FoxMeyer ERP project Case study

Because of fierce competition and to remain top drug wholesaler, the healthcare service company needed a solution that would simplify the sophisticated supply chain decision while facing the cost pressure. The firm decided to implement an ERP system to avail the best solution to enhance real-time information, integrated and an automated inventory system into an exceptional system (Scott, 2014). FoxMeyer anticipated that the new system would set up an appropriate inventory level, implement more responsive customer service, and eliminate redundant or unnecessary activities (Scott, 2014). FoxMeyer ERP project was one of the first ambitious worlds’ IT projects ever attempted in the pharmaceutical industry, originally budgeted to cost approximately $ 65 million and the IT system was expected to save the firm about $40 million per year (Scott, 2014).

However, due to the high level of uncertainties and unpredictability during project planning and implementation lead to project failure. According to (Mathai, 2016), understanding specific project goals and objective is essential to complete them with defined cost, quality and time constraints. The manager is required to limit scope, plan, create the WBS and scope project management process to manage high operational cost (Mathai, 2016). Vision and imaginative skills This is the ability of top project management being inventive in all work aspects, having well-articulated primacies for the forthcoming jobs and foresee future changes that might affect the project outcome (EL-Annan, 2015). Visionary managers have a clear vision on how to accomplish project goals and objectives despite predicted uncertainties and complexities. They take projects ownership from the start, and they are responsible for the failure or success of innovation projects.

Project managers are required to possess some technical proficiency such that they can correctly assimilate and use strategic foresight methods to address emerging technical problems during the project development process which might cause project failure (Pirnar, 2014). Unlearning skills This is a psychomotor skill that manager acquires through trial and error process when faced with emerging challenge (Bouwman & Brohm, 2016). Project manager with unlearning skills disregards the old methods of solving problems and invent innovations in addressing issues that might arise in radical projects. The foresight methods help the CEOs open mind about innovation cycles that don’t follow any pattern of previous project development live cycles (Bouwman & Brohm, 2016). Risk management skills Unpredictable environment and complex system results to wicked problems that have no immediate solutions were the managerial problems encountered in FoxMeyer ERP project.

The system was no longer straightforward as anticipated which lead to the new payroll system to be launched in late 2010 with major defects and additional cost (Thite & Sandhu, 2014). The developed system failed spectacularly, which lead to thousands of health employees not getting paid, some underpaid and other overpaid (Thite & Sandhu, 2014). A formal commission was formulated to make inquiry into payroll system acquisition and development. When it had completed its report, the commission noted that every phase of project development had a fault, including the planning of the project schedule, a procurement process and vendor’s management (Thite & Sandhu, 2014). The procurement process was shambolically done, and the process of urgency and haste resulted in projecting to incur extra costs. Often poor management and unclear project scope are a major reason for high costs in radical projects since unclear scopes always subject projects to assumption and guesses (Lipusch, 2018).

Cost Management Skills Often project complexity, poor site management, inaccurate estimation, and un-experience contracting management are the prime cause of high operation costs (Lipusch, 2018). CEOs with budget management skills clearly define scope management plan and an effective benefit delivery and management process. Carefully implemented schedule, better management, governance, operation excellence, and resource plan allow a more precise cost budgeting (Box, 2014). Studies stress the importance of minimizing resources waste which is linked with project failure (Box, 2014). Role of manager and attributes For successful completion of radical projects requires the implementation of resources or seek of specialized technical support. The project management is forced to employed highly skilled employees, interact with a consultant or go to the suppliers of an organization. In such encounters, knowledge transfer should be standardized and strive to be as transparent as possible (Snyder, Witell, Gustafsson, Fombelle, & Kristensson, 2016).

Project CEOs must ensure there is complete of knowledge between suppliers and team members. Problem-solving skills Conflict management skills are useful in the process of identifying and addressing the difference between suppliers and team member that if unmanaged might lead to project failure. Cross culture training should be included in the project development process on how to conduct knowledge and technology transfer. Manager with good problem-solving skills aligns views or resolves people’s differences by persuading stakeholders to agree and to accept and agree upon terms and conditions of a given situation (Abugre, 2014). Sunindijo (2015) managers with excellent problem-solving skills see the broader implication of the events, identify openings and threats which might hinder the complete transfer of knowledge, and influence the external factor on the actions to ensure there is a complete transfer of knowledge.

Good problem-solver manager listens to their employees in case of conflict and makes appropriate interventions (Sunindijo, 2015). Communication skills Managers with practical communication skills use the most appropriate type and method of communication to deliver and share information among all parties which minimizes incomplete knowledge transfer (Bouwman & Brohm, 2016). Lack of role awareness map NHS IT Project Case Study NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) is one of the ambitious worlds IT projects ever attempted in the UK which had the intention of serving all British citizens, originally budgeted to cost approximately £6b (Guah, 2008). After a history marked with delays, implementation issues, and stakeholder opposition, the project was dismantled in 2011, almost ten years after commenced in 2002 (Guah, 2008). The NHS had a great plan to develop an integrated electronic health record system, underpinning network infrastructure, computerized referral, online ‘choose and the book’ services and prescription systems (Guah, 2008).

In 2011, many of these services had not been delivered which project cancellation. The government and ultimately taxpayer incurred significant costs for the programme approximately £9. Often, the project which doesn’t find harmonization faces numerous problems such as insufficiency of funds or time or poor quality (Winkler, König, & Kleinmann, 2013). From the previous study, the absence of role awareness map has been voted as one of the managerial problem most manager encounter in the radical environment. Managers use role awareness map to align project goals with available resources and skills (Selig, Stettina, & Baltes, 2016). Vision and imaginative skills This is the ability of top project management being having well-articulated priorities for the upcoming tasks and foresee future changes that might affect the project outcome (EL-Annan, 2015).

Visionary managers have a clear vision on how to accomplish project goals and objectives despite predicted uncertainties and complexities. The elements of the proposed system were: digital archive, production tools, and archive database (Glick, 2014). 1n 2008, the firm contracted Siemens to build the new system, and it was expected to be completed following year, but the contract was terminated in 2009 (Glick, 2014). The Siemens company had a series of delays, failed to final results. Later the BBC took over the project from Siemens company and brought the project in-house. The project was terminated in 2013 having spent nearly £125. Therefore, the project manager was required to control the transfer of technologies. A significant difference in knowledge and technology can complicate communication due to different mother tongues, technical vocabulary, and culture.

Inadequate integration of knowledge can result in inflexible schedules, shipping irregularities and damage and customs and document requirements. The project managers must have the skills of transferring knowledge between team members in a standardized way to increase the probability for project success. This can be attained through innovation scouting, that is, acquiring new technology when it is ready, weeding out bad opportunities and relying on nurturing diverse opportunity to maximize knowledge integration. Intuitiveness: this the ability of a manager arriving at precise decisions and enacting them appropriately even when an encounter with complex situations. They use their rational judgement and emotional comprehension to solve a given problem. Emotional Resilience: this is the ability of a manager to perform exceptionally well in pressuring environments and adjust his/her behavior accordingly, balances the project process and the client’s needs and maintain focus on the required outcome when personally criticized or challenged.

Influence: the ability of the manager to persuade others to change their mindset about undertaking specific tasks and influence them to deliberate other perception and provide them with a rationale for that change. Interpersonal sensitivity: this is being aware of the needs and perceptions of all stakeholders and considering their suggestion while making decisions. It didn’t have adequate disaster recovery operation, incompatible development choice, and technological failure (Harding, 2016). Manager role and attributes The manager is supposed to have mindset focused on customer needs, budget and schedule timelines. Product or service quality dramatically determines customers’ acceptance and successful project completion. Quality is a continuous process which involves planning, disciplined processes and tools and careful consideration of contributing elements (Iacob, 2013). CEOs can avoid project discontinuity by effectively aligning customers’ needs, budget and time (Harding, 2016).

Role of manager and Attributes Acquiring qualified staffs to work on radical innovation project is another managerial issue manager face in this environment. Pinkse and Kolk (2014) noted that to carry out a successful innovation project, a firm requires highly skilled personnel, however, hiring the most competent employees in the most challenges all project managers encounter. Therefore, CEOs have the responsibility to hire and train project team. Team working skills This is the ability to mobilize people to work collaboratively towards achieving a common goal (Mathai, 2016). Since project comprises of people from various background and culture, it is the responsibility of the manager to unite them to perform multiple project tasks collaboratively. Resource Management: Managers with managerial skills always plan ahead of time, coordinate resources, drives action plan from long-term goals and establishes clear and attainable goals.

Also, they continuously monitor staff’s work and progress, and effectively evaluates their work and give sensitive but honest responses accordingly. Engaging communication: Good managers are enthusiastic in communicating with other stakeholders, they communicate instructions and procedures clearly to staff, engage and win their support and encourage them to participate in communication forums continually. Developing: Effective managers invest time and effort to create direct reports’ competencies, train, and coach project team members to ensure they have adequate skills and competence needed to perform certain activities. Empowering: they encourage workers to undertake challenging tasks and motivate them to find innovative ways to handle those activities easily. The new car was seen as unattractive, overhyped, overpriced and of old fashion. The company took ten years developing the new car, spending a total of $250 million (Feloni, 2015).

Ford Edsel become a symbol of commercial failure. Later Ford management established a team of five members to investigate what led to the failure of Ford Edsel despite heavy investing in the project (Feloni, 2015). The Team noted that 1. Often, time, cost and quality are the essential constraints which determine the success of any project. Therefore, the ability to manage time to ensure project completion within the planned period is necessary. A good manager with effective time management skills plans to ensure a project succeeds and undertake all required actions and activities systematically within defined time frames (Iacob, 2013). They outline all project activities clearly and sequentially, estimate resources required, precisely estimate duration for each event, and develop and control work schedule to ensure all project actions and the process executes as planned (Iacob, 2013).

Experimentation of an innovation product before the product is launched essentially to the success of any product. Government policies and Trademark Volkswagen project case study The Volkswagen cars had a problem with regulatory, issues with oversight and private governance (Andrałojć, Kochalski, & Skowron-Mielnik, 2013). The company wanted to develop an environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient car on the market. They wanted to develop vehicles with low emissions and had projected that these new cars would give it higher market sales (Andrałojć, Kochalski, & Skowron-Mielnik, 2013). However, when the car was introduced, it had some issues with the emission of toxic gasses up to a staggering 40 times beyond permitted levels. The Volkswagen vehicles emitted enormous amounts of nitrogen oxide into the air (Andrałojć, Kochalski, & Skowron-Mielnik, 2013).

Active managers align projects policies and procedures with government policies to void project conflict and complexity. Resource allocation The Ariane 5 project case study In 1973 Western European initiated a radical project, the Ariane 5 rocket flight 50 (Le Lann, 2006). The Ariane project aimed to transport satellites into orbit to give Europe a positive of influence in the profitable space business. The project was anticipated to take 7 years with a total cost of $5 billion (Lann, 2006). However, the project didn’t execute as anticipated; it took nearly 10 years to be launched costing a total of $7 billion and Ariane 5 malformed a few seconds after launched (Lann, 2006). The manager must constantly evaluate results of resource adjustments to ensure project met the budget and planned finish time, which can be done by reviewing critical path, determine if project dates have change or review resource workloads (EL-Annan, 2015).

Poor resource management has several drawbacks which can cost project greatly regarding time, money or productivity. Resource management skills To attain best performance and result from results, project CEOs must avoid project under allocation and over-allocation during the project development process (Bouwman & Brohm, 2016). In case of any change in resource assignment, they must evaluate the overall project schedule to make sure it doesn’t affect final deliverables. They should resolve the issues of resource over-allocation (Bouwman & Brohm, 2016). Later Coca-cola Company reintroduced Coke’s original formula. Later, the secret investigation team was formulated to examine the real cause of the New Coke product. The group noted that while the company was carrying out the market assessment, it missed the mark regarding customer motivations (Schindler, 2008).

The company didn’t either consult nor consider customers input and insight that gives realistic and accurate information during project development; there was no open forum or focus group where consumers would share their views or speak up their mind (Schindler, 2008). The management did listen to the company’s bottlers who noted that the customers were complaining about the New Coke. If the project is consumer oriented, it would even concentrate on a small customer touch point and provide a delightful experience (Aretoulis, 2018). Also, the Coca-Cola Company failed to conduct product experimentation before the release of new coke. Sgourev (2013) states that project managers should look for ways to iterate gradually and validate an innovation idea, instead of designing, developing and launching the product hoping the users will accept that.

There are several techniques to experiment with an innovative product such as feature flagging, A/B testing and gradual rollouts (Sgourev, 2013). Conflict management skills The indicates that the project development team and the customers/end users might have conflicting views. They noticed that the manager who excels often bring another stakeholder along plan uses appropriate strategies and executes disciplined communications. For any decision performing manager makes, they ensure that they develop stakeholder map of essential people required to be on board with (Lytkina, Powell, Kincaid, & wang, 2017). They track contentious issues, give everyone a voice, listens, and solicit opinion to make the right decisions. Adapting proactively Adapting proactively is another trait identified by (Lytkina, Powell, Kincaid, & wang, 2017) that high performing CEOs possess.

They can handle an emerging situation that isn’t in the playbook more effectively. The paper highlights that there are eighteen distinct skills and traits CEOs need to possess useful managerial problems associated with radical projects. The attributes and skills include; Leadership skills; Vision and imaginative skills; Resource management skills; Communication skills; Coping ability; Risk Management skills; Project scope management skills; Critical analysis and decision-making skills; Problem-Solving skills; Scope management skills; Project integration management skills; Creativity and innovation skills; Positive Attitude; Negotiation and conflict management skills; Technical skills; Team working skills; Managerial skills; Time management skills; and Quality management skills. References Andrałojć, M. , Kochalski, C. , & Skowron-Mielnik, B.  Social Sciences, 7(7), 112. doi: 10. 3390/socsci7070112 Brodo, R. Analysis of the Amazon Fire Phone a Unique Business Strategy.

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