Project people, we have a problem. We are pawns in a wider game and unless we raise the noise, we risk falling further and further behind in the technology stakes.

There are a lot of negative associations around vanity projects. Not just the downright ugly – the grotesque monuments or golden palaces as a shrine to an evil dictator – but anything that tends to be big, risky/controversial and breaking new ground. HS2, the Olympics, Concorde etc, have all been labelled as ‘vanity’ projects by opponents quick to dismiss the economic case as nothing more than pie-in-the-sky thinking, driven by a person with big ambitions and an ego to match. But let’s look at the evidence.

Sorry Ken, you’re wrong. At last month’s PMI Synergy Event – billed as a celebration of project management – former London Mayor Ken Livingstone stood up to denounce the talents of UK project leaders. Central to Ken’s argument was the assertion that if you want something doing properly, bring in outside help. He cited Americans Barbara Cassani and Bob Kiley as prime examples. But if you look closer, it’s far from an open and shut case.

“Encourage your people to be committed to a project rather than just be involved in it.” – Richard Pratt (1934 – 2009) – Australian businessman I stumbled across this little gem of a quotation the other day and it jingled my bell.