The aca­d­e­m­ic chair for “The Future of Project Man­age­ment” was estab­lished between UTC-Com­pieg­ne and SKEMA Busi­ness School, with sup­port from the indus­tri­al part­ners the Renault and Saint-Gob­ain Groups. An in-depth look at its ambi­tion and objec­tives regard­ing chal­lenges such as increas­ing com­plex­i­ty, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, new col­lab­o­ra­tive meth­ods, and sus­tain­able performance.

The Chair for “Future of Project Man­age­ment” aims to rede­fine project man­age­ment for sus­tain­able per­for­mance in a com­plex and uncer­tain world. Its objec­tive is to bridge the gap between research and prac­tice by address­ing issues of resilience and robust­ness, peo­ple and col­lab­o­ra­tion, as well as inno­va­tion and effi­cien­cy, with­in a net­work of experts and indus­try lead­ers com­mit­ted to these issues. In this regard, the UTC Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion, a part­ner­ship foun­da­tion of UTC, is spear­head­ing the cre­ation of this indus­tri­al chair. The UTC Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion was con­ceived by UTC-Com­pieg­ne as a trans­for­ma­tive insti­tu­tion­al alliance, sup­port­ed by indus­tri­al part­ners and com­pa­nies com­mit­ted to UTC’s devel­op­ment. The UTC Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion aims to sup­port the devel­op­ment of pub­lic ser­vice mis­sions in high­er edu­ca­tion and, in par­tic­u­lar, that of UTC in its mis­sion of inno­va­tion. This is why the UTC Foun­da­tion will raise spon­sor­ship funds for both UTC and SKEMA Busi­ness School, with Renault and Saint-Gob­ain serv­ing as the first cor­po­rate part­ners of this inno­v­a­tive pro­gramme. “We are join­ing forces with Ske­ma Busi­ness School, to link aca­d­e­m­ic research in project man­age­ment to the con­crete chal­lenges faced by large com­pa­nies. This col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to gen­er­ate unique insights in key areas such as orga­ni­za­tion­al design, con­tract man­age­ment, and pro­cure­ment. This ini­tia­tive explores the key fac­tors shap­ing the future of project man­age­ment, includ­ing com­plex­i­ty, diver­si­ty, emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, work­ing con­di­tions and cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­i­ty. Its goal is to help orga­ni­za­tions adapt to con­stant­ly evolv­ing soci­etal and eco­nom­ic con­texts, while pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able, long-term project per­for­mance,” explain Thier­ry Gidel, pro­fes­sor of Project Man­age­ment and Inno­va­tion at UTC, and Paul Gar­diner, full pro­fes­sor of Project Man­age­ment and Inno­va­tion at SKEMA Busi­ness School.

Building a bridge between research and industry to anticipate changes in the field

The approach of this new­ly estab­lished chair is there­fore based on sev­er­al pil­lars, name­ly resilience and robustness—or how projects can antic­i­pate uncer­tain­ty, absorb shocks and adapt dynam­i­cal­ly to a rapid­ly chang­ing con­text. “There is also the chal­lenge of peo­ple and col­lab­o­ra­tion. Explor­ing diver­si­ty, well-being, and the con­di­tions for sus­tain­able per­for­mance with­in teams and orga­ni­za­tions. In terms of inno­va­tion and effi­cien­cy, we must lever­age dig­i­tal tools, AI and adap­tive meth­ods to fos­ter effi­cien­cy, cre­ativ­i­ty, and the cre­ation of sus­tain­able val­ue,” adds Thier­ry Gidel. The chair also offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to join a unique inter­na­tion­al research plat­form (Europe, Chi­na, the Unit­ed States, Brazil, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates) con­nect­ing acad­e­mia and indus­try. “Col­lab­o­rat­ing with Renault, Saint-Gob­ain, and oth­er for­ward-think­ing com­pa­nies on con­crete projects, and gain­ing access to cut­ting-edge knowl­edge on resilience, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and inno­va­tion in project man­age­ment is very stim­u­lat­ing, in my view. The idea specif­i­cal­ly is to devel­op inno­v­a­tive approach­es to project man­age­ment tai­lored to new indus­tri­al real­i­ties. The syn­er­gy between our two schools and with these part­ners will enable us to devel­op an entire ecosys­tem link­ing the worlds of edu­ca­tion, sci­ence, and business—like a think tank for future project man­age­ment prac­tices,” adds Paul Gar­diner, for whom key themes of the chair include sus­tain­able per­for­mance, , col­lab­o­ra­tion and new tech­nolo­gies, agile meth­ods, and the evo­lu­tion of skills. “Fos­ter­ing dia­logue among the diverse worlds of indus­try lead­ing to and shap­ing more inno­v­a­tive practices—through joint research, stu­dent projects, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­par­a­tive analysis—is a won­der­ful chal­lenge. UTC’s future grad­u­ate engi­neers need the­o­ret­i­cal frame­works, tools and meth­ods. We don’t expect them to focus sole­ly on tech­ni­cal aspects. They must be capa­ble of dri­ving change,” asserts Thier­ry Gidel.

Two complementary cultures and a shared vision

Com­pa­nies must be able to adapt to uncer­tain and com­plex envi­ron­ments by lever­ag­ing inno­va­tion, diverse tal­ent and new skills. The Chair there­fore address­es numer­ous strate­gic themes, start­ing with the Renault and Saint-Gob­ain Groups. Frédéric d’Arrentières, for exam­ple, is the lead expert in the “project man­age­ment” field for the Renault Group, whose mis­sion is to pre­pare for the future and devel­op excel­lence in vehi­cle devel­op­ment man­age­ment. He is also pres­i­dent of SmaP, an asso­ci­a­tion spe­cial­iz­ing in project man­age­ment. Vin­cent Toni, for his part, joined Saint-Gob­ain to improve the “project man­age­ment” of the Group and the Dig­i­tal Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Unit, by pro­vid­ing sup­port and address­ing cross-func­tion­al top­ics such as change man­age­ment in non-dig­i­tal envi­ron­ments, the use of AI for finan­cial per­for­mance, etc. “In today’s project land­scape, marked by increas­ing com­plex­i­ty and uncer­tain­ty, sus­tain­able per­for­mance requires a new way of think­ing and the train­ing of a new gen­er­a­tion of engi­neers capa­ble of address­ing these trans­for­ma­tions. We have already begun work­ing on this and have pro­duced sev­er­al pub­li­ca­tions. Our two schools offer two com­ple­men­tary cul­tures with a shared vision, plac­ing peo­ple at the heart of this man­age­ment chal­lenge. Our alliance allows us to com­bine approach­es in a rapid­ly evolv­ing world of project man­age­ment. We inten­tion­al­ly designed an open chair with var­i­ous part­ners who share com­ple­men­tary visions, so we can test tools with them, improve on them and con­tin­u­al­ly push fur­ther, expand­ing into oth­er sec­tors such as aero­space, chem­istry, con­struc­tion, agro-food, and defence… ” The stake­hold­ers of the “Future of Project Man­age­ment” chair, in part­ner­ship with renowned com­pa­nies, can indeed ben­e­fit from cut­ting-edge research to antic­i­pate and adapt to changes in project man­age­ment, but also con­tribute to train­ing the tal­ents of tomorrow—particularly future graduates—by fos­ter­ing inter­ac­tion between acad­e­mia and industry.

KD