The challenge
In 2016, Abarca began fast-paced growth that would significantly impact the company’s trajectory moving forward. To capitalize on this opportunity, the organization needed to create a centralized approach to project management that would help coordinate its moving parts, optimize its resources, and ensure alignment across all business units.
Most importantly, the company needed a team that was built on a foundation of adaptability and commitment, and a mission to generate value beyond traditional project management.
The approach
Once established, the Strategy to Execution team quickly evolved to serve as business partners across Abarca, helping support the management of departmental portfolios and lead projects using a variety of methodologies, including Lean Six Sigma, Agile, and Design Thinking.
Abarca’s needs are constantly evolving. To ensure the company’s business teams have the support they need, the Strategy to Execution team remains rooted in its purpose to:
- Build partnerships that create trust and drive results across different business areas.
- Leverage multidisciplinary talent to better serve the organization.
- Deliver value through project, program, process, and portfolio management.
- Advocate for more seamless processes, collaboration, and finding a better way.
Unlike other organizations, Abarca’s Strategy to Execution team’s greatest contribution to the organization is its role as mentors and business partners that provide guidance every step of the way. Ultimately, this group works to empower every Abarcan with the skills and tools they need to create and execute innovative ideas for the company, and the clients and members it serves.
The results
Abarca’s Strategy to Execution team‘s flexible mindset goes beyond traditional project management to encompass process improvement, strategic planning, and customer service and experience design, enabling success for the company and its partners.
This team has been instrumental in navigating key challenges around staffing and operations, including executing projects that are dependent on quick implementations and turnarounds. The EPMO has also been tasked with piloting initiatives for Abarca as it builds out new business areas.
And, in 2022, Abarca’s Strategy to Execution team received the PMO of the Year Award for the Americas by the PMO Global Alliance—the largest global community of PMO professionals— further validating its approach and the value it creates.
But the team is just getting started.
Abarca’s Strategy to Execution team continues to evolve by focusing on providing guidance, increasing communication at all levels, bolstering project transparency, leveraging digital tools to increase the visibility of resource allocation, and, above all else, mentoring Abarcans across the organization.