Description of the project objective and scope
Environmental Quality International (EQI) company first came to Siwa, an oasis in the Sahara in western Egypt, in the 1980s and started investing in the region in 1996. The aim of EQI was to build a suite of projects that utilize to the maximum the resources of the Siwa oasis. As such, EQI component projects entail three hotels, a stream of embroidered products plus traditional jewelery, along with the export of organic agriculture. These projects were to be EQI’s maiden real investment in the matters execution away from its traditional consulting or advice role. The EQI company aimed to capture the high-end of the value chain of global tourism by nurturing and polishing the aspects of Siwa. The project would have minimal impact on the natural environment of the Siwa community and both material and labor would be local wherever possible (Corzine, 2010). Furthermore, it was targeted that practices would be sustained in such a manner that local culture, heritage and landscape would be greatly preserved. Likewise, the EQI aimed to make an example of how capitalizing local culture while safeguarding the environment can go a long way in reducing abject poverty. Generally, it was desired that Siwa would be oracle for sustainable development.
Key stakeholders and their issues
The first major of the project was the Environmental Quality International (EQI) company itself. The company aimed to tread new waters away from its conventional practice of consulting by designing and implementing several commercial ventures targeted at promoting economic development in Siwa. The company’s approach was to utilize the local community’s traditional skills and old wisdom and complement them with contemporary expertise to transform Siwa into a global model for sustainable development.
The second most significant stakeholders of the EQI project was the sponsors the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that provided a total of $1,366,000 in loans and technical support. The IFC was purely inspired to support the EQI project in Siwa because of its goal to fight poverty on a gross scale through sustainable development.
Thirdly, the government of Egypt was another key stakeholder of the EQI project. The key issue of the government was attracting private investors to develop niche, luxury and Eco-projects in the country so as the boost the tourism industry which provided 20% of foreign exchange. The final group of stakeholders in the EQI project is the local community. There main issue to have the project alleviate them from the sheer poverty that they faced but not alter their traditional conservative way of life.
Organizational culture and its impact on risk management
organizational culture is the environment of interaction among different people involved in a project. organizational culture was a major factor that influenced risk management in the EQI project in Siwa. This is because it was a project that involved a great number of people and much resources was used so as to achieved the set out goal of bringing about sustainable development with a fixed budget within a fixed period of time. The EQI project was affected not only by the project manager but also by the stakeholders, project team, objectives and scope, risks experienced as well as communication among others. The organizational culture was affected by staff training, governance, process orientation, company structure and roles/responsibilities of the staff. It was a good organizational culture employed that resulted in good definition and dealing with the implications of threats and opportunities that the project encountered during its implementation.
Potential sources of risk for the project
The main potential sources of risks for the EQI project were fear of lack of co-operation amongst the projects’ stakeholders as well as possible lack of a common vision for the future of Siwa. On the other hand, six critical success factors for effective project management influenced the overall success to the EQI project (Corzine, 2010). These are: sponsorship, organizational culture that supported the project management, presence of a formal process of defining vision, presence of a company-linked vision, and the effective handling of match changes to the initial vision.
Reference:
Corzine, Robert. (2010). Profile: Siwa Building eco-tourism with mud, salt and lost skill in the
Financial Times, May 10, 2000. Survey on Egypt, p. XI.
