At least 70% of New Zealand businesses have experienced project failure in the past 12 months, according to the KPMG New Zealand Project Management Survey.
KPMG said the finding reflects organisations' inability to translate significant investments in projects into real business value.
According to the survey, while 44% of survey participants spent more than $15 million on their projects in the past year, most organisations were far from being business-like in the way they conducted projects.
For many, embarking on a project appeared to be a 'leap of faith', in the hope, rather than the expectation, of delivering on time and on budget, KPMG said.
Gina Barlow, KPMG New Zealand's Director of Project Advisory Services, and one of the authors of the report, said the lack of benefits management the survey showed was particularly concerning.
"If organisations do not measure the benefits of their projects, they cannot understand if the investment was worthwhile.
"Organisations need to realise that doing the right project is just as important as doing the project right."
Fifty percent of survey participants also said that their projects do not consistently achieve what they set out to achieve.
