Build, fix or walk away: three questions before you build a centre

Most centre projects begin with the question of how. The better first question is whether. Three prior questions help.

First, what work is the centre meant to own in three years, and is it work the organisation is prepared to hand over? Second, can the chosen location support that mandate, in talent and in continuity? Third, is the headquarters able to change how it works so the centre can succeed?

There are also conditions under which the right decision is to walk away: the talent has already left, the location cannot sustain the mandate, or headquarters cannot change. Writing these conditions down before the project starts is cheap. Discovering them after a year is not.

A decision framed this way is easier to defend to a board, because it shows what would have changed the answer.