TITLE: Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise: Lessons for Business Today in Agile Project Management 

SPEAKER: Mark Kozak-Holland 

DATE: 29th June 2006 

ABSTRACT: 

Winston Churchill is widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th 
century. But as he became Prime Minister in May 1940, in a period of calamitous 
change, what did he actually do that we can learn from today? How did he 
transform his organization to turn his perilous situation around? Churchill was 
a Project Manager as well in the modern sense driving a project to completion. 

This presentation looks at Churchill as a PM managing the UK in the Summer 
of 1940. It describes the strategies he took to overcome incredible odds. Not 
only did he have to stave off an imminent enemy invasion but he had to move 
the peacetime economy to one that could support a war. This meant focusing 
slender resources on the immediate threat, unifying a disparate economy, 
and directing its output into immediate military use. With very little time Churchill 
had to transform his organization. 

Likewise business people today are grappling with an unprecedented level of 
change adversely impacting their organizations at different levels namely 
at the enterprise, business unit, or project. This historical analysis is done through 
a modern business and information technology lens, describing Churchill's 
actions and strategy using modern business tools and techniques. 

You will learn how the lessons learned from Churchill's administration can be 
applied to Project Management today. 

Entertaining and full of intriguing historical details, the presentation helps 
project managers see the impact of decisions in context to the ones that 
they make every day. 

BIO: 

Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise is from the "Lessons from History" series. 
As the author behind the series, Mark Kozak-Holland brings years of 
experience as a consultant who helps Fortune-500 companies formulate 
projects that leverage emerging technologies. Since 1985 he has been 
straddling the business and IT worlds making these projects happen. 
He is a certified business consultant, the author of several books, 
and a noted speaker. As a historian, Kozak-Holland seeks out 
the wisdom of the past to help others avoid repeating mistakes 
and to capture time-proven techniques. His lectures on the Titanic 
project have been very popular at gatherings of project managers and CIOs.