2025 PMO of the Year
Project management office (PMO) of the Year
This recognition is for PMOs that lead by example, providing exemplary support and adherence to standards, and enabling excellence at scale.
Festo, Award received by Miroslav Mihaylov and Venera Koseva
Winner
Words from Petar Dimitrov
Thank you for the honor of being named PMO of the Year 2025 at the PM Summit 2025 in Bulgaria. This recognition is especially meaningful because our Plant Project Office at Festo Bulgaria operates at a unique intersection: we are a local PMO embedded in the plant yet we play a key role in supporting global governance and standards.
Our Plant Project Office was created to ensure that Festo Bulgaria’s strategic ambitions are translated into tangible, well-executed initiatives. We focus on two complementary dimensions. On one hand we support global governance by implementing standards such as structured Lessons Learned, RASCI, harmonized project structures and process improvements. On the other hand we are the driving force behind the local strategy of Festo Bulgaria, leading and coordinating key strategic measures.
Beyond standard methodologies our Project Office creates value by connecting global standards with local realities. We make sure that what is defined globally is applied pragmatically in the plant and that insights from our projects feed back into the global organization. Our standardized project structures and clear responsibilities enable transparent reporting, better risk management, and smoother collaboration with global functions.
The biggest challenge in developing our Plant Project Office was balancing global expectations with local needs. Global governance requires consistency while the plant environment demands speed and practicality. Initially, some colleagues perceived new standards as additional bureaucracy. We addressed this by tailoring global frameworks to the plant context, simplifying where possible and demonstrating benefits through concrete results: fewer escalations, clearer ownership, and more predictable delivery. Pilot projects helped us prove that structured project management can actually make daily work easier.
Our portfolio reflects the strategic importance of the Plant Project Office. We currently manage more than 70 active projects, of which approximately 35 are novelties (new product introduction) – including local plant projects, research initiatives and customer-specific projects. In addition we lead and support critical strategic measures for Festo Bulgaria such as cost optimization initiatives, footprint relocation projects and technical cleanliness improvements. These projects are directly linked to Festo’s global strategy and to the long-term competitiveness of the plant.
To demonstrate value to senior management we focus on indicators that connect our work to business outcomes. For strategic measures like cost optimization and footprint relocation, we track realized savings, ramp-up stability, adherence to timelines, and impact on capacity and flexibility. For novelties and customer projects, we monitor time-to-market, quality at start of production, and customer satisfaction in respect to delivery. This allows us to show how the Plant Project Office contributes to both global governance and local performance.
We know our Plant Project Office is working well when the plant can run complex change without disruption: relocations without delivery issues, novelties with stable ramp-up and cost measures that protect performance.
This award recognizes the role a Plant Project Office can play as a bridge between global governance and local excellence. Thank you for the opportunity to share our story.
