You are facing stakeholder turnover in an R&D project. How can you navigate the risks during critical phases?
J V Hari Prasad
Program Management, Manufacturing Operations Management, Formulation Development, CRO,CMO,CDMO, Business Development, Regulatory Affairs, Product Launch, Techno-Commercial. Idea / Concept to Commercialization.
1) Document everything, include project plan, minutes of meeting, key decisions made on the project at various phases so that new stakeholder could pick up quickly.
2) Knowledge transfer must be strong, create proper handover process.
3) Keep remaining stakeholders on project regularly informed, maintain continuity to ensure project is on track.
4) Identify risks & make risk mitigation plans with a special focus on key stake holder turnover, resources allocation like what may go wrong , what may be delayed in absence of suitable resources.
5) Build good relationship with new stakeholders, understand their constraints/concerns it will help align with organization goals / project goals.
6) Maintain open and regular communications with all stakeholders, keep them updated, reduce misunderstanding
7)Have steering committee meeting for top priority projects, for strategic alignment
8) Be adaptive to adjust project plans if required, stake holder may bring new perspective that may be beneficial for project.
9) During knowledge transfer i.e., during transition make sure key deliverables are not compromised, agreed milestones are achieved.