Senior Management Future Developments - Tesco - Case Study Example

Project Management - Senior Management Future Developments Table of Contents Introduction 3 Current Project Team Performance 4 Development Plan 5 Technology 6 Skills and Knowledge of Staffs 7 Environment (Society, Organisational Culture, Office) 7 Collaboration with Other Companies 8 Out-Sourcing and Sub-Contracting 9 Conclusions 10 References 13 Introduction The current business environment is argued to imply that successful companies should use rational changes in developments, designs, adaptations as well as utilizations of resources, with dedicated project teams of the organisation. Project management thus becomes vital being a wide-ranging managerial function with the need to interact with change management, crucial for improving the performance of the organisation overall (Thomson, 1998). Clearly establishing the ultimate and shared goal, improving performance can be accomplished as the objective of both the project management and the change management teams, providing a common platform to achieve the organisational goals. Generally, project teams contain different inter-related as well as interdependent individuals who are trained and mentored to work together for the same purpose through shared goals in alignment with the objective of the organisation (The Saylor Foundation, n.d.). The project team usually consist of a variety of members in different core areas, sharing responsibilities as a team under the direction of project manager or senior member of the organisation (Reilly, 1998). It is thus that project teams should have the right combination of skills, abilities along with personality types to achieve collaborative tension in benefit of the organisation. Project team must also be adept to work with new technologies, adapt with necessary skills as well as knowledge, be highly cooperative with the working environment, understand company’s collaborations and other concepts required to assure organisational success. All team members should therefore encourage for relationship building and responsible knowledge sharing to give constructive feedback, value along with utilization of strengths of each other, tuned with trust and cooperation for future sustainability in the long run (Roper & Pettit, 2003). Nonetheless, with the aim to obtain a clearer understanding of the concept, the discussion henceforth will evaluate the current project team performance with a live example of Tesco Plc and proceed to discuss its future developmental needs on the grounds of ‘technology’, ‘skills and knowledge of staff’, ‘environment (society, organisational culture, office)’, ‘collaboration with other companies’, ‘outsourcing and sub-contracting’. Current Project Team Performance With more than 96 years of experience in the retail business, Tesco has gained tremendous commendable degree of sustainability over the world’s market. The core purpose of the organisation visualises its business operations to be sufficiently pure and modest, in alignment with the ever-changing market needs. A view to the vision of the company reflects its deep understanding of their purpose to reflect through the society, adapting continuous developmental changes, i.e. “make what matters better, together”. Tesco’s project team is therefore inclined to work on first understanding the customer’s needs, and correspondingly trying to make things better as per customer’s expectations, as well as acting responsibly to their communities. Besides, Tesco’s current project team also aims to maintain high degree of cooperation, building trust and respect for each other, simultaneously providing due significance to sharing knowledge as well as experience within each of the members in the team. While the mentioned aspects constitute the principles of project management teams in Tesco, its responsibilities are divided into three paradigms, which are to reduce waste of foods globally, to improve world health situations continually, and create new opportunities for its stakeholders around the world. In accordance, the project management team in Tesco focuses on the issues that would be more relevant as well as materialistic to its strategy and business. Hence, it would be act as a benchmark for the future years as the company progresses as per the plans. However, the current project management teams of Tesco is often criticised as lacking in developing these plans as its future prospects with help of new technology strategies and cooperation of workers’ skills as well as knowledge when combining their strengths to improve productivity, build strong partnership with their suppliers as well as to improve quality products. The major challenges that the company is currently witnessing is also thus found to be related with its supply chain model, especially when concerning its outsourcing strategies, collaboration with partners and knowledge sharing (Tesco, 2014). Based on this learning, the future developmental plans for the project management team in Tesco have been devised hereunder. Development Plan Identifiable from the account provided above, it becomes apparent that new technology adaptations, cultural paradoxes inhibiting knowledge sharing and above all, change management impose considerable challenges altogether for the future developments of Tesco (The Corporate Executive Board Company, 2009). It is thus that its project management team, in association with its change management team should develop in terms of technology, skills, and knowledge of staff, environment that contain society, organisational culture, collaboration with other companies, out-sourcing and sub-contracting among others, which can be developed following the model illustrated below. Source: (Project Management Institute, 2015) Technology Tesco’s project team management is principally considered as committed to the goal to reduce organisational impacts on the environment including the climate, marine environment, forests, and farmlands as well as other natural systems. To implement the strategy however, project team must adapt to new advanced technologies, which would further require training and skills development of the team members. Improving the degree of energy efficiency in its worldwide stores can be a suitable option to reduce carbon footprints, which would certainly depend on the capacity and abilities of the project management team members. It must be considered in this regard that Tesco operates through a wide network of distribution centres around the world, which might be subjected to huge costs. Nevertheless, with the imposition of new technologies, reducing the leakage problem of refrigerant gases can be improved along with other disturbances those have been affecting organisational efficiencies to deal with environmental challenges lately. The team can also conduct a carbon analyser, which would help identifying the total carbon resumption rate of products. In addition, adaptation of new technologies would also help increasing organisational productivity, saving both time and costs in the long-term (Weele, 2008). Skills and Knowledge of Staffs Staff members are undoubtedly an important facet of a project team, wherein a particular team, in order to be successful, needs to contain different interconnected but independent individual staff members who should work together for shared objectives. It is in this context that although Tesco delivers due significance in sharing of knowledge, the degree to which such sharing is conducted is still lagging. Therefore, staff members are needed to be trained and guided properly throughout its project management channel, comprising talents different core areas, but bestowed with shared responsibilities (Kemp, 2006). All the staffs would need to have perfect combination of skills as well as abilities to achieve collaborative objectives of Tesco, aligning their devised goals with the environment and productivity along with people. Team members must therefore be rational and cooperative towards advance technologies, possessing adequate flexibility to adopt necessary skills and knowledge, understanding company’s collaborations with its partners along with other positive attitudes that would help accomplish Tesco’s goodwill (Rowley, 2005). Environment (Society, Organisational Culture, Office) Environment, in reference to the organisation’s culture, its societal context and office hierarchy is one of the relative facts those have been widely regarded as a key driving force of organisation’s sustainability. Towards society, Tesco must take great responsibilities to employ young enthusiastic people who could fit different qualifications as well as aspirations in alignment with the organisational goals. Besides staffing and recruiting, its project management team must also care towards delivering value to the society that would make the brand increasingly valued within its societal context. This would also help the organisation to implement continuous changes and betterment for future, gaining a degree of bargaining power over its existing and potential customer groups. Tesco’s project management teams must also share the responsibility towards nature as well, as they intend to reduce carbon consumption. In addition, it must be noted that historic performances of Tesco, in terms of organisational culture had faced much criticisms and hence, it is mandatory for the company to ensure effective and transparent governance system (Ouye, 2011). Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that alignment between the company’s internal and external environmental conditions is much required and should be formulated as a priority for the project management team when aiming at long-term sustainability. Collaboration with Other Companies In this competitive market, every organisation practices certain differentiation policies in order to control the bargaining power of its business partners and assure responsible decision-making. It is in this context that being in the retail sector, Tesco has to deal with high bargaining power of its partners often resulting into conflicts and tensions within its supply chain. Hence, its project management teams must emphasise restructuring incentives for its strategic partners that would help in building better collaborative relationship and thereafter, gain sustainability. Besides these, Tesco must also focus on conducting collaborative mergers with other companies that would help it increase its network in a responsible manner. In accordance, the organisation can adopt a partnership approach with variety of organisations, including suppliers as well as local businesses in regional and local levels. In addition, the teams can also work in partnership with various types of social organisations, involving Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) through an increasingly active participation. It is noteworthy in this context that in the recent past, Tesco had to witness failure when operating in the UK, owing to its deficiency to adapt with the changes and cultural diversity within the targeted market. Correspondingly, following the mentioned strategy, Tesco will be able to ensure better collaboration with partners belonging from different cultural and geographic contexts, increasing its degree of productivity to a substantial extent. Such a change will also increase flexibility of the company to change in accordance with the alterations taking place within its external business environment (Tesco, 2014). Out-Sourcing and Sub-Contracting In the current phenomenon, most of the organisations have turned to outsourcing to enhance their competitiveness in a cost and time efficient manner, which certain provides a scope of development for Tesco as well. For Tesco, such a strategic decision would create scope for developmental changes in its business environment, allowing its adaptability to new management concepts, organisational restructuring and benchmarking, which are crucial to retain long-term benefits for the organisation. Out-sourcing for the company can be conducted through partnership as well as through sub-contracting. For Tesco, sub-contracting would be helpful for increasing capacity to meet demands during peak seasons, reduce overtime, reduce number of temporary staff and reduce overhead expenses, contributing altogether to its augmented financial capacity. Besides, out-sourcing will also be helpful for Tesco in increasing its organisational diversity to meet the changing demands and preferences of its customers worldwide having differing perceptions. It should allow Tesco to farm out those products or processes, which tie up valuable employees, also increasing productivity by focusing on the core product, reducing staff members as well as overheads as well as offering cost effective alternatives. Such expansions and inclusions will also help Tesco in performing consistently, distributing its risks throughout its supply chain partners and building a better collaborative environment altogether (Holland, 2010). The above arguments, drawn on the current situations, circumstances and possibilities, indicate a brighter future for Tesco, but subjected to the efficiency of its project management teams to identify its developmental needs and implement changes efficiently. However, with concern to the suggested development plans, it must be noted that rather than the short-term benefits, long-term credentials of the organisation was taken into focus, which can be implemented for consistency as well as sustainability in worldwide market. These changes, if adapted effectively, would improve the technological skills along with knowledge sharing skills of the project management teams and thereby, implement positive changes in the overall organisational culture. It would also help Tesco to overcome competitive challenges of the global retail industry more efficiently (Outsource Solutions, 2006). Conclusions The current scenario of the global retail industry indicates intense competition persistent within the players owing to high degree of customer bargaining power and rising complexities in the managerial considerations resulting from the changes occurring in the external market scenario on a rapid and continuous system. Such alterations in the external market environment redeem on-going evaluation of organisational processes and strategies in order to assure long run sustainability of the companies. The same is also applicable in context of Tesco’s external environment, causing substantial pressures on its internal strategic choices. It is in this context that the performances of its project management teams become crucial to secure a competitive position of the company in its global target market. A similar concern was delivered when conducting the discussion above, which indicated that although presently competitive, the project management teams in the organisation required delivering due consideration to its long term benefits with consideration to the loopholes existing in company operations. Among these loopholes, vitals were the lack of Tesco to build collaborative relations with its partners and take due measures to apply changes in its organisational culture to help it adapt diversity challenges of the current market scenario. Stakeholder involvement, with better facilitation of communication channels is also required to be enhanced for Tesco, in order to ensure its long run sustainability and competencies. Based on these concerns, certain suggestions have been delivered through this discussion, wherein the project management teams are needed to take adequate measures in restructuring the governance system of the organisation. Increasing organisational flexibility will also be vital in this context wherein team members will have to adapt to the changes implemented. Among the few changes noted, adaptation of new technologies, rebuilding organisational culture and diversity paradigms, maintaining collaborations and decision making transparencies have been deemed crucial to ensure long-term competency of the company. It is in this context that high degree of significance is required in order to communicate these goals among the stakeholders of the company that would eradicate the chances of misunderstandings and lack of cooperation amid the members. Notably, these changes will not only help the organisation to better align with its external environmental requirements, but will also deliver long-term cost and competitive benefits that would in turn help it enrich its degree of sustainability. References Baars, W., 2006. Managing a Project. Project Management Handbook, Version 1.1, pp.4-8. Creasey, T., 2007. Formally defining change management and project management. Defining Change Management, pp. 2-6. Cabrey, T. C. & Haughey, A., 2014. 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The Pfeiffer Library, Vol. 20, pp. 1-516. The Saylor Foundation, No Date. Introduction to Project Management. Project Management in a Complex World, pp. 200-350. Weele, A. V., 2008. Outsourcing as a business concept. Purchasing, sub-contracting, sourcing, outsourcing: concepts and definitions, pp.2-34 Read More