Managing A Successful Business Project Assignment 3rd Answer

Intoduction : Managing a Successful Business Project: A Case Study on IKEA's New Product Launch

After globalization, several changes have been occurred in the process of managing business operations. With an aim to improve the effectiveness of business operations managers’ are focusing on adopting new or innovative ways which improvise market presence of the company over the world. Due to limited market, demand of cheaper resources, competitive pressure as well dynamic nature of business environment is forcing managers to acquire alternative measures for making successful business as well as facilitate the entrance on global markets. The present report is based upon IKEA which designs and sells furniture, home accessories, kitchen appliances and other useful goals. There will define project aims and objectives as it is essential in project management; additionally, certain factors will also discuss which helps to produce a project. The report will also define certain research methods that helps researcher to achieve project aims and objectives. Furthermore, the gathered information will analyse from graphical presentations and accordingly recommendations will make.

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Task 1

P1 Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes.

As per the given scenario, IKEA is working on a project that is based upon launching a new product or service in London fashion week. This new product will be retailing and clothing as it is a good option which may help company to increase sales revenues and profitability in global markets. This project aims is to develop and implementing a strategy that ensures successful implementation of plan.

Aim: - To launcha new product category in new markets for obtaining competitive position. Objectives:-

• To study the role of globalization on managing business operations or processes.
• To determine the necessary areas which must focused while developing a new product or service.
• To ascertain the impact of globalization on competitive position of IKEA.
• Recommend the ways which helps IKEA to gain competitive position across borders.

Timeframe

P2 Produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources.

While developing a project management plan, it is the foremost duty of project managers to ensure about certain necessary aspects which help in successful project execution. The process requires effective investigation or research thus to achieve project objectives. In the present scenario, IKEA is going to introduce a new product, i.e. clothes in London Fashion Week so that all activities in this project needs to be well managed and ensure to provide high competitive edge to business (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). It is also essential for managers to cover certain necessary aspects of the business, such are stated as under –

• Cost: Since funds are limited for this project, the estimation should be done in a proper way. Therefore, budgeting is required to be done very effectively and one thing that is important is that the budget should be made while considering the budget. The budget is provided here.

• Scope: The Scope of IKEA for launching the complete portfolio of space saving furniture is well-defined, monitored, and managed. In addition to this, the information regarding the customers will also be collected by making use of quantitative and qualitative research methodology.
• Time:The total time expected to complete the project will be calculated based on the completion time of each task. The timeframe plan has been provided here that tells the time taken by each activity:-

• Quality:For the quality and efficiency, the principle of Total Quality Management. IKEA will form some benchmarking standards based on international specification. This would help in successful project execution and better project examined.
• Communication: For the better execution and timely completion of the project, it is important that company should develop a well-efficient communication plan and consider proper communication medium between various stakeholders, such as customers, employees, and management.
• Risk:The risk is unverifiable. For IKEA's new project plan, it is important to formulate a risk management plan that will examine and analyse the risk associated with each undertaking. Each and every risk recognized will be referenced in Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) and restorative designs will be created in order to diminish the impact the risks that may be encountered in future. The risks engaged with the task are as per the following:-
• Weak execution of the project is one of the significant risks.
• Technical risks and change of project scope is the most common risk associated with every project.
• Resource shortage, over-exploitation, and mismanagement may cause delay in the project completion
• Disputes and improper communication between stakeholders can cause some serious problem.

P3 Produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide timeframes and stages for completion.

An efficient project management plan comprises various essential and important components and one such component is work breakdown structure. It helps in depicting the hierarchy in the project. This helps in proper management and execution of the project in a sequential manner. The project manager assigns the project tasks on the basis of factors, such as strengths and weaknesses of the individual member of the team (Devi and Reddy, 2012).

Gantt chart

M1: Produce a comprehensive project management plan, milestone schedule and project schedule for monitoring and completing the aims and objectives of the project.

The comprehensive plan is quintessential for the organisation for achieving the project objectives. Organisation can make sound decisions through strategic decision-making and planning (Brymanand Bell, 2015). The main aim of the IKEA is to launch the complete furniture solution that will be space-saving. For that purpose, the milestone has been provided here.

Task 3

M3. Evaluate the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and authenticity to support and justify recommendations

From the survey conducted in the former part can be very useful for the company IKEA as it can accurately validate the customer demands and other useful information about their pReferences. The survey and face-to-face interview were very useful tools in gathering the data and customer choice. The survey conducted from both online and offline methods in order to reach maximum number of people (Bekhetand Zauszniewski, 2012). In addition to this, it was figured out that consumers were not very actively providing their responses. Therefore, the company made the interview a bit semi-structured. All these were effective in carrying out the data collection in a better way. For the analysis, MS Excel was used that was the most convenient and easy-to-use tool.

Task4

P7 Reflect on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own learning and performance

Talking about my learning from this project, it was good to get along with so much of researching methodologies and tools. For the very first time, I got acquainted with research typology, namely quantitative and qualitative research. I read about the two in detail and actually understood the key difference between the two. This research method helped me in gaining knowledge about managing the business and how an idea could turn into a project. I learned about the resource allocation and time management during the course of this project. During the data collection phase, I learned that people have varying opinions about the product of IKEA. Some of them were very fond of the IKEA’s furniture. One thing that I learned that in quantitative research, the greater is the size of the sample, better would be the accuracy in the data. However, the case is opposite when using qualitative research. The sample size should be small for better accuracy. During the research, various challenges were identified. Initially, the resource allocation was very difficult and consume nearly one week of time. It was all due to good controlling and managing that these issues were curbed. Time management is another challenge for me and it was also somehow managed in a better way.

M4: Evaluate the value of the project management process and use of qualitative research to meet stated objectives and support own learning and performance.

In order to accomplish the organisational goals and project objectives, a well efficient project management is quintessential. The project management is characterised as initiation, execution, planning, controlling, and monitoring of a particular project undertaken by the organisation. Therefore, it is important for the organisation to set project aims and objectives in the very beginning (Bekhetand Zauszniewski, 2012). Apart from this, the project management should be aligned with the project research methods in order to have a quality output from it. Various project management tools and techniques have been used in this research. For example, work breakdown structure has been provided for creating a hierarchy in the project structure. This would help in proper execution of the project. The mixed methodology will help in proper data collection and analysis. This would help in achieving the objectives of the organisation in an effective way.

D2: Critically evaluate and reflect on the project outcomes, the decision-making process and changes or development of the initialprojectmanagement plan to support justification of recommendations and learning during the project

The whole project was a learning experience for me. As a matter of first importance, it helped in expanding the learning and knowledge base.I found out about different advantages of having a project management and executing various PM tools in the proper way. It helps in enhancing the connections among employees and employers. Furthermore, it enhances the execution and coordination of the team members. If the project execution and organisation are strong, then the generation of innovative ideas will be better. It is important for the organisation to act ethically and legally while expanding and launching new products in the market.

Conclusion

From the report, it can be concluded that launching a new project and managing its various stages require a great deal of time, experience, knowledge, and resources. The present report was about IKEA which was aiming at expanding its furniture range, home frill, kitchen machines, and other helpful objectives that are space-saving. It had explained venture points and goals as they are fundamental in undertaking the executives; furthermore, certain variables were examined which delivered a task. The report likewise characterized certain exploration strategies that caused the analyst to accomplish venture points and destinations. Besides, the assembled data was evaluated from graphical interpretation and the same was used for making recommendations.

• Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
• Bekhet, A.K. and Zauszniewski, J.A., 2012. Methodological triangulation: An approach to understanding data. Nurse Researcher.
• Bernard, H.R., 2017. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Rowman& Littlefield.
• Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
• Devi, T.R. and Reddy, V.S., 2012. Work breakdown structure of the project. Int J Eng Res Appl, 2(2), pp.683-686.