project management

Order Description

• Task 1 (10 marks) 500-750 words (word ranges are GUIDELINES only for each part)
“What gets measured gets done”.
Is this right? How might measurement define the successful leadership of a project? You might consider explaining and contrasting appropriate management and leadership competencies and tools that are helpful or required in the workplace to measure and manage projects successfully.
Include specific competencies, descriptions and examples to support your answer.

Task 2 (10 marks) 500-750 words
“The essence of project management is risk management.”
Discuss this statement by reviewing/providing a risk register for the top 3 – 4 risks you identified in the assignment 2 case study and discuss how they might be managed in relation to:

• risk strategies and how they might be implemented for each risk identified

• project change management

• risk contingency planning

• day-to-day risk ownership and project management

Task 3 (15 marks) 500-750 words
Why is project closure an important part of the project process. What specific steps would you include in the project closure (transfer control/close out) of a project? Why? How is effective project evaluation implemented as a process?
Rationale
This assignment considers some of the sociocultural aspects of project management and asks students to investigate and explain three different elements of project management.
The following Rubric provides a guide, especially regarding marks, as the assignment will be considered holistically.

PROJECT PLAN
Grape juice is noted to offer antitoxin properties that improve the health lifestyles for persons. The project manager should device a project that comprise the following strategic imperatives:

1.    Review the product development from concept to the market.
2.    Conduct a demographic study to evaluate the size of population, age and gender.
3.    Conduct thorough market surveys to identify the market needs and dynamics.
4.    Examine the brand of the grape juice and its penetration level in the market.

The project manager should understand that translating a strategy into a meaningful tactic is a principal aspect in building a brand. Strategic imperatives define what to focus and thereby determine the resources needed to drive the use of proceeds. Clear and well defined strategic imperatives help to evaluate the quantity of resources required in a given project, the need for them and the cost implications.

The project plan will succeed based on the need to determine the development of the grape juice from concept to market as an important brand to add immense value to the customers. The juice boasts of antitoxin benefits that promote good health. Through demographic studies and extensive market surveys, the size of the population will unfold the extent to which the level market share intended to vote for grape juice as the most treasured brand. Brand equity creates loyalty to customers to place much trust and confidence in an organization’s product.

It is of paramount importance to identify the market dynamics and put into consideration ways and means to resuscitate the dying market for antitoxin grape juices. This outstanding juice that attempts to provide positive health benefits as compared to other juices should be handled with great care to expand the market in future.

PRODUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The project manager should begin the project plan by conducting a thorough product and market research. According to Corr& Gray (1996) optimism has positively correlated with job performance because when the employees believe that they can succeed, they are less likely to give up the task and put forth more effort to accomplish the goal.Fredrickson (2001) suggested that “higher levels of positivity will contribute to maintaining higher levels of individual motivation and performance”.

Kappagoda&Barsade(1993) people believed that happy employees are more satisfy with their jobs and it will help toperform better on their jobs. According to Iaffaldano&Muchinsky, (1985) research has reported a positive correlation between individuals’ job satisfaction and their performance. However they concluded that satisfaction and performance are slightly related. In this connection, they used facet level of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction of the employees may be a better predictor of job performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton 2001).

1.    RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Big Cola Company must carry out research and development to determine critical issues notable among them including customers’ needs, shell life of the juice, nutritional value and product specs. Achieving customer focus requires leveraging existing customer information to gain deeper insight into the relationship a customer has with the institution, and improving customer service-related processes so that the services are quick, error free and convenient for the customers. Furthermore, a basic percept of marketing is that customer satisfaction with a product will possibly lead to repeat purchases, acceptance of product line extensions, and favourable word-of-mouth advertising (Cardozo 1965).

The degree to which grape juice meets customers’ expectations must be evaluated. Some central factors such as taste, nutrition or healthful profile, storage shell life,safety and environmental cost, and preparation of the juice. The grape juice should be prepared with a lot of care and ensure that preservation of the product is handled scrupulously. The research should reveal the customers’ feedback on taste and health profile to help analyse the information and provide the requisite nutritional value. Packaging materials should be observed to hygienically pass the test of permeability to adjust barrier properties during transportation or storage.

The need for research and development should involve some experiments to test on the level of nutrition inside the grape juice to facilitate improvement where possible. This should be aimed at increasing the nutrition value and mitigate the effect of short shell life to avoid unnecessary revenue losses due to storage of stale juice.The company should hire the services of agricultural research firms to give an expert opinion on proper blending and preservation of grape juice. The expert opinion will further give direction on the most appropriate way to lengthen shell life.

2.    SECURE FRUIT SUPPLIERS
The company should secure few and reliable fruit suppliers to make sure there is sufficient supply and avoid unnecessary sock outs. Suppliers should be vetted after on an annual basis to determine their hygiene and safety of their locations to provide storage of fresh fruits. Suppliers of stale fruits should be banned completely. Stale fruits might cause food poisoning when blended into juice thereby chasing away customers and in turn resulting inevitable revenue losses.

The company should draft a serious legal agreement for all the suppliers to append their signatures and adhere to it accordingly. The agreement should clearly specify quantity to be supplied on a certain period based on suppliers’ capacity. Late deliveries and stale fruits should not be tolerated at all and in consequent to that the legal agreement must infer fines and penalties commensurate with the level of breach committed thereof. A firm needs to develop effective coordination within and beyond its boundariesin order to maximise the potential for converting competitive advantage intoprofitability (Dyer & Singh 1998). Coordinating the rate of order fulfilment tomatch actual consumption is successful from the customer’s point of view, if itresults in satisfying a customer’s delivery date and lowers logistics costs.

PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Production of the grape juice is the most crucial stage of the project plan. Prior to production of grape juice to be factored, there is need to identify the capacity to facilitate blending in terms of infrastructural facilities and skilled labour. Successful production cannot be achieved without sophisticated blending facilities and competent personnel to oversee the process from concept to final product (packaged grape juice). A process is therefore a structure for action, the structure by whichan organization does what is necessary to produce value for its customers (Davenport 1993).

The output or end results of a product concept are imperative to promoting enhanced performance features in the market. One of major contributors to customer loyalty and satisfaction is production of high quality products. The production of grape juice must go beyond customers’ benefit of doubt on hygiene and quality of fruits.Quality experts distinguish between two general types of output quality — the degree towhich a good or service provides key customer requirements, or customization, and howreliably these requirements are delivered, or reliability (Deming 1981; Juran&Gryna 1988). Oakland (1993) distinguishes between similar components, referring to ‘‘quality’’ as the meeting of customer requirements, and ‘‘reliability’’ as the ability of a product to continue to meet the customer requirements.

Production trials should precede the real product to ensure that all product specifications, features and quality have been carefully observed. Production engineer should test sample of grape juices after trial and correspond the recommended product specifications with the set targets. Similarly, quality engineers should sample some grape juices to various customers whereby feedback will be issued and acted upon appropriately.

The company must offer intensive training with regard to process of determining quality for the grape juice to avoid several customer complaints in the future. Customer complaints can impact negatively on the company’s performance thereby contributing to decline in overall sales and profits.

DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS
Once production of a product has been completed, the company should aggressively sell the product idea to the external forces (customers) to promote its brand. Promotion of a company’s brand represented by either products or services require aggressive marketing to create awareness in the mass population. Market testing of the grape juice after production has been successfully completed should precede any effort to promote the company’s brand. All customer feedbacks should analysed at length to identify the exact needs to expand the market share.

The packaging of the grape juice should have a proper design that give sufficient information with reference to the nutritional value and any other vital elements to add value to the company’s brand. Packaging materials need not be expensive but suggestive about the product features and performance.

LEGAL OPTIONS
Every organization must comply with legal requirements prior to starting a business or when the business is in existence. The national government provides a conducive environment for investors to grow their financial capital and expand their clientele base. By so doing, every facet of firms in executing business deals should lie within the legal jurisdiction. ForBig Cola Company to avoid any legal disputes, it must seek registration certificate from Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Association (FDA). The aforesaid association is charged with the responsibility of protecting public health by regulation human and animal drugs.

Also, the company should obtain a registered trademark to protect its products and the brand from been invaded by other organizations. The company should seek full compliance of all legal requirements to protect its image and the interest of other stakeholders such as creditors, shareholders and others. It is noteworthy to realize the significance of maintaining the company’s reputation to attract customers and other economic goodwill.

PRODUCT LAUNCH
The debut of the new product to the market will give it full recognition in terms of the performance and the company’s brand. The company should interact with the customer and share the nutritional content, ingredients and other important values derived from the grape juice. Various packaging designs and tastes of grape juice should be shared with the customer and accept all forms of feedbacks for further improvement or maintenance of the product features and performance. Customers are the lifeblood of every organization to maximize on profits and keep on serving a wide market.

COMMUNICATION TO THE INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
This project will succeed in lifting the stalled Big Cola Company as highlighted in every step of the project plan. Grape juice is a precious commodity with high nutritional content and antitoxin properties that make the product attractive and healthful to large masses of population. In addition, there is a ready market for the juice due to competitive advantages offered by the product.

The company must deploy both short term and long term strategies to continually enhance the market share and promote the company’s brand to vast geographical areas. The project manager should work hand in hand with the strategic manager and all the other affected departments of the company to champion for growth and development of new markets. The project team should involve members from different departments in order to marshal adequate representation.

STRATEGIES AND ACTION PLANS TOWARDS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MARKET GROWTH
The company should absorb all the contents of this project plan and put into action the requisite strategies and action plans to realize remarkable benefits of product development and market growth. The main strategies to be adopted by the company include:
1.    Maintain annual research and development of grape juice to determine its performance
2.    Conduct monthly reviews of the market dynamics to evaluate the penetration of grape juice into the market. In addition, seek innovative and creative ways to expand the juice market.
3.    Review the product development (grape juice) from concept to the market on annual basis to enhance product features and performance.
4.    Draft policies to regulate the activities of every representation in the project team to track the step by step implementation of the project plan.

CONCLUSION
Big Cola Company will soon realize numerous benefits that will degenerate into huge profits and vast markets. The project plan attempts to cover all the main aspects of product developments and market dynamics. The company should device an overall goal and dedicate the achievements towards the realization of the full benefits of the project plan. Key strategies and techniques employed in every activity should be monitored closely and at every stage of implementation. Finally, all the personnel involved in the implementation exercise should work towards attaining set targets and hence the company should reward employees on excellent performance to cultivate spirited effort to offer the very best to the firm.

REFERENCES
Cardozo Richard N 1965. “An Experimental Study of Customer Efort, Expectation and Satisfaction”, Journal of Marketing Research (pre – 1986), Vol. 2, No.3, p. 24-249.
Davenport, T. H. 1993. Managing in the new world of process. Public Productivity and Management Review, 18, 133 – 147.

Deming, W. E. 1981. Management of statistical techniques for quality and productivity. New York: NewYork University.

Dyer, J.H. and Singh, H. (1998), `The relational view: cooperative strategy and sources ofinterorganizational competitive advantage’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 23No. 4, pp. 660-79.

Iaffaldano, M.T. and Muchinsky, P.M. 1985. Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 251-273.

Juran, J. M., &Gryna, F. M. 1988. Juran’s quality control handbook(4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Fredrickson, B.L. 2001. The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology, the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218-226.

Kappagoda, S. 2013. The Impact of Work Related Attitudes on Job Performance of Non-Managerial Employees in the Banking Sector in Sri Lanka, Zenith. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 3, 1-7.

Oakland, J. S. (. Total quality management. New Jersey, USA: Nichols Publishing
Corr, P.J. and Gray. J.A. (1996) Attributional Style as a Personality Factor in Insurance Sales Performance in the UK. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 69, 83-87.

Staw, B.M. and Barsade, S.G. 1993. Affect and Managerial Performance: A Test of the Sadder-but-Wiser vs. Happier-and-Smarter Hypothesis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 304-331.

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