Guideline for Case Reflection 4-6 pages long, double spaced, MLA style, APA style is also acceptable (3 points) 1. Case introduction (3 points) Select a case from either the textbook or outside of textbook 2. Case issue analysis (12 points) Find out what issue that this case addressed (2 points) Relate it to which PM process(es) that we discussed in the class (1 point) Point out what solution or PM process technique it applied (1 point) Make your suggestions as further improvement (3 points) Support your suggestions with 1-2 research citations (can be another different case, or textbook, or a source you find on line) as needed (5 points) *If the case is an unsuccessful case, and you need to list another case as comparison when you make suggestions, you may describe the comparison case very briefly. 3. Conclusion (2 points) Wrap up your case analysis Re-address the process or technique that you discussed Individual Case Analysis AMEX International Project Case Introduction: Micheal Thomas works for AMEX Petroleum and is assigned with an international project at Belveros, Budapest. His project goal was to establish business operations in central Hungary with 10 to 14 gas stations. Thomas could purchase existing stations, build new ones or negotiate franchise arrangements with the existing owners. The only weapon Thomas possessed was he could speak Hungarian language and hence was enthusiastic about the project. He seems to have the taste of Hungarian culture through his mother. Case issue analysis: Thomas realizes issues relating to: ● recruiting staff members ● attendance of workers ● Project delays – Office buildings were still under construction. Construction work is delayed due to requirement of city permits from local government. ● lack of motivation in workers ● ● ● high inflation rate in the region low market for cars (one in every five Hungarian families owned a car) Negotiation skills with local Hungarian business owners Communication skills - According to the article of (Rodrigues, 2016), “Great communication depends on clarity and transparency. Talk to the stakeholders or customers to understand their issues and clarify them in order to guarantee project success.” It is rightly said because communication skills play a vital role in understanding the stakeholder problems. Thomas needs to speak to the people about their issues and bring solutions thereof. For example, the staff he recruited might have issues which are unaddressed. Thomas needs to sit on one-to-one meeting with them and try to resolve their issues. He needs to research other companies and find out the salary structure, benefits, and work environment and so on. Improving these conditions will yield good results. Thomas can consider appointing locals based on language for better work results because English may not be first language in every country. Risk Response Control – Using this strategy Thomas can improve the environment where all the stakeholders are at comfort level to raise concerns and admit their mistakes and solve together. Mistakes should not be hidden and problems/issues should be embraced. Everyone needs to identify problems and new risks. Thomas should opt for a positive attitude and which is a key factor for risk management. For example, Thomas can take the assistance of Bela who is a local employee to solve some issues relating to Budapest city. Each employee has to be assigned with a responsibility so that risk will not be ignored. Risk severity matrix – Thomas needs to prioritize the tasks and risks associated thereof. As a project manager he needs to develop plans and chalk out tasks and risks associated with it and find solutions in the long run. Coping with Culture Shock – Understanding the cultural background in a global environment is very crucial. Thomas needs to reorganize the work environment suitable to the locals. This will attract the newly hired employees to retain in the company. He needs to develop a trick and reflect on people where they are coming from? Create a win-win work-place to satisfy both the parties. For example, similar situation is mentioned in Project X wherein the project manager and the team mates adapt to the elements and situations of the locals. They were doing a project a project in Africa but they adopted Eurocentric sense of time and planning which was unsuitable for the locals. Later they altered to the needs of the locals. Legal/Political – Managing international projects requires lot of planning. Project Managers need to understand the laws of the country. The laws favor the local workers, suppliers, and environment. How much influence the local government has on the projects undertaken in their country? Government corruption also plays role in this scenario. For example, in the instant case, there is hindrance in the construction of local office building which requires city permit. Bela, local office employee informs that there may be inordinate delays in this work because of city permit. Thomas needs to develop local contacts to expedite this work. Economic – The economic factors of the concerned country influence the project success. Skills, educational level, and labor supply in the host country also play a role in the project’s success. In this case, Thomas learns from Budapest Business Journal that inflation rate in Budapest is 32 percent and that only one out of five Hungarians possess car. This can impact on the sales of Thomas’s company AMEX in the host country because its main business is cars. To protect from this issue AMEX could tie with a strong currency such as US Dollar or negotiate cost-plus contracts with the local contractors. Negotiation skills – Thomas spoke to Kodali, a local businessman about franchise agreement of a station. Kodali seemed to be concerned about lay-off of the existing employees subsequent to franchise. Kodali wants to retain the existing staff because of factors like loyalty and belonging to same country or culture and so on. But AMEX is concerned about profits and cannot retain unnecessary staff. This may be the cause of concern for Kodali. Leadership skills – empathy & social skills – Project managers need to recognize the feelings of others like verbal and nonverbal clues especially in international projects. In order to sustain relationships with the vendors in cross-cultural environment they need to understand stakeholders’ mind-set. In the instant case, Kodali is an example. Project managers need to move socially to build effective teams like Thomas could develop rapport with the local business organizations to get his business issues resolved. A synopsis of snapshot from practice explained in our textbook of Project Management (Larson,Gray) depicts how to manage and reduce stress coping with the practices of the United States in foreign land. Herein this illustration an American Project Manager contacts his local intermediary contact i.e.,business friend and solves his problem. Hence, such kinds of tactics can be utilized in the present scenario by Thomas. In the successful case of project management of Dawlish( 2014) with the implementation of strategies like frequent meetings, work reviews, collaboration with the local contractors, updation of project progress with the local stakeholders and so on made the project a success. These kinds of strategic management strategies can be adopted in the instant case also. Thomas needs to arrange for frequent meetings with the locals of Budapest and seek their collaboration to solve business issues of the company. In view of the above mentioned strategies and project management techniques and skills, I think Thomas will be successful in establishing franchises on behalf of his company AMEX and also bring profits to his company. He will definitely become a good strategic project manager of the company with a positive attitude work progress. Works Cited Rodrigues, Ramiro. “Great Communication skills.” PMP,Project Management Network 30.3(2016). Print Larson W.Erik, Clifford F.Gray: Project Management, New York: Mc-Graw Hill Education, 2014. Print. Dawlish Sea Wall Emergency Works (2014) retrieved from: https://www.apm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Dawlish%20Emergency%20Works%20-%20Network%20Rail.pdf Marriott Bedding Program Case Introduction Clean bedding and comfortable beds are a very high priority for business travelers. Marriott is one of the leading hospitality companies in the world with more than 2,400 properties in 68 countries and territories. As a management company, Marriott is responsible for daily operations in both company-operated and franchised properties. For this project, Marriot International uses project management to upgrade their bedding worldwide. Firstly, Marriott initiates an action plan in the planning state which is set out to upgrade their bedding across all Marriott brands by changing new down pillows and pillow-top mattresses, soft linens, new sheeted duvet covers for their customers. The Marriott Bedding program involved 21 teams addressing the logistics of 2,400 properties. The program team needed to provide a benefits proposition to stakeholders including owners and franchises showing that this initiative would both improve consumer loyalty and reduce costs. According to the case, their project target is to implement a bedding package for over 628,000 beds across 10 Marriott lodging brans in two years. To ensure that this project was delivered on time and on budget, the project team, composed of Project Management Professional (PMP)-certified project managers managed by a program manager out of Marriott’s Lodging Program Management Office (PMO), conducted extensive market, product development and product and operational testing research to get inside the minds of their customers and affirm that the linens products adhered to their requirements. Challenges The bedding choices became a focal point for the lodging industry. Although Marriott had an existing bedding standard before the Bedding program, the differing ages of a hotel and different brands variation in bedding specification made it difficult to comply with the new standards. For example, in some cases, mattresses were in various heights, especially in limited service hotel. Therefore, some hotels have to purchase new mattresses to comply with the new standards. Other hotels had to order special linens for mattresses. Box springs were different heights off the floor. Therefore, the hotels had to carefully measure bed heights from the floor to the top of the box spring to purchase the right bed skirts of the appropriate length. With so many moving parts and dependencies and 21 internal project teams, the project scope became a clear challenge. Project teams had to work across time zones, languages and a variety of cultures and government regulations to achieve a successful outcome, making effective and efficient communication and coordination a significant challenge. The other biggest challenge is that owners and franchisees are required to comply with Marriott standards, and they would also bear responsibility for the financial investment. If the owners and franchisees are not supportive of the change, the program implementations can be significantly delayed as well as a financial burden. The next challenge would be designing training for more than 143,000 employees worldwide and over 200 direct project associates. Training had to be specific to the bedding packages designed for different brands. They need to make sure the training is delivered to every employee in the hotels including housekeepers and laundry associates had to learn how to switch the new bedding out and maintain the new standard form for each room. Also, hotel management teams needed to be educated about the bedding change and linen ordering process as well. Since most of the bedding Marriott sought was manufactured and distributed from oversea companies, it created a six-month lag time between the time they placed the order and when linens were delivered. Furthermore, the bedding program involved over 1850 different products, which created a big challenge of tracking and distribution. Lastly, the pricing negotiation process was another challenge to Marriott. Because Marriott could not forecast the volume of bedding purchase until the orders placed, at the same time the owners would not commit to buying the bedding without price quotes, it made procurement team harder to negotiate a better price from the vendor. Solution Managing risk was a big process the project went through as well. To bring the project down to size, the team implemented several project management techniques, the most important being communication. Project teams keep the lines of communication open between departments. They used meetings, emails, status reports, memos, conference calls, conferences, and etc to communicate to the global audiences affected by the program. Solid record keeping and documentation also played a large part in keeping the team organized with the numerous elements of the project. In addition, the project had several levels and processes, all depending on project teams and milestones, thus, it was important to ensure that dependencies between project teams and key milestones were identified in a timely manner. In order to solve the issue brought by difference in products sizing and mattress height. Marriott developed sets of survey questions to the individual hotels and converted their answers into a database that helped the procurement Team create a preliminary order and cost estimate for each hotels. Base upon the information, it helped the team in planning, manufacturing and distribution needs. Furthermore, Two core-bedding teams were established to devise a plan to adapt the different brands with each specific bedding. One team is responsible for Marriott’s full service brands and one for the limited service brands. The other teams were also responsible of identifying the new bedding concept for each brand, developing specifications to support the concepts, projecting system wide implementation costs and on-going operating costs, creating training, set the new bedding standards…etc. Another key solution is by testing products in properties. It was an essential to show that the new bedding could be properly implemented in hotels of different sizes. Continually, to overcome the negotiation process that mentioned earlier. Marriott contacted an outside distribution company to receive, repackage and ship the bulk of the bedding to the hotels. This allowed the hotels to receive complete orders. The distributions and procurement teams met with vendors every week to review manufacturing schedules and overseas shipping statues reports and plan how to address shortfalls. Furthermore, to solve the language barriers during the training staff, the project team developed wordless training videos and job aides with photos to demonstrate how the bed should be made. Moreover, to avoid confusion during the ordering process, the project team conducted the property conference calls while they placing the orders and when the linens were shipped. Lastly, Marriott also negotiated with vendors to obtain the best pricing so to encourage the hotel owners and franchisees to participate in the Bedding program. Results In March 2006, the Marriott Bedding Program completed the conversion of the 628,000 beds under budget with the help of the extensive project management team. The $190 million global project would require a professional and experienced project management team. The project also improves in guest satisfaction and revenue improvement. The Marriott market research indicate that because of the increase in guest satisfaction, many customers eventually return to the hotel for another stays, which resulting in higher revenue. Suggestions: Overall the Marriott Bedding program was very successfully implemented. The only thing I would suggest is that due to the massive change during the project, employees might felt highly pressured for learning so many new rules and new standards. They have been follow the same standards for decade and decade, thus, the changes might lead to high turn over rate. To prevent this happen, Marriott should offer extra bonus for employees who participate well in the training class as an encouragement for them to learn the new changes. High turnover rate might cause numerous of disadvantages to the company. According to the case “The Effect of Employee Turnover on Organizations,” Author Ampomah pointed out that organizations which cannot identify the effort of their employees and reward them as such end up in losing them to other organization. This goes a long way to affect the productivity, growth and increases the organization’s cost of recruiting new staff, and the current project might significantly delay. Conclusion As one can see, managing projects across the world consist of many risks and opportunities. It is very important for the company the change the risks into opportunities. Marriot did a great job on solving each problem and turn them into a successful project. Marriot’s bedding program allow them have an competitive advantage and unique selling point over competitors. In addition, it created a more comfortable hotel experience for the customers. By utilizing the project teams work hard to overcome the time zone, languages barrier and government regulation, it helped reduce risk during the project. Reference Ampomah, Philipina. The Effect of Employee Turnover on organizations. Retrieved from Asian Journal of social science and Management studies.
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