Competitors can be an important stakeholder in that they are materially affected by the successful implementation of a project Likewise, should a rival company bring a new product to market, the project team s parent organization could be forced to alter, delay, or even abandon their project In assessing competitors as a project stakeholder group, project managers should try and uncover what information is available concerning the status of potential rival projects being developed within competing firms Further, where possible, the lessons learned by competitors can be an important and useful source of information for a project manager who is initiating a similar project in another company If a number of severe implementation problems occurred within the first organization s project, that information could offer valuable lessons to the other project organization in terms of what activities or steps to avoid in their own situation

As we noted in Five, suppliers refers to any group that provides the raw materials or other resources that the project team needs in order to complete their project When projects require a significant supply of externally purchased components, it behooves the project manager to take every step possible to ensure that steady deliveries will continue In most cases, this is a two-way street First, the project manager has to ensure that each supplier will receive timely input that they need to implement their part of the project Second, he or she has to be able to monitor that the deliveries are met according to the plan In the ideal case, the supply chain becomes a well-greased machine that automatically both draws the input information from the project team and delivers their products without excessive involvement of the project manager For example, in

Page 151 large-scale construction projects, project teams must daily face and satisfy an enormous number of supplier demands The entire discipline of supply-chain management is predicated on the ability to streamline our logistics processes through effectively managing the project s supply chain

Any environmental, political, social, community-activist, or consumer groups that can have a positive or (more likely) a detrimental effect on the project s development and successful launch are referred to as intervenor groups7 That is, they have the capacity to intervene in the project development and force their concerns to be included in the equation for project implementation There are some classic examples of intervenor groups curtailing major construction projects, particularly within the nuclear power plant construction industry As federal, state, and even local regulators decide to involve themselves in these construction projects, they have at their disposal the legal system as a method for tying up or even curtailing projects Prudent project managers need to make a realistic assessment of the nature of their projects and the likelihood that one intervenor group or another may make an effort to impose their will on the development process In fact, in some of the better-known project success stories, the construction project manager devoted a great deal of time early in the process to make a stakeholder management assessment of the potential intervenor groups, plotting strategies for finding the most effective and cost efficient ways of dealing with them

The top management group in most organizations hold a great deal of control over project managers and are in a position to regulate their freedom of action Top management is, after all, the body that

Page 152 authorizes the development of the project through giving the initial go decision, sanctions additional resource transfers as they are needed by the project team, and supports and protects the project managers and their teams from other organizational pressures The top management group has, as some of its key concerns, the requirement that the project be timely (the project needs to be out-the-door quickly), cost efficient (they do not want to pay more for it than they have to), and minimally disruptive to the rest of the functional organization