Is there a disaster lurking in your project?

Volkswagen, once renowned for “German Engineering,” is in turmoil with the news that it engineered its cars to falsify fuel emission standards.   A disastrous ripple effect is causing a CEO resignation, a 30 percent drop in share price, the loss of corporate reputation and a hit to Germany’s GDP.

This huge, skillfully-engineered effort to deceive consumers and regulatory authorities requires more than just replacing the CEO, considering the size and scope of the deception. There were clearly problems throughout the entire enterprise:

•  Lack of transparency
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of sufficient controls to monitor and prevent malfeasance
• Profound human error and failure of ethical standards.

This should be a wake up call for management everywhere to review their project procedures and new product development systems enterprise wide.  Management, project managers and teams should take the lesson – if you don’t take accountability…..accountability takes you.