This is the 79th in a series of business tips from industry leaders that Enterprise Times has spoken to. At Dreamforce, I interviewed Yanick Abraham, CEO of Klient. Abraham spoke about how he is planning to increase growth in the coming months with an emphasis on building the channel ecosystem and a focus on project management and its strong consultancy arm.
Abraham previously ran Drakya, a Salesforce consulting business, before he acquired Klient, after being a user for several years. I asked him for his advice on how a project manager can keep a project on track.
He replied, “Two things. Always have the next meeting plan on the calendar all the time. Have a standing meeting throughout the project, always on Tuesday at 9 am. You should always send a project status report, including budget figures, every week.
“If you do those things, you’re going to pretty much solve all the other problems. Because you’re going to expose all the problematic situations in terms of budget and overconsumption on a weekly basis. You have time to autocorrect before the end of the month when you receive the invoice, and everybody yells, because no one’s happy.
“By doing those two things every time for your next meeting, it makes you responsible and accountable. Sending that project status makes everybody aware.”
What about agendas
One of the problems I have seen with many meetings I have attended is that they do not have a set agenda. Having no agenda can bring chaos to meetings. What is your view on having an agenda?
“Exactly, in a project, usually, it’s always the same agenda. What did we do last week, and when? You’re absolutely right; the agenda needs to be written, and you need to achieve it. It’s a meeting to review the evolution of the project.”
