strategy, and they use benchmarking to continually improve their business.  To become more competitive, Technica has a plan to continually introduce new solutions and products that meet and exceed client's' satisfaction.  Another tool Technica uses it the SWOT analysis.  This is done by evaluating company's strengths and clearly understanding where the company competes effectively. Technica has been evaluating their strengths by scanning their past performance. For years, Technica has been well-known as a leader in the network innovation industry. On March 8, 2016, Technica Corporation was announced and recognized as a Partner of the Year by Juniper at IDEAS connected 2016 (Hallet). They then frequently identify and review their weaknesses so that they can develop solutions to minimize their weaknesses. In other words, weaknesses currently can or must be turned into company's strengths in the future. New opportunities have provided Technica chances to expand and improve their business. Hence, Technica recently expands their support for FBI on IT Triple S project. It does not only increase the company's revenue, but it is also an opportunity for Technica to contribute their experiences and IT expertise services to the fastest growing clients. The Federal Government contracts market is highly competitive that Technica might be threatened from their competitors and rapid technological changes.       

           Technica is a private federal government contractor company that competes for contracts from governmental agencies.  Moreover, their mission is to provide “high-end technical expertise, experienced program management and reliable IT solutions to the satisfaction of their federal government customers”.  Therefore, Technica’s customers are governmental agencies such as the Air Force, Pentagon, FBI, and Department of Defense.  Foley explains that his line of work in the area is extremely competitive, and     

their strongest competitors include Dedicated Technology, SMS Data, General Dynamic, and CSRA Inc.  Foley explains that the hardest challenges in the planning phase involves when things deviate from their original plan.  As Foley put it “After winning a contract sometimes things don't go as planned.  This has an adverse impact on the customer which in turn might hurt our long-term strategy going forward.”  Foley believes that this can be solved by clearly defining goals and not taking on new objectives to the project.  

Organizing: 

        Another part of the management process is organization, which is defined as

“arranging tasks, people and other resources to accomplish work” (Kinicki and Williams, p. 10). Organization is a crucial aspect of a company, because it “provides guidance to all employees by laying out the official reporting relationships that govern the workflow of a company” (“Why is Organizational”, Ingram). In other words, the organizing function of management leads to improved operational efficiency, division of labor, and a management hierarchy.

When asking Program Manager Jim Foley about how Technica is organized, he stated, “Technica has a very traditional management structure comprised of top, middle, and functional area leaders”. He then explained each position at various levels of management. Basically, Foley describes Technica as a traditional flat organization, meaning there are relatively few layers of management and information flows from the top down. After understanding how Technica was formally organized, I wanted to learn about the informal organizations, culture, and social constructs that existed within the organization. An informal organization “is the interlocking social structure that governs how people work together in practice. It is the aggregate of behaviors, interactions, norms, and personal/professional connections through which work gets done and relationships are built among people” (“Informal Structure”, 2016). In addition, informal organizations serve 4 functions.  Firstly, they perpetuate cultural and social values of an organization; secondly, they provide social status and satisfaction; thirdly, it develops communication channels; lastly, they provide social control (“Informal Structure”, 2016). I asked Foley about the informal organizations that existed within Technica, and he replied, saying, “Unfortunately we don’t have any at the moment.  Technica started over on November 1st, and informal organizations take time to develop so no informal entities exist yet.  However, we are in the process of team building”. Basically, Technica is under new leadership, and it will take some time for the organization to develop an informal organization or social structure.