Brand Velocity Determines That Accelerated Projects Drive Accelerated Change.

ATLANTA -- The management consulting firm Brand Velocity, Inc. has found through their change leadership work that turnaround projects often succeed while traditional projects often have disappointing results. This has been confirmed in the technology area by Standish Group research which concludes that more than 70% of all IT-related projects fail to meet their original objectives.

Brand Velocity concludes that this failure rate occurs because key projects need to be started faster and designed to finish more rapidly. "It is hard to come to another conclusion with major projects, other than faster is also better," notes Jack Bergstrand, CEO of Brand Velocity. "For example, these projects commonly take more than a year to even get started and become less focused with time."

In technology projects, for example, Brand Velocity finds that companies, on their exhaustive journeys, typically use external and internal resources to develop overly detailed business cases and then go through overly extensive selection processes for software, project consulting, and hardware. On the surface this sounds fine, but the problem is that in an effort to follow a very careful approach many companies lose their way. This leads to key projects that develop the bad habits of over-engineering, too many consulting layers, too much internal self-interest and consensus, and unworkable decision-making processes. Unfortunately, this seemingly careful approach leads to 70% project failure rates; resulting in the common mid-project symptoms of extended deadlines and cost overruns.

Brand Velocity has found four key ingredients for success. First, accelerated projects need a clear and consistent destination. Second, accelerated projects require a holistic plan. Third, they require the right steps in the right order with urgent deadlines. Fourth, successful projects require clear accountability at the individual level with a rapid decision-making mechanism.

Accelerated change, according to Brand Velocity, requires accelerated projects. And, when companies encounter difficulties as they run and change their organizations at the same time, they should not assume that they are trying to change too fast or that they are experiencing cultural resistance. Chances are, Brand Velocity has concluded, that companies have not been changing fast enough--through accelerated projects--and their organizational cultures have simply become confused or have fallen asleep from boredom. The secret to accelerate change? It's a clear destination, holistic steps, sequential deadlines, and individual accountability.