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"A
powerful example of innovation through the application of
intellectual capital" – that's how a global
judge for the energy giant BP described the Projects Academy
when selecting it for a distinguished award within the company.
A collaborative undertaking in customized executive education,
the Projects Academy has recently received two awards for
excellence at MIT as well.
Launched
in June 2003, the Projects Academy is a joint venture between
BP and MIT, and within MIT, between the
Sloan School of Management's Executive
Education office led
by Marie Eiter and the School of Engineering's Office of Professional Education
Programs (PEP) led by Jennifer Stine. Designed for BP project leaders,
who individually lead
large-scale projects with gross expenditures of up to $5 billion, the Projects
Academy delivers a year-long educational experience that includes three
two-week intensive learning sessions at MIT interspersed by virtual
teamwork with other project team members around the world.
Over 25 senior
faculty from both MIT Schools teach a curriculum built around the themes of project
leadership, business acumen, and technical excellence. Key among these are Don Lessard
and Eleanor Westney of the Sloan School of Management and Charlie Cooney, Ed Crawley,
Patrick Jaillet, Greg McRae, David Simchi-Levi, and Sheila Widnall of the School of
Engineering. In addition, four full-time BP senior executives round out the teaching
team to reflect how the new ideas would work in BP's environment. This team approach
distinguishes the BP-MIT collaboration from other executive education models that are
usually either fully outsourced or executed solely in-house.
In November,
BP selected the Projects Academy from over 1600 BP teams worldwide to receive the
2004 Partnership Award as "best in class," one of six BP Helios Awards. In making
the awards, Lord John Browne, Group Chief Executive of BP said, "In business we
have a responsibility to deliver, to turn ideas and possibilities into choices and
realities. That's our distinctive role. At its best I believe it is an honourable
role, providing the means and choices that make human progress possible. The BP
Helios Awards programme, now in its fourth year, continues to highlight exemplary
work that gives everyday meaning to our four brand values: green, progressive,
innovation and performance driven. To perform well it is important to learn from
our own experience and the experience of others."
At MIT,
the joint Sloan-Engineering Projects Academy team received both the Sloan
Appreciation Award in February and an Institute-wide MIT Team Excellence
award in March. Headed by Eiter and Stine, the core administrative team of
eight people who received the awards represents the larger BP Projects Academy
group of nearly 30 that includes MIT faculty, associate deans and BP staff, as
well as additional MIT admin staff. These awards recognize both the innovation
and collaboration of the BP Projects Academy. While MIT's management and
engineering schools combine efforts to offer several joint degree programs,
Projects Academy is the first major non-degree executive education collaboration
between the two.
"MIT's strength
lies in its ability to combine its depth in technology and engineering with innovation
in management," says MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee. Tom Magnanti, Dean of the
School of Engineering concurs, adding, "We see the Projects Academy pioneering a
long-term synergistic relationship that benefits our faculty and students, as well
as BP. Naturally, I am very gratified that BP sees so much value in the Projects
Academy," he said on hearing of the Helios Award. "BP gains from this unique
cross-disciplinary approach; MIT gains as senior BP project leaders bring to
Cambridge their extraordinary expertise and the challenges they face in the world market."
BP's objective in
teaming up with MIT is to rethink and reshape the way it manages major projects.
"We work in a capital intensive business and we undertake projects of an enormous
scale and complexity," said Group VP Technology, Tony Meggs. "The decisions we
make in the selection process and the skill with which we define and execute these
projects affect the fundamental performance of the company for generations. It is
essential that BP become the best project company in the world. To that end, we have
created this ground-breaking collaboration between a corporation and a university to
develop our project leadership community ‚ the men and women who profoundly impact
the very future of the company." To date, two cadres (50 participants) of senior
BP project leaders have graduated, with a third to graduate in June and a fourth
to complete its second two-week term in April. In the three years for which the
Projects Academy is currently planned, it is expected that 150 BP project leaders
will participate.
March
3, 2005
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