Case Study
Project and Program Delivery
The Challenge
Shell Oil contacted Stratdel to help successfully deliver an extremely high-profile marketing campaign, with multiple moving parts. Charged with the aggressive goal of disrupting the premium fuels retail market, the Retail Fuel group’s main challenge was where to begin. Some initial concerns included:
- How do we best plan and prioritize cross-functional project initiatives and deliver a strategic program that provides the most value?
- Does our staff have the experience necessary to execute on a multitude of projects?
- Is there a firm we trust who can help us deliver on our plans?
The Solution
For the campaign to be successful, our client needed a partner they could trust – a project leader who could coordinate and deliver multiple small projects, all in support of the overall campaign program.
The Stratdel PM assigned to the project was ready to meet the challenge and deliver a successful campaign. And to get the project (and relationship) started off right, he immediately:
- Created a PMO (project management office) to help establish project structure, team governances, clear accountabilities, and actionable project plans.
- Conducted a team assessment to determine roles and responsibilities and cross-functional interdependencies. He also established proper ways of working with different teams while respecting individual team member boundaries.
- Worked with the different functional departments to discuss budget control and define KPI business objectives for overall program delivery.
The Feedback
“We identified an experience gap and we wanted to plug in a firm we trusted. We knew Stratdel from a previous working relationship, so we knew they were the right fit. The overall delivery was exceptional, and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with them.”
Business Impact – Value
From helping to create the initial scope, to managing the design, planning, and execution of the program, our experienced PM helped to ensure each project within the campaign delivered the expected value, on budget and on time. Key successes included:
- The seamless integration with teams to create organization and structure.
- The creation of a central budget team between Pricing, Operations, Marketing, and Finance to track the weekly campaign.
- Improved cross-functional team collaboration which allowed the central budget team to quickly make budget allocation decisions and keep the campaign on track.
Business Impact – Process
Although standard methodologies can help guide teams through every stage of a project, understanding and establishing the right processes and knowing when to use them often comes down to experience.
Tapping into knowledge gained from two decades of project management experience in the Oil & Gas industry, our consultant was able to work with the retail group’s in-house team to create a customized process. The steps to develop that process included:
- Working with the client – during the initial phases – to link each project to the strategic objectives of the campaign.
- Building out a customized plan for each project: Defining scope, schedule, cost, and team (roles and responsibilities) required for delivery.
- Fine-tuning processes, improving cross-functional planning, setting milestones and creating actionable timelines the teams could align with and deliver on.
Business Impact – Leadership
Stratdel’s project leadership approach is built around helping our clients deliver successful projects. Focused on improving decision-making capabilities, communications, work culture, team collaboration, and overall effectiveness, our consultants do more than just oversee tasks and processes, they also:
- Motivate and encourage team members, assess performance, and track progress.
- Confirm decisions made and timelines already established, and address contingencies to identified risks.
- Deliver programs with effective meeting cadences, status updates, and insightful communications – targeted towards milestones achieved, risks raised, and decisions needed to move the campaign forward.
