September 8, 2023
However carefully one may plan, there will be times in the course of actual project management when gaps appear between budgeting and progress. In such cases, we have an axis in our firm that says, “Quality comes before budget.”
Of course, if projects were always undertaken without regard for budget, the company as a whole would be in the red and would eventually fail. However, when necessity arises with good reasons, we believe that the project manager should have the discretion to go over budget in pursuit of quality.
This is because we believe that, “Gaining trust is the foundation of all our business.” There may well be times when the work suffers as a result of concerns about going over budget. And there may be times when expedience is called for. But if that is always the case, it becomes a habit and winds up limiting the growth and development of the staff. Furthermore, when clients feel that quality is not up to par, they start to wonder how competing firms may perform. And if clients think that the work being done by our competitors is at the same level of our company, then the next time they will simply go with whoever is cheaper.
In order to avoid being drawn into price competition, we need our customers to prefer our firm over other firms. Producing the quality to make that a reality is our biggest defensive policy, as well as the best educational policy to encourage the growth and development of our staff.
“Even if we sometimes have to sacrifice budget, raising quality is our company’s mission. That’s because we believe in that as an investment in the future.”
Those are the words of one of our staff members, delivered at a recent Beer Bash event. She explained that performing quality work is an investment in the future, and that we will recover that investment in the long run by gaining our customers’ trust and thereby escaping price competition.
Honestly, we are still a long way from where I would like us to be. However, in order to raise the bar in the future, we need our own standards for the value of our work to be higher than those of our customers. And in order to accomplish that, I want us to keep striving without compromising our position, thus creating a workplace where our employees can demonstrate their capabilities. We need to stay focused on that as we move forward.
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