Day in the life of
Business Change Project Manager – Kerry Hanson
As a Business Change Project manager in the aviation sector, my typical day involves several meetings with cross-functional stakeholders with one common thing in mind, to deliver our project successfully. I work with the different teams to build the project plan, establish the teams and governance, and of course, manage the budget and senior stakeholders. Most importantly I need to understand the impacts of the changes to our customers, our people, and our shareholders to make sure the changes are embedded long-term and achieve the benefits we need.
Learning about the different parts of the organisation when I was involved in specific projects
Projects I have worked on cover things like implementing new aviation regulations, to opening a new aircraft base. Each project has its challenges, risks, and issues that all require careful managing to deliver successfully. Sometimes there is a lot at stake if we don’t deliver the changes well. In the worst case, we could ground our fleet, have union action, or have serious safety risks. Working on such high profile projects has its pros and cons which I have listed below:
Pros
- Working with all sectors of the aviation industry is interesting and rewarding. I now have a well-rounded knowledge of aviation and it has given me a balanced view of how things work and what we need to make change a success
- The travel – the airline I work for provides discounted staff travel which is great from a personal perspective. I’ve also been on several business trips and base openings which help me get to know the different people and regions we operate in.
- The nature of my role means that I can work anywhere as my stakeholders are located in different countries and offices. This helps the industry to be adaptive in challenging times (such as covid) when most non-operational roles have been working from home.
- People in the aviation industry are passionate and truly care for their job and the customers. This provides energy and motivation to work through some of the challenges we face every day.
Cons
- There is sometimes conflict and contention between different departments, especially between commercial and operations. Trying to find a balance between the routes and frequency we sell versus how we plan and operate those flights can be challenging.
- The aviation industry is heavily unionized so if the change affects the crew, there is a lot of additional complexity and risk that we need to manage carefully. If we don’t, we risk large scale strikes and reputational damage internally and externally.
- There is a lot of change going on in the industry. On one hand, the need for business change increases but on the other, access to the right people and team to run the project is constrained. Managing resources, budget and time are always one of the most challenging aspects of the job.
Overall, working as a business change project manager in the aviation industry is an extremely varied and interesting role that fully immerses you into an industry you can be proud of.
