Managing a Successful Business Project

Business recovery- (A sub-topic: How to create a post pandemic framework for business planning?)

Learning Outcome 1: Explain the key stages of the project lifecycle that should be considered when project managing;
Learning Outcome 2: Produce a Project Management Plan (PMP) for a business project using primary and secondary research methods;
Learning Outcome 3: Implement the Project Management Plan (PMP) to communicate results from the research and make conclusions from the evidence of findings;
Learning Outcome 4: Reflect on the value gained from implementing the project and the project management process.

Assignment Brief: Introduction to the theme

In the long term, businesses need to be prepared to face the unexpected, many fails because they are unable to recover from unexpected events such as political disruption, natural disasters, and pandemics. Business continuity planning allows businesses to maintain or quickly resume functions in the event of a major disruption. Essentially, business continuity is like having a back-up plan that outlines procedures and instructions for staff members in the event of a disaster.

The recent COVID-19 global pandemic dramatically impacted industry across all sectors, inevitably affecting disproportionately those businesses that exist to support social interactions and placing strains on both supply and demand. As the pandemic continues to affect industry: lock-down periods, and international and local restrictions on movement have led to a huge drop in revenues and tuition of emergency due to financial difficulties:

• Dramatically lower revenues
• Operational and financial challenges, including issues with liquidity, debt repayments or how to develop "smart capex" on assets to maintain tariffs and/or competitive advantage.
• Uncertainty about the timing and speed of the recovery depending on the arrival of treatments for virus in order to return to "normal".

To meet the challenges posed by unexpected events and disasters, business around the world need to react in agile and decisive ways. This involves businesses identifying capabilities and needs to strengthen, refactor, reopen, rehire, re-budget, resupply, by creating long term plans that allow for scaling up. An "after-action review" to collect data and insights on lessons learned, and then using these to prioritise actions to enhance business value today, businesses will build strategic resilience for tomorrow. Businesses that take these steps now will be well-placed to capitalise more effectively on the opportunities during business recovery, and to continue winning in their marketplaces as greater certainty and stability return.

Scenario:
You are employed as an assistant within the professional development team of a SME organization. You have been asked to conduct a small-scale project in form of an investigative case study, into the well-being of the employees within the organization which is to be presented as a business case for management on how to improve business after COVID-19. The project will involve investigating how the organization implements wellbeing, investigating good practice within other business and collating employee feedback. This will be presented to your line manager as a business case with proposals to implement wellbeing practices, followed by a performance review in which you will need to reflect upon the project in relation to your own personal and professional development.

This report is proposed to be presented to your managerial board as a business case with simple power- points. Moreover, a reflection upon the project in relation to your own personal and professional development is also facilitated with the project.

A simple presentation power-points with 12-14 slides (under Harvard referencing which is related to your report content) with relative business model(s) is required to submit together with your final report.

(A) Project planning:
- Devise a project management plan to map out how you intend to meet the project objectives;
- Begin with the scope. What activities and tasks as defined in your project must be done in order to make the project a success?
- Note the milestones or major events or phases in your project.
- Provide details of activities to be carried out initiation, planning and execution of the project;
- Create a work break down structure using a Gantt charts to track the activities to be undertaken;

(B) Conduct primary & secondary research:
- Devise a short questionnaire/ or interview questions to complete with employees within the organization, include questions or how they define wellbeing, what the organization currently has in place to support wellbeing and what they feel could be done better to support their wellbeing;
- Research at least two other organizations to see what type of wellbeing initiatives they have;
- Research the value and benefits of addressing wellbeing in terms of improving employee retention;
- Focus on areas of good practice to build and support your business case.

(C) Present Findings:
- Collate our research and analyse your findings;
- Produce and present the business case including an evaluation of tools used to gather research and data to justify your recommendations for implementing wellbeing initiatives;

(D) Reflection:
- Complete a performance review with your line manager to critically reflect upon the project plan, process and outcomes in terms of your own personal and professional development. Think about how well you have performed and achieved your project objectives, what obstacles did you have to overcome? What worked well or not well? What have you learnt from completing this project?