Contents
1.0
Introduction
3
2.0
3
2.1
Creation of the Team
4
2.2
Team Communication
4
2.3
Execution Phase
4
2.3
Challenges and Respective Takeaways
5
3.0
Positives and Failures: Conclusion
6
References
6
Appendix
8
1.0 Introduction
Right strategy and flawless execution are two important aspects of any role which is related to corporate planning. I have recently worked on a project related to the analysis of strategic management and operational excellence of TGI Friday in India. The scope of this analysis was limited to the study conducted on expansion of business across various cities in a developing country like India where the competition and local mindset related to a product is very different. This reflective report will primarily talk about my takeaways from this work and the learning that I have drawn after working on this task from scratch.
2.0 The Project Overview
The report which is created by me and my team includes a proposal to the directors of the American food chain TGI Friday in India (Bangalore). The report that we have created presents a detailed analysis of the Indian market and the various competitive advantages and disadvantages which were identified. The goal of the report was to convince the board and show them that the Indian market is expected to deliver positive response to TGI Friday and therefore persuasive and argumentative writing skills were primarily used along with strong data. It took time for us to understand that how the information peace must be approached and how it should be presented as a report, hence we took the help of guidelines provided by Resnick (2010), which require a set process of information delivery.
2.1 The Team Creation
It was very important to have diverse skill sets in order to carry out the execution of the report development effectively, hence I identified Nizar and Lokesh as my team members and they possessed data analysis and market knowledge skills respectfully. Although, me and Nizar were comfortable due to similar geographic locations, Lokesh seemed to be a little uncomfortable in the beginning however was extremely helpful in guiding me to create better bonding between us and make my team member comfortable within a short span of time. As a team, I was handling the basic operations, Nizar agreed to work on the data collection and analysis piece and Lokesh was responsible to find out the most applicable expansion strategies as he is from India and is comfortably aware of the local preferences and competition. We named our team as “Shodh”, and within 2 to 3 days we reached to the performing stage, build on my observation as per Appendix A. In our first team meeting we also decided our team rules which are mentioned in the appendix B.
2.2 Team Communication
Once the work breakdown structure was created, it was important to initiate a continuous communication channel through which we can share the progress and take opinions on our respective roles. Hence, as a communication strategy we decided that we will use three common channels of teleconferencing, group chat and personal meetings. The frequency was decided to be everyday for group chat, three days for a teleconferencing and personal meetings on a weekly basis.
2.3 The Execution Phase
As a team, we started working on the data collection simultaneously and Lokesh was helpful in conducting an analysis of the major cities in India like New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore which were the prime sites for fast food businesses and other competitive joints from USA. The database creation was a new factor that came into play and we took help of database creation guides in order to create web forms that could capture details and provide us in report form when required. The discussions conducted during the team meetings highlighted the importance of a stakeholder interview to understand the expectations and to develop our delivery model accordingly. I took the responsibility of studying the correct and effective interviewing process in order to form the questions required for this purpose.
Since, we will study the entry of a new business into the market; it became important for us to apply a proper strategy in order to explain the tactics that could be used for the said purpose. Ansoff’s expansion grid was identified by us as the most appropriate methodology which could be applicable to our study and therefore be used it to present our study in more concrete way. By now, we as a team were quite sure of the right direction to proceed with the work however we were not able to position our level of study in a proper manner. And I am thankful to Nizar, who came with the proposal of studying and using the positioning strategy (Porter’s Generic Strategy), which had us to provide a proper structure to our report. Hence, the data collection and report writing were great learning experiences and helped me to learn much more about professional corporate planning and strategy development.
2.4 Challenges and Respective Takeaways
Our journey towards delivering the report was quite challenging, as this was virtually our first international extensive business expansion study. Firstly, the market dynamics of any given country are highly customized and are majorly impacted by the perspectives of the buyers who choose between the products which are already present as competition. Ansoff's expansion grid was instrumental in providing us with the concept that could be applied to our domain in order to find out the right geography and tactics to take an entry into the market for the purpose of international expansion. Similarly, during the evaluation and control process we were not sure of the right way to evaluate the success of the recommendations that we make however a study of this process headers to identify the calculated measures which can be taken in order to do a manual hypothesis testing. Lastly, designing a survey was a great challenge as it was supposed to go directly to a stakeholder and I was very confident after learning the right methods of creating interviews, and the same helped as we got the desired responses.
3.0 Positives and Failures: Conclusion
If I talk about the overall impact on my learning and the service delivery, I am quite pleased to say that I have learnt a great deal during the process of creation of this report. Team management, seem to be an issue and the timelines were not met appropriately however the data collection and the analysis were able to provide us with positive and trustworthy results using the techniques that were identified and learned by us during the execution of that task. I agree to the fact that on a professional level the report can be better with the use of more statistics and analysis like (regression, five-year forecasts, people survey and product testing), however with the approach that we took I feel satisfied with the outputs that have been drawn from the report.
References
Bryson, JM 2005, A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement (revised edition.), Jossey-Bass, New York.
Business Communicator 2005, ' Listening to company stakeholders at McDonald's Restaurant', Business Communicator Vol.6 Number 4., pp. 8-9.
Crone, D, Horner, R & Hawken, L 2004, Responding to problem behavior in schools: The behavior education program, Guildford, New York.
Hernandez, MJ 2003, Database Design for Mere Mortals™: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley Professional, Boston.
Kathy, RO & Phillips, DR 2007, 'Integrating Self-Managed Work Teams into Project Management', Journal of Facilities Management Vol.5 No.1, pp. 22-36.
NBN Co Board 2009, Introduction of the Implementation Study, Canberra.
Pedlar, M, Boydell, T & Umford, A 1998, Learning to Learn and Managing Self Development in Applying Self Development in Organisations, Prentice Hall.
Pedlar, M, Burgoyne, J, Boydell, T & Boydell, I 1994, A Manager’s Guide to Self Development, Employment Department Group.
Simkin, L & Dibb, S 1998, 'Prioritising target markets', Marketing Intelligence, London.
The Industrial Centre 2009, CNC IC Proffesional Training Guide, InnovtiveCreative, Hong Kong.
Appendix A
1. Attend all meetings
2. Do not be late for meetings
3. Come prepared to all meetings
4. Do not be afraid to ask questions
5. Be responsible and reliable
6. Follow the group objectives
Appendix B
Appendix C
Is
