Describe what needs to be done (not how to do it) and WHY this is important for the success of this strategic change. Name each functional department involved in this implementation component and how they are affected/involved.

/in /by

Strategic Management

PART 2

Chapter 10 describes EIGHT major components of planning and effectively executing strategy or a strategic change. Your team is to consider these eight components with respect to Jakks and their strategic change initiative and to chose which FOUR you believe are most critical to this change being successful. You then will relate each functional area to these four priority change elements.

Your team report will address the tasks/questions below. Organize the Team report using these headings:

  1. The four priority implementation components (see item #1 below)

                III. Functional implications (see item #2 below)

  1. Team process and participation (item 3 below)
  2. Prioritize the top four components you believe are most critical for Jakks success. Simply provide a list of these four components with a brief description relating it to the Jakks strategic change.

 A hypothetical Example (NOT relevant to the case):

  1. Building the organization: Jakks will need to develop a competent Franchise management department to implement their new business model

This effort requires some discussion of the implications of this change within and across functional areas. (* Don’t just leave PART 1 of this project once you’ve submitted it. You are still in the role of functional VPs). One or more specific components may only be relevant to a needed major change in one functional area. That’s okay! Implementation efforts do not have to be equal across all areas or be company-wide.

  1. For EACH of your four priority components:
  2. Describe what needs to be done (not how to do it) and WHY this is important for the success of this strategic change.
  1. Name each functional department involved in this implementation component and how they are affected/involved.

Analyse this data and, using the PERT technique, assess the probability of the arena construction works being completed before the end of December 2023. What conclusions do you make as a result of your findings?

/in /by

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

Assignment Task One Project Planning

1a. Using the data in the scenario, prepare a Gantt chart for the entire programme from inception to the end of the ‘soft launch’. You may assume the project start date is Monday 10 January 2022.

1b. Compile a detailed network diagram and Gantt chart for the Arena construction phase (phase 3). You should allow in your programme for a two week shutdown of construction activity over the year-end holiday period.

1c. Identify the critical path for the construction phase.

1d. Re-present key data in Table 3 to show task durations using Eli Goldratt’s Critical Chain approach. Show also the safety buffer for the phase as a whole. Determine how buffer time should be used either at key milestones within the construction phase or only at the end clearly stating the reasons for your choice.

1e Present a simple Gantt chart to show the critical chain approach and the buffer distribution you have selected to use.

20 marks

Assignment Task Two Budgets and Cost Planning

2a. Using the data in the scenario, prepare a fully itemised cost plan for the project to include the provision of contingencies.

2b. Determine a basis for the provision of contingency within the cost plan (for example, adopting a flat rate for the entire project or risk-related rates for different elements or phases). Make a clear recommendation, stating your reasoning.

10 marks

Assignment Task Three Project Appraisal

3a. Using the budget you prepared in task two with the income streams provided in the scenario, prepare an itemised cash flow for the project for the period 2022 to 2029 inclusive. You should consider the payment profiles for both the remediation phase (phase 2) and the main arena construction phases (phases 3 and 4). You will also need to include an estimate for the revenue receipt in Q4 2024, stating your reasoning for the figure you have chosen.

3b. Using the cash flow data, prepare an initial project appraisal and identify the Payback Period; Return on Capital (RoC); and Net Present Value of the project to support a business case for presentation to the client’s Board. Use a discount rate of 4% per annum.

3c. State any assumptions made and the commercial implications of the results presented including an accept / reject recommendation for the project as a whole

15 marks

Assignment Task Four Resource Management

As the arena construction phase nears completion in Q4 2023, the professional team have re-focussed attention on the logistics and management of phase 4 – the arena fit-out, concession areas and commissioning.

With the main contractor having left site, additional site management resources will be required to co-ordinate and control the fit-out works for each retail and food unit as well as specialist equipment to be installed in hospitality areas, the TV Studio and Media Centre.

It has been decided to recruit a number of assistant project managers to support the construction manager and safety manager plus another administration assistant.

The assistant project managers will cost £300 per day plus £100 per week expenses.

The projected breakdown structure and resource need is as follows:

 

4a. Prepare a resource budget for the assistant project managers and administration assistant (assume that no additional office accommodation is required).

4b. Develop a week-by-week resource histogram (column chart) showing the number of assistant project managers required.

4.c It would be desirable to limit the peak assistant project management resource to a maximum of three as the recruitment agency have expressed concern about their ability to source enough suitable candidates. Suggest how the programme might be revised to achieve this constraint and identify any consequences and the resource budget saving.

 

Assignment Task Five Project Evaluation

The project director to whom you report fears that the main contractor’s schedule to construct the arena is too optimistic. Nevertheless, it is essential that the arena is complete by the end of 2023, so that there is sufficient time for the 6- month phase 4 fit out and commissioning and the 3-month ‘soft launch’ phase.

You and your project assistant have looked at the contractor’s programme and, together, determined optimistic and pessimistic durations for each activity:

5a. Analyse this data and, using the PERT technique, assess the probability of the arena construction works being completed before the end of December 2023.

5b. What conclusions do you make as a result of your findings?

 

Assignment Task Six Earned Value

A progress meeting with the arena main contractor was held in February 2023 and the consultant quantity surveyor tabled a financial report on the budget expended to date (to 31 January 2023):

Using the Earned Value approach determine the following:

6a. Calculate the estimated cost of the arena construction at completion.

6b. Calculate the estimated total duration of the arena construction and identify the estimated completion date.

6c. Comment upon the results.

 

Assignment Task Seven Project Monitoring and Reporting

The main contractor’s progress report, presented at the February meeting identified progress made as follows:

Analyse this information with respect to the project plan you prepared in response to task one and prepare a “traffic light” progress report indicating the status of each task on the following basis:

Red Stage in progress falling more than 5% behind plan
Amber Stage in progress (broadly in line with plan) or not yet started

Green Stage completed or at least 5% ahead of plan

7a. What conclusions do you draw?

Explain why a case study method was chosen with evidence, that you are using secondary data stating specifically what secondary data sources you have used and also explain with evidence and in some detail the method chosen to do the analysis and how it will be used.

/in /by

Project Report – Hybrid Working

Section 1: Introduction can use parts of the initial assessment.

Sectons 2 & 3: Can copy entirely the second assessment ‘Research Theories & Framework and Research Methodology’.

Overall a very good discussion of the theories and frameworks. Could have developed some of your discussions in areas in more depth and more critically-impacts theories. Very limited and incorrect approaches to the research methodology. You should be using a case study method, with secondary data – you seem to suggesting that you will be relying on primary data which is not permitted for the project. You should modify this section in the final report to explain why a case study method was chosen with evidence, that you are using secondary data stating specifically what secondary data sources you have used and also explain with evidence and in some detail the method chosen to do the analysis and how it will be used ( e.g., thematic analysis).

Relate the framework /technologies/solutionsmentioned in the case study to your work experience. Discuss anything that you learnt from the case study you can apply to your work and/or the other way around, which would be whether you can apply lessons learnt from your own experience to the case study.

/in /by

Artificial intelligence for the real world: Don’t start with moon shots. Davenport TH, Ronanki R. Harvard Business Review. 96(1), 2018.

1. All case studies are from the Harvard Business Review journal. Download the cases from the UHD Library databases. Full citations of the cases are on the next pages.

2. Summarize the case study.

3. Relate the framework / technologies / solutions mentioned in the case study to the topics you are studying in the textbook. You may need to study chapters that you have not yet encountered as per the schedule in the syllabus.

4. Relate the framework /technologies/solutionsmentioned in the case study to your work experience. Discuss anything that you learnt from the case study you can apply to your work and/or the other way around, which would be whether you can apply lessons learnt from your own experience to the case study. Just one or two group members are expected to address this.

5. Relate how the framework / technologies / solutions mentioned in the case study are being used to improve business processes and build solutions in the fields of energy, infrastructure, urban design and LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED), agriculture, healthcare, transportation, social media, or other.

6. Cite your references. It is expected that you will research significantly beyond the textbook to prepare your case study presentation.

What do you believe are the most valuable ways your functional area can contribute to the success of this new strategic direction? With which other functional area(s) will you need to coordinate with, get support from, or give support to in order for your area to be effective in supporting this new direction? Explain the important cross-functional relationships you identify.

/in /by

Implementing Strategic Change

PART 1 – This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.

Think as if you are the Vice President in charge of your functional area of Jakks. Write a brief memo addressing the following tasks/questions:

1. What do you believe are the most valuable ways your functional area can contribute to the success of this new strategic direction?

2. With which other functional area(s) will you need to coordinate with, get support from, or give support to in order for your area to be effective in supporting this new direction? Explain the important cross-functional relationships you identify.

3. Does this change require your area to do something new? If so, describe any new, additional resources or capabilities you believe your functional department needs to be effective in this new strategic context.

Write a one-page single-spaced narrative providing a response to the issues presented in this case. Identify the main Procurement/Purchasing issues in the case, summarize them, and then, using material from your text or other sources, present recommendations for solutions to the issues/problems you have identified.

/in /by

Case 8-1 Lisa Caruso

Instructions:
Read and review the case study attached and write a one-page single-spaced narrative providing a response to the issues presented in this case. You must identify the main Procurement/Purchasing issues in the case, summarize them, and then, using material from your text or other sources, present recommendations for solutions to the issues/problems you have identified. Use the attached documents.

After reviewing Article B, consider your current healthcare environment and develop a 10-point recovery guideline that you could present to hospital management.

/in /by

Business Administration

After reviewing Article B, consider your current healthcare environment and develop a 10-point recovery guideline that you could present to hospital management.

ArticleB:

In the light of all the debates about the need for more creativity in companies we should start by making a potential business case for it. What specific conditions in the business environment would you say that justify investments in employees’ creativity on the part of companies?

/in /by

Three management questions

Write a paragraph for each question:

1. In the light of all the debates about the need for more creativity in companies we should start by making a potential business case for it. What specific conditions in the business environment would you say that justify investments in employees’ creativity on the part of companies? As usual, please focus just on one.

2. You have been discussing different strategies that Pixar uses in order to foster creativity: Empower your people; Create a peer culture; Free up communication; Craft a learning environment. discuss in some detail the behaviors that each principle would trigger in case they’re implemented in a company. Do you actually use any of them with your teams? Why (or why not)?

3. In her article “If managers thought like designers”, Jeanne Liedtka, one of the leading academics in the topic, takes a provocative view of the current drawbacks in managerial functions that may be preventing innovation and business development.

Define your whole digital marketing analytics framework, including a set of digital marketing metrics that you would choose to use for these activities against the set of objectives, and any KPI’s you have identified. You should include the consideration of various types of marketing metrics. Identify the analytical maturity level of your current SME and then go on and justify what level of analytical maturity you think they need to aim for and why. Drop???

/in /by

Digital and Social Media Analytics for Bravissimo company

Section A: The organisation overview
This section is only intended to provide context on the chosen organisation and must not exceed one side of A4 paper.
The following headings should be included:
• Organisation name
• Organisation information – To include type of organisation, size of organisation, range of products and services, non-digital routes-to-market, customer base and main competitors
• Specific background – Provide a background to the chosen organisation digital presence.

You have arrived within your chosen SME as a new digital marketing manager, the only resource you have is yourself. Your predecessor didn’t prepare any paperwork or handover documents for you to review. You have been asked to prepare a briefing paper for the marketing director of your SME. It will need to consider best-practise sources of measurement techniques, and the data these provide for identifying improvements in the level of performance. You have been given three key non-smart objectives:
1. Raise awareness of the brand
2. Increase the level of conversions
3. Increase the level of retention

Section B: Digital Data Channel Activity (30%)
(1) Perform an external audit and map out all the different digital activities you can identify for this organisation. Justify how you went about this and the range of marketing technology tools and techniques you use, the processes, and any other factors that has influenced you on how you would set about mapping these digital activities.

(2) Once you have created the map of activities (1). Discuss the McKinsey Consumer Decision Journey model in relation to these map activities. Evaluate the importance on the customer persona in the context of this model and analytics.

(3) Define your whole digital marketing analytics framework, including a set of digital marketing metrics that you would choose to use for these activities against the set of objectives, and any KPI’s you have identified. You should include the consideration of various types of marketing metrics.
Identify the analytical maturity level of your current SME and then go on and justify what level of analytical maturity you think they need to aim for and why. Drop???

Section C: Measurement Techniques and Data Sources (30%)
(4) Evaluate the Gartner analytic ascendancy model in terms of the decision- making framework for your SME. Evaluate, discuss and select your marketing technology tools stack you plan to use against the digital activities.

(5) Select any TWO of the chosen organisation’s digital marketing metrics and critique the data capture, storage and analysis techniques you might use and the different categorization of these. How you might gain insight from these techniques (3) that could be used to meet any one of the objectives, increase performance, and when formulating marketing strategy.

(6) Formulate and justify how you might go about the tagging and the implementation, or the checking of Google analytics for your SME. Furthermore, discuss a social media listening programme and how you might develop the ability to use data to anticipate a social media crisis or improve customer service.

Section D: Data reporting from the Data (20%):
(7) Evaluate what relevant data could be used to populate the dashboard to measure the performance. Create a simple prototype dashboard that demonstrates the impact of the chosen data on the business over time against any KPI’s. Recommend how the importance of the digital marketing metrics could be communicated across your SME. Evaluate the factors which would determine the way in which automated alerts would be used to monitor changes in the product/service performance.
Presentation and coherence (10%)
• Ensure that your document is clearly laid out and labelled and
• that the argument structure follows and builds
• free from spelling and grammatical errors.

How Businesses use social media to influence and penetrate their target market and how does it affect their buying behavior?

/in /by

Social Media in businesses

How Businesses use social media to influence and penetrate their target market and how does it affect their buying behavior?