INTER-RELATION BETWEEN EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

In cases of business failure or cash flow deficits in most organizations that I have been request to resolve is; there is no proper business model being developed which could relate between the business external environment and business internal environment. Sometimes the owner might says; yes there are. However soon after my research or my analysis, I found that it was not done.  

An example, where a project is being developed for a community where the project sponsors might spend an amount of money on the project development but the impact of the project is not as expected. In accounting it is said the ROI (return of investment) is low or even the ROI is negative. 

The question is why? My research finding is as above paragraph i.e. there are no linkage between the two components. The external and internal environment actually have a very strong, crucial bonding of which the interlinked is a must.   Having no linkages or even weak between these two environment will not contribute to a right revenue.

Some people questioned me, what are the external environment segments the we must linked on? My answer is simple. People-economy-enviroment. The three factors must be link to each other and hence the project will later be a successful project.

Assignment

Select a small and medium size company in Bangsar or Taman Tun. Analyst its internal and external environment. How does it interlinked and what are the strategy adopted by this company? Explain and justify your stand.

Font: Arial

Word counts: 3000

Size: 12

Spacing: 1.5

Presentation:

Select a small business entity in your area. What is the company problems faces with their competitors? Explain how could you assist or resolve if you are being appointed as a new operation manager in the company.  

Project Management Life Cycle and the needs of project manager’s knowledge of expertise

The process each manager follows during the life of a project is called the Project Management Life Cycle. A proven methodical life cycle is necessary to repeatedly implement and manage projects successfully.

During the life cycle of any project, proven and tested project management processes or best practices are should be initiated. The types and extent of processes initiated depend on the nature of the project, i.e. size, probability of failure and consequences of failure. Strong and effective leaders apply process to protect all projects.

Every project has a life cycle, with a beginning, a life and an end (defined by accomplishing the objective). The following defines a typical project life cycle  

1. Initiation  - identifying project objectives

2. Planning   - drawing a plan i.e. develop budgets, project task an d subtasks,     timeline etc.

3. Executing – execution and control

4. Closing Closeout – project handover

There are 9 major knowledge areas of project management that required expertise for all project managers. They are:

1. Scope Management
2. Communications Management
3. Risk Management
4. Human Resources Management
5. Procurement Management
6. Time Management
7. Cost Management
8. Quality Management ƒ
9. Integration Management

Each of these management areas consists of processes, tools and techniques that are produced and/or applied to some degree during the course of any project.

Assignment question:

You are required to submit a project proposal in detail for a grand opening of a boutique in Damansara Area. The place that you choose would be considered as the area where the owner has its boutique operates. The project owner and project sponsor is the same person. In  a norm situation, a project proposal is after the problem identification, identifications of needs, RFP and solution. The solution would be considered as the Project Proposal.

Font: Arial

Size : 12

Word counts: 2-500 - 3,000 words.

Presentation:

Your project proposal on the grand opening of the boutique has been accepted and the  project owner wants to open a boutique in Damansara Area.  You are to present this project proposal to the project owner. 

Slides : 5-7 slides

How to analyse a company performance or identifying its strategy's effectiveness

A process is not a merely words to express a certain flow of activities in business such as production, services; it actually involves all parts of our life. Cooking such baking a cake, marriage, business services; construction, education provider, transportation are having processes within its activities.And hence process is important in our life.  

Some people might also address it as flow process and lately people are using the 'value chain' which turn many people to confusion state. So the questions is what all these words means and how it is related to strategy?

A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client. A business process has also been defined as a set of activities and tasks that, once completed, will accomplish an organizational goal.

Values chain is a high-level model of how businesses receive raw materials as input, add value to the raw materials through various processes, and sell finished products to customers. In value chain normally the financial part is inserted and hence efficiency is one of the important discussion in value chain analysis. 

Chart 1. A tool that could be use as a value chain analysis

Value-chain analysis looks at every step a business goes through, from raw materials to the eventual end-user. The goal is to deliver maximum value for the least possible total cost. 

Chart 2. An example Value Chain in use in manufacturing

Chart 3. Another example Value Chain in action

From above charts of value chain we could see that how value chain are being used from the base chart of Porters value Chain in chart 1 and later how it is being used in manufacturing in chart 2.

In turn around of companies from loss to profit or profit maximization for a company process, a few tools are being use such as; external analysis, competitors analysis, internal analysis such as resource evaluation analysis, . One of the most important tools in internal analysis is the value chain analysis which is being used as one of the analysis tools to evaluate efficiency and later transpired the process to profitability value.

It is important to remember that in analyzing a company's operations or proposing actions for a company to undertake in ensuring its profitability; a few tools needed. In a normal practice, the process of the action should be:
  1. Analyzing the company general operation - what are they doing?
  2. Analyzing the external environment
  3. Analyzing its internal environment
  4. Identify what strategy are they using or suppose to use.
 5. How does the organization chart related to the strategy? Is it very much linked?
  6. Analyse its value chain
 7. Is the strategic implementation effective- look at the 10 components of  strategic 
      implementation - is it being applied (Thomson 2011).
  8. What is the finding from all those analysis above and you can provide a
      comments and propose action to be taken for an improvement.

In most cases if we use all the above tools or methodology, we are able to resolve the company non performance or improving its profitability. This could be applied to any size of the company.

Assignment: 
Fashion design has been a new life style demand for generation Y. In the perspective of strategy, what could you explain in relation to external and internal environment of a company; if a fashion design house to be open in ARA DAMANSARA. What are the best strategic (business and corporate level) option. Explain in detail.

Note:
Font size: 12
Words count: 2500 - 3000
Spacing: 1.5

Presentation:
You are to select a small business entity or a SME. Analyze its operation.How is its performance? Provide the monitoring and control tools and method for continuos improvements. 

Note:
Prepare only 5-6 slides for this presentation. 

3 critical activities in Managing a Project

Picture of Fremantle Port in Perth. Task are executed here with proper planning and
 following the 4 elements, as in this article.

Project management is a chain process of activity or a flow of  activity in ensuring a task is completed and meet the project sponsor and project owner requirement. A project owner might not be a project sponsor. 

Example, the owner of the project might be the state government but financed by the Federal Government. A simpler example, a wedding, the project owner might be the two bride to be but the financier or the project sponsor who finance mitt be the parents.

In being a project manager, these two parties must be satisfied to the project. And a project might be as big as a mega project in Oil and Gas and as small as wedding planning or a birthday party or even the annual anniversary celebration.

The question is how to ensure that the project will satisfy both parties, the project owner and the project sponsor. However it might also be only one party involve where the same party is the project owner and project sponsor.

In most books, the element or the important segments are:

a. Time: Project Schedule

b. Cost: Project Budget and expenses

c. Scope : the work scope; deliverable

In my experience, there is one more thing which important that is the quality. The question is how? Simple to say but need serious attention and focus. 

To ensure all the 3 elements are achieved or 4 as I mention the additional element (quality) is a proper monitoring and control. What to use? I will answer you, use the 7 QC Tools and intact, I have been using the control chart successfully. Remember; evaluation must be done periodically or as soon as any positive or negative spikes. 

Sample of control chart

The negative spikes is when it runs lower than the LLV (lower limit value) and positive spike is when the achievement is so good; beyond the target or even beyond the ULV (upper limit value). If you reed more or google the knowledge on using control chart, you will get what I meant by ULV and LLV. 

Project Management ; Initial stage level

At the start of any project, there will be a variety of ideas and opinions about the purpose and scope of the project, what the final product of the project will be, and how the project will be carried out. The Project Initiation Stage is concerned with taking these ideas and intentions and developing them into a formal, planned, resourced and funded project. 
In order to define a project in this way, it is first necessary to clearly and explicitly define what the project is intended to achieve and what its scope of interest will be.

By defining this first, a benchmark is created for assessing the quality of what is actually produced at the end of the project. 
It is also necessary to develop a process by which the project objectives can be achieved. This process will typically involve carrying out a number of tasks and producing a number of products during the course of the project. The tasks produce the products. For clarity of purpose and for control reasons it is useful to arrange these tasks in a top down structure, which progressively specify the required work in more detail.

This is called a work breakdown structure. LBMS provides a series of standard work breakdown structures for strategic planning and applications development. However, it is important to look for opportunities to customize this for the particular circumstances of the project and its objectives. The work breakdown structure will provide a benchmark by which the quality of the project process can be assessed.

The Project Initiation Stage must also define what resources and associated time commitment are required to carry out the project. The work breakdown structure provides a basis from which this estimation can be carried out. The resource and time commitment can be used to calculate an end date for the project and an estimate of its cost. This information is key input into the establishment of a business case for the intended project.

The overall project schedule is not at a sufficient level of detail to enable the allocation of actual resources to tasks, or to control progress. It is necessary to produce a more detailed plan for these purposes. This detailed plan is only produced for the next stage of the project, usually covering an elapsed time of two to four months.

The way the project is managed and executed is the key to its success. The involvement of the right people for data capture and decision making is also crucial. It is necessary to identify and recruit these people at the start of the project and to define the project organization structure. It is also necessary to establish the procedures that will be used by the people in the Project Organization Structure to carry out and control the project work.

Finally, in order to establish a resourced and funded project, it is necessary to establish a clear and convincing business case for the project. This business case should be reviewed, and hopefully accepted by management. The business case will identify the projected benefits of meeting the objectives of the project, and balance these against the costs and risks associated with realizing these benefits. The business case can also be used as a benchmark to compare against actual results, costs and benefits in order to assess the ultimate success of the project.

The Project Initiation stage is described here as a sequence of steps. In reality, once the objective and scope have been defined, many of these steps occur in parallel, and the step products are developed iteratively, since there are many dependencies between the steps. It is necessary to plan the Project Initiation stage, albeit in an informal manner. Therefore it is important to create a Project Initiation Kick Off Plan scheduling the activities and resources.

Assignment:

Article Links for download:

Artikel untuk muat turun:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bw2w4u1p9ymi9te/AADRjinHBxT1CMBKtF_gCqa7a?dl=0

Note:

1. Assignments are all to be submitted in Bahasa Malaysia

2. Font: New Times Roman

3.Words: 800 - 1000 words

4. Spacing : 1.5

6. Submission date: week 6

Ethics, our action and societal culture; the relationship

Any action that we do everyday has its own value. It might be negative or positive value but there is a value. This value contributes and transform into impact.

In a bigger perspective the impact will be translated as our style, our family culture and adding all the family cultures in a particular society or community it will in return turn to be a society culture.

“A continuous practice may develop an attitude,” (Olson & Zanna, 1993). It is important to remember that, an attitude will later turn to behaviors.

 “When a values being developed and becoming norms to a group of society, it will then become a culture,” (Solomon, 1984)

For that reason, we as a person need to understand that, what aver we does must be ethical, moral and the basis of these ethical values, morality must be based on real understanding of ethics and morality. The best based is on religion and to Muslim, it is Quran and Hadith. The religion in this world is teaching us these values ensuring the mankind would have a good life where the morality is good and hence develops a society of good values.

According to Kant view, “An action is moral, if its intention is good and the action is good.”  For an action, it focuses on good names, good start, and good intention and does not only look at the result of an action. In Quran says;

{2:42} And do not mix up the truth with the falsehood, nor hide the truth while you know (it).

A society (Masai, in Africa) which has develop a practice of drinking the cow’s blood in their daily life will later becomes a norms and later translated to be a culture despite other world might say that is not hygienic. That goes to any deeds or action against a religion or immoral and with continuously doing it, it will turn to be a norm and later becomes a culture of the society. As it reaches here, the whole society will be living in darkness. 

A free sex, a gambling and talking using awful words will one day be a norm if we continuously doing it despite at the early stage it might be an argument due to immorality act. Can we imagine it? Can we accept it or we are practicing toward such a culture? Let’s evaluate and think over on these issue and many more issues which is against morality. It might be legal but immoral. Do you know one?

Assignment Question:

You are required to summarize the journal article into only 800 - 1000 words. You can choose to use English or Bahasa Malaysia for your work.

Kindly download from this journal at the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v2u2wx76xiwesoz/AADb4Z7OCUAzz4AyY8iTJFjra?dl=0

Note:
Font: Arial , Size: 12
Spacing : 1.5

Presentation Question:
Select a real life experience case that might be a debate of morality and legality in an organization or in the society. Prepare slides for presentation and each group member must present one slide each. Time for each presenter is only 5 minutes. Group members should not exceed 5 members for each group. Kindly bring the hard copies of the presentation for submission with all your members names and matrix number.