Qatar World Cup Stadium and Preserving Project Value
Projects are strategic vehicles for implementing and achieving organizational and national strategic objectives and delivering business value or benefits. Organizations use projects as vehicles for implementing their approved strategic initiatives. That is, projects occupy such a strategically important place that organizations either rise or fall with them. So, learning how to prepare a recovery plan that works is critical to preserving the business value of the project and ensuring the survival of the organization.
Therefore, I intend to discuss the strategic importance of project recovery and project value retention in this essay.
Rarely do projects run as planned. More often than not, things go wrong, performance deviates from plan, and there is need for intervention to bring the project back on track. The agility of the project team and its competence in developing effective recovery plans are critical components of project value retention, benefit realization, and organization survival.
Yes, all projects are time-bound, and their benefits or value depends on timely completion. But some projects are more time-sensitive than others and the realization of their benefits depends on timely completion. That is why a responsive project team, intervening in a timely manner, armed with a recovery plan that works becomes a matter of life and death for the organization.
Can that be said of you and your project team? If not, sign them for my half-day masterclass.
Now, let me illustrate the point with two examples.
Opera House, Sydney, Australia
- Danish architect Jørn Utzon won the international design competition in 1957.
- Project approved to begin in1958 with Jørn Utzon supervising.
- Construction started on 1 March 1959.
- Project completed by another architectural team led by Peter Hall.
- Project completed and commissioned on 20 Oct 1973.
- Planned Project Cost – A$7 million.
- Actual Cost – A$102 million.
- Planned Project Duration – 4 years.
- Actual Project Duration – 14 years.
- Current status – UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Annual Revenue – $775 million.
- Current value – $4.6 billion.
Although the Opera House project was significantly delayed, by 10 years, it can be argued that, given its current status both locally and internationally, its value and benefits were not jeopardized. In other words, its value was not very time sensitive.
But that cannot be said of our second example.
Al-Janoub Stadium (Al-Wakrah Stadium), Qatar
- Designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid together with the firm AECOM.
- Construction started 2014.
- Construction completed 2019.
- Stadium opened on 19 May 2019.
- Project Cost – USD 700 million.
- Project Duration – 5 years.
It has not been possible to find the planned and actual records of project duration and cost. But that does not detract in anyway from the point that we are trying to make.
This stadium is intended to host the 2022 world cup. There is no doubt that, as is usual with projects, some aspects of the project may have run behind for some time. However, the project team was able to bring them back on track.
But what would have happened if it had suffered such significant delays, like the Opera House project, that it would be completed in 2023 or later? It would be practically useless for the intended purpose then because the world cup would have come and gone. That is, the benefit of the project would have been lost.
This illustrates the significance of project recovery to the Qatar sports stadium project. As you are aware, most projects are not completed on time. Also projects rarely run as planned. Without a sound recovery plan the Qatar world cup stadium project would have lost its value if it had fallen behind and the project team did not know how to bring it back on track.
That is why every project professional, project engineer, planning engineer, and project manager needs to know how to prepare a sound recovery plan. Check here to download a free Recovery Plan Checklist. Click here to purchase the eBook ‘How to Prepare a Recovery Plan that Works: A Step-By-Step Approach’. Register here to attend my half-day ‘How to Prepare a Recovery Plan that Works’ masterclass. Do it now.
