A project is directed work that is aimed at achieving specific goals within a defined budget and schedule. An international or regional project is a project that involves multiple locations, entities, organizations, and business units. Examples of international and regional projects are:
A company is doing a major construction project in a country that involves many subcontractors.
Two companies are merging their operations.
An organization is implementing major new systems and technology across all business units.
A company is deploying a new product in a region.
There is a new marketing campaign for an innovative consumer product.
What do these projects all have in common? They are all projects, but they are complex projects. They are sufficiently complex that the standard techniques of project management do not work well. Traditional project management targets a single project in one location. That was, after all, the case when many project management methods were conceived.
With globalization, mergers, and acquisitions international projects are more frequent. In this book we will consider a wide range of international projects— based in different industries and multiple countries. The methods and lessons learned here also apply to national projects where you encounter issues in culture, organization, and politics.
Why not use standard project management methods? Because they tend to fail or only partially work in the more complex environment. Statistics show that over half of international projects either fail, fail to be completed, or do not deliver the results that were promised.