Project Stakeholder Management

RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tags are now being used in many places around the world, although an article in Telecom Asia magazine about how to ‘kill’ your RFID tag made me think about how to communicate the benefits of this technology to the public.

RFID consists of an inexpensive wireless chip and antenna that can be read up to several metres away. The technology is typically used to track packages in transit or in factory production systems, cutting costs for manufacturers and retailers.

Since 1998, the National Library Board (NLB) in Singapore has been using RFID to tag all its books and automate the borrowing and returning process. More recently, the NLB has installed RFID readers in bookshelves of the library, enabling an operator to find out exactly which books are on the shelves.

The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in Singapore also uses ‘active’ RFID technology for the toll system to communicate with vehicles, whilst bus travellers use ‘passive’ RFID tags inside EZ-Link contactless smart cards to pay for their travel.

While the technology does offer some remarkable opportunities, it also raises some concerns with regard to individual privacy and possible espionage. These issues are discussed in more detail in the RFID Gazette, and is particularly relevant now that many countries have already adopted RFID tags into passports.

Telecom Asia makes the point that some consumers do not seem to have learned very much - or don’t like what they are hearing - about the benefits of the RFID technology, even though it has been around for a long time.

In Singapore the benefits of the EZ-Link card are quite obvious to all travelers, as they quickly get on and off the buses and trains but I wonder how the benefits of remotely-readable tagged passports will be communicated to the public?

Here’s one of my favourite case Studies, showing what happens when you fail to apply good Risk and Stakeholder Management to a potentially dangerous project.

In 2006, The Swiss Government and a number of regional power producers invested in a scheme to produce geothermal energy with the aim of providing heat and electricity to several thousand homes in the Basel area. The energy would be obtained from geothermal sources by a system known as deep heat mining, where hot water from deep below the earth’s surface is forced upwards and used to drive turbines to make electricity.

The pilot project was supposed to be completed by 2009.

Unfortunately, the drilling triggered some earth tremors at the turn of the year 2006-7, causing the project to be halted for safety reasons. Local residents were very worried, as Basel is one of the areas in Switzerland most prone to seismic activity. In 1356, the city was almost entirely destroyed by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake.

Local resident Armin Fretz, talking to the press:

I don’t understand why such a project was accepted in a city known for being located on a seismic fault

The question of whether Geopower will be allowed to return to drilling remains under evalution, with US$50 million already spent.

Here’s a quotation from a local report; see if you can spot the inconsistency:

Last week the Basel government took a first step by announcing that it was going to carry out a full “quantitative” risk analysis based on new data to help decide whether or not the project should be resumed.

Yes, they actually proposed to do Risk Analysis AFTER the drilling started and the problems became evident, rather than in the planning stage of the Project Lifecycle!

And they are still compounding that error by neglecting Project Stakeholder Management, which states that we need to communicate early and often. Take a look at the Deep Heat official website - which is closed down - ensuring that rumours and misinformation rule.

Here’s an update to the Article on mobile phone usage in aircraft.

Emirates and AeroMobile announced a few days ago that the world’s first authorised cellphone call was made by a passenger during an Airbus A340 flight between Dubai and Casablanca. The call was made at cruising altitude, after passengers were permitted to make and receive both calls and text messages. Emirates are planning to fit additional aircraft with the cellphone system later this year. To minimise annoyance, the flight crew requested passengers to use phones on silent-mode and will shut off the in-flight service during long-haul night flights.

Qantas is also planning to allow cellphone usage during flight, but for SMS text messages only, after a nine-month trail period during which they received plenty of stakeholder feedback.

So different airlines have decided to offer different services, based on surveys and feedback:

• Emirates - full voice and text sms
• Qantas - text sms only

We’ll be watching to see how they manage passenger and other stakeholder feedback after full system deployment.

Genetically modified (GM) crops are already being used in many countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, India, China, Australia, and some European countries. According to a report in The Economist, the market for agricultural biotechnology doubled from about $3bn to $6bn from 2001 to 2006, and is predicted to rise to over $8bn by 2011.

The use of GM crops to produce food has, however, been fiercely resisted in the UK and some other countries in Europe due to various concerns about their safety and possible environmental damage. For a balanced view, take a look at this Wikipedia article.

From a Stakeholder Management perspective, I was wondering why the perceptions of GM crops were so different between different countries. Reports indicate that GM crops give higher yields with less water, energy and fertiliser, thereby solving some of the following problems:

• An increasing worldwide demand for food
• A decrease in the amount of land and water available for farming
• An increase in the cost of energy

In general, farmers seem to like the new varieties of pesticide resistant crops as they can grow more with less, and therefore make more profit. But how to convince sceptical European consumers? It appears that we may, however, be approaching a ‘tipping point’ where the momentum for change becomes unstoppable and GM crops become more readily accepted by consumers, as new varieties of GM crops are predicted to provide strong benefits to consumers.

We may soon see soya oil that tastes better, is healthier, and produces no trans-fats during cooking. When consumers (stakeholders) see the benefits to them, in the form of healthier food, then we might see the more widespread acceptance of GM foods. That is exactly what we say in Project Stakeholder Management - show people the benefits of your project and they will become your supporters. Keep monitoring the news for updates on the GM food situation.

More light-hearted definitions of project management and associated terms, to help with project and stakeholder communications:

E-Mail

(a) Electronic Mail. Mode of communication from computer to computer.

(b) Permanent record of everything you said. Yes, all your emails are saved and can be read by the IT people. You might even send a nasty email to the boss by mistake (surprising but many people inadvertently do just this).

Empower

(a) To give power or ability to someone.

(b) Something that managers are unlikely to grant to you, because being ‘empowered’ means being in control and being free to take action in accordance with your own judgment, instead of the manager’s judgment.

Entitlement

(a) The feeling that you are owed or deserving of something without needing to do any of the work to get it.

(b) An expectation that is increasing nowadays, as some companies have extensive perks including free drinks, a gym, rest areas etc. These companies only serve to increase worker demands as they see what other companies give away.

Executive Decision

(a) To independently make a definitive choice.

(b) Something that almost never occurs, due to the huge number of managers who need to sign-off or approve even the smallest choices. See ‘empowerment’.