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O P I N I O N
Knowing who does what, who needs to weigh in, and who makes the final decision is critical to success. Defining roles and responsibilities
T he big day arrives. After months of courting, the firm landed a major project for a client it had wanted for years. The firm’s leadership and project team gathered in a conference room to celebrate. Champagne flowed and smiles filled the room as the CEO expressed his excitement about winning the client. Glasses were raised and the work began.
Julie Benezet
THE PROBLEM PROJECT. A few days later, the principal- in-charge met with the client to finalize the project vision. The CEO did not attend. Nevertheless, he planned to watch over matters related to the new client, a plan he didn’t share with others. After the meeting, the principal-in-charge handed off the work to his lead designer, asking her to keep him informed. He then moved on to the next project. Things went smoothly until reality intervened. The client demanded high touch service and multiple project changes despite having agreed to a fixed fee contract. To please the client, the lead designer complied with their requests, although she was nervous about their impact on the project scope and vision. She voiced her concerns with the principal-in-charge, who replied he had no time to deal with them and to “just make it work.”
She thought about talking with the CEO, having heard his enthusiasm about the client at the firm celebration, but didn’t want to go over her supervisor’s head. The client refused to reconsider any of their change requests. The lead designer concluded her best option was to focus on her team delivering great design and submitting their billable hours on time. That approach seemed to work until the day the project accountant decided to take a deep dive into the contract to compare the billed hours to the project scope. Two-thirds of the way into the project, they had exceeded their fee.
See JULIE BENEZET, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 1, 2021, ISSUE 1415
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