What are your thoughts on the progress of business development in Bangladesh? Do you think project management will help businesses attain their targets?
I'm very impressed. This is my fourth trip to Bangladesh and every time I come here, I'm learning something more about the economy, about economic development, and about the progress that Bangladesh is making.
One of the pillars of its economic development is infrastructure, which is badly needed. Last year, when I was here, I had the privilege of interacting with the people who made the Padma Bridge and I learned a lot about how that project was conceived, how the project was executed.
More than that, because that bridge is now in place, it provides connectivity between Dhaka and 21 southern districts, which was not connected before. Thus, we are really beginning to see the effects of economic development.
Professionals and team leads take different initiatives to overcome challenges and expand their ideas. If there's a lack of a proper project management plan, what are the drawbacks?
If we're not able to execute, at the end of the day, even if you have fancy technology, fancy teams, fancy offices you cannot make the project work.
I think that effective project management brings execution capabilities to an organization, whether it's the government, private sector, or it's a global company. If you can find them within your organization, then I think it's a big win, that's what project management is.
How do you think a better-equipped project management community would help upskill the entire industry?
I think the keyword is something you've already mentioned, community. I think something that PMI takes a lot of pride in is that we create communities. So, it's not just people taking courses, writing exams, getting a certificate, and going home.
They are part of a larger community of professionals, of people with similar interests, similar backgrounds, and similar credentials.
But the value is this community comes from all different industries. It can come from, in the case of Bangladesh, it can come from apparel, textiles, digital transformation, petroleum, oil, and gas.
You get the advantage of being able to talk to and learn from professionals of similar backgrounds, but coming from different industries, different segments, and different life experiences which is one aspect of the community.
There's an equally important, if not more important aspect of PMI, and that is to give back to society. So, these communities are very keen to find a way to give back to society in ways that benefit society because these are all volunteers.
If you take the Bangladesh chapter of PMI, for example, they do a lot of social impact programs.
So, for example, working with high school and college students to help them understand the importance of social impact, especially college.
One is your opportunity to mingle with and learn from people from different industry sectors, but equally importantly, come together as volunteers to give something back.
Can you explain the opportunities that come with PMI's global networks and resources?
First and foremost, PMI is a global organization. Therefore, whatever it provides in terms of content, training, and certification is valid. But PMI certifications have global standards.
What we bring to the table is the ability to create global standards and then provide training and certification on those global standards. In the United States and Canada, for example, government projects of a certain size - they cannot be signed off unless the project manager is certified.
That project manager has to be somebody who has got certification from a global organization like PMI and this is really one of the reasons why PMI has had so much growth in the last 10 years.
If we talk about certifications, in your thinking, what certificates are most required for Bangladeshi professionals?
We talked about the importance of infrastructure. For example, PMP is a recognized standard in the industry. Similarly, Construction Professional – a new one by PMI is specially designed for construction professionals.
As the infrastructure and administration are increasing day by day, we have launched a new program called ‘Construction Professional' (CP), which covers a lot of infrastructure projects. Moreover, the PMP and the CP are probably very important qualifications for people to have in a capital environment. There are a lot of people in those project teams who are certified, not necessarily by PMI, but by other bodies as well.
How many countries does PMI operate in?
We have around 1.5 million+ certificate holders across the globe. And we have about 670,000 + members and 11,000 + volunteers who work in the community.
The vision of the government is to make Bangladesh smart, both digitally and in infrastructure. What is your opinion?
What is impressive for somebody like me, looking at Bangladesh from the outside, is that the country has been able to achieve a lot of this digital adoption in a very short span.
There's another aspect that I think we are, as project managers, very intrigued by.
As per a BCG report, Bangladesh has an extremely active domestic consumer market, which accounts for nearly 70% of GDP and I think as an economist, we know that if you have a domestic economy for goods and services, that is a very, very good foundation.
You don't have to keep trying to export trying to import right to do something else.
Such a development is a key pillar of the government's economic development policy, as it should be.
And the impressive trainers, Bangladesh has been able to execute a lot of this competence locally, with local people, for example, the new terminal that's coming up at the airport.
I learned about that project and when it gets commissioned in the next few months, it will have exceeded all of the parameters.