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DERSTANDARD LeadershipStandard AUGUST2019| 13

Wir suchen Sie!

•Sind Sie AbsolventIn der Universität Graz?

•Ist Ihr derzeitiger Lebensmittelpunkt im Raum Wien?

Dann werden Sie jetzt Mitglied im Chapter WIEN des alumni UNI graz

und nutzen Sie dieVorteile des AbsolventInnen-Netzwerks Ihrer

Alma Mater!

Mehr Infos unter:

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Führungskräfte:

VonPMlernen!

WelcheFähigkeitenhabenProjekt-

manager*innen?

Schaden:Siesindaktiv kommunizie-

rendePersönlichkeiten undgehen

strukturiertmit herausfordernden

Aufgabenum.IhreSkillsreichenvon

derSteuerungvonTeamsundder

PlanungbishinzuControllingund

Vermarktung.Damittragensiezum

Unternehmenserfolgbei.

WaszeichneterfolgreichesManage-

mentvonProjektenaus?

Schaden:Projektmanagementistan-

spruchsvoll,ohnedabeikompliziert

zu sein.Dies sollteauchFührungs-

kräfteauszeichnen,vondenener-

wartetwird,dasssie inzunehmend

komplexenUmwelten einenkühlen

KopfunddenDurchblickbehalten.

StichwortAI–wer steuertkünftig

wen?

Schaden:Maschinen und Botskön-

nenRoutineaufgabenübernehmen.

AIerfordert keinevirt uellen Führungs-

kräfte,sonderneinenverbindlichen

Wertekodex,klareVerantwortlichkei-

tenundSpielregeln. Auchdaslernen

wirvomPM.

http://www.pma.at

PROJEKTMANAGEMENT

30.Oktober2019

AustriaCenterVienna

Projektmanagement

imUmbruch

2019

BrigitteSchaden, Präsidentin pma –

ProjektManagement Austria

Fo

to:L

ud

wigS

che

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placing some of the corporations’
standard marketing research.
If taken more seriously, how-
ever, WOC techniques hold even
more potential than that. Notably,
they could even replace certain
“expert” assessments in compa-
nies and draw on the distributed
knowledge ofabroader number of
staff members instead. This
would, of course, beamuch bigger
breach with the status quo of cor-
porate forecasting in most firms,
however. Not least because it will
require changing the mindset of
who should be taking certain de-
cisions on the firm’s future.
If the spectrumofforecasting
ranges from face-to-face expertdis-
cussions to anonymousWOC as-
sessments of seeminglyless know-
ledgeable individuals, the question
is under which conditions one ap-
proach can beat the other.
Our own research suggests that
standard forecasting approaches
in which selected employees dis-
cuss with one another can lose out
against WOC techniques when it
is difficult to pin-point the specific
expertise required. In other
words: when management cannot
tell if e.g. senior or junior people,
or marketing or technology people
have the corner on the market–as
would normally be the case.

C

ase in point, consider the
impact adisruptive new
technology may have on a
given industry. By its very nature,
the technology’s consequences for
agroup of businesses cannot be
determined from past data. Differ-
ent employees within the com-
pany may assess the likely impacts
differently–depending on their
own experiences and current im-
pressions. At first glance it is im-
possible to tell who hasabetter in-
stinct–those who have experi-
enced the many technological
changes over the last decades, or
those who have already grown up
in the times of “smart technol-
ogy”? The best forecast will likely
be the pooled assessment of many
staff members who all can relate
to the industry in some form or

fashion; at least, so science sug-

gests, when they can take their de-

cisions truly independently, and

not inagroup headed and subtly

influenced by top management.

Makingafirst step in this direc-

tion,asmall number of firms such

as Google and Pfizer has employed

WOC methods to pool widely dis-

tributed information by asking a

large number of employees to

make judgments about the likeli-

hood of future events, such as the

launch date of new products or the

success of in-house R&D projects,

and then aggregating those predic-

tions intoajoint forecast.

U

singWOCmethodshas its

hurdles:implementing such

aprocessseems difficult

enoughgiventhe large number of

people involved. Movingastepup

the ladder and convincing manage-

ment to thengo ahead andwork

with theassessment seemseven

more challenging, becauseitmarks

adeparture fromthe forecasting

practice of mostestablished compa-

nies, and change can be daunting.

Still, this is where it would haveto

start, sinceonlysenior managers

can set thesethings in motion.

Foto: iStock

MARKUS REITZIG

is Professor forStrategic

Management attheUniversity

of Vienna. Prior he workedas

full-timefaculty at Copen-

hagen BusinessSchool and

London Business School.

ZUDENPERSONEN

STEFFENKECK

is Assistant Professorfor

Strategic Management atthe

UniversityofVienna.Prior he

was Postdoctoral Fellowat

Carnegie Mellon University,

Pittsburgh. Fotos: Uni Wien

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