Columbia University’s first forum on construction-project leadership was built around the theme that project success requires leadership in addition to management. The forum drew more than 100 industry professionals to the New York City campus on Aug. 25.
Prevailing theories of project management are often inadequate because they largely ignore the dynamic environment of projects, particularly construction projects, said Alexander Laufer, director of the university’s Center for Project Leadership. Laufer, a professor of civil engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, is a visiting professor at Columbia and established the center there last year.