Hester Taylor Clark, founder of The Hester Group, a multi-million dollar project management company, also likens managing a company to parenting, to knowing when your child or your business has grown enough to be given freedom.

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Later in my career, when I was managing a large, multi-national pricing project, German and American team members were having difficulty working with French colleagues.

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"The Kashagan project has been designed as a zero-discharge production facility, " said Pierre Offant, NCOC chairman managing director.

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Throughout this project, the student-led team has discovered some poignant lessons for the business community in terms of managing stakeholders and finding ways to develop solutions that maximize gains and minimize adverse effects.

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Many schools boast of this capability, but only a handful have the tools to actually connect academia to practice through project-based coursework and active engagement with local business leaders and members of its alumni network who are managing through this change.

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