Originally Posted On: https://www.foresight.works/blog/why-your-company-needs-a-chief-time-officer

The C-suite is a familiar landscape: CEOs, CFOs, CTOs… they all own critical aspects of the business. Yet, there’s a glaring omission. Where’s the top-level executive relentlessly guarding your company’s most valuable and finite resource – time?

Time is Money (and We Waste a Lot of It)

The construction industry, particularly when it comes to megaprojects, is notorious for delays. Statistics paint a grim picture – a recent survey by McKinsey found that, on average, projects overrun their budgets and schedules by 30 to 45 percent. Another study by Oxford’s business school suggests that on projects with budgets of $1 billion or more, this is closer to 90 percent. These delays don’t just mean a missed deadline; every extra day on a multi-billion-dollar project translates to massive financial losses – the true cost of project delays.

The problem is, we focus on budget, not time.

It’s a no-brainer that financial oversight is critical. That’s why we have CFOs. But while every dollar is meticulously tracked, who is doing that for the minutes and hours? Too often, time management gets relegated to basic spreadsheets and outdated scheduling tools, lacking the real-time insights and analytics needed for complex projects.

Introducing the Chief Time Officer

Okay, so we won’t be adding a new C-level title anytime soon. But the concept of a Chief Time Officer represents a necessary change in how projects are managed. Someone, or a dedicated team, needs to champion time as a core metric of success alongside budget.

So, what would a Chief Time Officer do?

This role, whether a dedicated individual or a mindset embedded in your team, has several key responsibilities:

• Implements Robust Time-Tracking Systems: Gone are the days of clunky spreadsheets. The Chief Time Officer needs robust project management software that offers real-time time tracking and granular data throughout the project lifecycle.
• Prioritizes with Precision: Using tools like priority matrices and milestone planning, your Chief Time Officer can laser-focus on the most critical, time-sensitive tasks to ensure they are completed on time.
• Analyzes for Early Warnings: The Chief Time Officer doesn’t just look at how much time has passed or wait for delays to happen. They use predictive analytics and other tools to spot patterns that could lead to delays. This allows for proactive adjustments and delay recovery plans well before problems turn into expensive crises.
• Communicates Clearly: Time awareness can’t live in a silo. The Chief Time Officer ensures timely and transparent updates on project schedules to all stakeholders, allowing for informed decision-making.
• Learns and Optimizes: The Chief Time Officer is constantly looking for ways to optimize processes, streamline workflows, and eliminate time-wasting activities. Using activity duration forecasting, network impact analysis, and past performance data, they find invaluable insights to streamline future projects. They collaborate across teams, finding ways to shave hours, or even days, off critical tasks.

The ROI of Time Management

The concept of a Chief Time Officer might sound tongue-in-cheek, but the return on investment (ROI) of meticulous time management is very real. Consider these findings from a recent client of Foresight: by leveraging our robust time-tracking and project management tools, they saw an average ROI of 6x their software investment. In another use case, across an entire project portfolio, the ROI reached as high as 28x.

These numbers translate to potentially millions of dollars saved on large-scale projects. It’s not just about financial impacts, either. Every day over schedule incurs not only direct costs but also leads to severe consequences, such as contractual penalties for late completion, reputational damage that jeopardizes future bids and trust among stakeholders, and the lost opportunity costs of a project not generating revenue or serving its purpose while delayed.

The bottom line is the cost of ignoring time management far outweighs the investment in the right tools and the adoption of a Chief Time Officer mindset focused on proactive schedule optimization.

Stop Bleeding Time (and Money) on Megaprojects

The construction industry can no longer afford to treat time as an afterthought. Every wasted day, every delayed milestone, bleeds resources and damages your bottom line. Proactive time management isn’t merely a good idea – it’s a necessity for survival.

If not a formal Chief Time Officer, then who? Who in your organization is relentlessly focused on protecting your most valuable and finite asset? The shift towards a time-centric approach, backed by the right tools, is the key to unlocking efficiency and maximizing profitability on your projects.

Ready to see how Foresight can empower your organization’s time management transformation? Schedule a call with our team to learn more and see our solutions in action.