PQ Partners
Our thinking.
Writing from PQ's directors and consultants on capital planning, investment decisions and project delivery.
29 June 2026
The cases looked sound. The projects didn't deliver.
When approved projects underperform, the question that matters is whether the problem started at approval or after it. Most organisations cannot tell. Building the system that makes that distinction visible is the gap worth closing.
Ben Armstrong
22 June 2026
You are accountable for an outcome you cannot see.
The information reaching you has been filtered, summarised and smoothed before it arrives. By the time something is visibly wrong, it has usually been quietly wrong for a while. The fix is structural, not personal.
Ben Armstrong
15 June 2026
Many delivery problems are inherited, not created.
The frustration of leading a delivery function is rarely the difficult projects. It is what arrives at the door before delivery even begins: plans shaped without delivery input, and portfolios never tested against what delivery can absorb.
Ben Armstrong
9 June 2026
Most organisations don't have a portfolio. They have a list.
A list is what you get when investments accumulate over time. A portfolio is a deliberate set of choices. The difference determines whether your capital plan drives the strategy or quietly works against it.
Ben Armstrong
4 May 2026
The project leader is right. So are the senior leaders.
The project team needs protection from noise. The leadership team needs signal. Those are different things, and most organisations haven't built the structures that let both be right at the same time.
Ben Armstrong
6 April 2026
Why most project reviews arrive too late
Most organisations only call for a project review when something has already gone wrong. The symptoms are visible by then; the causes are not. A review that changes anything has to arrive before the symptoms force the conversation.
Ben Armstrong