Project Plan For AMINA Inc’s Multinational Marketing Strategy

Purpose of the Project

The fundamental objective behind the project is to build up a platform for AMINA Inc so that the organization can get access to global market with the help of worldwide marketing techniques. Alternatively, the fundamental focus of the project is to build up a multi-national showcasing arrangement for the organization keeping in mind the end goal to empower it to access the worldwide market. Nevertheless, the main planning phase of the overall project is difficult because of the extensive size and scope of the project. In addition, the accomplishment of the project depends largely on the estimated financial values and course of events for fruition of the project. Henceforth, the project plan is readied remembering every one of these variables and in addition keeping up greatest precision in every one of the estimations.

There are several merits of project plan that are discussed below.

For the execution of a particular project, a suitable path is necessary that is provided by the project plan. A project can be executed based on different types of plans and execution methods. However, the most coveted way is the most cost-effective and minimum tedious one. These can be dictated by setting up a legitimate project plan with accurate values generated from the estimations.

The overall project structure including a chronological order of the project duties is provided by a project plan. Unless a chronological order of the duties are maintained, the project may fail or the quality of the outcomes may be poor.

Through the project plan, a clear idea is delivered to the employees and other personnel that are related to the project. This helps them understand their roles and duties in their project and the extent of contributions they need to make in the project.

An overall idea regarding the expected time schedule and the necessary budget can be gathered from a project plan.

Although a project plan has several merits, there are some limitations as well that are explained as follows.

A project plan is mainly based on some estimations that result in inaccuracy of different important aspects of the project. During preparation of the project plan, the accuracy of estimations is always maintained to the highest possible percentage. However, unforeseen incidents and accidents cause huge deviation from the estimated plan. As a result, the project either fails or the company loses a huge amount of money to compensate for the budget and time deviations.

Merits and Limitations of Project Plan

The suppliers and vendors are major limitations of a project plan. When a project plan is prepared, the suppliers and vendors are not considered. If there are faults from their ends, the outcome of the project changes significantly that cannot be predicted using project.

A project scope is defined as the list of all the possible outcomes that can be achieved by the project. The merits of project scope are as follows.

1. The project scope defines the outcomes that are to be achieved at the end of the project. Hence, a project scope provides a clear idea regarding what is to be achieved with the project within the limited budget and timeline.
2. The limitations of the project can be known from the project scope. In addition to defining the end goals of the project, a project scope also defines a set of targets that cannot be achieved from the particular project. Hence, these limitations can easily be excluded from the project plan.

In addition to merits, there are some limitations of project scope as well. These are as follows.

A project scope only defines the targets and limitations of the project. It does not provide any method on how to achieve the targets of the project. In other words, a project scope only defines goals but not the methodology.

A project scope does not provide any targets in case the project plan is changed to achieve some different targets. Hence, project scope is not suitable for the project that will be changed in the future in order to meet the requirements of the organizations.

The organization will experience significant changes in the business environment once it gets access to global market using worldwide marketing. The business environment can be affected by two main factors – micro (internal) and macro (external). The micro factors include financial condition of the company, available tech support, man power and services. On the other hand, macro factors include market demand, popularity of the services of the company, economic changes in the market, availability of suppliers and others. Various researchers have designed various models for categorizing these micro and macro factors related to the business environment of the company. One of them is Porter’s Five Forces Model. 

In the given diagram, the five factors that affect the business of the organization according to Porter have been specified. While these factors may not appear all together, it can assumed that these factors have high chances of occurring and suitable management plan must be prepared in order to make the business flourish in spite of the presence of these five forces.

In order to prepare the project plan and ensure the success of the project, some rigorous research must be undertaken. The research requirements are as follows.

Primary Research – In this project, primary research will be utilized in order to analyze the existing global market conditions and the consumers’ requirements from the market. This can be conducted in form of surveys or questionnaires and the primary data will have to be collected from this research.

Merits and Limitations of Project Scope

Secondary Research – The secondary research will be conducted based on the past records and statistics of the market. This will provide a clear idea regarding how the organization can benefit from worldwide marketing.

Merits of Stakeholder Analysis are as follows.

• The roles of the stakeholders are easily explained in the context of the project.
• The project duties can be evenly distributed among all the related stakeholders.

Limitations of Stakeholder Analysis are as follows.

• The post of the stakeholder personnel are not defined in the analysis.
• The available skill sets of the stakeholders are not defined.

The merits of constraints analysis are as follows.

• The limitations of a project can be known.
• The scope of the project can be defined by avoiding the constraints of the project.

The limitations of constraints analysis are as follows.

• Some constraints can be solved. However, the analysis does not provide any detail regarding this and as a result, new directions in project outcome cannot be explored.
• Some unexpected and accidental constraints are not defined by the constraints analysis. 

There are a number of risk sources for this project and a suitable risk management plan is required to mitigate the risks. These sources and management plan are shown in the following table.

Risk	Risk Source	Management Plan
Financial Loss and Recession	Significant negative changes in the international market	The global market changes are to be monitored very closely and changes are to be made in the business system accordingly
System Failure	Failure of the system and server issues	After the servers are connected, steps are to be taken in order to prevent any crashes or major errors
Loss of Popularity	Poor quality of services and unable to meet customer requirements	It must be ensured that the best quality of services are provided to meet customer demands
Loss of Market Share	Presence of many rival companies	The company should modify and add more varieties of services to maintain market competitiveness

The personnel requirements and their duties can be explained by the RACI matrix that is shown in the following table.

Tasks	Project Manager	Finance Manager	Marketing Manager	International Relations Manager	System Developer	Company CEO
Management of meetings including organizational meetings and project meetings	A	A	I	C	I	R
Compilation of project schedule based on the project scope and available time	R	I	C	A	I	I
Management of International marketing	A	A	A	R	C	A
Development of system for connecting company servers in different countries	I	A	I	I	R	I
Market Analysis and Service Management	A	A	R	C	A	C

Here, the letters R, A, C, I stand for Responsible, Assisted, Consulted and Informed respectively and hence, the matrix is called RACI matrix.

During the initial phases of multinational marketing, the global market changes are to be monitored very closely and changes are to be made in the business system accordingly. When the headquarters in different countries are set up, the servers are connected together using secure internet connection. After the servers are connected, steps are to be taken in order to prevent any crashes or major errors. Again, it must be ensured that the best quality of services are provided to meet customer demands. The company should also modify and add more varieties of services to maintain market competitiveness. These steps are essential in order to prevent any risks that can have major impact on the organization. 

SMART objectives define certain general aspects of a project that are to be met in the course of the project.  

Specific – The project must be specific in terms of objectives i.e. the objectives must be set based on the project scope and it is to be ensured that the project objectives must be met at the end of the project.

Measurable – The project outcomes must be measurable based on the overall scope of the project. If the outcomes of the project are not within the predefined scope, the project is said to be not measurable and out of scope.

Achievable – The objectives of the project must be set such that they are realistically achievable within the available time limit and the overall budget.

Realistic – The objectives of the project must be realistic so that they can be achieved in due course. Unrealistic objectives lead to incomplete and failed projects as well as loss of huge amount of resources.

Business Environment

Timed – Time is an essential part of a project and care should be taken so that the project is completed within a suitable and specific timeline. If the timeline is not maintained, it may be result in loss of huge amount of resources.

In this project, the type of budgeting used is cash flow. Since, the main plan of the organization is international marketing spread over a period of years, cash flow budgeting is most suitable for the project.

The project budget and financial benefits are calculated in the attached excel sheet.

Forecast:

Tangible Benefits
Category	In $US
Reduction of Expenditure	$          1,500,000.00
Reduction of Stakeholder Wages	$          1,200,000.00
Effective service benefits	$            100,000.00
Increased Sales benefits	$            300,000.00
Total Tangible Benefits	$          3,100,000.00
Tangible One-Time Costs
Category	In $US
International Marketing HQ Development Cost	$            650,000.00
Shipping Cost	$              15,500.00
Cargo Transportation Cost	$              30,000.00
Finished Goods Manufacturing Cost	$              75,000.00
Material and Equipment Cost	$              25,000.00
Other Cost	$                8,200.00
Total Tangible One-Time Costs	$            803,700.00
Tangible Recurring Costs
Category	In $US
Manufacturing Improvement Cost	$            350,000.00
Inventory and Storage Upgrade Cost	$              75,000.00
New Equipment Installation Cost	$              18,900.00
New software or hardware leases line cost	$              24,000.00
Material Cost	$              15,000.00
Total Tangible Recurring Costs	$            482,900.00

From the calculation of the investments and expenses, the expected ROI is 5.42%.

Benefits of option	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Reduction of Expenditure	$ 1,500,000	$1,500,000	$1,500,000	$  1,500,000	$  1,500,000
Reduction of Stakeholder Wages	$ 1,200,000	$1,200,000	$1,200,000	$  1,200,000	$  1,200,000
Effective service benefits	$   100,000	$   100,000	$   100,000	$     100,000	$     100,000
Increased Sales benefits	$   300,000	$   300,000	$   300,000	$     300,000	$     300,000
Total Benefits	$ 3,100,000	$3,100,000	$3,100,000	$  3,100,000	$  3,100,000	$15,500,000
Costs of option	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Manufacturing Improvement Cost	$   350,000	$   350,000	$   350,000	$     350,000	$     350,000
Inventory and Storage Upgrade Cost	$     75,000	$    75,000	$     75,000	$      75,000	$      75,000
New Equipment Installation Cost	$     18,900	$    18,900	$     18,900	$      18,900	$      18,900
New software or hardware leases line cost	$     24,000	$    24,000	$     24,000	$      24,000	$      24,000
Material Cost	$     15,000	$    15,000	$     15,000	$      15,000	$      15,000
Total Costs	$   482,900	$   482,900	$   482,900	$     482,900	$     482,900	$  2,414,500
Net benefits/costs	$ 2,617,100	$2,617,100	$2,617,100	$  2,617,100	$  2,617,100
Cumulative benefits/costs	$ 2,617,100	$5,234,200	$7,851,300	$10,468,400	$13,085,500
Break Even Period	2.31	Years

One-time and Recurring Costs	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
International Marketing HQ Development Cost	$        650,000	$           –	$           –	$           –	$           –
Shipping Cost	$         15,500	$           –	$           –	$           –	$           –
Cargo Transportation Cost	$         30,000	$           –	$           –	$           –	$           –
Finished Goods Manufacturing Cost	$         75,000	$           –	$           –	$           –	$           –
Material and Equipment Cost	$         25,000	$           –	$           –	$           –	$           –
Other Cost	$           8,200	$     15,000	$     20,000	$     30,000	$     40,000
Manufacturing Improvement Cost	$        350,000	$   350,000	$   350,000	$   350,000	$   350,000
Inventory and Storage Upgrade Cost	$         75,000	$     75,000	$     75,000	$     75,000	$     75,000
New Equipment Installation Cost	$         18,900	$     18,900	$     18,900	$     18,900	$     18,900
New software or hardware leases line cost	$         24,000	$     24,000	$     24,000	$     24,000	$     24,000
Material Cost	$         15,000	$     15,000	$     15,000	$     15,000	$     15,000
Total Costs	$     1,286,600	$   497,900	$   502,900	$   512,900	$   522,900
Benefits and Advantages	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Reduction of Expenditure	$     1,500,000	$1,507,500	$1,515,038	$1,522,613	$1,530,226
Reduction of Stakeholder Wages	$     1,200,000	$1,206,000	$1,212,030	$1,218,090	$1,224,181
Effective service benefits	$        100,000	$   100,500	$   101,003	$   101,508	$   102,015
Increased Sales benefits	$        300,000	$   301,500	$   303,008	$   304,523	$   306,045
Total Recurring Costs	$        482,900	$3,115,500	$3,131,078	$3,146,733	$3,162,467

The main non-financial benefits are extension of organizational size, global reach and popularity, more employment and improvement in variety of services.   

The Gantt Chart is based on the following milestones and schedules.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
International Marketing Development Project	82 days	Wed 15-03-17	Thu 06-07-17
Project Initiation	32 days	Wed 15-03-17	Thu 27-04-17
Stakeholder Identification	5 days	Wed 15-03-17	Tue 21-03-17
Project Charter preparation	4 days	Wed 22-03-17	Mon 27-03-17
Estimated Budget	7 days	Wed 22-03-17	Thu 30-03-17
Estimated Timeline	7 days	Wed 22-03-17	Thu 30-03-17
Risk assessment	5 days	Fri 31-03-17	Thu 06-04-17
Business analysis	15 days	Fri 07-04-17	Thu 27-04-17
Project Planning	11 days	Fri 28-04-17	Fri 12-05-17
Allocation of activities to stakeholders	4 days	Fri 28-04-17	Wed 03-05-17
Scheduling activities	2 days	Fri 28-04-17	Mon 01-05-17
Management of other resources	3 days	Thu 04-05-17	Mon 08-05-17
Risk mitigation	4 days	Tue 09-05-17	Fri 12-05-17
Project Execution	12 days	Tue 09-05-17	Wed 24-05-17
Project control planning	12 days	Tue 09-05-17	Wed 24-05-17
Monitoring plan	10 days	Tue 09-05-17	Mon 22-05-17
Adjustment of budget	5 days	Tue 09-05-17	Mon 15-05-17
Project Implementation	34 days	Thu 04-05-17	Tue 20-06-17
International marketing development process	20 days	Thu 04-05-17	Wed 31-05-17
Material and goods supplier selection	12 days	Thu 04-05-17	Fri 19-05-17
Firms and Manufacturing plant construction	10 days	Thu 01-06-17	Wed 14-06-17
Market analysis	7 days	Mon 22-05-17	Tue 30-05-17
Equipment and material identification	15 days	Wed 31-05-17	Tue 20-06-17
Project Closure	12 days	Wed 21-06-17	Thu 06-07-17
Stakeholder sign-off	3 days	Wed 21-06-17	Fri 23-06-17
PIR reviewing	7 days	Mon 26-06-17	Tue 04-07-17
Project termination and hand over	2 days	Wed 05-07-17	Thu 06-07-17

The project will be controlled based on the data that will be gathered throughout the course of the project. When the extracted data will be favorable for the project, further proceedings will be taken in the project and in the opposite case, the project will be stopped or modifications will be made on the project.

The methodology will consist of gathering and management of primary and secondary data and the final execution of the project based on the data results. This can be conducted in form of surveys or questionnaires and the primary data will have to be collected from this research. The secondary data will be collected from the past records and statistics of the market.

The communication between all the stakeholders of the project will be done in form of weekly team meetings, phone and video calls as well as daily reports based on the progress of the project.

After the project duties of all stakeholders are complete, the project outcomes will be compared with the preset objectives and if they are met, the project is terminated and handed over to the project manager.

The project manager will undertake post implementation review and will collect data from the initial implementation. In case the extracted data is not satisfactory, he will reopen the project to make suitable changes.

Conclusions

In this assignment, a project plan has been prepared for Amina Inc for the multinational marketing plan. The organization will experience significant changes in the business environment once it gets access to global market using worldwide marketing. The main planning phase of the overall project is difficult because of the extensive size and scope of the project. In addition, the accomplishment of the project depends largely on the estimated financial values and course of events for fruition of the project. Henceforth, the project plan is readied remembering every one of these variables and in addition keeping up greatest precision in every one of the estimations.

Based on the project analysis, the following recommendations can be suggested.

• The project must be particular regarding targets i.e. the targets must be set in light of the project extension and it is to be guaranteed that the project goals must be met toward the finish of the project.
• The project results must be quantifiable in view of the general extent of the project. On the off chance that the results of the project are not inside the predefined scope, the project is said to be not quantifiable and out of extension.
• The goals of the project must be set to such an extent that they are reasonably achievable inside the accessible time constrain and the general spending plan.
• The targets of the project must be sensible with the goal that they can be accomplished at the appointed time. Implausible targets prompt to fragmented and fizzled extends and also loss of enormous measure of assets.
• Time is a fundamental piece of a project and care ought to be taken so that the project is finished inside a reasonable and particular course of events. In the event that the course of events is not kept up, it might be result in loss of gigantic measure of assets.

Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Sampson, J. eds., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Heldman, K., 2015. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Deluxe Study Guide: Updated for the 2015 Exam. John Wiley & Sons.

Hwang, B.G. and Ng, W.J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.272-284.

Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Labuschagne, C., 2016. Sustainable project life cycle management: criteria for the South African process industry.

Leach, L.P., 2014. Critical chain project management. Artech House.

Lock, M.D., 2014. The essentials of project management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..

Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., Lazcano, A.M.E. and Villanueva, P., 2014. Project risk management methodology for small firms. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), pp.327-340.

Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.

Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), pp.202-217.

Pemsel, S. and Wiewiora, A., 2013. Project management office a knowledge broker in project-based organisations. International Journal of Project Management, 31(1), pp.31-42.

Phillips, J., 2013. PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Sears, S.K., Sears, G.A., Clough, R.H., Rounds, J.L. and Segner, R.O., 2015. Construction project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Too, E.G. and Weaver, P., 2014. The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1382-1394.

Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.

Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.