Chapter Six- Globalization and Localization
We have kept very precise records of our history over the last ten years and I am amazed at how many wonderful people I have met through the PMI global network. Ever since June 2001, I was invited by Sydney Chapter to attend its “Asia Pacific Leadership Forum, on behalf of Taiwan, we are so proud to say that we had representation at every PMI Leadership Institute Meeting and Global Congress held in North America and Asia Pacific.
The years, the cities, and people who attended and represented PMITW for those conferences in North America were as follows:
• March 2002 at Costa Mesa by Richard Wu and me
• October 2002 in San Antonio by Pamela Ma
• September 2003 in Baltimore by me
• October 2004 in Anaheim by HT Chou, Joseph Chou, and me
• September 2005 in Toronto by me (when I received my “Distinguished Contribution Award”)
• October 2006 in Seattle by Ivy Liu and Paquita Chang
• October 2007 in Atlanta by Paquita and me;
• October 2008 in Denver by me (when we received “Recognition of Excellence For Component of the Year Chapter Category III” and HT’s “Recognition of Excellence for Volunteer Leader of the Year-Asia Pacific Region”),
• October 2009 in Orlando , (Simon and the new president will attend this meeting)
When the conferences commenced in the Asia Pacific, we were also always present as follows:
• 2005 in Singapore while Pamela and me
• 2006 in Bangkok by Carrie Lo, Mark Ting, Ivy Liu and me
• 2007 in Hong Kong by Ivy, Frank Liu, Queenie Lu, Queena Chiu, and me
• 2008 in Sydney and 2009 in Kuala Lumpur both by Simon Fu
We even attended conferences as far away as EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) in 2006 ( Madrid by me) and in 2007 ( Budapest by Ivy). Thanks to our attendances of those conferences, we have known or made good friends with hundreds of people that we met. Specially, PMI’s directors, Ms. Linda Valle, Ms. Yanping Chen, Mr. Iain Fraser, as well as PMI Staffs- Mr. Gregory Balestrero, CEO, Mr. Mark Langley, COO, Mr. William Scarborough, Mr. Steve Fahrenkrog, Dr. Mike Price, Ms. Betsy Redden, Ms. Anne Jenemann and Mr. Clement Yang. We appreciate their long term support and friendship.
I was honored to be invited by Dr. Mike Price, Manager of Accreditation Programs, PMI-GOC to be a member of the REP Advisor Group (AG) from early 2005 till end of 2007 for three years. I enjoyed this international volunteer program that served the entire global community of PMI. I was especially pleased to know all the AG from different countries, such as: Chris Stevens from Australia , Manon Deguire from UK , Jackson Rovina from Brazil , Rodolfo Ambriz from Mexico , Chris Richard from the US , Darya Duma from Canada . And we also worked together with Mike and his staff professionals, Leslie, Dee, and Keith.
We also had the opportunity to meet in 10 different cities located in 6 different countries that included: Philadelphia , Denver , Toronto , Singapore , Madrid , Bangkok , Montréal, Hong Kong, Atlanta , and Santa Fe . Our REP AG also had monthly conference calls in the early morning (US Standard Eastern Time), and all AG joined from different time zones. Every time we started the meeting we always said “good morning,” to the people in North and South America, “good afternoon” to the people in Europe and Middle East, and “good evening” to the people in Asia and Australia !
On December 28, 2002, Ms. Patty Wong, President of PMI-Hong Kong Chapter (PMI-HK) invited Professor Wu Zhim from Beijing’s Tsinghua University and me to attend the “Project Management Round Table Forum” hosted by PMI-HK. Patty’s invitations helped to bridge the first contact of the project management professionals among the two straits and three places - Mainland China , Taiwan , and Hong Kong .
Since then we have created and developed a solid platform for further sharing our experiences, knowledge, and best practices in project management.
The Greater China Project Management Advancement Committee (GPAC) was then co-founded by PMITW, PMIHK, and Beijing Tsinghua University in October 2004. The annual event of the GPAC is “International Project Management Forum (IPMF)” held in Beijing , Hong Kong, and Taipei (hosted in rotation by the three founding parties) since 2005. Reports published in PMI-Today helped our readers learn more about the GPAC, and IPMFs (including the IPMF 2007 in Taipei ). Except the original founders of GPAC (Patty, Professor Wu, and me), many people dedicated their efforts in making GPAC became a significant professional symbol of the successful synergy among three places in the Greater China region. They are: Mr. Clement Yang, Mr. Raymond Wong, Ms. Rossana Ho, Mr. Steven Lau, etc. from GPAC-HK; Professor Maoshen Qiang, Mr. C. J. Xu, Mr. X. C. Bao, etc. from GPAC-Beijing; and Dr. Gee San, Dr. HT Chou, Dr. Simon Fu from GPAC-Taipei.
When I first visited PMI-GOC in Newtown Square, PA in January 2001, I requested that Mr. Paul Grace (Certification Program Manager) to consider providing Traditional Chinese “language aid” to the PMP exam. I was very surprised when Paul said PMI would provide the PMP exam in Chinese from July that year. However, I finally realized what Paul said about the Chinese was actually the Simplified, not Traditional Chinese. Even though I explained to him about the differences between the two languages, he still had difficulty to understand the important differences between the two. Every time I attended the PMI conferences I raised the same request so that the differences between these two could be ameliorated.
Mr. Virgil Carter, former PMI CEO, Mr. Stephen Townsend, former global component director, and other PMI staff members that I met were all well aware of my requests in the early years. Dr. Denny Smith, director of certification, who I first met in 2003, agreed to evaluate the possibility of changing PMI’s philosophy. Unfortunately, two years later, Denny finally gave me a negative response in Toronto 2005, but I was still determined to go forward with this!
After Denny left PMI, I met Ms. Betsy Redden who asked us to resubmit our request for Certification Governance Council (CGC)’s review, and her kind help gave us all new hope. I then met Mr. Ron Hanchar, Denny’s successor, in Atlanta in 2007 and asked for his support for our request. The correspondences between our chapter (Ivy and I) and GOC (first Betsy and then Ron was involved) began in early 2007 for over the next year we sent at least ten emails stressing our points. My arguments were premised on the following four key points: 1. Marketing demand ( Taiwan was the number 10 Countries who had most PMP in the world); 2. The competition from another International Certification program in Taiwan (especially in campus); 3. The need for government support (by using our official language); 4. The promotion of the Traditional Chinese PMBOK Guide as a PM Standard in Taiwan .
Although Betsy agreed to forward my reasoning to CGC for their response, it was sad and extremely disappointing when we received PMI’s notice in October regarding its decision that “PMI will not pay for the translation of the PMP and CAPM into Traditional Chinese at this time.” Additionally we were asked “…if PMITW would pay PMI to translate the credentials into Traditional Chinese for each credential for $25,000, or a total $50,000 for both PMP and CAPM.”
My response was direct and simple - PMITW could neither afford nor find sponsors to pay such a high cost, and I still asked CGC to reconsider our request from the 4th edition of the PMBOK Guide. I could not find it in my head and my heart to give up!
Finally our persistence and patience paid off. I felt quite warm and wonderful when I received an email from Betsy that said “PMI does appreciate your opinion and is reviewing your situation again as well as the translation policy. I would ask that you give us a bit more time to see if we can work something out that may help you.” In December 2007, we also received a Christmas greeting from Ron and Betsy, and they asked us to be patient for a possible new result.
In early 2008, during my Chinese New Year holidays, Betsy sent us a great New Year’s present in the form of an email that read, “Barry, I am happy to inform you that PMI has reassessed your application for translation of the PMP and CAPM exams into Traditional Chinese and has approved this request. PMI has added Traditional Chinese to our certification development and communication schedule and is moving forward to make sure this translation aid will be available by June 2009.” This was certainly one of the best New Year’s I had ever celebrated!
We finally achieved our goal despite eight years of effort, so many meetings with so many people, over 50 emails, and 5 face-to-face meetings in such different venues such as Newtown Square, Costa Mesa, Anaheim , Atlanta , and Hong Kong . We so appreciate what Betsy and Ron did to help us, and we offer our special thanks to Mr. Steve Fahrenkrog, VP. Regional Development, for his endless support by continually authorizing us to translate the Traditional Chinese PMBOK Guide.
Since July 2009 we have been very proud to tell all the Taiwanese/overseas Chinese examinees of PMP/CAPM that they could select the Traditional Chinese as the "language aid" to take the exam – in addition to 12 other languages. And this privilege that we embrace is the result of our continuing efforts that began from the translation of the PMBOK Guide from first edition (1996) until the 4th edition (2008). Without the dedication of PMITW and the support from PMI-GOC, the current PMP/CAPM in Traditional Chinese would never have happened. This is one of the best personal legacies I will forever treasure It was my final mission for PMITW and my colleagues, and together we can embrace our success in this long struggle.
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