Project Management Regional Conference, India 2018

Raj Kalady

Managing Director, PMI India

It gives me immense joy to announce the fourth PMI India Regional Conference 2018, being hosted for the second time by Pune-Deccan India Chapter. The event is being held at The Westin, Pune on 10th March. The city of Pune is a wonderful amalgamation of the old and the new. While it enjoys its reputation as the cultural capital of Maharashtra, it is also the IT hub of the state. How beautifully this city has transformed itself, without losing its original identity! This is the thought that led to the theme of the conference.

Today the world of work is in a constant state of flux. Traditional methods don’t always work as disruptions are the order of the day. We need to constantly and quickly adapt to change. Amidst all this change how do we plan, adapt, transform and achieve our business goals? Project Management is the vital skill than can make a difference between success and failure. This very need has led us to the theme of this event - Achieving business transformation through Project Management.

This one-day conference will be a platform for business leaders from various industries to discuss how effective project management can be used to yield better results and help organizations make a higher impact on the region’s and the country's economy. As always, we will strive to get the best and most effective speakers to share their knowledge and ideologies with you. A rich and diverse pool of knowledge is what we intend for you to take away from this conference.

In the past, we have not only successfully conducted nine national level conferences, but also three regional conferences in Pune, Kochi and Kolkata. Having learnt immensely from each of these past conferences, we are confident that along with the enthusiastic chapter volunteers, we can make this regional conference a grand success – both in terms of delegate experience and knowledge shared. I invite you to come be part of this land mark event - network, learn and share!

I encourage you to bookmark the conference website so that you can be up-to-date with information as we go by. See you at the conference!

Rajarama Rao Bannengala, PMP®

Conference Chair and President & CEO, PMI Pune-Deccan India Chapter

PMI Pune-Deccan India Chapter is extremely happy to bring the PMI India Regional conference to you once again for the second time, for the year 2018, being organized in Pune. Our volunteer teams are already on preparations over drive to offer best possible conference in project management. The theme of the conference is, ‘Project management for effective business transformations’. In the era of disruptions happening in almost all industry segments, effecting a business transformation is imperative for survival!

When I looked around some of the disruptions started arriving about couple of years back in transport sector, some of the incumbent operators in radio taxis were still looking at the disruptions arriving and took no action at all in transforming their businesses. So, the implications were imminent with their business getting wiped out from retail segment!

There were operator unions who even took the route of confrontation with the disruptor's of the business game, and did not get any favourable results from their patrons in political circles. The reason was that the customers of the outcome of disruption in the business got immensely benefited from the paradigm shift happened in the way services offered or products worked for them.

The will of the market forces prevailed! Suddenly, someone realised that the technology needed for the paradigm shift in products and services are available and the customers are willing to embrace the big change, so the process of disruption started.

Similar to lightning and thunder bolt phenomenon, businesses must always be alert to the signal of disruptions arriving and be prepared to deal with the disruptions!

They could have also either lead the disruption into the businesses or followed the disruption and strategically took appropriate actions that could have helped them to sail their boats through the winds of turbulence!

So, in the age of disruptions one has clearly a choice of selecting the path of being leader, followers, Observers or confronters. Otherwise anyone knows what are the implications to the business sustenance!

When we talk about how businesses must deal with disruptions, there is a need to have really good business strategy based on what path the business would take and then how they will organise themselves into focused business units and then how they will ensure, the current business is protected/sustained, prepare for the immediate next for making a paradigm shift to their products/services.This essentially doing the business transformation!

When we talk about leading/following the disruptions, we are essentially bringing huge changes to the products or services. That means, we must apply all best practises to ensure that the focus remains on achieving the strategic objectives of dealing with the disruption and not on how to establish the effectiveness of processes and efficiency of Systems. It’s a writing on the wall that unless you have set your house in order with adoption of right processes and systems to deal with disruptions, the business is headed towards extinction from the map! I often observe that people are really wanting to do great job in designing/development of products or services but they at the same time procrastinate the adoption of tools and techniques in project management that are the only route for their sure shot success on goals for products/services.

This should not be brainier at all! In the race to be the first to be there in the market with next generation products and services, it’s imperative to adopt project management best practises. So, the emphasis must be on making project management aligned to strategic needs of the business and its presence will make the overall effort to achieve the goals much easier and predictable!

The time has come to look at the PM processes and tools as catalysts to achieve the strategic goals rather than thinking that they may be white elephants.

It matters on how these practises are adopted for leveraging them as catalysts. Companies must invest money and resources for laying really strong foundation for the Project/Program/Portfolio Management practises and they no more become a discussion points of relevance but catalysts for business success!

I am sure all of our invited keynote speakers will focus on providing valuable advice/guidance in dealing with the transformation projects/ approaching disruptions strategically and tactically.

I would welcome all of you to attend the conference with your friends and colleagues and participate in discussions among the PMI community to best prepare for the challenges posed by business disruptions!

I wish all of you very happy new year 2018 and success in your journey through disrupted business world!

Amit Jain, PMP®

Conference Director

Welcome to the 4th edition of PMI India Regional Conference, to be held in Pune. The first regional conference was hosted by PMI Pune-Deccan India chapter in 2015. I attended that conference as a delegate and after that started volunteering for the chapter. 3 Years later, I have the privilege of being the conference director. This clearly shows the power of volunteering.

In the last year we saw a lot of trend setting changes in PMI and at PMI Pune-Deccan India chapter. All those are to focus on the members as the core customers and to serve them for realising the value of membership with us. We surpassed our membership target and crossed the mark of 1000 members. Thanks for your support for that.

Stakeholder expectations of our products and services are getting higher than ever before, competition is getting tough, working culture is critical. In this competitive and challenging market, it is difficult to remain relevant. As Project / Program / Portfolio Managers we must be willing to change, to try new ways of working and to demonstrate to the stakeholders, that we can lead and manage the business transformation. This transformation would be achieved through the projects representing our response to the corporate strategy. The conference theme aligns with these expectations.

Our dedicated volunteers are leaving no stone unturned to make this conference a memorable event. All the speakers are being chosen carefully to ensure that you get a remarkable experience. The conference delegates will have an opportunity to listen to the award-winning stories and help set higher goals for themselves and their organizations. The conference is going to cater to the needs of PM practitioners from every industry and business domain.

Due to the advancement in technology, things are getting lot easier to perform. The project teams are more empowered now and have new business avenues. Organizations with a culture of empowerment and innovation will be the first to understand the global trends and help build teams to convert those as opportunities. Project / Program / Portfolio managers with experience with such situation will have an opportunity to network with fellow practitioners and share their experience during this conference.

Organization who want to utilize this opportunity to showcase their services and products can be a partner for this conference by sponsoring in various categories.

I along with the chapter volunteer team, look forward for you all to come and enhance your experiences and to make this conference a success!