Leadership Lessons from Most Influential Projects 2021

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Project leaders are facing unprecedented disruption. But times of great change can also lead to awe-inspiring innovation—and some incredible projects. Of course, it still may also take some serious planning, especially if you’re rolling out a new technology. Take it from Josh Katz, who helped create a groundbreaking music NFT package.

JOSH KATZ

From a project management standpoint, it really takes quite a bit of time where you have to ideate a project, understand what that project is. Once you really understand what it is, you have to understand if it makes sense for the blockchain—and that’s a big part of ideating it, because only certain projects make sense for the blockchain and for NFT format. And then you really have to understand who your buyer is. And then once that is all figured out, you then have to go through a creative process to put something super compelling together for the fans.

It took a team of creatives to go and really put together what was representative of the band in NFT format. This having never been done before, I had to really ideate to the band and the team what this needed to look and feel like, but they picked up pretty quickly, saw what was going on and put together an incredible, now iconic, NFT drop.

NARRATOR

The world is changing fast. And every day, project professionals are turning ideas into reality—delivering value to their organizations and society as a whole. On Projectified^®, we’ll help you stay on top of the trends and see what’s ahead for The Project Economy—and your career.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

This is Projectified^®. I’m Steve Hendershot.

We’re living in an age of upheaval. The pandemic, climate change, digital transformations—they’re all forcing the business world to reinvent, rewire and reimagine. And one thing that becomes clear from PMI’s latest edition of Most Influential Projects is that teams are responding with some exceptional work. We are seeing extraordinary innovation across the board—from the COVID vaccine to space exploration to new technologies.

Today we’ll meet project leaders working on two of the nearly 250 projects that make up this year’s edition. It’s a fun episode, but it’s just the beginning: There’s a lot of awesome, inspiring stuff, and you should check out the whole thing—including exclusive audio and video content—online at MIP.PMI.org or in PM Network^® magazine.

Let’s get this rolling with some rock and roll. Coming in at number eight is an NFT package—that’s non-fungible token, for those who don’t yet speak the emerging language of blockchain. I spoke with Josh Katz, founder and CEO of YellowHeart. Sitting at the intersection of blockchain and entertainment, the company worked with rock band Kings of Leon to pull off this first-of-its-kind project, in which fans could purchase NFTs that included art, limited-edition vinyl and even a lifetime VIP pass to see the band on every tour.

MUSICAL TRANSITION

STEVE HENDERSHOT

I’m always interested in the origin story of a first-ever project, just because there’s no template. Where did you get the idea for this NFT package for Kings of Leon, and how did it come together?

JOSH KATZ

Kings of Leon ideated a long time ago because before COVID, YellowHeart was a pure blockchain ticketing play. Myself, other members of our team had been circulating the music industry for frankly all of ‘18 and ‘19 trying to talk about NFTs—NFT ticketing, blockchain, collectables, all of this stuff—and we were not getting a lot of reception. One of the few people that was receptive to us was Andy Mendelsohn, who is Kings of Leon’s manager.

Then when COVID happened, him and I are chatting about all types of stuff, and one of the things is that the Kings have a record in the can. And traditionally the model has always been record an album, put it out and tour to support it. And they couldn’t tour, and they’re a live band, and they’re a band that sells out amphitheaters and arenas worldwide, too, and they had no opportunity to do that in the middle of COVID.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

You had done one similar project previously, working with the band Portugal. The Man to release an NFT that granted access to some archival material. Did that help pave the way for the bigger project with Kings of Leon?

JOSH KATZ

Having that use case kind of got Andy over the line, and I showed him that I just did this, and we could do it at the next level with NFTs around your album, if we do the actual album as an NFT.

We ideated and built the project out and by mid-February, we were ready to announce it, and we did, and the rest was history. We released it the first week of March, and it went on to just be like a massive watershed moment for NFTs to show the greater entertainment industry—music and beyond—how powerful this tech is and how important NFTs are going to be to the future of content ownership.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

You worked with a lot of stakeholders here—the band, its management, the visual artists, as well as people on the tech side. What was the collaboration process like with people who are working on an NFT for the first time?

JOSH KATZ

We went into it with most of them still not understanding really what we were doing. They understood on some level from some of the examples I had been showing them at the time, but they didn’t realize the levity of it. So, in that process, it was us teaching them. Then when we got into the utility driven pieces such as the album NFT that had redemption for high-res file, low-res file and vinyl, it was not only educating them but also educating their record label. Sony actually was pressing the vinyl for us and getting them through the whole process around what an NFT is, at the time they didn’t even know what one was and even leading up to the release, I don’t think they understood what it was. They just understood that it was a piece of physical product tied to it, so that was kind of in their scope.

At the time, we considered our biggest part of our job being teachers, and that’s what we really did with Kings of Leon is we taught them what this was all about, why it was important, why the fans were going to care and really handheld them through the entire process.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

What were the most significant challenges and the things that made this different?

JOSH KATZ

The biggest challenge was early adoption in March of ‘21, having traditional fans of Kings of Leon come to OpenSea and need to purchase something. Having never used cryptocurrency before, that was super interesting. Some of the coolest things I’ve seen has been the united community. People like Kings of Leon pre-March release of the NFT, it was an older rock and roll audience. Some younger folks in there, but for the most part, getting everyone rallying around the fact that they all now have quote, unquote a membership into a community that’s going to just keep on giving to them. And that message being delivered to them has just been so amazing.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

So, let’s look to the future. What’s the potential here with NFTs? What projects could we see going forward, and what’s the potential for artists and for the music industry—two groups that have basically spent the last two decades trying to get to a workable internet-era business model?

JOSH KATZ

There’s a tremendous amount of commerce that happens around artists right now, and there’s a huge economy around all of this content—all of the ownership, the sales, the memorialization of rights, the trading, the upside opportunity, the investment opportunity. We’re scratching the surface right now.

For the industry, it’s a matter of adoption. You’re looking at new industry, such as the NFT art movement. Industry leaders in that space obviously [are] being formed today. The industries—meaning the traditional industries, the incumbent industries—are going to need to adopt.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Now that these NFTs are out, looking back, what’s something that took you by surprise on this project?

JOSH KATZ

I was surprised by how much attention the project got. We expected the project to be trailblazing, but we didn’t think that the entire entertainment universe on a worldwide basis would pay attention to it. That never occurred to us for a second. We just thought it would be a cool music project. It would go to the next level and open up eyes, and people in the music industry would be like, “Oh, that’s a great use case. Cool.” We didn’t think it would be like a massive news story around the world. I mean, those NFTs are hanging in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame right now. So, it’s like history. That’s what that project is.

MUSICAL TRANSITION

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Now we head to Kenya, home of the number 29 project on this year’s MIP list: the National Wildlife Census.

From elephants and cheetahs to rhinos and gazelle, the animals that roam the country are majestic—and also a powerful revenue source. Tourism fuels 8 percent of Kenya’s GDP, but poaching, climate change and a human population boom are putting wildlife at risk.

So in 2021, the government initiated Kenya’s first systematic wildlife census. PMI spoke with Patrick Omondi, director of the Wildlife Research and Training Institute, about the 2.3 million U.S. dollar project launched with Kenya Wildlife Service.

PATRICK OMONDI

Kenya had done a wildlife census before, but just for key species like elephants and rhino that have been affected by illegal trade and poaching. But we have never undertaken a nationally coordinated census for all our wildlife resources. The government decided to undertake the first ever nationally coordinated, nationally funded wildlife census to establish the number of wildlife wherever they are in space and time. And this was to guide our planning process within the national parks, national reserves, the community areas and also to balance between infrastructure development and wildlife conservation.

One of the major reasons we did this with COVID coming in last year and having lockdown and people having no livelihood, we saw a rise on bush meat, particularly for plain game species like the antelopes, some gazelles. And we realized we have never done census, and we do not have numbers and we might never be able to measure the impact of the emerging bush meat poaching for sustenance and evolving to be commercial and some crossing the border with Kenya and Tanzania.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

About 100 team members spent three months conducting the census, surveying animals both on land and underwater. One of the biggest issues? Kenya’s sheer size.

PATRICK OMONDI

Major challenge—Kenya is huge. Kenya is about 600,000 square kilometers. The census area we covered through the aircraft was 59 percent of that. We were able to utilize internationally set methodologies in doing this census. We had to bear with the challenges like for example, when we are doing the census along the coastline, we had strong winds. We bared with it. We still managed to cover the coastline. Of course, flying these little aircrafts in the air requires a special expertise. I’m glad we have ecologists, scientists that had been trained—and they were able to persevere because we are doing almost six hours a day, three hours in the morning, and two to three hours in the afternoon, depending on the size of the block that one was to cover.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

The census will help create a national wildlife database as well as a repeatable framework for future animal counts—Kenya plans to conduct a wildlife census every three years going forward.

The team hopes these census efforts will help wildlife officials create policies to enhance conservation and management of Kenya’s wildlife resources and establish guidelines for redeveloping parts of the country. As the human population continues to grow—and encroach on territory once left to the animals—government leaders need a plan that can deliver environmental and economic benefits.

PATRICK OMONDI

The real impact will be that we’ll have information available because you can only manage better what you know. Before, we did not know about numbers of these species. Now, we know what we have and where they are. So, we shall be able to provide this information to our 47 county governments when they’re doing their spatial planning. They know what kind of wildlife resources they have and which spaces they occupy so that as they plan for water development, they plan for infrastructure development, they will know that these are special areas for wildlife that happens to be the main driver of tourism. And tourism is the number one economic driver of the Kenyan economy—it’s an economic pillar. So by recognizing what you have and planning to it, it will have a triple impact on our tourism.

So, we now know what we are managing. Now that we know where it is and how many we have, we anticipate that we’ll plan better for ensuring that the wildlife conservation is enhanced in Kenya, being a leader in conservation and the value we place in this natural resource for this country.

MUSICAL TRANSITION

STEVE HENDERSHOT

These are just two projects from this year’s Most Influential Projects. Head online and you’ll find a ton more to explore—from the mRNA vaccines to Burberry’s first social retail store in China. Plus, you can also check out top 10 lists highlighting projects across 30 sectors and geographic regions. So go ahead, dig in—you’re bound to find something that delights, intrigues or maybe even amazes.

NARRATOR

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