AGRI KOBI Moves to Sustainability

An office on agricultural service is operating in the Turkish Cypriot Community. The AGRI KOBI, located in Lefkosa, provides agricultural assistance to enterprises and producers with a staff of consultants and experts. The office team will provide technical assistance to agricultural enterprises and producers and do necessary research as well.

The operation of such an office is a motivating development which aims to strengthen productive and sustainable agriculture that contributes to the economic development in the TCC.

The defined PDPM project, supported by expert Mari Novak and local consultant Ali Tuzunkan, is to evolve Agri Kobi into a for-profit agricultural consulting firm. This is a challenging proposition. Agri Kobi has both the responsibility to carry out several ongoing funded projects, as well as work to establish itself as an independent entity. It must be ready to be self-sustaining in 9 months. The managers have been dedicated working in this direction.

There has been progress in defining clarity, and a determination that the ‘principles’ of good project management must be implemented. This led to a reexamination and agreement on objectives and deliverables; how information, reporting and feedback are handled, and control of resources by the project groups.

The awareness of the challenge toward sustainability and refinement of approaches has been made much clearer with a reference to PDPM methods. This is a valuable application. The AGRI KOBI office operates under the supervision of a consultant committee consisting of representatives from USAID EDGE, the European Union, UNDP-ACT, the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Agricultural Engineers as well as other leading Turkish Cypriot authorities in agriculture.

Expansion of Erasmus Language Ctr project

Initially the Language Center had defined their project in terms of a marketing effort.

This would entail a re-confirmation of target audiences and curricula, along with identification of possible new domestic student groups. The original goal of making Cyprus a “language destination” remains, now with 3 intermediate projects.

The first project or phase shifted from marketing to reorganization. This was based on the recognition that structures, roles and responsibilities, and rewards/consequences had to change if they were going to go ahead with the marketing project that they envisioned. The value of PDPM ‘thinking’ and approach helped frame both what needed to be reconsidered and how – the process – of restructuring. This led to using the team approach, information and commitment-based.



The next phase of the project is beginning. This will be the marketing phase. In the course of the work so far, many ideas have been generated. These now have to be ranked. The priority deliverables will be determined. The Erasmus Language Center team, assisted by local consultant Ali Tuzunkan and expert Mari Novak, will then use the PDPM approach to plot out this next sub-project on their way to their goal.

Update on Erduran Laboratories Equipment Acquisition and Modernization

Erduran Medical Lab is an established business providing medical, chemical and limited food tests in north Cyprus. Approximately 17,000 clients depended on Erduran Lab in 2009 for a variety of lab services, including working permissions, food tests and medical tests.

This project aims to modernize the equipment of Food Lab section of the Erduran Medical Lab. It will result in expanded service offerings focused on testing food, air, water used in the community. The European Commission will provide a grant for 50% of the total eligible cost of the project, and Erduran will pay the rest.

The project, assisted by expert Timm Esque and local consultant Cigdem Aksu, started in August of 2009 with a design of the new lab (the food testing lab will be one part of Erduran's newly constructed lab facility). The tendering process has gone relatively smoothly, with only minor delays. Equipment vendors have been selected.



However, the new lab can only be set up when the new facility is fully constructed. Heavier than average rains have put the construction schedule in jeopardy and may impact the food lab set up as well. Project Manager and Food Testing Engineer, Hasan Ustuner, continues to monitor the situation and is still planning for an on-time completion in mid-March.

Quick progress for Gür-So Pazarlama marketing research

Yusuf Sofu and his store team, supported by local consultant Memduh Erişmen, are moving very quickly to complete the first phase of market research for their retail furniture business.

The project focus is developing sales and marketing strategies that will be followed to increase the competitiveness of the company within the market.

The primary goal of this effort is increasing the sales volume of the company in the Fitness Equipment, Furniture and Home Appliances lines.

Gür-So Pazarlama Ltd. is established in 1995 by Mehmet Sofu and Gürsel Sönmezler, as a subsidiary to their existing business Sofu & Sönmezler Ltd. which has been operating in car business since 1986.

Since its inception, Gür-So Pazarlama Ltd. has been operating in mainly in furniture and fitness equipment market.






Furniture has been mainly imported from various brands and companies from Turkey. Now, Gür-So Pazarlama is representative and distributor of Kilim Furniture from Turkey, one of the leading companies in Turkey’s furniture market.


In fitness equipment, the company is representative of Columbus fitness Equipments from Taiwan and Atala-Bianchi Home Fitness from Turkey, mainly selling fitness equipments for home use. Recently, the company became a Siemens’s dealer, selling all Siemens’s products in its newly refurbished showroom in Nicosia

Incountry Visit Timetable (1 – 12 February 2010)

This team visit will include practical training workshops with a focus on your ongoing projects. It will be intense over a period of 2 weeks. This includes a series of pre-workshop meetings, a two day Project Manager workshop and one day Local Consultant workshop, and detailed individual coaching sessions in the week following the workshop. The incountry program follows this schedule:

February 2^nd, 3^rd: coaching meetings to finalize Project Briefings

February 4^th, 5^th: workshop (see enclosed agenda)

February 8^th: experts meetings with local consultants

February 9^th: local consultant seminar

February 10^th - 12^th: individual coaching meetings with project managers

All coaching meeting times will be agreed in advance by experts, local consultants, and project managers. Please insure your availability during the dates above, although exact meeting times will be flexible.

Workshop Information

These dates should be blocked out on your calendar already! It is important for you to attend the workshops in order to gain the ISPI certification.

4-5 February 2010 Project Manager Workshop 2

9 February 2010 Local Consultant Seminar 2

The workshops will take place at Hotel Saray, from 9:00 – 17:00, on those days. Refreshments and lunch will be included. Dress is “business casual”. Working language is English. PLEASE ARRIVE ON TIME.

The 2^nd day of the workshop on 5 February will feature a performance-driven simulation that will require several rounds of team work. It is important that all participants plan to participate for the full day so as not to distort the results of the simulation.

All participants are required to attend the PM workshop, and local consultants must attend the LC seminar. More experienced Project Managers are invited to attend the LC seminar on 9 February on a volunteer basis. Please contact Suna if you have an interest to attend.

Project Status Briefings

As a segment of the 4^th February workshop, each Project Manager (working with their Local Consultant) is asked to present a short Progress Briefing for their project. Please see the guidelines below.

This should be approximately 10 minutes (4-6 slides) and prepared in advance. Your LC will assist in this preparation, and the meetings with experts on 2-3 February will be focused on finalizing these presentations.

Performance Driven Project Management

“Preparation Guidelines” for Workshop 2 in February 2-3, 2010

As part of the two day workshop in February, each PM will be asked to report out on their PDPM project. We will be simulating a “Management Review” such as you might provide for your sponsor(s). This document provides our expectations of what we’d like you to present and how to prepare for the exercise ahead of the workshop. Your report out will serve three purposes:

1) For you to learn our recommendations for “reporting up” on projects

2) For you to practice these recommendations and get feedback

3) For you to inform us of the status of your projects so we can provide guidance as appropriate, and see what kinds of patterns come up across the projects.

Expected Contents of Your presentation

Component	Purpose
A brief summary of project definition and outcomes	Reminds us of the ultimate purpose of the project
The current PAC Chart for the project (also be prepared to tell us how many deliverables had an “early warning” resulting in a “new commit date”	Tells us if the team is operating from commitments yet or not

The current Milestone Chart for the project	Tells us how closely the teams milestone dates and actual performance match the desired performance
Short list of current project issues and how you think they might be addressed As you are identifying issues, remember all 3 sides of the project triangle (Scope, Schedule and Resources)	Tells us if there are key decisions you need made in order to get or keep the project on track

Note: we are not asking to see the Deliverables Matrix in this presentation. We do not recommend presenting that much detail about the project upwards, unless it is specifically requested.

Additional Expectations

1. Use your Local Consultants as a resource about how to prepare for the exercise.

2. Try to get your 4-6 powerpoint slides (4 components) to your Local Consultant no later than January 29. They may have some suggested changes that need to be finalized before meeting with experts on 2-3 February.

3. It is a good idea to practice your presentation. You will be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes of presentation not counting questions and answer.

PDPM Project Updates: Akcaba Communications

Akcaba Communications is an established fiber optics company since 2005. They have chosen to use Performance Driven Project Management (PDPM) to manage creating the capability for local production of currently imported fiber optic pigtails and patch cords. This will allow them to meet their customer’s need for custom made patch cords.

Faize Akcaba is the company’s Managing Director and the project manager of this project. Faize involved her entire team in the project Map Day early in December. Faize and her local consultant, Cigdem, have met 3 times since then to review progress and keep the plan up to date. As of last week, Faize and her team had completed 18 of 19 deliverables that were planned to be completed so far. This is an excellent result, especially for this large scope project.

One of the lessons learned early on was not to try and make commitments too far out in advance (plan in detail for the near horizon only). Some of the dates from the Map Day needed to be reset in the first status meeting, but now the team plans out only as far as they can see with some certainty.

PDPM Schedule Update

Dear Colleagues,

Please note that the dates for the onsite training in February are:

Workshop: Feb 4/5 (Thursday and Friday)

LC Seminar: Feb 9 (Tuesday)

We will be in contact with you in the next days to set up the individual coaching meetings - one prior to the workshop and at least one after the workshop. Please contact your assigned expert with any questions.

Study #1 Assignment Summary

The following is a short video podcast on effective execution for managers by London Business School Professor Donald Sull.

Please go to this link and view the video and be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. What 3 types of management is Dr. Sull contrasting in the video?

2. In what ways is Dr. Sull's advice similar to what we teach in PDPM? (hint: there are several)

3. Are there any new ideas in the video you can use?

The link is http://www.donsull.com/media/ft_lectures/execution_culture/

In case this link does not work for you, a different version of the lecture is located here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3193486164939366032#

Dr. Donald Sull is a Professor of Management Practice in Strategic and International Management, and the Faculty Director of Executive Education at the London Business School.

Sull is a global authority on how companies compete effectively in turbulent markets. He has been identified as a leading management thinker by The Economist, the Financial Times, and Fortune which named him among the ten new management gurus to know.