Project Outline
Tale of Us, owned by Sarah Walker, is a popular clothing brand in the UK. The company focuses on innovation using R&D to enhance production, marketing and distribution sustainability. With the rise of online retail shops and fashion stores over Europe, Tale of US aims to target the existing audience by launching a clothing line called the “product”, focusing on sustainability in the competitive market. My project was to create innovative strategies for bringing in a new product made using eco-friendly materials to grow our consumer market by being environment caring. I aim to launch this new product at fashion events in the southern EU, mainly in Spain, Greece and Italy and sell it online to boost the sales of Tale of Us. These events can help the company increase online sales and raise ample brand awareness among new audiences.
The brand Tale of Us wants to reach a wider market planning to use fashion events to launch new eco-friendly clothing called the “Product”. I aimed to use this advantage of having an online presence in the USA and Europe and utilize the opportunities from encouraging word of mouth and strengthening customer loyalty. I focused on constructing the strategic plan for operating successfully in all aspects within given timelines. My team was focused on planning and preparing the project with the target of generating more sales from fashion event ticket sales and selling the product itself, and allocating resources for marketing. Our project mandate made before planning the project was evaluated according to these needs aligning with the objective and scope (Hinde | PRINCE2 study guide: 2017 update 2018).
The roles and responsibilities of my project are divided into teams and twenty-two staff, balanced internally according to their diversity and knowledge and the ease of manageability. Increasing engagement and improving culture, staff are selected from different departments to join the team based on their talent (Hinde | Tailoring PRINCE2 to different organizational cultures 2018). Regular training and workshop helped me enhance their skills and foster relationships among the team.
The Finance is there to verify the budget, check profit and loss statements and close transactions. Marketing controls critical tasks with researching venues in the event cities, finding the event management agencies, discussing themes, invitations and planning and advertising the event through pamphlets, flyers and online. The human resource team is present to build the project teams, train the staff, and check employee well-being and safety. The sales team helps with forming the ticket prices, analysing customer preferences and event ticket sales. The operations and logistics department handles the finalizing of the event venue and event management company along with help in marketing and promotions.
Early stages, project formation and the project objectives
I effectively supervised the daily activities and measured daily progress managing my team members directly (Islam and Evans 2020). My distribution of roles was effective as the different roles were assigned according to team members’ expertise.
My project is divided into several teams and necessary staff, selected and developed according to the business objectives. The development of our team members comes from the regular meetings, coaching, training, and workshops that significantly increase the members’ skills and develop a better sense of communication and relationship with each other (Willgerodt et al. 2019). Our staff are selected from the organization internally to complete my project, reflecting directly on staff development. My members selected are trained on PRINCE2, engaging these members along with other internal personnel to complete the project by improving staff development and organizational culture (Kerzner 2019).
The team was developed with specific, clear goals for all the team members, which might be challenging but achievable. My team was selected according to their talent from the internal department; thus, there is recognition of talent. The challenges might tend to occur with the lack of engagement of the team member, internal conflicts and task management. My team mitigates the difficulties by saving task completion time, the easier flow of information among the team leading to improvement, and great innovative problem-solving. The internal staffs are easier to manage and retain, reducing overall cost.
The challenges that I faced while conducting the project are:
- Lacking team skills and experience in event management.
- Problems of internal conflict among teams
- Non-avaibility of necessary resources due to Covid-19 Pandemic.
- Social Restrictions due to Covid-19 Pandemic
- Struggling to locate venues and adhering to governmental rules for Covid-19
- The struggle of finding the right event management agency.
- Lack of accountability for mistakes made
- Miscommunication of information leads to conflicts
- The fashion market is volatile; thus, the project’s scope is changeable and needs to be understood accordingly.
- Problems of unrealistic deadlines
The miscommunication of necessary information to the right personnel is the foundation of conflicts in the team. Poor communication can severely affect the project, leading to lacking teamwork, poor operational performance, lower morale, and reduced revenue (Huda et al. 2020). My members failed to understand how the event management can be successful, leading to issues with accountabilities of mistakes. The Covid-19 Pandemic has brought a new level of uncertainty to the project that can’t be managed in conventional ways. The rules and regulations to be followed due to the Pandemic make it difficult for the operations to be fluid for conducting the events.
I manage the conflicts by understanding the nature of the conflict and understanding rumours and assumptions to figure out the real reason for the problem. The employees are motivated for resolving the issue on their own, being self-organizing and sufficient. In situations where self-efficiency is not solving the problem, I did step in to resolve the problem. Both sides are listened to understand where the root of the problem lies to eradicate the conflict.
Activities/Allocation of tasks
The methods, techniques, tools, and models used help elaborate on all the activities, cost of holding the event, timescale and constraints defined and analysed using work breakdown structure, Network diagram, Gantt chart and the critical path. The WBS or Work breakdown structure helps in facilitating the major activities and deliverables, elaborating on each activity (Kumar 2020). The Gantt chart lists the tasks according to the execution phase, describing the duration of the activities, their starting date and time and the staff appointed to them (Ma and Rong 2022). The network diagram provides a figure showing the activities and their interdependence, marking milestones, and showing the sequence of flow of activities (Anantatmula 2020). The critical path shows the sequence in the network activities adding up to the longest path and duration for completing the project on time. Tools like SWOT and PESTLE are used for taking important decisions by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the initiatives taken and identifying factors that affect project success. The SWOT Analysis analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the project, evaluating the company’s competitive position and developing strategic plans. The PESTLE analysis effectively applies a strategic framework for evaluating the project’s external environment, breaking down risks and opportunities in the project’s political, Economic, Social, Technological, environmental, and legal issues.
The five major risks associated with the project completion identified by me are the
- Due to lack of space in the venue no seats for customers
- Non-relevant theme leading to less online sales
- Server downtime leads to the ticket website not operating and no online promotion.
- Due to the huge crowd, children might get lost.
- Unavailability of VISA for the project VIP or staff leading to unavailability.
I used risk management as a process of identifying, analysing, and responding to the arising risks appearing in the project life cycle to track the project to meet the business objectives. Adhering to PRINCE2, the information about the risks can be described from various highlighted checkpoints, exceptions, and end-stage and end-project reports.
The three major risks that should be critically analysed to derive a response for each of them are:
- Children Lost- The children might get lost in the huge crowd accumulated in the event area. This issue would lead to severe trouble with parents panicking due to losing contact with their children and even legislative issues. There should be ways of understanding the legislation for the country on how to handle such situations with care and keeping necessary information of the parents (Masson, Harrison and Pavlovic 2019).
- Non-Relevant Theme- There might be issues with the event theme being irrelevant according to the current trend leading to fewer sales for the event. This risk negatively affects the business objective of creating brand awareness directly (Dabbous and Barakat 2020). The theme must be aligned to the “product” idea of being eco-friendly and relevant according to the latest trends.
- Unavailability of VISA- The events take place in foreign countries. Thus, there might be the risk of not getting a VISA for the staff or the VIP, leading to not attending the show. This impact can reflect directly on the success of the project delivery being compromised. Thus, the VISA should be planned so that there is a chance of reapplying if a rejection is faced (Fakunle and Pirrie 2020). Backup VIP or staff can also be a partial remedy.
Reflection on Learning and Conclusions:
The challenges I faced in this project were changes in budget constraints leading to financial changes, lack of internal communication due to misunderstandings caused, and internal conflict among the team members. If the project is done again, I will change the approach to product management to Agile, allowing shared collaboration, mutual understanding and increased flexibility adhering to iterative development. The teams would be self-organizing and collaborative.
The team was formed with internal members from different departments. I have been enthusiastic about my leadership aspect as the project manager promoting creativity in the team and encouraging members to take risks to attain success. The team effectively worked on their conflict resolution, allowing diversity and increasing employee accountability.
The paper reflects my experience with the group project describing the outline of the project, starting stages of the project and its objectives, allocation of roles, team development, coping with project uncertainties, the impact of management approaches, risk analysis and reflection of learning. A meeting log of the project is provided in the appendix section of the paper.
References:
Anantatmula, V.S., 2020. Project Management Concepts. In Operations Management-Emerging Trend in the Digital Era. IntechOpen.
Dabbous, A. and Barakat, K.A., 2020. Bridging the online offline gap: Assessing the impact of brands’ social network content quality on brand awareness and purchase intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, p.101966.
Fakunle, O. and Pirrie, A., 2020. International students’ reflections on employability development opportunities during a one-year masters-level program in the UK. Journal of International Students, 10(S2), pp.86-100.
Hinde, D., 2018. Tailoring PRINCE2 to different organizational cultures.
Hinde, D., 2018. PRINCE2 study guide: 2017 update. John Wiley & Sons.
Huda, M., Muhamad, N.H.N., Isyanto, P., Muhamat, R., Marni, N., Kilani, M.A. and Safar, J., 2020. Building harmony in diverse society: Insights from practical wisdom. International Journal of Ethics and Systems.
Islam, S. and Evans, N., 2020. Key success factors of PRINCE2 project management method in software development project: KSF of PRINCE2 in SDLC. International Journal of Engineering Materials and Manufacture, 5(3), pp.76-84.
Kerzner, H., 2019. Innovation project management: Methods, case studies, and tools for managing innovation projects. John Wiley & Sons.
Kumar, A., 2020. Impact of Work Breakdown Structure on Project Life Cycle.
Ma, Y. and Rong, Y., 2022. Project Planning and Management. In Senior Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering (pp. 329-344). Springer, Cham.
Masson, J., Harrison, C. and Pavlovic, A. eds., 2019. Lost and found: Making and remaking working partnerships with parents of children in the care system. Routledge.
Willgerodt, M.A., Blakeney, E.A.R., Summerside, N., Vogel, M.T., Liner, D.A. and Zierler, B., 2019. Impact of leadership development workshops in facilitating team-based practice transformation. Journal of interprofessional care.
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