RC121 NovDec 2025 - Magazine - Page 32
MAJOR PROJECTS
Canadians are eagerly awaiting large projects
in energy, utilities, rail, ports and data processing, but our national track record on megaprojects needs a reset. There’s too much at stake
to put shovels in the ground without devoting
every e昀昀ort to ensuring projects are successful. How can we seize the moment and really
deliver?
Canadians are eagerly awaiting large projects in energy, utilities, rail, ports, and data processing, but our national
track record on megaprojects needs a reset.
32—RENEW CANADA – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025
Six pillars for project success
It’s our business to help organizations keep
projects on track. We’ve thought strategically
about what executives and Boards need to focus
on at the outset of large projects. But if an initiative has already started and goes sideways, it is
our job to help you turn it around.
For example, we tested a new approach on a
multibillion-dollar megaproject that was forecast to go 100 per cent over budget and deliver
a year late. These signs of failure appeared in
the 昀椀rst year of a 昀椀ve-year construction window. We reorganized the client’s governance
and organizational model, establishing a new
project culture, and renegotiating the construction contract. Final project costs came in only 30
per cent over budget and on schedule.
Our six-pillar framework drove this dramatic turnaround. It’s designed to help complex
initiatives guard against failure. Each pillar
provides guidance around questions Boards
and executives should be asking, where they
should probe for answers, and how they should
challenge project teams. Mapping out the pillar
areas well gives projects a 昀椀rm foundation and
increases the likelihood of success.
RENEWCANADA.NET
BROWN AND CALDWELL
A fair look at failure
The 昀椀rst step is recognizing that megaproject
failures are not, as often believed, black swan
events. They fail for predictable and often compounding reasons, such as optimism bias, lack
of stakeholder alignment, ine昀昀ective oversight,
slow decision making, insu昀케cient owner controls, poorly devised contracts, and insu昀케cient
risk management and ine昀昀ective oversight. And
the list goes on.
When projects do circumvent common
hazards, their massive scope, complexity, and
duration expose them to greater uncertainty.
If a ball starts rolling down a hill, even a tiny
bump in the road becomes an exacerbating
force as momentum builds. The more technical
complexities, contractual relationships, diverse
stakeholder needs, and political scrutiny, the
higher the vulnerability to risk.
There’s too much at stake to put shovels in
the ground without devoting every e昀昀ort to
ensuring projects are set up to be successful.
