Lessons Learned from Reflection on Project Management Initiatives in a Semiconductor Firm

― Importance of Perspectives on Program Management and Business Ecosystem ―

Abstract

The Japanese semiconductor industry, which has swept the world, has been declining since 1990, and various surveys and studies on the causes of its decline have been published. On the other hand, the first author of this article has been working for the Japanese semiconductor firm for almost 5 decades and has led the project management initiatives approximately for the last 20 years. Even though those made outstanding outcome in terms of project success, they did not lead to the success of the entire business. In this article, we conducted reflection on the project management initiatives those had been led by myself, and analyzed the cause of the business decline from the perspective of program management. Through this analysis, we revealed the importance of the perspective of program management and business ecosystem, not just project management.