Who is responsible for initiating a project?

A company that uses a predictive approach and operates in a highly regulated market is losing profitability because its product life cycle is taking longer than those of its competitors. A new project manager has been hired to change this scenario.
What approach should the project manager propose?

Which percent of the total project labor hours are typically expended by the end of the second phase of the project life cycle?

A project in the execution phase is part of a large transformation program. The project manager for this project reports to a program manager and also heads the steering committee for this project. A steering committee meeting will be held in the following 2 weeks, during which the approach to measure the schedule performance of the project thus far will be presented.
What should the project manager do in preparation for this meeting?

The electrical engineer has recently been promoted from lead engineer to section manager. In this new position, he will be responsible for managing projects and project resources. Over the five years he has been with the company, he was always ranked as one of the top engineers but has had no formal project management training. This is an example of what?