Critical success factors for South African company doing projects in other developing countries : a case study of Sasol's project in Mozambique

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to establish the critical success factors that impact project success for major projects in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The motivation was that South African companies were geographically well positioned to expand into this region which holds some of the world’s untapped natural resources with potential for high returns. However the business environment presented unique challenges due to lack of institutional capacity, infrastructure and a weak private sector. This resulted in a dominant role of government as well as community concerns in project execution. Sasol’s project, commissioned in 2004, to bring natural gas from Mozambique to South Africa was selected as a case study. The project team, business clients, contractors and independent consultants were interviewed on what were the critical project success factors. The results indicated that the leadership role of the sponsor and an experienced and committed team were critical to project success. The roles of the country manager and the performance of contractors were also highlighted. External to the business organisation were the role of government and the involvement of the community. Government’s role on institutional and physical infrastructure development was highlighted. The importance of alignment of all project stakeholders was emphasised as critical. Further, additional time and resources spent on alignment and the initial planning phase were critical to an efficient implementation phase.