Resources
Making major-project performance predictable
Multi-national precious metals miner
PQ partnered with a multi-national precious metals miner to review its most important growth project, pinpointing the gaps, risks and sources of performance uncertainty that could derail it. The most valuable change proved to be how corporate leaders set the pre-conditions for success across the whole portfolio.
The challenge
A growing portfolio, assessed inconsistently
A successful growth strategy was generating a pipeline of major projects, but the business had no consistent way to develop or assess them.
Leaders held different expectations of what pre-approval studies should deliver, and centralised decision-making blurred accountability and slowed progress.
What we did
Fit-for-purpose frameworks, built and embedded
We designed two complementary frameworks and led their implementation, bringing the consistency and rigour the portfolio needed.
An Investment Framework: phases, governance, roles, valuation and risk/reward tests, tuned to the company's strategy, culture and risk appetite.
A Project Management Framework: consistent deliverables, controls, governance and reporting, flexible across major, expansion and business-as-usual projects.
Governance that holds: the Investment Management Committee, with clear delegation of authority and a secretariat to embed the discipline.
The outcome
A consistent process leaders trust
The business now runs a consistent process, with decision-makers able to influence studies and projects at the right time.
Major projects move through the gates with greater confidence, recent ones have hit production targets within approved cost and schedule, and leaders get early warning of issues while they can still shape the response.