Project Business Management
SERIES ARTICLE
By Oliver F. Lehmann
Munich, Germany
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
– Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
Summary
Project Business is high-risk work: projects cross corporate borders, involve legally enforceable contracts, and directly impact business outlook, profitability, and trust.
For project contractors and their project managers, projects are profit centers. Yet most project managers are unprepared to manage projects as such. This article shows why Project Business requires educated professionals who apply the same rigor to commercial and legal risks as to technical ones – and calls for urgent professionalization of this overlooked discipline.
Introduction
One of my training customers, a mid-sized European engineering contractor, once won a prestigious project to deliver a new production line for an overseas client. At the start, both sides celebrated the contract as a strategic success. Yet within months, difficulties emerged: late equipment shipments, disagreements over clauses, and escalating costs that neither party had foreseen. The project, meant to strengthen both businesses, instead strained cash flow, damaged trust, and ended in legal disputes.
This story illustrates a reality that sets Project Business apart from internal projects. Internal projects happen within a single organization, under one governance system, budget, and culture. In contrast, Project Business crosses corporate borders: customers, contractors, and subcontractors interact under binding agreements, each with its own interests and obligations. What unites them is the project; what separates them are their divergent business goals.
Failure in Project Business can strike on several dimensions:
- Economic – losses that undermine profitability and liquidity.
- Contractual/legal – disputes, claims, or litigation that consume resources and relationships.
- Operational – delays, overruns, or technical shortfalls that ripple across companies.
- Relational – broken trust, reputational damage, and partnerships that collapse under pressure.
With Project Business estimated at 20–30% of global GDP, these risks are too significant to ignore. Yet most project managers are educated only for internal projects, not for the commercial, contractual, and financial complexities of Project Business.
This article explores why Project Business is inherently high-risk business and why it requires educated professionals who can balance risk, opportunity, and trust across organizational borders.
Why Project Business Is High-Risk Business
Every project has risks. Internal projects may fail due to unclear requirements, resource shortages, or shifting priorities.
In Project Business, however, the risk landscape is far broader and often more severe. Because Project Business spans corporate borders, failures rarely affect just one organization – they cascade across all involved parties.
Key drivers of risk in Project Business include:
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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. (2025). High Risks Demand Educated Professionals, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue X, October. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pmwj157-Oct2025-Lehmann-High-Risks-Demand-Educated-Professionals.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:
