The UK had a problem to solve. We were producing 6.5 per cent improvement rates on our project portfolio. That actually hid the fact that for the small projects (50 to 100 million-dollar projects) we were achieving 20 per cent improvement. For the very largest ones, the ones that were nearest the heart of political change, we were only achieving 3-4 per cent. So we did a study to find out why and then more importantly try to decide what to do about it. Figure 4 shows the results of our study and of Gartners worldwide study of what goes wrong with the very largest government projects. Not everyone may agree with it.

What it suggests is that technology is not the problem on the very largest projects. Project management processes are not the problem on the very largest projects, but the clarity of policy interpretation, the scope of it and understanding the political intention is the crunch that causes the very largest to either succeed or fail. OGC realised that we were not putting enough effort into the early stages of policy development and policy deliverability. And so we are moving on to getting involved with the policy developers before it even becomes a policy. What we did on the London Olympics, was to be involved with our project management teams as the bid was produced. So there were no excuses for the bid not to be right. We worked out a program where all the Ministers and Permanent Secretaries got involved and identified their key success indicators, which varied widely. Then we pulled them together and fed that back to the ministers as a group. The better news is we have also set up for the first time ever, a cross-functional ministerial group with a role in running the Olympic program. There are six Cabinet Ministers chaired by an independent Cabinet Minister who run the Olympic program. Please note the word ‘run’, they are not there as a safety valve, they have a job to do in setting priorities, and resolving escalated problems. So that is a real success. And we’re now going to bring that success into all of our cross-functional projects. So what we now do is before the Gateway review program even starts we run an activity with the project at the stage of policy development. It can be done but only because of who turns up to help and their credibility in crossing the divide between project management and policy. The sort of people who do that, some retired Chief Executives of FTSE 100 companies, some ex-Permanent Secretaries in the UK, are all distinguished people who have been around and carry the credibility to talk to policy makers and are independently minded.