South Africa-gained PM skills are welcome everywhere

Like many other professionals, project managers may be presented with the opportunity to work abroad during the course of their career. Nowadays, having the chance to earn in a foreign currency and gain life and work experience is as appealing once one has reached a high level of competence and seniority as it is in the early part of one’s working life, if not more so. Two South African project managers, who recently returned from time working abroad, share their perspectives of the experience.

Gustav de Bruyn began his career in architecture and soon realised the value of project management and the different opportunities it could bring for his career and personal growth. After transitioning to project management, he took an aggressive approach to succeed using networking, professional assignments, reading and self-study.

He soon realised that work assignments and self-study can augment knowledge and skills more than formal study, so he decided to look for work opportunities in the United States or Europe.

The ideal opportunity came in the form of a position in the Global IT project office of an oil and gas company in France to mentor, and coach business and information technology project managers, to support portfolios, and to implement a project management development programme for Global IT, coupled with a Project Management Institute® accredited programme in France.

Capetonian Arnold Okkenburg, through his local network of project professionals, had the opportunity to work on an implementation project in the insurance sector in Bahrain, via an international consulting company.

It is impossible to work there as a South African, unless a company ‘sponsors’ you to do so. In Okkenburg’s case, he was able to secure sponsorship not only for himself, but also for his wife and children, and thus relocated to the United Arab Emirates for what he planned to be a five-year period, returning home each December.

With several standards and methodologies recognised the world over, one wonders if PM skills are truly transportable across the globe. De Bruyn says, “The application of project management is relative from company to company, and there was quite an interesting project management culture at Global IT. Due to the size of the company, different project management cultures and levels of maturity were found in each segment; and its approach was tailored to their specific project environment.

“Within Global IT, project success generally was framed around business case attainment, end-user adoption, quality of delivery and at the same time limiting technical risk – sometimes sacrificing the timeline.

“I worked in many different project management cultures, which each presented a different angle to the application of tools and techniques that allowed me to focus on certain underdeveloped areas,” he adds.

According to Okkenburg, “There are international people coming and going all the time in the UAE. Prince2 and the PMP® are largely recognised, but my environment was a Prince2 shop and I was basically given a manual and expected to follow the model. This wasn’t difficult; and as long as we used the terminology, we were okay.

“For the most part, the people of Bahrain prefer to manage than to be operational. They each hold multiple qualifications, so prefer to employ foreigners to be operational while they expect to be appointed in senior positions with little or no experience.”

De Bruyn says, “Although certifications such as PMP® and Prince2 are recognised, the qualities I found to be more important were critical thinking and problem solving, innovation and creativity, leadership, negotiation, team building and group facilitation and conflict resolution.

“The PMP® is recognised in some segments, but not in all areas of business. Business analysis and IT service management (ITIL) are recognised and used widely in business process improvement and managing services,” he adds.

Even adaptable, cosmopolitan South Africans would experience some cultural barriers. “For me, the biggest barrier was the language,” says De Bruyn. “Although some French do speak English, they prefer to speak French with you; learning the language beyond the basics was crucial to communicate with people and to be well integrated in the community.”

He found living in a big European city to be quite a culture shock. “Properties are much smaller and very expensive – just not the quality of life that is found in South Africa. Public transport is well planned and works around the clock, but it takes time to travel and one needs to plan well before going somewhere.

“The French administration system likes paper; and the more documents you can produce, the better. One of the most important documents is your electricity bill – you can do a lot with it.”

Okkenburg says you cannot understand people from the Emirates until you have spent a full month of Ramadan with them: “During the fast, they work a six-hour day then go home. The next day, they spend the first few hours talking about the previous night’s festivities, then another few on the festivities of the coming night (after the fast ends for the day).”

Unlike Saudi Arabia, for example, the women in Bahrain are not required to wear the hijab except for when they are going to the mosque, or if their husband wishes them to do so.

Okkenburg adds, “Bahrain is very civilised. There are many Western restaurants there, and the prices are good.”

South Africans are perceived as hard workers and hard negotiators, says Okkenburg. “They like that about us. They will look after you if you have a skill they need.”

And what of ethics? Did the concept of ethics differ from that with which they were familiar in South Africa? “It was quite a culture shock for me to understand the way Arab countries conduct business. It is a cultural norm to expect backhands from deals and negotiate discounts,” says Okkenburg.

“Ethical practice is a lot stricter in South Africa, from both a personal work ethic and business ethic perspective. I have not experienced dodgy practices in any of my time working in the insurance sector of South Africa or Zimbabwe.

“Fortunately, I worked via a South African consultancy. My philosophy was to deliver according to my ethical standards and give input to contracts and finances; but what took place at the financial management level and what was ultimately charged, was out of my hands,” he adds.

Clearly, our own cultural diversity here in South Africa has given our good project managers yet another string to their bow as they represent us on projects the world over, and contribute to positive sentiment toward our style of project management practice. 

Taryn van Olden