If you’re an Operations Director, you’ve likely got teams delivering revenue-critical projects, either internal change projects, or client delivery projects. But those same projects can keep you awake at night. Even with a capable team in place, you’re constantly pulled into firefighting mode, untangling priorities, chasing dependencies, and aligning stakeholders just to keep things moving. And while your project manager reassures you the dashboard is ‘green,’ you know the project is losing money. Communication is breaking down. Progress feels fragile. So, what’s really going wrong?
There’s no dedicated commercial manager sitting alongside the PMs, yet they’re expected to deliver, lead, manage risk, and protect commercial value, without ever having been shown how. Here are some common symptoms, if you’ve not got proper commercial management support for your project team:
- Your project manager (PM) is operating in survival mode, not strategic mode.
- Your project systems are in place, but they’re not being used as intended.
- Your project managers are stuck in the middle, balancing day-to-day site demands, client expectations, and internal pressure from the engineering teams and senior leaders.
- Your inbox is constantly filled with queries and client demands, all of which are urgent.
- Your project is likely to experience cost overruns and delays.
- Your people may even start to burn out = more days off, sickness and stress.
When project managers are left to handle complex contracts, change control, and financial risks without expert backup, your margin, timeline, and reputation are all on the line. They’re drowning, instead of competently flying solo. The hard truth is, they’re not trained in commercial strategy and can’t be expected to cover it all. Project teams need commercial management support to protect the commercial value and manage risks.
Reducing commercial risk in your project office
Although the contract’s been signed and the programme is tight, there are commercial risks buried in scope gaps, performance clauses, and ambiguous change terms. By appointing proper commercial support for your project team, you’ll free up your time to focus on operational strategy and team leadership. A commercial manager can take some of the load from your PM and deal with:
- Negotiating any undocumented scope changes.
- Meeting any new client demands that don’t appear in the contract.
- Monitoring payment triggers within the contract.
- Dealing with variations, if the contract needs to be updated.
- Understanding the commercial risks, not only the technical or delivery issues.
If you don’t have the headcount or time to recruit a commercial manager, here’s where Coron’s Base Camp service could help.
A safety net for Project Managers
We built Coron’s Base Camp for the reality many leaders face: smart, capable project managers with growing responsibilities and no dedicated commercial manager available to help. It’s not just a training course. And it’s not a binder full of theory. It’s coaching, real-world support, and a practical toolkit they can actually use.
Base Camp offers one-to-one training, coaching, practical tools, and structured support to help your teams:
- Make better commercial decisions in live delivery
- Navigate scope, change, and client relationships with clarity
- Reduce commercial risk or address the issues
- Protect margin, reduce risk, and stay aligned with business goals
At the heart of Base Camp is our Sense Star framework. It’s a human-first, commercially aware model that helps PMs lead with clarity, resilience, and intent even in high-pressure engineering environments.
Touch (Person)
How am I showing up? How do I lead under pressure?
We build emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and people skills to help PMs lead from the front—even when the heat is on.
Sight (Perspective)
What’s the goal? Where are we headed?
We help PMs step back, get clear on outcomes, and align team energy with the project’s true objectives.
Smell (Performance)
Is this working? What’s off?
We review personal and project performance—tracking progress, diagnosing issues, and getting back on track when things slip.
Listen (Proactive Leadership)
What are we hearing – or missing – from clients and stakeholders?
We teach proactive listening, commercial awareness, and the ability to course-correct before problems become escalations.
Taste (Pace & Accountability)
Are we keeping up—and taking others with us?
We instil ownership, accountability, and momentum so that your project professionals honour commitments, influence others, and drive delivery at a sustainable pace.
Who is Coron’s Base Camp service for?
This service would suit project managers stepping into commercially exposed roles or PMs delivering EPC, engineering, or transformation projects without a commercial manager.
Or if you’re leading the team and you keep finding that they’re getting stuck, you might want to get some third-party perspective to offer them training, coaching, clarity and momentum.
The first step towards Base Camp starts with our Project Insights session – to help you establish what you need. You can fill in our contact form and we’ll be in touch.