Small Talk
What’s the one skill
every project manager
should have?
Managerial courage. Being a project
manager isn’t just
about getting through a
checklist. It’s also about
leading through change.
What’s the best pro-
fessional advice you
ever received?
My first boss at Ricoh
said: “I’d rather have
you make a decision
that’s wrong and you
learn from it than have
you do nothing at all.”
What’s a book that
has special meaning
for you?
Breaking Back by James
Blake. It’s an amazing
story about how you
can overcome challenges to be better than
before.
What’s your favorite
off-the-clock activity?
Anything I can do
outside: hiking, biking,
paddleboarding, canoeing. I’ve run more than
15 half-marathons and
one full marathon.
Then there’s the PMO, which has teams of project managers for Ricoh’s functional groups, like
supply chain, managed and technology services,
finance and human resources. The PMO teams
all have a dotted line responsibility to me. So my
team oversees the PMO’s projects, helping to vet
and execute them.
How does your core process improvement team
work with the PMO?
If a functional team in the PMO wants to do a
lean initiative to optimize the flow of a production
line, my core team can help with the fact-based
analysis. Or the customer excellence group can
feed customer surveys to the PMO that might lead
to a specific supply-chain project. But if we have
a bigger, cross-functional project that looks at
our end-to-end process, that’s when I tap into the
resources of the process re-engineering group. I’m
able to allocate these resources where and when
they’re needed.
Why did Ricoh develop this structure?
Five years ago at Ricoh, we only had the functional
PMO teams. Sometimes they worked on projects
that were important only to their groups. Some
teams’ skills were stronger than others, so we had
a lot of inconsistent execution and inconsistent
results. We needed more standards and a more
consistent approach. So Ricoh created my role not
only to support those functional teams but also to
lead strategic cross-functional initiatives. This new
structure, with the PMO and process improvement groups, provides leadership and support, as
well as standardization and training.
How has this improved strategic alignment?
Before, everyone was focused on their own func-
tion. We didn’t look at projects’ overall value for
the organization. And there was a lot of conflict
for resources. I might have a project that would
bring US$2 million in savings, but I couldn’t do it
because someone else already had the resources
for a project delivering US$1 million savings. Now,
it’s about having a governing body that ensures
we’re working together on projects that are not
only important for the functions but also meet
Ricoh’s objectives.
What types of process improvements does your
team execute?
For the past several years, Ricoh has had a lot of
acquisitions. My core team is the business lead
for all those integrations. We also help bring
new products to market. And we have projects
on quality improvement, cost savings, supply-chain optimization and cycle-time reductions.
Last year, senior leadership wanted to
improve quality in a particular process within
customer administration. The project manager
coordinated and scheduled all the project activities—and also helped us get from “we know we
have a problem” to identifying the main issues
to address.
How do you measure success?
For our projects, we have metrics and milestones
to see if we get the value we expected, like cycle-time savings or error reduction. Obviously we
want to stay on track with costs and timelines, but
the most important thing when we deliver a project is if it achieves the benefits we expected. I’m
more concerned about a successful project than
particular dates.
How do you work with the C-suite to ensure
more strategic success?
The CEO comes up with our main strategic pillars,
such as increasing our productivity, and then I
work with the business leaders, like the senior vice
president of sales, to make sure their projects support that strategy. If a team brings a project to me,
I’ll ask them, “How does it support the executive
strategy?” If it doesn’t, I’ll say no. PM
