Common hurdles faced by PMC's

Common hurdles faced by PMC's 

Project Managers across the world face challenges on a day-to-day basis, not only on project levels but also at the organizational level. While most of these challenges are easy to resolve, whilst some are which need a more dedicated and systematic approach to resolve, especially when dealing with resources of the home organization.

Masters, like any other professional company, have not remained inexperienced from such hurdles during their journey, but have certainly resolved the obstacles; in their own ways!

Some of the most common hurdles faced by Project Managers are summarized below, to which, I bet, most of my colleagues would agree:

1.Lack of clarity on the project scope

The project scope/ brief which are supposedly THE key (!) documents forming the basis for all stakeholders as well as the teams to develop the project, plus, also act as the guiding bible against which the project’s success can be weighed, are in most common scenarios found either not appropriately defined or are all together missing!

Masters, with its experience of 10 years, insists on the importance of identifying the project scope in the initial phases of the project, which is in an agreement amongst all the stakeholders. Project scope definition not only reduces the project changes (which in turn also relates to the project timelines + project costs) but also minimizes the risk of key scope items being left-out.

 2.Scope Changes

This comes into picture only if the project scope in the first place was ever defined!

Scope change refers to any change that occurs after the initial project scope (if) has been agreed and signed-off. Some scope changes might be easy to manage and may not affect the project (timeline/ cost/ quality); however it will greatly depend on the time at which the change is initiated! 

To avoid the unnecessary impacts on time/ cost & quality, Masters continues to insist on identifying the project scope which is all-inclusive in the initial phases of the project, when the damage towards changes is reasonable!

3.Absence of Realistic & Agreed Project Schedule

It is very important for the Project Manger to set a project schedule which is realistic and agreed by the project team including the Client and all stakeholders. A schedule which is not agreed by all is equal to not having a schedule at all!

Once, if the schedule is agreed, another problem that comes in then is the commitment to the project schedule. Lack of commitment towards the agreed project schedule leads to delay in project completion.

4.Client Approvals

While Masters work as a Client’s Representative, however, Client, who is the holder of the project, his approvals work as a stamp to proceed for all activities on the project at each phase.These approvals are not needed only to proceed but they also signify Client’s conformance on the design/ documentation produced during each of the project stages.

As a Project Manager, one integrates the time-line for these approvals in the overall project schedule to ensure timely sign-offs. However, unfortunately, it is often observed that formal approvals are either never provided or if provided they take much longer than the time allocated in the project schedule; project schedule which initially was signed off. Therefore, the works are either proceeded with without an approval in place (which leads to drifts at a later stage) or with approvals which are much delayed (which leads to project delay).

5.Project Funding

Since Project Managers are usually not directly involved in the project funding matters which are undertaken by the Clients teams, Project Managers continue to remain in dark on this most important element of work as this has a direct impact on payments to be made to the contractors, vendors and service providers.

While getting work done is the prime role of Project Managers, however, in the absence of updates on monies fronts, the Project Managers are at times trapped between the contractors & clients as non-payment or delays in payment is a major issue which affects the project performance and causes project delays.

6.Timeframes for authority approvals

Every project requires approvals from various authorities ranging from the local municipalities, to utility service providers, depending on the projects size, use and location.

Although on the condition of approvals the project schedule/ cost & development is based, however, approval processes as are always complicated requiring a variety of supporting documentation and since the timeframes for these varies authority-to-authority and are often open-ended, varying on a case-to-case basis therefore there is always an uncertainty on this aspect of the project due to which most projects get delayed thereby also increasing the project cost.

7.Poor communication between teams

Most important stigma!

Clear communication between the project team is an obvious and most important requirement on any project; however it may be one of the most difficult tasks. Lack of communication or poor communication leads to issuing incomplete/ partial or unclear instructions thereby affecting the project scope/ deliverables and performance of the team.

During project execution, the contractors often communicate with a number of project team members (including the client, consultants and Project Manager) in critical situations and in the absence of properly documentation, such instructions leads to disputes which hinder the project progress.Masters maintains the importance of proper communication protocols which must be agreed and strictly followed on all projects ensuring proper flow of information and instructions to relevant parties.

8.Lack of knowledge transfer to the delivery team

In most projects, where the initial pre-construction stages are undertaken by a separate team than the construction team (who takes charge during the construction stage), during the process of knowledge and information transfer between the teams, minor details and intricacies are generally overlooked. Such lapse of information, which may be minor in nature, but if not acknowledged appropriately and in time, usually turns into major changes and affect the project in a big way in terms of time, cost and quality.

Masters, with its experience of working in various types and natures of projects, understands and acknowledges the importance of building a right team as well as maintain thorough systems & documentation through the life cycle of the project ensuring that no project information is overlooked at any stage of the project.

9.Resource sharing

 At times during multiple projects, when skilled resources are shared between projects, the team’s performance gets reduced on one of the many assignments due to pressure and commitments, thus affecting the project.

At Masters, the higher management therefore understands the importance of having in place a core team which supports the project teams at all times thereby ensuring that that the resources are not over-committed or burdened.

10.Project team’s roles and responsibilities

Poorly defined roles and responsibilities generally lead to overlap of roles which results to confusion and conflicts between the project team. While overlooking an important responsibility can hinder the project progress, at the same time, stepping over other team member’s responsibility also affects the project performance and waste valuable time.
To avoid such occurrences, Masters strongly follows a viewpoint of defining clear and detailed roles & responsibilities of the project team as well as all the stakeholders at the project initiation only as a part of the Project Execution Plan.

Sujata Gupte
(Design Manager)
Masters Mumbai

Team Talks

TEAM TALKS

As we complete 10 glorious years, some of our long associated team members look back in time and talk about their journey of association with MASTERS...which we proudly share...

 

 

A VOTE OF THANKS FROM THE CEO

A VOTE OF THANKS FROM THE CEO


Deep gratitude to all associated with Masters, in a big or small way, from the desk of MD

Dear Colleagues, our esteemed Clients, Stakeholders and all our Associates,
 

As we complete 10 magnificent years at Masters, it gives me immense pleasure and joy to extend a vote of thanks to all those who have been instrumental in enabling us to achieve this feat and have contributed in one way or the other in making the D Day of our 10^th year anniversary worth such a grandeur!!

First of all I would like to sincerely thank all our esteemed Clients (both existing and former) for placing their trust in us and who continue to work with us; guiding you through the journey of your projects is our greatest pride. Masters would not have been a leader in Project Management, if it weren’t for your belief in us, right from the day when we were just a small start-up in the market and you continue to do it till today. Even though, there have been some who did not give us any business or an association for various reasons, however, we appreciate them today as that experience served like a springboard for us to self-reflect and improvise.

A very special thank you to all our employees (even former), who have been a part of Masters even if for a day. Thank you to each one of you for enriching our Company with your skills, experience and time. Sticking with us in both our good and bad times must not have been an easy task at all. We have also had the privilege to work with a lot of expatriates, bringing international exposure and new perspectives to our projects. You each deserve congratulations and my deepest gratitude.

Last but not the least; I would also like to acknowledge and thank the support and patience extended to us by all our supporting group members, our Consultants, Vendors, Suppliers, Contractors who have been associated with us and continue to support us for timely delivery of their services and their continued association with us in all kind of projects. Your success is our success!! You are the people who trusted us when Masters was a small start-up and continue to be associated with us even when we are a leading Project Management Company today. Thank you for your unending support.

I thank, each one of you, from the bottom of my heart, and look forward with great optimism and enthusiasm to your continued association and support with Masters into the coming even more successful and challenging years.

My deepest regards

Jaspreet Singh, Managing Director, Masters

Our Vision-Mapping the upcoming Years

Our Vision-Mapping the upcoming Years

As the celebrations are over, we are reminded that completion of a successful decade is also a time for us to set foot into the future, to set higher goals and look into greener pastures. We have reported strong success and statistics over the last ten years spanning across sectors, geographies with our diversified services-whether it was expanding our portfolio, going to new markets, selecting the right talent or investing in different growing sectors. Riding on our past laurels and without letting the success go to our head, we are elated to be sharing the vision and key goals by setting competitive strategies for the upcoming years.

Differentiation:

A Company is distinguished by the services it offers. At Masters, we believe that work is not just timely delivery of services for us, but also the value-addition that we do by guiding and assisting our clients with our knowledge and experience. Keeping ‘Continual Improvement’ as our motto, over the next few years, we plan to expand and diversify our portfolio further by including services like Turnkey Solutions, comprehensive Design Services, specialized services like Design Management, Procurement Management and Contracts Management in addition to the already existing diversified services range. We also plan to enhance our Development Management portfolio- wherein we assist our clients from start-to-finish, taking the onus of the entire project. As a baby step, we have kick-started our first start to finish project in Jaisalmer building our very first ‘product’ in addition to the suite of ‘services’ that we offer. The project will be our flagship project under Development Management, which is being intended as a Luxury Hotel for the upscale market in Jaisalmer.

Being a Project Management Company (PMC), being versatile is a feather in the cap. Hence, the next few years will see Masters engaging with both existing and new clients on these new fronts.

New Geographies:

At Masters we believe that we have all the right ingredients to not just be a leader in home markets but also overseas. With the huge success of projects like The Imperial Towers, Vivanta by Taj, Tata Realities TRILIUM Mall, Godrej Prakriti, L&T SEZ, Movie Towers, we are now all set to explore international markets starting with Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. The next few years our focus will be to expand our reach and capture newer markets both domestically and internationally. This will help us enhance our skills, expand our reach and become a more versatile company. 

Sectorial Penetration

Having worked with blue chip companies and large Developers, our next logical step is to expand our scope of work. Over the next few years, Masters plans to add few new sectors. Hospitality and Infrastructure are 2 most upcoming developing sectors in India today and we plan to get into that sphere through tie-ups or direct marketing. 

In addition, our focus will also be in streamlining our internal processes by making ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ the catch-words. We will be looking at solutions to fast-track our systems and reduce the lead time in project execution, in order to be the number one PMC not just in India, but in the world.

Associates and partners

Being a PMC, a large part of our work depends on our Consultants, Contractors, Vendors, Suppliers and Associates. We have been lucky in partnering with the right people over the last 10 years. In the future, Masters aims to expand our band of trusted associates and cement our current associations and we are more than willing to explore opportunities and innovative ways to work together with new ideas. We are already in a process to tie-up with like-minded organizations overseas to bring in their experience in the Indian market as well make a strong foot-hold in their markets with our expertise in Project Management Consultancy. 

Going High-tech

For any growing company, it is important to pace-up with changing trends. Thanks to technology and constantly evolving information age, much of the tedious and cumbersome work involving handling of documents and paper-work has become one-click-away. Keeping up with the times, Masters is always open to adopting technology as part of its DNA to improve the quality of its services. We will soon be launching an electronic tool/platform that will take care of documents and records and enable users to share intellectual capital remotely across the organization, so that expertise can be easily tapped. This will also further standardize our services and make tracking easy and centralized. 

Human Resources:

The word ‘teamwork’ is synonymous with Masters. Our success is accredited largely to the people who work with us, for us, both at the forefront and behind-the-scenes. Masters from its very inception has been very careful about selecting the right talent and creating capable teams across various functions. Our goal is to build a large team of like-minded people who believe in and resonate our core Values of Integrity, Transparency and Honesty. The next few years are crucial as there will be a strong focus on nurturing our existing employees by investing in people-development and capacity building programs through trainings and workshops not only in Project Management arena but also in Organisational and Professional well being subjects. Being a close-knit organization, we do not believe in hierarchies and rather encourage open-dialogues and to have an open-door policy to create a comfortable and thriving environment for all our employees.Through mentoring, training and involving people in company’s vision, people are empowered to think out-of-the-box and, give ideas and take independent decisions.

Environment, Health & Safety (EHS)

We believe that progress of a nation, society or organization is measured not merely by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but by focus on creating a better life for each and every individual. At Masters we are committed to providing a safe, healthy and accident-free environment for all (from contracted labour, right down to our own staff), which also is a part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We already adhere to strict measures to instil in people the importance of their well-being and safety, but over the next few years we plan to strengthen our message of EHS by adopting relevant standards, policies and practices.

Celebrating a decade of glory...and the rest is history!

Celebrating a decade of glory...and the rest is history!

Being a successful Project Management Consultancy (PMC) i.e. conceiving and managing the progress of real estate projects ensuring close co-ordination between various agencies and Clients and delivering a successful project in line with Clients objectives of time, cost and quality, is no easy victory!! It requires proper planning, analysing problems and advising solutions, optimizing resources, allocating and integrating inputs (backed with skills and manpower) to create a masterpiece. From organizations drawing upon the services of a PMC merely for gaining external advice, Project Management, in recent years has come to be seen as a discipline many successful companies adhere to, as they function as bridges for information and knowledge. To stay ahead of competition, all companies both big and small, at some point of their growth cycle, requires Project Management as it streamlines the complex processes, reduces time by bringing in cross-functional competencies.

Masters - a leading Project Management company and synonymous with names like The Fairmont, Godrej, Parsvanath, Red Fort Capital, Marriott, L&T Pheonix, Indian School of Business, Tata Realty, Forum Group, Harvard Business School, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Runwal, Hiland Group, Ascendas, JP Morgan, GE Real Estate amongst many others, has evolved over the last 10 years, from a small-garage-office to having pan India presence and big ticket accounts in its kitty. As Masters celebrates its decade-long journey today on 27^th December 2014, we can’t help being nostalgic and wish to take you down the memory lane, recounting the good-old days, challenges that came along and milestones we crossed along the way.

Humble beginnings:

Started back in December 2004, Masters’ inception was more like serendipity. Born out of a Project in Mumbai-The Imperial project at M.P. Mill Compound in Tardeo, was a take-it-or-leave-it decisive moment for the founder and co-founders when they were asked to construct the two tallest towers in the Country. Armed with Engineering degrees, diverse professional background and loads of passion, the team turned the challenge to an opportunity-creating history and the challenge was accepted and Masters was conceived to take on the challenge!!

From a single project to handful of projects, over the years, Masters has developed itself as a name to reckon with who companies think of creating value through Project Management Consultancy. Today the Imperial towers (residential complex) stand tall in the heart of Mumbai city as a testimony to Master’s success, being one of its flagship projects.

Over the next few years, Masters was successful in adding Real Estate Advisory, Cost Management, LEED Green Building Advisory, Architectural & Engineering Design Development divisions to its service portfolio, making it a full-service Project Management Company it is today.

Another exciting area of development for Masters has been the evolution of Development Management division. This has been a feather in the cap as it provides added value to clients by assisting them with the identification of best land use, funding and pre-conceptualizing projects.

In retrospect

Started under the leadership of Mr. Jaspreet Singh, CEO and MD of Masters, Mr. Singh’s vision behind founding Masters was to address the dire need of a professional Project Management company in the country. Mr. Singh along with his co-founders Mr. N.H. Narayanan, Mr. Sanjoy Datta and Mr. Ravinder Bassan had the undying confidence in his team, which came with the knowledge & exposure of best of international systems and standards and at the same time being able to integrate that experience with the particularities of the Indian Real Estate Industry.

Started as a small office at the project site with a handful of 10 team-members, Masters has grown into a big organization which has pan India footprints employing a whopping 200 + people as of today. The Company has its head office in Mumbai and is operating in all big cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkatta while also offering its services to clients in emerging markets like Amritsar, Jaipur, Kota, Jaisalmer, Vishakhapatnam, Nagpur, Chennai, Goa, Siliguri and Jamshedpur.

In addition to investing in the right kind of talent and markets, Masters was also one of the early adopters of ISO standards. In the very first year of its inception, Masters decided to get certified to The Quality Management System ISO 9001, an International Standard, not merely to comply to market requirements but the Company wanted to embed ‘systems’ in its DNA and set clear guidelines to make sure that documented procedures and best practices (in line with an International Standard) are being followed in all its processes across all geographies. The company successfully upholds the ISO 9001:2008 certification even to date.

Recounting Milestones

Each year at Masters has been that of growth and noteworthy. Just after its inception in December 2004, in the year 2005, first Value Engineering exercise was undertaken for the Imperial, the MMC website was then launched for increasing awareness not only of Masters but also of Project Management techniques encouraging the Indian industry to adopt such professional platforms to enhance the real estate industry more rapidly by completing projects in time, cost and quality.

The Company was soon after, appointed as a PMC for DELL in Hyderabad which was their 2^nd project and the formation of Thompson Cole followed with Mr. Philip James to represent Masters in Dubai and this marked the first international entry of Masters.

The year 2006 witnessed a lot of key developments like establishment of Hyderabad Regional Office on 1^st April 2006 under the leadership of Mr Vishnu Prasad and Masters being appointed as a PMC for S.P. Infocity at Gurgaon, L&T SEZ Project at Hyderabad and launching of the Blog. Launch of blog signifies that the count of team had in a very short span increased manifold. 

Another significant turn was bagging the Indian School of Business project (designing and executing Faculty Housing) at Hyderabad. It was an out-an-out project development consultancy where Masters designed, constructed and monitored the project providing an end-to-end service, from architectural & services design to site-related work.The Company also took up Shopper’s Stop fit-outs at Noida, Delhi and Kolkata. In just 2 years, Masters had entered most of the geographies marking a pan India presence.

In the subsequent year, i.e. 2007, Masters took up theirfirst Technical Due Diligence assignment for Ascendas Property Fund Singapore, which was undertaken at Chennai in 2007, thereby formalizing the Advisory & Technical Due Diligence Vertical under the direction of Ms. Ipsita Mahajan. The first hotel project – renovation of Ramada Caravela Resort at Goa and a Fairmont hotel project at Jaipur and then Novotel Mumbai, also commenced in 2007. 2007 also saw the establishment of Kolkata Regional Office on 10^th October 2007 under the leadership of Mr Dhruba Bhattacharya. This was then followed by formally establishing the Hospitality division by Mr. Martin Fine in 2008.

In 2009, the Company started its first factory project for a Mexican client called Metalsa India Pvt. Ltd and executed the first LEED Green Building Advisory exercise in an advisory capacity to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, undertaken by Ms. Neha Trivedi, LEED AP. This year also witnessed the Inauguration of Corporate Office at Mumbai on 1^st June and in the next month, July 2009; the Imperial project was completed and successfully handed over, which continues to be the tallest standing towers in India, even today!

The year 2010 was indeed significant and memorable as Masters had undertaken their first off-shore PMC assignment in relation to improvements at the Johannesburg Sun Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa and also undertook their first Development Management exercise in the advisory capacity to S.P. Real Estate, undertaken by Mr. Ramy Makarem, Development Director at Masters. Having continuously cherishing the growth chart, this year saw one of the most tragic incidences; Masters lost one of its very senior key employees and one of the co-founders at Masters, Mr. N H Narayanan, Vice President. His key contributions and youthful spirit will always be remembered.

Masters then undertook its first independent Cost Management exercise in the year 2011 thereafter setting up of a separate Cost Management Division under the leadership of Mr Chandresh Dedhia and establishment of Delhi Regional Office on 10^th March 2011 headed by Mr Sanjeev Sachdeva. 2011 was a crucial year also in terms of re-visiting and improvising Masters Processes by introducing an enhanced version of Procedures further streamlining the activities and offerings across the board, under the leadership of Mr Robert Perkins, Operations Director at Masters.

Successively, in the year 2012, Masters Design Studio (MDS) offering Architectural and detailed design and drawings was established at Kolkata. And subsequently, MDS was expanded to include Interior Design and MEP Services Division in the year 2013.

2014 has been a year of devising strategies for tomorrow where the company adopted modern techniques for offering services and has worked towards developing an in-house online platform for their services which would be launched in 2015. 2014 has also been a year for pondering on international expansion by looking through various proposals and the company has eventually signed MoU’s with various like-minded organizations overseas and would now be working more closely with them with an objective to develop the Indian industry further by bringing in their experience in the Indian market as well as making a strong foothold in their markets with our expertise in Project Management Consultancy.

Blocks to success

Just like any growing company, Masters too faced certain challenges in the last 10 years, while setting up. Getting like-minded people together under one roof and to remain neutral and unbiased with various stakeholders (as a PMC works on behalf of contractors and stakeholders and represents the clients) while maintaining the periphery of its core values viz-a-viz Integrity, Transparency and Honest was a tough task.

However, once that was dealt with, many companies were hit by a global economic occurrence-Recession, in the year 2008. Project Management, an activity that helps clients ease out their job, was being looked at as an overhead and hence many projects had been shelved during the economic downturn. However, the team at Masters decided to stick together and build new avenues. The Company then started looking out on various other verticals and opened separate divisions for Cost Management and Design Services and introduced Development Management which helped the Company bounce back, eventually.

Masters may have seen various hues and shades of harsh winters but over the years it has developed a strong base of trusted partners and clients and has penetrated through many influential markets that make it sturdy to withstand any challenge head-on.

Greener Pastures

Talking about the journey, it is interesting to note and make a special mention of commercial activities that the Company started that were not just lucrative but continue to add value even today. Although started with just The Imperial Towers as the only project, Masters’ presence began taking shape by bagging few key projects like DELL, L&T Pheonix and ISB in Hyderabad, Infogain, SP Infocity, Parsvanath Towers, Vivanta by Taj in Delhi-NCR, Tata Realty’s TRILIUM in Amrtisar, Godrej Prakriti in Kolkata and Novotel and Saifee Burhani’s Upliftment Project in Mumbai. Many years later, Masters has been successful in carving a niche for itself in the Indian market and operates out of full-service offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Hyderabad. Each of the geographies while may have brought a few challenges initially, but they are now being explored for both small and big assignments across various services as end-to-end solutions.