A Project to Open a New Tesco Super Store - Case Study Example

Tesco plc Tesco PLC is a leading multinational retailer based in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England that specializes in groceries and other general merchandise (Simms, 7). It has about 5600 stores located in 14 nations across Europe, North America, and Asia makes it the second largest retailer based on profitability and the third largest based on revenues worldwide. The company mainly retails groceries, as well as books, clothing, furniture, software, electronics, and petrol. Apart from retail services, the company has also diversified into telecoms, financial services, internet services, and DVD sales and rentals. Jack Cohen founded the company in 1919, and later renamed it to Tesco in 1924 after he bought a tea shipment from T. E. Stockwell (Simms, 26). The company expanded rapidly opening several stores from 1929 and eventually went public in 1947 when it was listed on the London Stock Exchange as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited. The company continued to grow through various acquisitions during the 1950s and 60s such as the acquisition of 70 Williamson's stores, 97 Charles Phillips stores, 212 Irwins stores, and 200 Harrow Stores outlets. At present, the company has continued to experience growth and success making a market leader within the grocery and general products retail market. The company’s stores are branded differently based on the location, size, and mode of acquisition. The main store brands are Tesco Extra, Tesco Metro, Tesco Express, Tesco Superstores, Tesco Homeplus, Dobbies, And One Stop. This paper aims to present the key elements involved in managing a successful project involving the opening of a new Tesco Superstore. It will discuss the key stages and associated tasks that will be required in order to ensure overall success of the entire project, the project management processes and techniques that should be applied during the life of the project, and the important skills and competencies required by the project manager and team to achieve a successful project. Key stages and associated tasks required to ensure overall success of the project A project is usually described as a temporary group activity that is intended to produce a unique result, product, or service (Project Management Institute, 5). As such, a project is a plan of work that is aimed at bringing a beneficial change and is therefore expected to have a defined beginning and an end, and bears a scope of work that usually is unique and entails a lot of uncertainty (Prabhakar, 4). In addition, a project has several times, cost, and quality constraints and requires a multi-disciplinary team to carry out the project to its end. In order for a project to be successful, it must: Deliver the required benefits and outcomes expected by the organization, major stakeholders, delivery partners, and any other stakeholders involved in the project. Stay within the set out time targets and financial budgets; Engage the correct people and utilize the resources available within the organization and elsewhere appropriately (Cleland and Roland 176). Produce and realize deliverables that adhere to the agreed requirements; Have the necessary risk management skills and techniques required to manage adequately any risks that may arise and could jeopardize its success; Take into consideration of any changes that could occur in the manner in which the organization operates and all the diverse needs of the employees and other key stakeholders who shall be impacted by the various changes that may arise from the project. Five main stages of a project that must be undertaken in order to achieve success, namely: Initiating Under this stage, the management within an organization identifies a key business problem facing the organization or a unique opportunity that the organization could pursue and a possible business case that could provide a possible solution is identified. One needs to understand the environment within which the business operates in to be able to identify the scope of the project and the necessary project controls required for successful completion (Haynes, 43). This stage is very important as it helps to determine the overall success of the project. Within this stage, several important tasks should be undertaken such as evaluating the business requirements that need to be met in terms of measurable goals, and carrying out a stakeholder analysis, including the various users, and support personnel required for the project. It is also important to review all the current operations undertaken within the business and possible improvements, a financial evaluation of all the costs that would be needed to complete the project and possible budget drawn, and the preparation of a project charter that would include all the expected project schedule, deliverables, costs, and tasks. In our case, the opportunity is opening a Tesco Superstore in a new town. As such, a review of the costs, timelines, and the establishment of clear goals will be carried out during this stage. Planning This stage entails preparing a comprehensive project plan that includes all the main elements required for the project for adequate implementation. Under this stage, important plans for time, resources, responsibilities, costs, and risks are prepared in order to ensure that the project will be run to its successful completion. This stage is also very important since it determines the overall success of the project. The key plans that are developed include an Activities schedule that describes all activities to be undertaken and the respective time schedules, a risk plan that highlights any possible risks that may arise and the actions required to mitigate them, as well as a resource plan that determines all the resources that will be used in the project at each stage. Other key plans prepared include a cost plan and budget that helps identify all the costs involved in the project, both internal and external and their respective occurrence in time, a communication plan that defines all the important information that needs to be distributed to the various project stakeholders and the appropriate distribution channels to be used (Ireland, 165). It is also important to prepare a quality plan that sets out the key quality targets for the various project deliverables identified, describes a comprehensive quality control and assurance process, and the performance indicators that will be used to monitor and evaluate the project implementation and performance based on predefined goals and targets. In our case, an adequate project plan will be prepared showing the set out costs, personnel, and timelines to be used in opening the superstore. Executing This stage involves implementing the various tasks and activities that were identified within the project schedule. This stage requires adequate coordination between the various people and resources that are required for completion of the project. The individuals tasked with implementation need to carryout all the activities set out in the project plan in accordance with the various projected timelines and resource allocations. Successful implementation ensures that the project deliverables are achieved on a timely manner and within the stipulated budgetary limits. This stage will involve contracting the necessary personnel to acquire the superstore and construct it into the laid out specifications that are outlined within the project plan. Monitoring and controlling This stage entails monitor examining the implementation process in order to identify any potential problems that may arise in the course of implementation and the appropriate corrective measures undertaken in a timely method. The project performance is critically evaluated and measured regularly and any inconsistencies with the project plan identified. In addition, any changes in the project variables such as costs, scope, time, and personnel are noted and the required corrective measures are identified and implemented (Kerzner, 198). It is necessary that the project manager is open to any changes that may occur in the course of implementation and should evaluate these changes based on the overall project plan and initiate only the approved changes. Constant monitoring and review is to be carried out during the progress of our superstore project in order to ensure all timelines, budgetary allocations are used as specified, any changes identified, and corrective measures implemented. Closing This stage entails all the administrative activities carried out in order to close the project once it is completed. It involves accepting the project formally and closing all the contracts and processes that were involved in the whole project. An important task carried out at this stage is reviewing the whole project implementation process in order to measure the amount of project success and any lessons learned from the whole exercise. During this exercise, one states the outcome of the project; measures the various benefits realised from the project; compares the overall project expenditure against the projected budget; and determines whether the project remained within the identified project scope. The post implementation review helps the project stakeholders to make appropriate changes in the projects carried out in the future based on the lessons learned. The closing stage of the superstore project will involve closing all contracts created in running the project, congratulating all those involved, and reviewing the whole process to evaluate our success. The project management processes and techniques to be applied during the life of the project Project management is described as a discipline that involves planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating resources with the aim of achieving specific goals. Project management is an important discipline given the complicated nature of most projects, which are usually temporary and have time, resources, and funding constraints. It is therefore a major task to ensure that the goals and objectives of a project are achieved in tandem with the various constraints facing the project. There are several processes and techniques that a project manager applies during the life of the project to help manage it successfully. One very important process is definition of the project scope which entails all the work that should be accomplished in order to deliver the specified result, product or service bearing the specified functions. The project scope is contained within the scope statement and lists all the projects goals and objectives, various activities to be undertaken, the time deadlines for each activity, and the costs involved in each activity. It also explains the different project boundaries, establishes the various responsibilities to be undertaken by various project members as well as how different activities will be verified during project implementation. A second important process is clearly identifying the goals and success factors for the project. This is a very important process since it helps to ensure that the project being carried out is aimed at achieving specified results that are beneficial to the organization. In order to identify key goals and success factors for a project, it is important to understand the environment within which the organization operates in and the various business drivers, problems, and the opportunities that led to the initiation of the specific project. It is therefore very important to align the project goals and success factors with those of the organization. Another important process is effective project planning of the various tasks, personnel, costs, and resources to be used in the project. During planning, one should be aware of the size of the project in order to prepare an adequate plan that is able to ensure successful completion of the project within the given time, funding, and resource constraints (Nicholas and Steyn, 247) . One very helpful tool to use during this process is project-planning software that is helps to identify the various components required during the planning process. Another key process is identifying suitable roles and job titles to be used within the project. Depending on the scope and size of the project, several tasks will be created which will require different personnel to carry out. As such, large projects could require a programme manager, a project manager, a project leader, and operational staff while a small project would require a project manager and operational staff only. It is also important to separate the roles and responsibilities of each position created within the project (Lock, 281). All these processes are important and therefore several tools and techniques are used in order to achieve success. One such tool is a Work Breakdown Structure that helps to evaluate the activities to be carried out within a project and the cost breakdown for each activity. Another tool and technique used is the Project Evaluation Review Technique that helps to analyze the various inter-relationships that exist between the various activities identified within the work breakdown structure. Another tool and technique used is Critical path analysis that helps to identify the activities that are the most important in establishing the overall period of the whole project (Hamilton, 243). Another technique used are Gantt charts that are used to show the results obtained from the critical path analysis and the project evaluation review technique in a bar chart for various stakeholders to understand the progress made so far in the project. Important skills and competencies required by the project manager to achieve a successful project A project manager plays a very important role in ensuring that the project is completed successfully. As such, there are several important skills and competencies required by the project manager to achieve a successful project, which are spread across personal, coping, technical, and management areas. These skills and competencies include: Defining and reviewing the project needs and business case to ensure the client receives the specified results. Initiating and planning the project in order to establish appropriate deviation measurements and change control methods to adopt. Ability to deal with rapid change and uncertainty occurring during project implementation. Ability to collaborate with key end users, work together with the project sponsors, and other key project stakeholders in order to establish the desired project direction and achieve the set out goals (Turner, 214). Ability to manage people, technology, and any other changes that may arise in the course of the project effectively. Ability to create a conducive work environment that will enable the project employees to work on their various tasks effectively and achieve the set out deliverables. Works cited Cleland, David and Roland, Gareis. Global Project Management Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. Print. Hamilton, Albert. Handbook of Project Management Procedures. Harrogate: TTL Publishing, Ltd., 2004. Print. Haynes, Marion. Project Management. Principles and Practices. Cengage Learning, 2002. Print. Ireland, Lewis. Project Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. Print. Kerzner, Harold. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (8th Ed). New York: Wiley, 2003. Print. Lock, Dennis. Project Management (9th Ed.) Aldershot, England: Gower Publishing, Ltd., 2007. Print. Nicholas, John and Steyn, Herman. Project Management for Business, Engineering, and Technology; Principles and Practice. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, 2008. Print. Prabhakar, Prakash. Projects and Their Management: A Literature Review. International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 3, No. 8 pp 3-9. Print. Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, 2013. Print. Simms, Andrew. Tescopoly: How one shop came out on top and why it matters. London: Constable. 2007. Print. Turner, Rodney. The Handbook of Project-Based Management (2nd Ed). London: McGraw Hill, 1999. Print. Read More