Australias Floating Hotel Project - Case Study Example

Heading: Project Analysis Report Your Name: Course Name: Instructor’s name: Date: THE AUSTRALIAN FLOATING HOTEL PROJECT - ANALYSIS Purpose To understand the project, the company involved, and the project context itself through Project analysis 1. Brief Introduction to the Project 1.1 Objective The project was designed as a response to the underlying growing emphasis on the need to sustain use of resources which has posed many challengers to complex natural system managers in Australia. Since sustainability of resources implies total commitment to using various objective criteria such as social, environmental, and economic, the floating hotel was a viable solution. However, the project demonstrated that giving full attention to all these factors is quite difficult because the economic some of these factors resulted in an almost project failure. 1.2 Introduction Australia’s floating hotel project situated on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was an illustration of both combinations of unique environment, engineering, and entrepreneurial approaches. These approaches focused on tourism development within the coral reef environment. Given the rapidly burgeoning offshore tourism demand the project faced many challenges. The administrative, socio-economic, engineering and design of the floating hotel project were found to be quite unusual. However, the lessons learnt from this project are valuable complements to the international experience. From the environmental perspective, the project was considered successful; however, it failed in the business venture especially in market research. This excerpt examines some of the challenges that were experienced by the project team and how they were addressed. It also considers the implications of similar projects. 1.3. Scope of the floating hotel The idea of constructing the floating hotel emerged considering the geography of the GBR laying some considerable travelling time and distance offshore. Tour operators believed that the direction of the hotel could favor visitation to the premise because of the close proximity of the mainland port and prevailing winds conditions. Prior to the construction of the floating hotel, the owners had proposed rising an artificial island, but the cost of maintaining it and other potential environmental impacts could not allow for the initiation of the project. The hotel project was awarded to Consafe Engineering Company in Singapore. The engineers managed to come up with a self-contained five storey building consisting of 34 luxury suites, 140 double rooms, walkways to the main structure, tennis courts, swimming pools, and contained moorings. All waste waters from the premise were to undergo treatment in a package plant on board then disinfected. Solid wastes were incinerated and returned the mainland. The treated wastewater, were to be discharged into designated areas that were under environmental protection in the sea (Saenger 2004, p.21). 2.0 A project stakeholder analysis. Stakeholder analysis is used to identify the type of institutions, groups, and people who can either positively, or negatively influence the proceedings of the project. The analysis will help you come up with strategies that will offer support and reduce obstacles that may hinder successful project implementation. It is important for the project manager to get a glimpse of what is important for the stakeholders of the project. You need a stakeholder map to categorize the stakeholders depending on the influence they have on the project. The map consists of high power interested persons who must be fully engaged and make them feel satisfied as much as possible. In the floating hotel project, this group consisted of the resort owner, government legislation bodies such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), the federal sea dumping legislation and the state legislation organizations that offer legislative guidelines. The high power, less interested people forms the second category in the map. They should be also be kept satisfied but not as much. This includes the clients, and the general public. The third category includes lower power and less power individuals. This people should be monitored and adequately informed as they can be very helpful with the detail of the whole project. This includes the project team and management (Gundlach 2012, p. 2). 3.0 A brief description of how the project was managed The project was not adequately managed given the unfortunate events that followed after. This therefore indicates that the project management team did not carry out adequate environmental assessment of the locations, an also failed in putting in place measures that could prevent such happenings. Before commencing its operations, the hotel recorded a number of indirectly related events even as its construction progressed. This undermined the public confidence regarding the project. A high speed boat designed to ferry passengers to the premise was destroyed after it caught fire. A cyclone hit the hotel, destroying some of its peripheral structures although the hotel remained intact. Another floating platform of its kind in the neighborhood sunk during a storm after its opening had been commissioned. Lastly, an ammunition dump site was identified only five kilometers away from the hotel. As a result, the federal environment minister, using an impact assessment, monitoring and management proposed that an Environmental Impact Statement be drafted as the project posed some environmental dangers. The hotel management was subsequently given a conditional permit of installing and operating the hotel in 1985 (Saenger 2004, p.21). 3.1 Overview of the problems It is agreeable that project of the floating hotel was developed in a unique administrative and geographic circumstance. The following general principles however, underpinned its management and design. The project failed because of commercial reasons. It did not successfully attract a viable client base and this is attributed to inadequate market research, competing attractions, poor choice of location, and inappropriate facilities. The project experienced some difficulties more especially because it deviated from the actual plans that were outlined. The impacts of these deviations were huge because they almost stalled the whole project. For instance, it later emerged that the project was commenced without relevant permit from the stat legislation. For example, the federal sea dumping legislation and the state legislation on offshore structures resulted in numerous changes made in the course of the project. This altered the pre-planned chronology of events as the project manger was forced to alter the plan and accommodate the state legislation requirements (Saenger 2004, p.43). 3.2 Benefits of Careful Project Planning These unfortunate happenings emphasize the importance of proper project management and planning. According to (Rad & Ravin 2002, p.18), the project manager must determine his success factors before commencing a project. However, if these factors are not clearly identified and recorded explicitly, the whole project might flop or deviate from its actual plans. Having a project manager is also not a guarantee that the project is going to succeed. The project manager is required to have leadership characteristics such as technological skills, realism, operational skills, and communication responsiveness (Tukel & Rom, 1998 pp.43-61). Many administrative aspects such as late reports by consultants due to slow payments, lack of on-site support, and excessive confidentiality claims, failed to support the project. In addition, lack of qualified personnel to conduct the feasibility study and clear protocols caused more difficulties. However, such difficulties can be overcome by creating a monitoring policy through which the management agency can be mandated to assume program management and design responsibility. While some of these problems were surmountable, the conclusion drawn was that for projects of such a caliber to succeed, a partnership approach is necessary and that particular roles and requirements of each stakeholder should be respected (Litsikakis 2009 p.1). 4.0 A critical analysis of the project outcome Despite the numerous challenges the project team encountered, the project was successful. A project evaluation workshop was carried out in 1989, and the conclusions drawn indicated that though the project had proved to be commercially unviable, most of the requirements were met (Saenger 2004, p.21). The Federal Minister of the environment concurred that it was likely that the project would pose some environmental effects. As such, an environmental statement was required. The EIS draft upon being reviewed by the public attracted only six comments that were incorporated into the final EIS. The government then issued an installation and operation permit of the hotel. This permission however included conditions such as developing a management plan for the resort, ensuring public safety and health, adhering to the environmental rehabilitation and insurance bond requirements, and operational permission requirements. It is the fulfillment of this requirement that gained the approval of its operations and therefore, making the whole project seen as a success. Furthermore, a variety of issues that were discussed in the contingency and planning provisions regarding unforeseen accidents in the premise proved to be adequate in limiting some of the potentially harmful environmental impacts. 5.0 Lessons From the analysis of this project, I can give recommendations to similar future developments which are: the importance or coordination and close working relationship among all the parties involved in the entire life of a project, and the need for retaining operational flexibility and design. It is crucial for the project manager to identify what is possibly considered successful standard criteria for a project. Understanding what the stakeholders’ interests are is important if a project is to be successful. References Gundlach, M 2012, Example of Stakeholder Analysis. Retrieved on 13/01/2012 from http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/training/stakeholder%20analysis%20ppt.pdf Litsikakis, D 2009, Analysis of Project Success Criteria and Success Factors. Retrieved on 13/01/2012 from http://litsikakis.wordpress.com/article/analysis-of-project-success-criteria-3ib8exvrc87n4-4/ Rad, A. & Levin, T 2002, The Advanced Project Management Office, St.Lucie Press, p. 18 Saenger P 2004, Overview of the Monitoring Program for the Floating Resort at John Brewer Reef, Great Barrier Reef: Report for Barrier Reef Holdings Ltd., p. 21 Tukel & Rom, 1998, Analysis of the Characteristics of Projects in diverse industries, Journal of Operations Management, Vol.16, pp 43-61 6.0 Appendices Appendix 1 Stakeholder mapping Read More