Why Indian Companies Keep Appointing Ill-Equipped Project Managers—and End Up Paying the Price

 


Indian companies often ask a painful question after a project goes wrong:

“What went wrong?”

More often than not, the answer is simple:
the wrong person was given the responsibility of project management.

Recently, I had an interaction with one such case.

A senior executive—holding the title of Vice President—was responsible for submitting an execution program to the project consultant.
On paper, the designation looked impressive.
On ground, the decisions reflected a complete lack of project understanding.

And this is not an isolated case.
I have seen many poorly equipped engineers climb to senior project roles, not because of competence, but because of time served—what I call experience without learning.

🚧 THE CONTRACTUAL REALITY (WHICH WAS ALREADY FLAWED)

The contract milestones were defined as:

  • 25% financial progress in 10 months

  • 50% financial progress in 14 months

  • 75% financial progress in 17 months

  • 90% financial progress in 20 months

  • 100% completion in 21 months

Even this structure was questionable.

If a client allows 10 months to reach 25%, it is fundamentally illogical to expect the last 10% in just one month.
Such back-loaded milestones already indicate poor planning by the client.

But what followed was even worse.

❌ THE CONTRACTOR’S SELF-SABOTAGE



The contractor (for whom we were providing consultancy) instructed us to prepare a program showing:

~7% progress per month starting from the 3rd month—and continuing at that rate.

This single instruction exposed the inexperience of the senior project leadership.

Here’s why:

  • In real execution environments, 4% monthly progress is already optimistic

  • Across multiple sectors and projects, 2.5% per month is a realistic average

  • Early project months involve:

    • mobilization

    • approvals

    • drawings

    • procurement

    • learning curves

    • site constraints

Yet this project manager wanted to show almost three times the realistic progress, on paper. It is very important for a project manager to understand financial vs physical progress in projects

⚠️ WHY THIS IS DANGEROUS (NOT JUST WRONG)



If the client itself is expecting only ~2.5% progress in the first 10 months, why would a contractor commit to 7% on record?

Even if the contractor could achieve it, it would:

  • create unrealistic future expectations

  • invite penalties when progress normalizes

  • distort cash flow projections

  • damage credibility with the client

  • expose the company to contractual risks

This is not optimism.
This is corporate self-harm.

And this is exactly what happens when titles are valued more than technical judgement.

🧠 THE CORE PROBLEM: DESIGNATION ≠ PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Operating Primavera does not make someone a planner.
Holding a VP title does not make someone a project manager.

A real project manager understands:

  • productivity curves

  • learning effects

  • front-end constraints

  • financial vs physical progress mismatch

  • risk of over-commitment

  • consequences of paper promises

When such understanding is missing, companies risk:

  • liquidated damages

  • penalties

  • loss of trust

  • claims and counter-claims

  • reputational damage

All because someone wanted the report to look aggressive instead of being realistic.

🧭 WHY COMPANIES KEEP MAKING THIS MISTAKE

Indian companies often promote people based on:

  • years spent in the system

  • ability to agree with seniors

  • comfort with presentations

  • lack of resistance

Instead of:

  • execution exposure

  • decision-making maturity

  • risk awareness

  • ground experience

This creates a dangerous leadership layer—
high on authority, low on judgement.

🌱 THE WAY FORWARD

If companies want to protect themselves, they must:

  • Separate designation from capability

  • Appoint project managers who have:

    • executed real work

    • failed and recovered

    • learned productivity realities

    • understood financial consequences

  • Stop rewarding unrealistic optimism

  • Encourage honest, defensible planning—not aggressive fiction

Because in project management:

Over-commitment today becomes penalty tomorrow.

🧠 FINAL TAKEAWAY 

Projects don’t fail because of lack of effort.
They fail because of bad decisions made by the wrong people at the top.

An ill-equipped project manager can risk an entire company—
not by doing too little,
but by promising too much.

Titles don’t deliver projects.
Judgement does.

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