Training for Project Business
Project Business Management
SERIES ARTICLE
By Oliver F. Lehmann
Munich, Germany
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
– Benjamin Franklin
Summary
Companies that live on customer projects train their people thoroughly in technical work, unevenly in project management, and barely at all in Project Business – the commercial and contractual handling of the customer–contractor relationship, where money is earned or burned. This article describes that gap, explains why it exists, and derives objectives for closing it on three levels: for the individual project managers who face the customer, for the organization, and for the training function whose budget is under scrutiny in many of these companies – and which is the one function able to close the gap.
Observations from the classroom
Before the argument, some evidence. For more than two decades I have trained project managers who run projects for paying customers, and a handful of observations repeat themselves across industries, company sizes, and countries with unsettling reliability.
It’s also the field where I come from, so when I talk about errors made by project managers today, many of them are errors I made in the past too. This article is not about finger-pointing at others; it describes systemic shortcomings that corporations must address and resolve to get their business in order. And the prerequisite of these resolutions is education, which puts the corporations’ training departments at the center.
So, what are the shortcomings I observe?
Most of these project managers have never read the contract of the project they manage – and those who have often do not understand what it obliges and entitles them to. Many actively reject business responsibility for their project: they see themselves as senior engineers with a schedule, not as the accountable managers of a commercial venture. Consequently, they run the project as a cost center – something that consumes budget and must justify its spending – when for a contractor, the project is a profit center: the place where the company’s income is generated. And in conflicts between the customer and their own employer, a remarkable number of them side, instinctively and in good faith, with the customer.
Two further observations concern what does not happen. Most participants have never encountered Continuous Business Development – the discipline of developing follow-up business while the current project is still running, so that the temporary nature of projects does not translate into short-term revenue. And few keep their eyes open for Benefit Engineering opportunities: moments in the running project where the contractor could create additional benefit for the customer and additional business for itself at the same time.[1]
None of this is a character flaw, and little of it is corrected by experience alone. It is, precisely, what nobody taught them. The remainder of this article traces where that gap sits in the company, why it exists, and what its closure should achieve – for the individuals, for the organization, and for the department that can close it.
More…
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Editor’s note: This series of articles is by Oliver Lehmann, author of the book “Project Business Management” (ISBN 9781138197503), published by Auerbach / Taylor & Francis in 2018. See author profile below.
How to cite this article: Lehmann, O.F. (2026). Earn or Burn – Training for Project Business, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/pmwj168-Sep2026-Lehmann-Earn-or-Burn-Training-for-Project-Business.pdf
About the Author
Oliver F. Lehmann
Munich, Germany
Oliver F. Lehmann, MSc, ACE, PMP, is a project management educator, author, consultant, and speaker. In addition, he is the owner of the website Project Business Foundation, a non-profit initiative for professionals and organizations involved in cross-corporate project business.
He studied Linguistics, Literature, and History at the University of Stuttgart and Project Management at the University of Liverpool, UK, where he holds a Master of Science Degree (with Merit). Oliver has trained thousands of project managers in Europe, the USA, and Asia in methodological project management, focusing on certification preparation. In addition, he is a visiting lecturer at the Technical University of Munich.
He has been a member and volunteer at PMI, the Project Management Institute, since 1998 and served as the President of the PMI Southern Germany Chapter from 2013 to 2018. Between 2004 and 2006, he contributed to PMI’s PM Network magazine, for which he provided a monthly editorial on page 1 called “Launch,” analyzing troubled projects around the world.
Oliver believes in three driving forces for personal improvement in project management: formal learning, experience, and observations. He resides in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, and can be contacted at oliver@oliverlehmann.com.
Oliver Lehmann is the author of the books:
- “Situational Project Management: The Dynamics of Success and Failure” (ISBN 9781498722612), published by Auerbach / Taylor & Francis in 2016
- “Project Business Management” (ISBN 9781138197503), published by Auerbach / Taylor & Francis in 2018.
His previous articles and papers for PM World Journal can be found here:
[1] (Lehmann, 2018)
