Coca-Cola India Campaign Risk Management - Business Plan Example

Define and Manage Projects Rashid Saeed Al Mansoori BSBPMG510A Yan Chen and Jason Yang Date 1. PROJECT PLAN PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS DETAILS Project Objective India has a population of one billion people. The population is characterized by a growing middle class as well as low per capita soft drinks consumption. This made the country a highly contested target in the world carbonated soft drinks market in the early 21st century10 percent of the India’s population resided in large cities or urban areas and drank 10 bottles of soda each year. The remaining 90 percent of the population resided in rural areas, small towns and villages. This vast population had a low annual per capita consumption of soda of less than 4 bottles. Coke and Pepsi were the dominant brands in the market. Their consolidated market share was above 95%. Initially, soft drinks were reserved only as products for the affluent. However, 91 percent of the soft drink sales were made to the upper middle, middle and lower classes by 2003. Between the years 1998 and 2002, the sales of soft drink in India rose to over 10000 million bottles from 5670 million bottles. The expected growth rate per year is at least 10% through 2012. However, despite this growth, the annual consumption of the soft drink per capita was dismally 6 bottles in India compared with 17 bottles in Pakistan, 173 bottles in the Philippines, 73 bottles in Thailand and 800 bottles in the United States. It is the large population as well as the low consumption that makes the rural market in India a sure opportunity for market penetration as well as an important battlefield for market dominance. The objective of the project is therefore, to use Jaipur, one of the rural areas in India in conducting a research and market test for a new drink called Diet Coke, which is said to have less fat. Company Objective The heritage of Coca Cola in India is truly remarkable. It had a humble start in 1886, but has grown through leaps and bounds to be the flagship brand of the no-alcoholic beverages’ greatest marketer, manufacturer and distributor in the world. The Coca Cola reserved the position of being the leading soft drink in India until 1977, when its departure was necessitated by the government policies. In 1993, the Coca-Cola made its comeback to India. Its return was accompanied by significant investments purposed at ensuring that the more and more people could get the soft drink. In this case, the inaccessible and remote parts of India were not spared in the company’s mission to reach the more and more people. After returning to India in 1993, Coca Cola has over the past 10 years captures the nation’s imagination, building strong relations with the thriving music and cinema industry, and the cricket sport. The association between Coca Cola and cricket has been very strong. This has seen the company sponsoring the cricket team in various tournaments and during the World Cup held in 1996 as well as the Coca Cola cup held in Sharjah in the late 1990s. The Coca Cola had used such advertising campaigns as Life ho to Aisi and Jo Chaho Ho Jaye, which had a lot of popularity. These campaigns were so appealing to the youths. The Coca Cola in 2002 launched a campaign dubbed “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola. This campaign sky-rocketed the Coca Cola brand, making it the most favorite drink in India. The low pricing strategy used by Coca Cola, in which Coke could be available across India for just Rs. 5, coupled with improved distribution saw it that all the Coca Cola brands in the portfolio were growing in leaps and bounds. The growth was also partly attributed to the fact that Coca Cola had signed on a number of celebrities, among which are such movie stars as Karishma Kapoor, southern celebrities such as Vijay, such cricketers as Sourav Ganguly and Srinath, and the brand ambassadors like Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan. With this success and performance notwithstanding, it is the aspiration of the Coca Cola Amatil Pty Ltd to maintain its leadership in the market by introducing Diet Coke. Diet coke is a Cola drink that has less fat. In order to achieve this mission, the company needs a research and market testing. This exercise is going to be conducted at Jaipur region. Timeframes The project will involve conducting a baseline survey, which brings together a number of activities on board. First, Jaipur region has to be sampled so that the data collection areas are described. This will involve meeting such stakeholders as the administration officers and leaders of the region so that they can offer the necessary permission, introduction and guidance in the sampling and mapping of the data collection centers. The discussion with the Jaipur region stakeholders and administrators will run for a week. After accomplishing this step, the next step is to design the questionnaire, which is going to be administered to the participants. This will take duration of two weeks. Once the questionnaire has been designed, the data collectors will need to be recruited. These people should be familiar with the region well enough to communicate and familiarize easily with the participants. The recruitment therefore will be done through advertisement, short listing, interviewing and selection of the qualified candidates. Advertisement will take two weeks, short listing will take one week, and interviewing and selection will take a week. Once selection has been done, the qualified candidates are subjected to one week training. After getting enough guidance of what they are expected to do in the field, the candidates are dispatched to the different sampled areas for one week for data collection. As the enumerators and focus group discussions collect data, they submit the results each day to the data entry clerks stationed at the central office. Once the data collection is complete, the data entry clerks, enumerators and focus group discussions are released. Statistical analysts are called upon to do the data analysis. This takes one week. The findings are then presented to the Coca Cola Amatil Pty Ltd. Quality Standards In the course of the project, there are a number of expectations from the participants. Each participant will expect quality services and attention from the project managers. Therefore, among the quality standards that will be expected from the project managers by the data collectors will be excellent training, catering and accommodation services. The quality standards expected from the data collectors will be accurate and credible data. From the data analysts, the quality standards will be seen in terms of accuracy in data analysis and drawing of conclusion. Resources needed In order to conduct the research and the market test, there are different resources that will be needed to facilitate the whole project. These resources will be grouped into two classes-the human resource and the capital resource. Among the human resource will be the project manager, statistical consultants, and data collectors. On the other hand, the capital resources will include transport vehicles, catering facilities, accommodation facilities, training facilities and data collection materials. 2. RESPONSIBILITIES Clients/Customers Employees/ Teams Responsibilities Alignment with project outcomes Project manager Lead researcher Overseeing the processes of data collection and data analysis Draw the report that will be presented to the Coca Cola Amatil Pty Ltd. Lead Researcher Training facilitators Administer training on administration of a questionnaire as well as on data collection methods to the data collectors. Oversee the data collection process Ensure that accurate data that is relevant to the project objectives is collected. Training facilitators Enumerators Focus Group Discussion facilitators Data Entry Clerks Administer the questionnaire used for collecting data in the field. Record the findings in the field. Organize and coordinate focus group discussions with the community. Record the data from the focus group discussions Feed the collected data into programs for analyzing the data They obtain the data, which is needed for drawing the report for the Coca Cola Amatil Pty Ltd. 3. BUDGET ESTIMATION AND APPROVAL RESOURCES DESCRIPTIONS/DETAILS BUDGET ($) QUOTE1 ($) QUOTE 2 ($) Human Resources 1. Enumerators (20) 2. Focus Group Discussion facilitators (6) 3. Data Entry Clerks (4) 4. Lead researcher 5. Training Facilitators (4) 6. Drivers (2) 7. Catering services 8. Accommodation services 7000 2940 1960 9450 12600 1890 5860 5860 25 per day 35 per day 35 per day 150 per day 50 per day 15 per day 420 per day 420 per day 20 per day 30 per day 30 per day 145 per day 45 per day 10 per day 415 per day 425 per day Capital Resources 1. Travel 2. Training materials 3. Data collection material 4. Contingencies 5. Administration costs 630 210 210 210 1260 10 per day 5 per person 5 per person 5 per person 20 per day 5 per day 4 per day 4 per day 4 per day 15 per day 4. BUDGET MONITORING Upon the establishment of the project budget, it is upon the project manager to ensure that the established budget is well controlled and monitored so as to meet the project’s financial performance goals. As far as this monitoring is concerned, a number of things have to be done. First is the monitoring of the work done. If the work assigned for each day is not monitored, it may not be finished, creating unnecessary expenses for the next day. The second thing is that of seeking additional funds for extra work. In case there will be need to do an extra work to ensure the achievement of objectives, then the project manager will have to seek additional funds. Otherwise, other areas may fail being implemented since the extra work may end up using the money assigned elsewhere. Before undertaking an extra work, an authorization has to be sought so that the sponsors or clients can be ready to pay for it. The preliminary invoices also need to be reviewed immediately. This will ensure that everything is in order before the start of the project. Before submitting the invoices to the clients, all invoices need to be reviewed. The needed information has to be given to the project accountant for invoicing purpose. This will ensure that the project has what it needs to progress well. In addition, the invoices for other expenses as well as sub-consultant invoices need to be reviewed before the clients being invoiced promptly. Last, the time sheets have to be reviewed weekly to ensure that work is being finished in the scheduled time. In order to overcome budget problems, a number of things have to be done. Among these is the examination of the figures. In this case, all the expenses and charges of time have to be checked. Next, it is important to check to see that everything being done is needed in the scope of the project. If something being done is not needed, the work should be stopped. If something is not being done, then added client funding should be obtained. Examination of each task is also vital in ensuring that the activities needing judgment are left only to experienced persons while the activities that merely need persistence are left to junior people. The work overtime and schedule need to be shortened. This is to minimize coordination costs by reducing the number of people handling the project. This also reduces overhead costs since overtime hours carry no much burden than regular hours. It is also important to renegotiate consultant contracts. For instance, in a situation whereby the total budget has a problem, sub-consultants could be the cause of the trouble. In such a case, renegotiating their contracts is justified. Last, if everything else is failing, the project manager should not hesitate asking the client for a fee or budget increase. 5. REPORTING REQUIREMENT In this project, since it will take nine weeks to be completed, one of the reporting requirements is an unanticipated problem. These problems should be reported irrespective of whether they happen during the research, after the research completion, or after the participant completion or withdrawal. The unanticipated problems in this case, involve situations in which the human subjects 1. Find unexpected informed consent document or unexpected characteristics of participants or subject population being studied. 2. Are possibly related to involvement in the research. 3. Think that the research is placing greater risk of harm (social, economic, psychological, or physical harm) than was previously anticipated. The other problems that constitute the unanticipated problems placing the subjects at risk include death, breach of data confidentiality, including stolen or lost study data, looming threat of a reportable incident yet to happen. 6. RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN Process The risk management plan starts with the project sponsors, project team and project manager ensuring active identification, analysis and, management of risks throughout the project’s life. Early identification reduces the impact of the risks. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Role Responsibilities Project manager or Risk Manager The project manager is an Integrated Project Team (IPT) member. His or her duty is to determine the uniqueness of a risk, identify interdependencies of risks across projects, verify whether the risk is external or internal to project, assign tracking number and risk classification and monitor the potential risks of the project. Integrated Project Team Its role is to identify the risks, the risk dependencies within the project, the consequence and context of the risk, the priority, timing and impact of the risk and formulate the risk statements. Risk Owner(s) For determination of the risks that require contingency and mitigation plans, generation of risk contingency and mitigation strategies and performance of the proposed strategies’ cost benefit analysis. They also control, monitor and update the risk’s status throughout the lifecycle of the project. Risk Identification In Jaipur region, the risk identification was accomplished by the coming together of the appropriate stakeholders and project team. Consequently, the groups took a considerable amount of time and ended up identifying the risks that were likely to affect the performance of the project. In this case, one of the risks was that the project implementers or enforcers were likely to encounter the risk related to occupational health. This is because the central place for coordinating the project could have a different climate with that of the different implementers’ residence. This change in climate could lead to some health issues. The next risk likely to occur is the safety plan. This risk will come from the community from which the data is collected. In this case, the respondents might be harsh and violent so that they attack the data collectors. The wild animals like snakes could also pose a risk since the data collectors will have to travel sometimes on foot to reach some homesteads. The risk of data loss may also be experienced. This will happen when the data collectors are careless to record and keep the data safely. Loss of data collection equipment may also be another risk likely to occur in this project but if they occur, their impact is high. Methods for Risk Identification The above groups accomplished the identification of the risks using a number of things. Among the things were diagramming, SWOT analysis, interviewing and brainstorming. Risk Analysis After identifying the risk, it is important to analyze them. This analysis will be done using both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis methods. This is a risk management plan meant to identify the range of likely project outcomes. The level of performance will be used in prioritizing the risks. Qualitative Risk Analysis This involves the assessment of the impact and probability of occurrence for each of the identified risk. This work will be done by the project manager, with the support from the project team. The following approach will be used: Probability High –probability of occurrence greater than 70% Medium –probability of occurrence between 30% and 70%. Low – probability of occurrence less than 30%. Impact High – means that the risk is likely to greatly impact project performance, project schedule and cost. Medium – means that the risk is likely to slightly impact project performance, project schedule and cost Low – the impact of the risk on performance, schedule and cost is relatively little. The risk response plan for the Risks falling within the YELLOW and RED zones will include both a risk contingency plan and a risk response strategy. In our case therefore, the probability of occupation health hazards and safety of participants fall within the medium and high level while the probability of the loss of data and data collection equipment fall within the medium and low levels. In terms of the impact, all the identified risks have a high impact. Quantitative Risk Analysis After being prioritized by use of qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis is used to analyze the risk events. This way, it is possible to estimate their impact on project activities. The quantitative analysis assigns each risk a numerical rating. In terms of a numerical rating that ranges from 0 to 10, the possibility of occupational health hazards and safety issues risks are going to fall between 7 and 10 while the loss of data equipment and loss of data risks are going to fall below 5. Risk Response Planning A risk owner will be responsible for each major risk. This person will monitor and control the risk so that it does not get out of control. The approaches for addressing the major risks include Avoidance – Elimination of the condition or the threat. Mitigation – Identify ways of reducing the impact or probability of the risk Acceptance– Doing nothing Contingency –Defining responsive actions For the mitigation of each risk, the project team comes up with ways of preventing the occurrence of risk or reducing the probability or occurrence of risk. This action calls for addition of resources and tasks to the particular project schedule. In the case of this project, mitigation was widely adopted in responding to each of the risks. Risk Monitoring, Controlling, and Reporting In this case, a risk owner will be given a duty of tracking, monitoring, controlling and reporting the level of risk throughout the lifecycle of the project. They will report to the risk management team and project manager the status of the risk as well as the potential of each risk response action. The project manager will maintain a top ten risk list and report it as part of the reporting process of the project status. The work of the risk manager is to modify, reevaluate, and review the impact and probability of each risk item in the time frame every two weeks. The other work is that of analyzing the newly identified risks and adding them to the risk list, monitoring and controlling the identified risks, reviewing and updating the top 10 risks, listing and escalating problems or issues to management, for instance the rise in overall level of risk. On the other hand, the work of the risk owner will include developing risk response, risk trigger and carrying out the implementation of risk response in case of an occurrence of a risk event, participating in modification, re-evaluation and review of impact and probability of each risk per week, identifying and participating in analysis of newly occurring risks, and escalating problems and issues to project manager. Risk Contingency Budgeting The establishment of a risk contingency budget is important for preparing in advance for the eventuality that the management of some risks may not be successful. The risk contingency budget will have finance that can be used so that the project does not exceed over budget. This budget will finance the activities of planning, managing, controlling, tracking, analyzing and identifying risks. Closing the Risk When the identified risk events are no longer valid, have occurred, are no longer seen as risks, they can be closed. The project manager’s direction can also ensure the closure of the risk. Lessons Learned From the risk management plan process, a number of lessons were learnt. First, the risk management plan process made it clear that if the risk contingency budgeting is not done, the whole project can run over budget, leading to the failure of some objectives. In addition, the identification of risks before they are experienced is important since it helps in making the necessary preparation to combat or face them in advance. 7. RESOURCES Strategic Research Company limited played a big role in ensuring the success of this project. This company provided all the consultancy services regarding the data collection process, designing of questionnaire and the data analysis. The second organization which played a critical role is the Thesalia Resort. This resort provided us with not only the catering facilities but also the accommodation facilities. Their services were of high quality and had pocket friendly prices. Read More