Project management is a very socially responsible profession
Interview with Dr Mladen Vukomanović
Professor, University of Zagreb</span
President, IPMA
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
Prof. Dr Mladen Vukomanović has been active for more than 20 years in different leadership and consultancy roles across various industries, including AEC, Oil & Gas, and the 3rd sector. As a Project Professional, Mladen works diligently on facilitating sustainable social change, developing the project profession, and applying project management in real life. Mladen is an experienced professor specializing in construction and civil engineering and is currently teaching at the University of Zagreb. In more than 20 years of his voluntary engagement, Mladen has served various NGOs and Charities, including the Croatian Association for Project Management – IPMA Croatia as well as the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in a range of different leadership roles (including President, Vice President, Chairman, etc.). He is widely respected in the project management discipline and has several prestigious certifications and awards. He can be contacted via mladen@ipma.world
Interview
Q1: First, thank you for accepting an interview request from PMWJ. Congratulations on your new role as President of IPMA. What were your first thoughts when you were elected? How did the election process go?
Mladen Vukomanović (Vukomanović): Thank you for asking this. It’s a big honor because IPMA was founded in 1965 and was the first professional body in project management. Then, there was still a cold war between the Soviet Union and America. They were fighting to get better weapons in less time and with less budget, which is when modern project management began. IPMA was the first to be recognized, and from 1965, IPMA was still called the Internet, but for specific, of course, apparent reasons, it was later renamed IPMA. Since 1965, IPMA has been here to vouch and guarantee the delivery of the added value that people who deliver projects give to society and give to the human legacy. And, of course, coming at the helm of that organization, which is governed by more than 70 countries and six continents, is a big honour, but also a responsible and accountable position for the following period of three years where we need to build stronger foundations for project management to be finally recognized as a discipline, and globally accepted as a profession.
What is also important is that it is an election. In IPMA, you have 70 countries. It’s very democratic and transparent. Each country puts forward its candidates, who were then voted on and supported by local associations’ executive boards. And in the end, you have full-blown elections on paper of 70 countries, each representative casting their votes for their preferred candidates.
Q2: How do you envision the future of project management and after the future of IPMA, in fact, in your subsequent tenure?
Vukomanović: We are now transcribing this text by AI engines. And, of course, when you read reports from, for example, other associations, like Green Project Management and PMI, it’s always about digital technologies and artificial intelligence that will remove some of project managers’ roles, tasks, and activities. But I tend to think differently. When you look and rewind 100 years from now, you have had stories about how, in 100 years, people will not need to work more than four, five, or six hours per week.
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this work: Khelifi, Y. (2024). Project management is a very socially responsible profession, Interview with Dr Mladen Vukomanović, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/pmwj137-Jan2024-Khelifi-Interview-with-Dr-Mladen-Vukomanovic.pdf
About the Interviewer
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
To view other works by Yasmina, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
