Implementation For Strategic Managers

Analysis of the factors that contribute to the process of new product launch project

As per the given case study, Unilever is a client of Nexus and wants to launch its new perfume in UK market. So, Unilever approach nexus to manage its new product launch project. As per the time of selection of any new product for this project Unilever needs to focus on different factors which are described as follows:

Financial Factor: Under this factor, the Unilever looks after various financial aspects which includes profitability, payback period, internal rate of return, etc. Company determines whether it is in condition to launch this project or not. Along with all these factors, it looks after the total money needed to spend for the launch of that product with its marketing and promotion.

Personnel Factor: This factor includes requirements of training and development programs, skills, abilities and knowledge for completing this project of Unilever. Along with this client develops an appropriate plan for allocation of resources, roles and responsibilities in effective manner.

Marketing Factor: While formation of any new product, Unilever focuses on its marketing factors also to determine its need, innovativeness, competition, substitutes, etc. Through this factor, company try to know product life cycle, impact of new product on customers, market structure, size of market, etc. These all things helps organisation in effective and proper product formation (Tran and et.al, 2013).

Technical Factors: It is also one of the important factor for selection of project and analysis has reflected that Unilever identifies the required technology for producing perfume. Along with this, organization also focuses on different type of techniques, machines, software, applications including their installation cost for this new perfume (Johnson, 2015).

Project specifications for new launch of Perfume for Unilever

Specification of the new perfume launch project of Unilever is described as under:

Introduction: The current project is based on the new product launch project of client of Nexus ltd. Regarding this, it has chosen Unilever as a client of Nexus which wants to introduce its new perfume in the market. So, Nexus Ltd will help in completing this project in effective manner. Project will comprise planning, implementation, analysis, evaluation and review of findings of the new product launch project of Unilever by Nexus.

Objective: To launch new perfume of Unilever in UK market is one of the major objective of this project of Nexus.

Cost: New product launch project will be connected with various types of cost which are required to manage at the time of launching. These costs include labour cost, training and development cost, technological cost, marketing cost, etc. The estimated cost of this project will be $120000[A project managers salaries is minimum £45,000  
Thus your cost should be minimum £500,000].

Time-scales: The time required by project for completion is 5 months.

Resources: Nexus Ltd will require different resources for launching new perfume of Unilever in London. This include human resources, financial resources and technological resources (Schwalbe, 2013).

Ethical motive: It is important for company to focus on health and safety of workers at the time of product formation. They also need to train them as the requirement of product and to improve their skills and knowledge.

Quality: Quality plays important role in product launching. The quality of the product should be properly measured by the company by using various quality techniques such as six sigma, Lean methodology, total quality management, etc (Chengand Teizer,  2013).

Specification for new perfume launch project of Unilever

The reason behind the suggestion of Management Consultant is formation of such product which helps company in effective storage of data and improves the performance. The objective of this product is to expand its product line and business in UK market. This product will help in diversify its business in different product line. It provides an opportunity to improve financial, and economical position of the organization. Along with this, this product helps in attaining objectives of Unilever in proper manner. For formulation of this product, major human resources will include project manager, Marketing Manager, Technical staff, Admin officer and Contract officer. In which, project manager will be responsible for developing appropriate budget and to follow product life cycle (PLC) for introduction, growth, and development of the product. This PLC will help in allocation of resources and money by effective time management which reduces the total cost of project. Manager needs to allocate every task as per the field and expertise of workers (Kerzner, 2013). By deciding schedules according to the time-scale of project for each task, organization needs to develop a project plan for new product launch. Project manager needs to decide the technologies required for product formation and launching which also reduce the time and cost. Marketing manager is accountable for advertising and promotion for the launch of new product in the London market. Along with this, manager of marketing department needs to take decisions for hiring of new employees and training regarding this project. Health and safety of employees is also prime responsibility of manager which he needs to follow (Davenport, 2013[(ALL this needs to be specific rather than theoretical, e.g you need to name all specifications with how and who will be responsible to deliver and by when?

Technical staff will be responsible for managing all activities related to technology. It will help in improving the production and operation of the company. Admin officer will have a responsibility of maintaining all records and document of entire project of new product launch of Unilever. Further, Contract officer will be accountable for completing each and nevery task on time for completing the contract of project on specific and given deadlines.

Complete plan for the launch of new perfume

Project plan leads to proper planning of activities with their time of completion. The activities required for launching of new perfume of Unilever are explained below with their time period in months.

Workforce Planning

It is a continuous process which needs to manage the organisational work by effective allocation of task to employees. It is one of the essential task which helps in effective achievement of objectives. The persons required for launching of new perfume are project manager, marketing manager, technical staff, and admin and contract officer. The roles and responsibilities allotted to these members helps in proper development and implementation of launching of new perfume.

Contingency factors

Contingency is a negative economic event which can be occur during product development or implementation. These factors includes strategic, tactical, operational and contingency factors which influence company's strategies regarding product formation. By analysing these factors, manager plans alternatives to handle any risk or problem. By studying these factors, manager achieve their responsibility of organisational design which includes strategy, environment, size, age and technology. These factors prevents from wastage of time, money and resources and leads to achievement of objectives in proper manner (Borghoff and Pareschi, 2013).

Technological Resources

For developing a plan of lunching of new perfume for Unilever, the different kinds of technology resources are require. The name of the important resources are computers, hardware and software, machines etc. With the help of the new software, the lunching plan of new perfume will be effectively form. By creating the pages on the social media and other sources, the launching will be done in appropriate manner.

Financial Resources

For developing of new perfume, Nexus Ltd needs to invest money and for this it needs to take loan from bank, credit from market, sponsorship, etc. Financial manager have to decide the budget according to the activities takes place during product formulation. This budget helps in proper allocation of resources with their total costing. By analysing each and every cost, company can able to take decision that whether it is capable to develop the planned product or not.

Appropriate strategy for the implementation of launching of new perfume

The strategies used for implementation of the product are explained below.

Prepare the infrastructure: For implementation of launching of new perfume plan, it is necessary that the infrastructure of the department such as marketing should be at place. It includes proper review of hardware, software, other devices, etc. It is important that infrastructure should be according to the requirement of the project.

Coordinate with the organisations involved in implementation: All the departments of IT company need  to coordinate with each other at the time of implementation of launching of new perfume plan. There should be proper communication among them time to time to make the implementation process a success (Mochal, 2003).

Conduct training: The system require training for employees so that they can handle it easily and use it accordingly. Nexus Ltd needs to plan the training just after the implementation of launching of new perfume plan so that employees can learn it and get information related to it and can use it as soon as possible. Training should be in proper manner which includes appropriate training methods and approaches with active participation of employees.

Implement launching of new perfume plan: In this, the project is implemented for testing by Nexus Ltd. As project is new for the company so it will be finished in a thoughtful manner. It should contain all the components related to the working and operations of the company such as hardware, databases, program code, etc (Nexus. 2015).

Convert the data: After implement the plan, the different information has collected from the market research and convert that data into the valuable information. With the help of this, the modifications in the existing plan can be made and make it more effective.

Final Verification: The final plan of launching of new perfume has tested for final results to know whether it is working properly or not. It consists of checking to make sure that everything is right and operating in the manner it was expected by Unilever. Outcomes shows that the project is appropriate as per the expectations or not.

Implement new processes and procedures: In this, Nexus implement changes in the launching of new perfume plan according to determine the lacking areas which has been found during verification of plan. These changes are implemented for improving the performance of the system and at the time when launching of new perfume plan has deployed.

Monitor the system: Nexus Ltd, monitor the launching of new perfume plan time to time and ensure that it has meet the objectives of Unilever. If the plan has not worked in proper manner or customer shows less interest than the new changes can be done.

Appropriate measures to monitor and evaluate the progress of new product launch project and its outcomes

As per the Management Consultant, Monitoring and evaluation of new product launch project will take the following process:

Monitoring and Evaluation during the project implementation

This process is takes place before implementation of new product launch project which consists of two project cycle phase Project preparation and Project Implementation. The tools required for monitoring and evaluating the progress of project preparation phase are economic, financial and institutional analysis; baselines; Logical framework; Monitoring and evaluating plans. The results and process are documented for future use in the form of logical framework and project proposal application. The results obtained in the end during this phases are related to the design of system, transparency and active participation of employees. Similarly, Project Implementation is monitored and evaluated by tools such as supervision events, performance reviews and implementation plans. Monitoring and evaluating reports, implementation schedules and financial progress report are documented with the outcome obtained with respect to the execution, performance and participation (Process of Monitoring and Evaluation. 2015).

Monitoring and Evaluation after the project implementation

In this process, monitoring and evaluation is done by project team and manager after the implementation of new perfume launch project. This consists of the last phase of product life cycle i.e. project completion and project is executed after this stage for testing purpose. The tools required for measuring the evaluation are ex-post evaluation and impact assessment. The final report after completion is obtained and documented for future use and to compare the previous performance with the performance after introducing new product for UK customers. It also contain the information related to any improvement in project designs, policies, strategies and portfolios. The changes are implemented in the project after proper testing by testing team to improve the performance and quality (Sabale and Dani, 2012).

Monitor the implementation of new product launch project

For better results and expected outcomes it is essential to monitor the implementation and execution of new product launch project. Project manager can use various methods and techniques to monitor the progress of the implemented system. These methods and techniques includes Gantt Chart, Work Breakdown structure and Variance Analysis which are explained below in respect to the new perfume project.

Gantt Chart

By using this technique, project manager and quality manager can monitor and control the activities takes place during project implementation. They can analyse whether the activities are completing on their decided time or not with the expected results. These all reflects the performance and quality of the system as per the working environment. These helps in identifying the loopholes and changes in the system so that project manager can apply them to improve quality and performance of new product launch project (Reed and Knight, 2013).

Work breakdown structure

Project Manager can use this technique to divide the activities into the sub activities. This structure breaks the project into phases, deliverables and work packages for proper management and monitoring of all the activities. The activities of new product launch project divides into the sub activities which helps in completion of each task on the decided time with the appropriate outcome (Kerzner, 2013).

Analyse outcomes of a project in terms of the original project (Launching of new perfume) specifications

The outcome of the project represents the effectiveness and performance of the it. Project manager has measures the outcomes by using various techniques. From the proper interpretation, it has bee found that the actual outcomes are differ from the expected outcomes in a positive manner. The time estimated for launching of new perfume plan was about 5 months but as per the interpretation it has been found that, project is completing in 3 months (i.e. 92 days) which is good for the company's growth. After proper research and analysis, it has been found that the reason behind this success is the cooperative and coordinative work of skilled and talented employees along with effective time management and proper communication among them. The resources allocated by them are also in right way which prevents wastage of resources and money. On the other hand, the estimated budget by Management Consultant was $120000 and the project completed in $100800 which shows the proper allocation of resources by using effectual strategies and methods. Nexus Ltd uses, activity based costing method which helps in completing the launching of new perfume project under the estimated cost. By using this method, company was able to identify the actual cost of the activities related to the project according to their actual consumption (Davenport, 2013). This process reduce the cost of resources and utilize them in appropriate way. Management Consultant along with the project manager needs to design budget according to the activities of the project so that they can control the extra expenditure and use the resources in right way.

Evaluation of the outcomes of a project to launch of launchinReferencesg of new perfume

After the implementation and execution of the project, outcomes are evaluated by the Management Consultant of Nexus. He evaluates the outcomes by the help of project manager and quality manager in different fields. By the evaluation, it has been found that the launching of new perfume is finished within the decided time and estimated cost. From this, it has been seen that employees work very hard with proper team management. Each and every employee and manager accomplish their objectives in an effective and efficient way. The implementation of launching of new perfume plan, improves the lunching strategies of new perfume of Unilever (Schwalbe, 2013). With the help of this, Unilever has able to marketing of new product in more effective manner and create the awareness in the people about the uniqueness of product. It has also increase the market share of the company as compare to its competitors. It can be easy to launch a new product into the market and gaining the more and more attention of the customers.

Report of all project procedures used throughout the project of  launching of new perfume

The present research is based on the development and implementation of launching of new perfume of Unilever which has done by Nexus Ltd. The reason behind selecting this project is to improving the lunching and marketing of new products in existing and new markets in more effective way. This leads to proper management of the working and operations of marketing and divertissement of new perfume of Unilever. With the time, techniques are changing and it is important to work according to the time and market for achieving success and growth. This project helps companies to reduce probability of failure of new product into a market and improve the launching phase by allocating resources at their appropriate place. For the development and implementation of the project, Management Consultant uses various methods and techniques such as Gantt Chart, Variance Analysis, PERT, CPM and many more. He also monitor and evaluate the project before implementation and after implementation by using various tools such a logical framework and record all the activities for future use. The project estimated cost and planned time period helps in achieving the expected outcomes in accurate manner. Proper analysis of business, market, customer, competitors,etc leads to formation of this project which after the outcomes approved as the right decision. Time to time monitoring and testing leads to improve the system performance by removing errors and loopholes which results to the effective project which develops within 5 months and with the cost of $110080.

Conclusion

From the above study it has been found that combination of project management and strategic management leads to develop and implement project in accurate and effective manner. The Nexus Ltd has worked for Unilever to lunch of new perfume in existing market. There are various factors such as cost, time, quality, etc that plays important role during the development of the project. Development of project is only possible when it includes suitable and accurate strategies for accomplishing various activities in planned time-scale. Human resources, financial resources and technical resources plays important role for developing launching of new perfume plan. There were many problems occurred during the implementation of the project but was improved by applying appropriate changes and leads to improve the performance in present and for future also. After proper monitoring and evaluation, it has been found that project is developed within the decided time and under the estimated cost.

References

• Tran, S.T. and et.al., 2013. Introduction to information technology. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, MA, US: Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference: June.
• Schwalbe, K., 2013. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
• Cheng, T. and Teizer, J., 2013. Real-time resource location data collection and visualization technology for construction safety and activity monitoring applications. Automation in Construction. 34. pp.3-15.
• Davenport, T.H., 2013. Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press.
• Wright, G.P. and Adviser-Gottwald, W.D., 2013. Success rates by software development methodology in information technology project management: a quantitative analysis.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit