Project Management of Coca Cola Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: Project Management Student name: Name of Institution: Course Code: Name of Supervisor: Date of Submission: Introduction Project Management is one of the most crucial aspects of an organization and is becoming increasingly becoming a crucial part of an organization’s strategic management because of the increase in the need for organizations to respond to changes in a dynamic business environment and cope with stiff competition as argued by Lockyer (2005). This need arises mainly because most organizations are successful through deployment of well-managed projects that enable organizations to cope easily competition and attainment of organizational goals and objectives that help organizations gain competitive advantage against competitors. Apparently, this idea calls for organizations to develop an efficient Project Management plan that not only is efficient in its dimension but also mainly effective in comprising the project to ensure successful accomplishment of the project’s goals and objectives (Lewis, 2006). For any organizational projects to run smoothly and successful, it is important for organizational management to develop proper plans and strategies and executive the strategy throughout the project life cycle. Recent research indicates that proper management of business projects is an integral part of business success in the world today and has emerged to be one of the most popular topics for research (David & Ronald, 2007). This particular essay will analyze the essential elements of project management and critically evaluates some examples of failed and successful projects in order to develop some profound understanding through the theory of project management. Company Overview Coca Cola Company is a retailer, manufacturer, and distributor of beverages that are nonalcoholic in content. The company is well known worldwide through its renowned Coke brand. Having been established as an independent company in 1889, the company has so far entered into joint mergers and business collaborations with more than 300 bottling companies spread across the world. The company also has over 139,600 staff worldwide. The company’s popular brand of Coca Cola stands as one of the best brands in the soft drink industry across the globe (Coca Cola Company, 2006-2011). Coca Cola, just like any other transnational organization, must adopt proper implementation of strategic product development and its marketing to meet consumer expectations and to cope with changes and competition of the external environment. In this study, analyze the strategies for project management in light to product development of the Coca Cola Corporation (Coca Cola Corporation, 2006). The boundary of the product development project is to ensure that the resultant product meets the market demands. Current Approach of Project Management In its product development process, the Coca Cola Corporation takes into consideration a strategy referred to as a stage-gate model. Stage refers to the process of work itself while gate in the decision-making process of the project. Every stage in the process of implementing a project is vital for its success while at the same time the gate closes and opens occasionally to allow room for decisions and assessments (Bob, 2006). The stages of project management also involve some crucial quality control points. By large extend, the gate-stage model presents an organization with the options of returning back to a previous stage for improvement, termination of a stage in the event where gate keepers fail in decision-making, suspending the project, and finally proceeding in the event where the gatekeepers makes positive decision. This model of stage-gate has some key elements that include the idea and considering market trends and technology, brand alternatives, assessing risk analysis, and considering brand alternatives. The company also utilizes this model since it allows room for quantitative consumer test and analyzing competitive advantages. The next level adopted by the corporation would then be implementing strategy and preparations for launch that include price determination and commercial launching. Finally, the model presents space for marketing activities that include analysis of market supply, quality assurance, sales promotion, advertising, and developing distribution plans. How the Organization Manages Projects The Coca Cola Corporation has a systematic method of managing its projects to ensure successful planning, execution, and implementation of every stage involved in the project management. In essence, the key elements in project management of Coca Cola are scoping, building a case, development, preparation, and marketing activities. The scoping stage entails the initial idea of the project that involves consideration of the current market competition, and consumer preferences (Harold, 2003). This stage is crucial, as it also looks into the available resources necessary for successful completion of the project. The next step of business case involves carrying out a feasibility study to give an insight of risk analysis, brand alternatives, and developing good communication strategy among the stakeholders. Another very crucial stage is the development stage that involves the survey of consumer use and perception of the project and testing of the product by consumers. The preparation for launch stage is the second last and very crucial stage in coca cola’s project management plan. This stage comprises activities such as assessing the supply chain capacity, pricing, and communication to consumers through advertisement. Finally, marketing activities for the developed product is the final stage that includes developing marketing and supply strategies and quality assurance. Set the Project Goals and Project Scope The Coca Cola Corporation takes a first step to carry out an actual market surveys that take into consideration the use of consumer questionnaires with the aim of gathering the preferences of a select population to help the company acquire the knowledge of customer needs. The survey is also aimed at analyzing the new product’s preferred components in terms of brand name, packaging requirements, and other issues like prices (Bjarne, 2007). This will then help the company in determining the direction of the preferred project. The requirements of the preferred product are then based on the analysis results and thereafter integrated through form, health value, and universal principles of product design. Ultimately, the product is expected to offer its target consumers with compliance to the needs of health juices and expected market demands. However, Coca Cola Corporation and its project management team ensure that any given project must meet specific objectives on SMART principles that include Specificity, which is Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Therefore, Coca Cola Corporation ensures that any of its projects meets the following five points (Coca Cola, 2007): 1. Create a breakthrough-type new product design criteria. 2. Developed product meets over 50% purchase needs of its target market. 3. That before developing the product, enough research must have been attained to ensure risk management is taken care of 4. Study budget is attainable 5. Progress and cost control is a prerequisite for any new project to ensure smooth running of the project as planned Work Breakdown Structure Work Breakdown Structurerefers to the most crucial and functional elements of a data set from research conducted in a systematic manner. The function of such research in product development as adopted in project development is to break down areas within the market segments (Bjarne, 2007). The results of such research are then useful when packaged and assigned specific individuals to make task of management planning and resource estimation and allocation. Work breakdown structure, in accordance with Coca Cola is useful in addressing the most necessary needs and areas of concern in developing new product in the market. It is also useful in determining market structures since it breaks down the areas of research that need unique. Strength and weaknesses of the Strategies The stage-gate approach has various strengths that make a viable model for project management. Firstly, the model offers a highly organized innovation that can improve an organization’s competitive advantage, accelerate the process of product development with its ability to shorten product life cycles, and its ability to increase the success of a new product in the market. Additionally, stage-gate model has the ability to prevent poor projects while still at early stages and thus offering room for making better decisions. Stage-gate model will also offer room for the ability of combination with other metrics of project management (Lewis, 2006). Finally, another major strength of the model is its ability to work well in an integrated market.However, there are some limitations to the stage-gate model of project management that include being sequential and most project management experts argue that product development activities should actually be run in a parallel manner with the aid of loops. Finally, another noted weakness of the model is its inability to deal with discovery process. Process for Selecting Managers Coca Cola appreciates that project managers should be among the best within its organization. This because project managers have a difficult job of dealing with people of different diversity and people who are also managers elsewhere within the organization. Therefore, the corporation selects its managers from the onset of the project and ensures that the individual selected must be agreed upon by top management as competent and having a detailed cross-functional knowledge of the organizational strategy (Albert, 2004). For its technical projects, the corporation ensures that the project leaders selected are technical experts who can carry out the project with a lot of ease. Finally, the organization ensures that the selected project manager has a great ability of solving problems as they emerge. Case Study For the purpose of this paper, it is important to look into a real life project within the Coca Cola Corporation. On realization that the consumption of coffee around the globe is increasing among consumers both at homes and outside homes, Coca Cola decided to enter the market. To successfully implement this project, the company carried out a survey of all the competing market products in both the past and the present. The company then tried to position its product through a strategic mapping of similar products (Cornelius, 2008). After mapping both in local and international markets, the company identified a niche on the global market and thus decided to enter a joint agreement with Illy coffee producer company of Italy. After the partnership, the real product for development was Illy ready-to-drink coffee that was used without any milk or preservatives. Before preparing for launch, the two companies created a legal entity to bind the partnership. Thereafter Illycaffe was to set up the manufacture of coffee extracts, carry out quality audits of ingredients, and the product testing. Thereafter, the company would develop the packaging of the product and ensure successful sourcing of the ingredients. Finally, the marketing of the product ensured exposure to the market, greater focus on retail outlets, and promotion through advertisements and parallel home use promotion in various chain stores and supermarkets (Cornelius, 2008). Recommendations Project management is a crucial task for any organization to achieve success. Therefore, the way with which most organizations manage their projects is crucial and need a clear understanding of the project and integrating it with the organizational strategy and goals. It is therefore crucial to recommend that any organization should be keen in selecting competent project managers that can develop the appropriate models to run out the project (Albert, 2004). Project Plan and Costs The project plan was carried out through research on the topic to understand theory and practice. The classroom knowledge was also useful as it set base for knowledge in the project. However, the cost of the project was only limited to time. There was no serious financial cost since the school online library was available freely. Furthermore, research engines were useful for research. Reflection Carrying out this research was quite educating in terms of enabling internalization of theory of project management as applied in organizations. The stage-gate model for instance is a type of model that is widely used in projects of product development. The theory and stages involved in this model are useful in understanding the right procedure of developing new products within organizations. Conclusion From the foregoing argument, it is evident that project management is an important part of every organization to ensure that their projects run in a manner that ensures easy realization of objectives (Harrison & Dennis, 2004). It is also evident that the need for strong leadership is important for the success of any project since changes in project management are more rampant and fast as compared to the common organizational scenario. The success of the Coca Cola Company product development project was based on effective project management that entailed various strategies such as planning, motivation, appropriate allocation and management of resources, and performance appraisal. These strategies were instrumental in delivering the objectives of the project and ensuring that such objectives were in line with the general company’s vision. Hence, it is recommended that all projects of an organization should incorporate various strategies aimed at ensuring successful transition from one stage to another throughout the project cycle. Reference List Albert, H 2004, Handbook of Project Management Procedures. TTL Publishing, Ltd Coca Cola, 2006-2011. Coca Cola Journey. Viewed 29th April 2013 from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/ Cornelius, K 2008, Fundamentals of Global Strategy: A Business Model Approach, London, Business Expert Press. Bjarne, K 2007, Project Management –Theory and practice. Nyt Teknisk Forlag. Bob, B 2006, Rethinking the Stage Gate process: a reply to the critics, London, Springer. David, I & Roland, G 2006, Global Project Management Handbook, New York, McGraw-Hill. Harrison, F & Dennis, L 2004, Advanced project management: a structured approach, New York, Gower Publishing Ltd. Harold, K 2003, Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (8th Ed. ed.), London, Wiley. K. G. Lockyer, 2005, Project management and project network techniques, UK: Prentice Hall Financial Times. Lewis, R 2006, Project Management, London, McGraw-Hill Professional. Read More