9. Mega Environment Factors. The three most significant of these factors for SkillPower Ltd in my opinion are the technology element, the economic element, and the sociocultural/demographic element, each analysed in the following paragraphs (Bartol, Tein, Matthews, Sharma and Scott-Ladd, pg 38 - 42, 2011):
1. Technology Element. Technology is the combination of skills and equipment that managers use in the design, production, and distribution of goods and services. The viability of Jim’s consultancy depends largely on keeping up to date with technology and in particular project management methodologies and scheduling software. Some currently more important current methodologies include waterfall, agile, scrum, and PRINCE2, although in …show more content…
Customers and Clients. The “Management Foundations” textbook seems to identify individuals as customers and clients as firms, which might also equate to customers being the end-users and clients being the owners when it comes to project work, and clearly without either there is no business (Bartol, Tein, Matthews, Sharma and Scott-Ladd, pg 42 - 45, 2011). Interestingly, this factor is related to the other two task environment factors in that competitors might win SkillPower customers and clients over and suppliers soon suffer if there are fewer customers and clients. Of course mega environmental factors also decide the demand for SkillPower services. It’s a truism, but customers and clients are the most important people for any organisation including SkillPower, which largely relies on repeat business though having satisfied and thus loyal clients and customers (IN Slideshare, 2011). To assess customer satisfaction SkillPower carefully monitors this relationship as work proceeds mainly through periodic face-to-face meetings and customer evaluations and feedback. At the completion of a project, as part of the handover process, there is typically a customer-focused check. Also, at the completion of project management training, course participates are invited to evaluate the training to help ensure the SkillPower product continues to improve. A comprehensive assessment of SkillPower project management performance would ask the client questions such as (Young, …show more content…
Competitors. The project management consulting and training environment is becoming increasingly competitive. The rivalry between competitors is potentially the most threatening force that SkillPower must deal with. Thirty years there were very few competitors, but today there is a proliferation of project management consultancies, which is fine from a client’s perspective, but a challenge from the SkillPower perspective to retain market share. As a consequence, to ensure SkillPower’s on-going competitiveness, there has been an effort to keep abreast of project management trends, tools and techniques, customers’ ever-demanding needs, and ensure cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction. It has also proved useful to monitor business rivals’ activities. In particular, it has helped knowing who SkillPower competitors are, and what they are offering. This has helped SkillPower set prices competitively and respond to competitors’ marketing initiatives. SkillPower is frequently checking competitors’ websites for their offerings and staff biographies. Jim has also phoned competitors pretending to be a prospective client and uplifted their advertising materials and brochures, with a view to exploiting gaps in their products and services where appropriate. He mentioned that it is however important to recognise and respect others’ intellectual property and that it’s better to innovate than imitate. Overall, Jim concedes that competition is good for the
1. Technology Element. Technology is the combination of skills and equipment that managers use in the design, production, and distribution of goods and services. The viability of Jim’s consultancy depends largely on keeping up to date with technology and in particular project management methodologies and scheduling software. Some currently more important current methodologies include waterfall, agile, scrum, and PRINCE2, although in …show more content…
Customers and Clients. The “Management Foundations” textbook seems to identify individuals as customers and clients as firms, which might also equate to customers being the end-users and clients being the owners when it comes to project work, and clearly without either there is no business (Bartol, Tein, Matthews, Sharma and Scott-Ladd, pg 42 - 45, 2011). Interestingly, this factor is related to the other two task environment factors in that competitors might win SkillPower customers and clients over and suppliers soon suffer if there are fewer customers and clients. Of course mega environmental factors also decide the demand for SkillPower services. It’s a truism, but customers and clients are the most important people for any organisation including SkillPower, which largely relies on repeat business though having satisfied and thus loyal clients and customers (IN Slideshare, 2011). To assess customer satisfaction SkillPower carefully monitors this relationship as work proceeds mainly through periodic face-to-face meetings and customer evaluations and feedback. At the completion of a project, as part of the handover process, there is typically a customer-focused check. Also, at the completion of project management training, course participates are invited to evaluate the training to help ensure the SkillPower product continues to improve. A comprehensive assessment of SkillPower project management performance would ask the client questions such as (Young, …show more content…
Competitors. The project management consulting and training environment is becoming increasingly competitive. The rivalry between competitors is potentially the most threatening force that SkillPower must deal with. Thirty years there were very few competitors, but today there is a proliferation of project management consultancies, which is fine from a client’s perspective, but a challenge from the SkillPower perspective to retain market share. As a consequence, to ensure SkillPower’s on-going competitiveness, there has been an effort to keep abreast of project management trends, tools and techniques, customers’ ever-demanding needs, and ensure cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction. It has also proved useful to monitor business rivals’ activities. In particular, it has helped knowing who SkillPower competitors are, and what they are offering. This has helped SkillPower set prices competitively and respond to competitors’ marketing initiatives. SkillPower is frequently checking competitors’ websites for their offerings and staff biographies. Jim has also phoned competitors pretending to be a prospective client and uplifted their advertising materials and brochures, with a view to exploiting gaps in their products and services where appropriate. He mentioned that it is however important to recognise and respect others’ intellectual property and that it’s better to innovate than imitate. Overall, Jim concedes that competition is good for the