Project management and being a service provider

My team and I are currently transiting, and we are all eagerly anxious to get home for Christmas amidst the bedlam of lockdowns and Brexit talks – the reality is, we don’t care, it’s just nice to get home. The route home this time has been especially hard due to hurricane season and the affect it’s had on our usual exit airfields – it’s been quite the project to get the logistics lined up properly to make the transit smooth without horrendous layovers. Sitting here smugly, drinking my 4th coffee enjoying my free KLM chocolates (who doesn’t love free chocolate?) has made me reflect on the variety of workstreams that Crown Consulting has completed or is currently engaged in, in Central America and the effect that proper project management can have on effective and timely task completion.

We only had seven weeks during this rotation (due to Christmas) and I’m still on a limited team, but enough to keep the project safe. Now with firearm ownership and all the correct paperwork that goes with it, our paperwork folder covers absolutely everything thanks to having the right, enthusiastic in-country legal team which has been paramount to getting my Central American entity up and running, recognised with the correct authorities and fast tracked with all ‘constancias’ to let us achieve our ultimate aim; have the confidence to do the job well, legally and safely in all eventualities including hostile action against aggressors. One of the main reasons small companies luck out on this kind of work is simply because of this, not having the correct infrastructure around them to be able to do the extreme ends of our industry if we need to – it’s just not easy to get to this position, something that I’m starting to feel relatively proud of.

The client wanted to have certain trade networks in place for the Christmas break. This has entailed a lot of steep learning curves, but nothing that a fresh pot of coffee and a few white board sessions can’t sort out. The main issues we encountered were setting our expectations too high for our local delivery team and climate – politically and weather. People who know me, know that I can expect a lot from someone – I have been known to set certain expectations and this has been my downfall in the past. Working with LEC’s has shown me that regardless of how low I set targets for LEC’s, they just aren’t US, and by us, I mean our community; the veteran community that strives in the security industry – we get shit done, quickly and properly. Central America was also hit with two hurricanes within weeks of each other, this was poorly timed by the weather gods – we could have done without them to be honest… 

Establishing networks for the client, is a project in itself; understanding each individual (miner communities can be quite undeveloped), the logistics, the risk mitigation, the due diligence going through the legal team leading to compliance requirements, the risk analysis of the initial meet and future proofing of emerging risk of prolonged, pattern setting caused from newly established trade partners… the list goes on, we have all been there, it’s never just ‘get in the car and drive’.  Working with the client and knowing their fiscal situation also meant that we’ve know what the project budget is, how much we need to be profiting and by when for them to justifiably afford us. This is a stress in itself, as a service provider we want the project to last as long as it can, its profession preservation – we all want a job to work out. 

I’ve had a hectic final four weeks out here, to be honest, I’ve been feeling defeated – I haven’t achieved what I wanted to achieve for the client. As previously mentioned, a few factors out of my control have greatly impacted this. The client had set certain desires and I didn’t achieve them and I’m very much aware of the age-old mantra ‘time is money’… so what went wrong, what went right and what have I learned:

As a risk consultancy, we strive to provide more than just a security plan. We aim to provide a turnkey risk management strategy working with the client and ensuring that expectations match reality. So many changes over rapid succession meant that I was on the back foot, luckily, the groundwork, research and security design that we had originally put in meant that we could quickly change our strategy and solution to match the new project realities. The problem I encountered here whilst managing this transition within my team, meant I took my foot off the gas with the LEC’s – I became stretched which created avoidable delays. 

Project naivety from all stakeholders has also created certain delays in terms of project requirements, the need for this license, that paperwork, his signature, her consent etc, meant that we haven’t had a true and final project picture till very recently. I got involved with this project over a year ago and we’ve only just completed the full process map. This has led to extra costs spent by the client - of course, all projects have a risk budget, but this has only meant lost time. 

Now, so far this has sounded quite doom and gloomy, this is how I’ve felt for weeks... BUT the client is happy and in hindsight, the project has really achieved some huge milestones. After an in-depth operational tabletop exercise with all departments, we, as in the client complete (all stakeholders) finally feel complete in our project understanding. The client finally has all legal requirements to operate as the precious metal trader it has strived to achieve, all stakeholders have a full understanding of their scope and how it fits into the project, the client has multiple partnered mining entities and will be working within the legal boundaries of the Artisanal and Small Miners (ASM) sector – a notoriously corrupt sector filled with bad apples, money laundering and modern day slavery, but also very honest and hard working mining communities (just very hard to partner with), an awesome risk management service provider (but also very down to earth and realistic ;)) who can adapt to pretty much anything the client, the land, the locals or the climate can throw at us – but it’s not an individual effort. Individually were nothing, as a team we can conquer anything. I’m so grateful for the team I have out here and the rest of the team to follow in the new year – I could not do this without them. Look after your people and they will look after you. 

In summary, effective project management is a must, understanding the principles of project management are paramount – the quicker you can accept the original solution is obsolete, the faster you can create and manage the ‘fix’. Effective stakeholder management is key, there’s just some things that you can’t do unless you’re a local. Finally, have the right guys around you, my guys have been awesome since day one; whenever we’ve needed new routes, the car has left the compound with new routes filmed, analysed, dissected and validated. Document creation has been as quick as it’s suggested, ever being proactive has kept my company one step ahead all the time. Never caught off guard and confident all the way – looking forward to a prosperous and exciting 2021.