Why Indian Companies Keep Appointing Ill-Equipped Project Managers

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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