Project Business Management
SERIES ARTICLE
By Oliver F. Lehmann
Munich, Germany
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
– Warren Buffett
Summary
In project business, work is delivered across corporate boundaries by customers, contractors, and subcontractors and the role most often misunderstood, yet most consequential when it fails, is the project sponsor. The article separates the project charter – the internal agreement between sponsor and project manager – from the contract that legally binds the organizations, and closes on how to build that charter deliberately rather than leave it to assumption.
Behind schedule
A project manager – call him Art – was building a custom piece of equipment for a manufacturing client. As the contractual delivery date approached, he saw what no project manager wants to see: the machine was going to be late. A month, maybe more.
He did the responsible thing and went to Ted, his project sponsor, intending to warn the customer. The sponsor stopped him. Let’s wait and see what happens.
What happened looked like luck. Just before the deadline, the customer called – not to chase delivery, but to ask for a delay of their own. The new manufacturing hall meant to house the equipment wasn’t ready as scheduled, and they had nowhere to put it. The sponsor graciously offered to keep the machine on the contractor’s premises until the client could take it. He even charged rent to store equipment that was presented as finished and delivered on time – when in truth it was neither. The customer accepted this offer, happy that this issue was resolved, and allowed focusing attention on the delay in the construction.
It seemed brilliant. The delay was invisible to the customer, and the company was even paid to conceal it. This looked like good contractor business.
Then an employee left, applied for a job with that very customer, and told them the real story. The trust between the two organizations never recovered – and the rent, the clever timing, the whole carefully managed silence became the evidence of bad faith rather than a footnote nobody would ever see.
Smart on Monday, expensive for years
This is the trap, and it’s worth naming plainly: over the short term, ripping off a business partner looks smart. The numbers work. The deadline is met on paper, the storage generates revenue, and the awkward conversation is avoided. Every immediate incentive points toward the lie.
The bill comes later, and it’s paid in a currency the short-term ledger doesn’t track: reputation and trustworthiness. A reputation for integrity takes years to build and a single discovered deception to destroy. Once the customer learned the truth, every past dealing was recolored and every future one was foreclosed. Trust, unlike a late machine, cannot be delivered a month behind schedule. It does not come back.
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). Sponsoring Project Business, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue VII (July). Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/pmwj166-Jul2026-Lehmann-Sponsoring-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:
