Prma6049-Project And Risk Management | Assessment Answers

Identify a business issue/problem, or opportunity as below:

 

As pressure increases to meet climate targets by nations & corporations, and on the use of fossil fuels, your firm has taken a strategic move to reduce the amount of CO2 they produce & decrease use of fossil fuels and have turned to electric (solar) battery usage, as it is cleaner, via the acquisition of a number of smaller solar battery firms, making it a first mover in its sector.

 

You have just started working for a company in a sector relevant to your area of study, and have joined a project team that will analyse the business and identify a short-term project to meet the opportunity or issue identified. To inform the market & customers of its newly acquired, first mover, status. You & your team have been tasked with an international short-term project, with a duration of 3 months.

 

You need to scope & propose an international business short-term project via a business report detailing the resources needed to produce this project. Other teams have also been asked to put together a report along the same lines and the best one will be selected by senior management before implementation begins.

 

Your project will be a marketing/PR campaign. Your objective is to communicate with your customers & internal stakeholders, to tell them about your new capabilities & with a view to decreasing costs over the next three years. This will be a part of the firm’s overall strategy to meet the overall business needs of achieving increased cost efficiencies, market share and competitive advantage.

 

Task

 

Your task is to write a 6,000-word business Report detailing the resources needed to deliver this project. Other teams have also been asked to put together a report along the same lines and the best one will be selected by senior management before implementation begins.

 

In order to convince your CEO, your team will have to create “a well thought-out plan, including defined measures of success”

 

You, as a project group, will need to critically analyse your organisation’s current situation, utilising and evaluate appropriate academic models, theories and frameworks to establish a project that will help your company gain competitive advantage with a measurable outcome. As you will be recommending the project the dates must be in the future.

 

SOLO/PLC is an oil and natural gas producing company which has its base at London. The headquarter at London is considered as the European headquarter. The company operated from the California in North America. The operation of the organization is scattered across the 17 countries in the world. It has 37,500 employees. The company is in profit, however, there are some certain problems are arising in the company such as the excessive emission of the CO2. The main objective of the organization is to develop a sustainable system which will help to deliver the required products along with that mitigate the adverse effect of excessive CO2 emission.

PESTEL analysis of SOLO/PLC:

P (Political Factors): SOLO/PLC is operated in different countries. In this case, the different countries have the different rules and the regulations for conducting the business. SOLO/PCL has to focus on the different rules regarding the taxation , import and export and the business conducts in order to enter the target market in the different countries (Enama 2017). The stability  of the governing bodies in the different countries along with the related risks in the market are also concerned things for the organization in order to expand the business and explore the current opportunities in the different sectors in the different countries.

E (Economic Factors): Economic factors are the important parameter for the SOLO/PCL company in order to setting the price of the  products regarding oil and natural gas. The organization is operated in various countries. In this case, the economic conditions in  different countries are different. Some of the countries have the economy that is in the developing states. The pricing of the product depends on the economic policies and the rate of inflation and the buying power of the consumers in the country. The price of the oil and natural gas products are different for the different countries. The price of oil and natural gas is highly dependent on the price of the petroleum  in the international market. the organization needs to be aware about the ups and downs of the price of the petroleum.

S (Social Factors):  Consumers does not pay the direct interest to buy the oil and natural gas. However, many of the people are buying cars, so the demand of the oil are increasing rapidly. The natural gas are needed for the domestic usage like cooking. The organization sees this demand as the opportunity for the company. However, the company should be aware of the vast usage of the electronic cooking systems where there is no use of the natural gas. This smart substitute can replace the demand of the LPG.

T (Technological Factors): The technological advancement has given the organization an advantage in the competitive market. SOLO/PLC is using the utility of the technology in various ways.  On the other hand the organization is also applying the advanced technology for the marketing purpose and the promotion of the business (Awino, Njeru and Adwet 2017). The organization is using the social media and other forms of the online activities in order to bridge the communication gap between the organization and the consumers. SOLO/PLC tries to follow the technology that will enhance the production and digging process for the oil and gas.

L (Legal factors): Legal factors involve the legal laws maintained by the company that will ensure the quality of the products and the services along with minimization of the cost. SOLO/PLC  ensures the hygiene factors and maintains law which ensures the product delivered will meet all the quality standards.

E (Environmental factors):  The modern world is concerned about protecting the environment. In order to maintain the environment friendliness  SOLO/PLC is trying to reduce the emission of the CO2 during the entire process of the oil digging and the purification of the oil for making different products from it. The  organization is thinking to implement the use of solar energy for the entire process instead of using the conventional process. It helps to promote the sustainable image of the organization that helps the organization to expand the business. The organization is also concern with the recycling of the products.

Porter’s five forces for SOLO/PLC:

Threat of new entrants:

The threat from the new entrants is always a challenge for the business companies. The threat may become the bigger concern in case if there are lots of areas for improvements in the sector of the industry. The industry related to the oil and natural gas market has huge scope and has lots of areas for the improvement (Gil Ebrí 2017). However, SOLO/PLC is a Fortune 500 company and has the largest share in the market. In this case, it would be difficult for the new companies to beat the SOLO/PLC and take its position. Moreover, the organization is expanding the business and the smart policies and the advanced technologies are helping the  company to bring the diversity in the products along with maintaining the quality.

Threats from the substitute goods:

The  market regarding the oil and the natural gas is a growing sectors. However, there are many similar products available in the market which are introduced by the various companies. In this case, SOLO/PLC has to face a challenge. SOLO/PLC is providing the quality products, however the other companies are offering the same products in cheaper price (Cuppen 2016).The price of the oil can nt be changed, however, the substitutes those are made from the raw oil are produced by the other companies in a cheaper price. In this case, the consumer will choose the product which is cost effective. In this case, SOLO/PLC has to be concerned about the price of the product. Apart from that the company can be more innovative in introducing the new products.

Bargaining power of customers:

The bargaining power of suppliers is a vital point in this case. There are various products in the market which are similar in nature as the products from the SOLO/PLC (Szeto 2017). In this case, the consumers are getting more options , so they can compare between the products on the basis of various parameters like cost and the availability(Yang 2014) .  SOLO/PLC, in this case can face a challenge as there are products available in the market which are cheaper than the products of SOLO/PLC.

Bargaining power if the suppliers:

Bargaining power of the suppliers is a important thing for the business of the company. SOLO/PLC  is aware about the strong relationship with the suppliers as it has the buying power. SOLO/PLC believes in making the ongoing equation with the suppliers strong in the business as it will play a significant part in maintaining the business.

McKinsey’s 7S for SOLO/PLC:

There are seven elements in McKinsey’s 7S model. The seven elements are categorized into soft elements and hard elements (Caniato et al.2014.). Hard elements are strategy, structure and system and the soft elements are shred value, skill, staffs and style.

Strategy: The strategy SOLO/PLC has adopted has gained a competitive advantage for the organization in the market (Kuecuekarslan,  Scherer and Uenal 2015). The smart strategy of promoting the products along with the good will of the company helps the organization to perform well in the market.

Structure: The SOLO/PLC company maintains a well build structure or the hierarchy from staffs to managerial levels.

Systems: The daily activities and the procedures those are followed by the staffs lead to the compilation of the tasks in a right manner.

Shared values:  The products and the services by the SOLO/PLC reflects the concern of the company about its value and the culture.

Style:  The leadership adopted for the compilation of the project in the SOLO/PLC is democratic leadership in nature,

Staffs: The staffs working at SOLO/PLC company are highly efficient in their work.

Skills:  Different staffs are trained to gain the different skills based on their potential and department of the working.

Merits and limits of Stakeholder analysis:

Merits:

• Companies get to know the stakeholders in a better way.
• Helps to make better decisions and the strategies.
• The actions by the organization become accepted by the stakeholders.

Limitations:

• Interests of all the stakeholders in the company may not be fulfilled at the same time.
• The assessment may be subjective in nature.
• It can be a time consuming process.

Stakeholder analysis for SOLO/PLC:

Name of the Stakeholder	Impact	Influence	Objective of the stakeholder	Contribution in the organization	Constraints those can be made by the stakeholders	Strategy
Staffs of SOLO/PLC	High	High	Doing all the necessary on going processes in different departments of the organization.	Responsible for implementation of the activities in the projects or the processes.	They can go for a strike I case of some  difficulties in the workplace.	Monthly management staff discussion or communication.
R&D Department	High	Medium	To research on the possibility of developing various food products	The R&D department researches on the different components and nature of the oil. It also researches about the nature of the soil and determines the possibility of finding the oil mine in a particular region.	The R&D department can mislead the organizational objective.	Monthly meeting between the management officials and the R&D officials.
Managers	High	High	To develop and implement the projects those can fulfill the objectives of the organization	The project managers are responsible to the development of the projects and controlling each stages of the life cycle of the projects.	The managers can take wrong decisions while the development process of the project.	The managers can brainstorms among themselves for resolving certain problems.

Merits and the limitations of the constraint analysis:

Merits:

• The possible constraints of the company can be identified in both internal and external factors.
• The strategy for the elimination of the constraints can be found out.
• The sources of the constraints are determined.

Limitations :

• The constraint analysis does not recommend the strategy to resolve the problems.
• Certain problems can be overlooked in the constraint analysis.

References

Awino, Z.B., Njeru, W.G. and Adwet, K., 2017. Strategy Implementation: Mckinsey’s 7s Framework Configuration And Performance Of Large Supermarkets In Nairobi, Kenya. Archives of Business Research, 5(6).

Caniato, M., Vaccari, M., Visvanathan, C. and Zurbrügg, C., 2014. Using social network and stakeholder analysis to help evaluate infectious waste management: A step towards a holistic assessment. Waste Management, 34(5), pp.938-951.

Chitzos, K.P., 2018. Sector analysis of food testing on mycotoxins.

Cuppen, E., 2016. 15 Stakeholder Analysis. Foresight in Organizations: Methods and Tools, p.208.

Enama, A., 2017. Research on Market Development Strategy in Africa. A Case Study of Solo Nigeria PLC.

Gil Ebrí, I., 2017. Naturale business plan.

Kuecuekarslan, A., Scherer, S. and Uenal, Y., 2015. Constraint analysis for the interaction of the vector-meson octet with the baryon octet in effective field theory. Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft.

Siddik, M., 2016. The Analytical Implication of Altman’s Z-Score Analysis Of Solo India Limited. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2(12).

Szeto, M.C.H., 2017. 2 Challenges for a community of practice: recognising complexity with the mckinsey 7s framework.

Yang, R.J., 2014. An investigation of stakeholder analysis in urban development projects: Empirical or rationalistic perspectives. International Journal of Project Management, 32(5), pp.838-849.