Hiroshima and nagasaki bomb Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Hiroshima and nagasaki bomb - Research Paper Example Waves of fire and flash burns devoured people (Richard Minear, 1990). In Hiroshima, firestorm wind made the structures burn and people highly affected. Trees got uprooted and fire debris and other remains flew here and there. Hazardous radiation added to the causalities. Immediately after the explosion temperature rose to millions of degrees and light emitted to a level exceeding the brightness of sun (Richard Minear, 1990). Deadly radioactive particles affected the people and atmosphere in such a way that it wouldn’t t be healed even after centuries. Both the cities and the neighboring areas suffered from radiation sicknesses and death for several decades. Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the bombing – brief information Hiroshima with its dense population was a city of high military importance to Japan. Almost three-fourth of the city’s population was concentrated on the densely populated well-built centre portion of the city. Having the 2nd Army headquarters and c rucial communication points, the city was a major assembling point for the troops. Hiroshima contained few large industrial plants, reinforced concrete buildings, wooden houses, wooden workshops and numerous industrial buildings (Dower, 1995). Because of the risk of earthquake majority of the houses and industrial buildings were wooden built and reinforced concrete constructions were strong. ... The major part of the population lies along the heavily build-up area which is concentrated to very few kilometers. Numerous industries that produced military equipments, war accessories, ships and other materials made Nagasaki a crucial city for Japan. Buildings, structures and houses were made of wood, with no plaster or roof tiling. Most of the industries were also houses in wooden buildings. It would be best to call Nagasaki and industrial valley with thickly populated industries and houses built close to the industrial buildings. The effects of bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – People and economy The bombing completely paralyzed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cities were destroyed, people were killed, affected and stranded, and environment was polluted to a level that even the future generations could not escape from the aftereffects of the bomb.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The atom bomb had numerous long term effects on the health and well being of the affected people. Majority of th e people in the affected area were heavily exposed to radiation and developed different types of cancers, including leukemia. Children who were exposed to radiation became highly susceptible to cancer and other radiation sicknesses (Kodansha, 1993). Almost all living victims of the bomb were in the risk of getting myoma, cancers, hepatitis, thyroid problem, liver problem and several other health issues (Kodansha, 1993). Eyesight was affected and cataract problem was encountered by numerous survivors who were exposed to radiation (Kodansha, 1993). Apart from this, people suffered heavy loss; they lost their family members, house, property and all belongings (Lifton, 1967). This had numerous long time consequence including sufferings and pain. Orphans and elderly

Google's Prospects in Terms of the Criteria 'Suitability, Essay

Google's Prospects in Terms of the Criteria 'Suitability, Acceptability and Feasibility' (FSA) - Essay Example would be embarked on to understand its strategic position based on the feasibility, acceptability and suitability of its present strategy. Evaluation would be helpful to determine if â€Å"Google Inc.: Running Amuck?† as stated by many, is true or to what extent the company is exposing itself to risks by expanding and diversifying? This report attempts to clearly understand Google Inc.’s strategic position with its innovative product and service launches in the recent past. Products and services Google has products and services for both online internet users and the mobile users. The company has products and services based on three types of technologies: web search technology, advertising technology and large-scale systems technology (shown in Appendix A). It has a large portfolio of products and services with a core product: web search, as its major revenue generating service. It has various different classifications of its products based on the kind of service it prov ides. â€Å"Google.com, web and content search, communication and collaboration, downloadable applications, mobile, labs, Google AdWords, Google AdSense and Google Enterprise, all of which are nevertheless marketed as categories of products relevant to: search, explore and innovate, communicate, show and share, go mobile and make your computer work better† (Case study- Google Inc., 2011). The company also is committed to always giving users an experience that they would vouch for, and its motto is the guiding force. The company has a strategy for investment where it invests in three different levels, popularly known as 70-20-10 investment strategy. It invests in three kinds of product markets: core search and advertising products, products related to core products and experimental products (Case study- Google Inc., 2011). It also has a product serving according to the specific region or country laws as witnessed in EU and China where the company has adapted to the legal requi rements of serving restricted or customized services through locally located servers delivering filtered web pages (Martin, 2006). A list of patents for Google is shown in Appendix B. Appendix C and Appendix D list the free and for profit products offered by Google. Opportunities Google provides search engine web content services through simple user interfaces and uses low cost web servers. It provides content in about 88 languages and is an established brand which has gained users trust. Leveraging on this end user trust, the company has the potential to build on its sponsored advertisement links by tracking user searches and providing relevant and updated content with user permissions (Google Inc.: SWOT analysis, 2008). As the sponsored links are relegated to a corner of the page at the moment, it can nevertheless be moved to a full-fledged revenue generating service offering like AdSense and AdWords. The company’s product offering, Google Video is another link that provide s

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m

Minority Report: Film vs. Short Story Essay -- Movies Comparison Compa

Minority Report: Film vs. Short Story Mutant humans, nicknamed precogs, have visions of future crimes. An entire police force is dedicated to interpreting these visions and catching the future criminals before they commit these foreseen crimes. Commissioner John A. Anderton was the creator of this institution called Precrime in New York City and has a strong pride in his work. Everything had seemed to be a success, there had not been a murder for five years, but it all starts to fall apart when the precogs have a vision of Anderton committing a murder of a man he has never met before, named Leopold Kaplan. The commissioner believes he has been set up by a young man, Ed Witwer, who will be taking Anderton’s place when he retires and also possibly his wife, Lisa. Anderton goes on somewhat of a quest to find out who is behind all of this. Through his quest he discovers that the strongest precog, which is the female named Donna, sometimes has different visions than the other two male precogs. These are cal led minority reports, and Anderton finds that he does not have one. He finally finds who is behind his setup, and it is Kaplan, a retired Army General and the man he is supposed to murder. Kaplan had a plan to bring down the Precrime system by keeping Anderton from killing him even though the precogs had envisioned that Anderton would kill Kaplan. In the end, Anderton does kill Kaplan to prove the system still works and Precrime continues (Dick, 1987). This concept of Precrime was created in a short story entitled The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick. Fourty-six years after Dick wrote this story in 2002, Steven Spielberg directed the film Minority Report based on Dick’s story starring Tom Cruise. There are many dif... ... gave necessary information about them to the movie audience. Emotion was brought in with the kidnapping of Anderton’s son and that event being used to drive him to murder was a concept that everyone could relate to. The action of Anderton running from his capture and unfolding who was behind his downfall kept getting better and better, he went as far as removing his eyes and kidnapping a precog. The film followed the same basic structure of the story, but changed certain parts and involved twists to make the story enticing to the variety of audiences across the globe. Bibliography Dick, Philip A. The Minority Report: And Other Classic Stories. New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 1987 Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton. Twentieth Century Fox, DreamWorks, 2002.

Eastern Religious Philosopher Quotations

CheckPoint: Eastern Religious Philosopher Quotations Siddhartha Gautama Buddha – â€Å"Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. † oI chose this quote because Siddhartha devoted his life to find balance and clarification. He grew up with wealth and being shielded from human suffering, and wanted to search for something deeper. This quote shows that he found something deeper from the materialistic life he led early on (s9. com, 2009). Lao Tzu – â€Å"To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease. o Tzu believed that even the wisest of humans is still ignorant, and this quote reflects that thought process. He was very interested in how we should live and different ways that a good society is governed. This quote reminds us that we can always be open to learning and discovering even when we think we have mastered something (Axia College, 2008). Chuang Tzu â€⠀œÃ¢â‚¬ Do the clouds make rain? Or is it the rain that makes the clouds? What makes it descend so copiously? oTzu believed that life was temporary and that pursuing wealth was acting in vein and foolish. He felt that this pursuit distracted a person from truly seeing the world and its meaning. Tzu wanted to look at nature from a different perspective, and by asking the questions in his quote enabled a deeper look into this idea (Chebucto, n. d. ). Confucious – â€Å"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others† oConfucious taught that to establish one’s own humane character was important and could be done by following positive role models from the past. People can always better themselves through learning and servicing others. It makes sense that a man who believes these principles would quote such a simplistic, yet profound statement (Axia College, 2008). Mencius -â€Å"With proper nourishment and care, everything grows, whereas without proper nourishment and care, everything decay† oI chose this quote for Mencius because he felt that if people wanted to become a better person, they would have to make the choice to transform their life. He thought that anything can thrive if given the proper care, and was optimistic about humans and their potential (Axia College, 2008). Hsun Tzu – â€Å"If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement. oTzu took portions of Taoism with Confucianism and added his own beliefs which are known to be a bit more pessimistic. Tzu founded a school and some of his students were philosophers and the future prime minister of Ch’in. It is no wonder that he would emphasize that effort is needed to attain achievements (Bookrags, 20 05-2006). Hui Neng – â€Å"If we are treading on the path of enlightenment we need not be worried by stumbling blocks. Provided we keep a constant eye on our own faults we cannot go astray from the right path† oHui Neng’s quote reminds me of the underdog winning a game. Considering he was illiterate and yet can have impressed his patriarch to be his successor is unbelievable. This quote exemplifies that although there will be difficulties in our lives we should continue to improve ourselves and recognize our faults (Bookrags, 2005-2006). Dugan Kigen – â€Å"Rejoice in your birth in the world. † oI like this quote from Dogen because he believed in practicing to achieve a â€Å"joyful life†. Even though there will be pain and suffering in the world, if you are to live life according to the Tao, life can still be joyful (Axia College, 2008). Murasaki Shikibu – â€Å"To be pleasant, gentle, calm and self-possessed: this is the basis of good taste and charm in a woman† oMurasaki was a female author that inspired many with her writings. This quote best represents her ideas feelings that although women were looked upon as non-equals to men, they can still pursue philosophical enlightenment (Axia College, 2008). Yamaoto Tsunetomo – â€Å"There is nothing so painful as regret† oYamaoto followed a Samurai tradition and believed we live in a world with change that is unpredictable and constant. Being prepared for these changes and anticipate problems will help to lessen pain and regret. References Axia College. (2008). Eastern Influences. Retrieved from Axia College, PHI105 – Introduction to Philosophy website. Bookrags. (2005-2006). Hsun-tzu Biography. Retrieved from http://www. bookrags. com/biography/hsun-tzu/ Chebucto. (n. d. ). Chuang Tzu: The Next Voice. Retrieved from http://www. chebucto. ns. ca/Philosophy/Taichi/chuang. html s9. com. (2009). Siddhartha Gautama. Retrieved from http://www. s9. com/Biography/Buddha

Marketing Strategy of a new energy drinks Essay

All around the world drinking beverage is like an entertainment for everyone. Millions of people have beverages everyday for refreshment. Our report is about the Energy Drinks of Bangladesh. In this report we have explained and analyzed how some of the five top selling energy drink companies are operating in Bangladesh. Energy drinks are becoming a major part of the beverage industry due to the rapid increase of their market competition and consumer awareness. In Bangladesh, Tiger and Speed are the most famous amongst all other energy drinks. Most of the energy drink companies act and carry out their marketing strategies in similar ways. More innovative steps are required to improve their market share. The goal of this report is to find out about the present condition of energy drink market in Bangladesh, major competitors we are likely going to face and how we are going to overcome the challenges in the market when we will launch a new energy drink named ‘Spirit’. With the use of effective marketing mix and other strategies we are going to target the young people of Bangladesh to sell our product. We have done a clear competitive analysis to take advantage of the weaknesses of our competitors and opportunities of the market. We are likely going to invest hugely in the beginning of launching our product to inform our customers about our product. As a new product company we are promising our customers to offer a unique product which will give them energy along with the excitement to enjoy their lives. Section 1: Current Market Analysis 1. 1: Top 5 brands in the market (how we find it) –We have surveyed in some of the areas of Dhaka city, like – Farmgate, Motijheel,Uttara, Gulshan; to find out the names of five most top selling energy drinks. According to the survey we have seen – Tiger, Speed, Shark, Sting and Boost are most popular in the energy drink industry of Bangladesh. We went to different departmental stores as mystery shoppers and randomly asked about the drinks each shop offers and found out the names of the energy drinks customers tend to buy more. 1. 2:Product Analysis -Product Level – Product leveling is the first and most important step taken by product planners to add more customer value to their products. It includes 3 main levels: Core Customer Value, Actual Product and Augmented Product. Core Customer Value – The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when they talk about energy drink is ‘source of power’. In Bangladesh, all of the energy drink companies basically have the same core customer value, which is mainly about replenishing the energy of their customers through providing them with their energy drinks. However, different brands use different mottos to establish their customer value. For example: Shark’s motto says, â€Å"Real Energy, Real Power†; in other case Speed’s motto says, â€Å"Heavy Energy†. This way each products motto varies from each other and creates a different view about the product in their customers mind. Actual Product – This level includes Brand name, Packaging and Product Attributes. Under Product Attribute comes: Product Features, Design and Quality of the product. i. Brand name: A brand name is an identity of a product, without it no product will even exist. Each brand name establishes their uniqueness with their different names, signs and logos. All of the energy drink companies have a brand name of their products, which differentiates each of them from their competitors. The names ‘Royal Tiger’, ‘Boost Energy Drink’, ‘Speed’, ‘Shark’ and ‘Sting’ – each of them stands as a brand name for their product, marketed by different producers. ii. Packaging: Packaging describes the way a product is protected using a container or wrapper and at the same time provides all the required information regarding a product. The energy drinks – Sting, Speed, Shark and Tiger are all available in both cans and bottles. Only Boost is available in steel can in the market. iii. Product Features and Designs: Features explain the tools which enable a particular energy drink to gain competitive advantage over other energy drinks. The tools include – design, smell, taste and color of each energy drink. The designs of Sting, Speed, Shark, Boost and Tiger energy drinks are more or less the same. They are mostly available in two forms and in two shapes, one in a round shaped plastic bottle (250 ml) and another in cylindrical steel can (250/270 ml). They all taste sweet, expect from Tiger and Boost; which tastes sour as well. iv. Quality: Speed, Tiger, Shark, Boost and Sting have been maintaining a good standard of quality by providing the adequate amount of energy to their customers and helping them to deal with strenuous activity. However, no matter what the quality level is; over consumption of energy drinks can always prove harmful for human beings (even though they might be alcohol free). Augmented Product– There is no after-sales service, delivery service or product support for these perishable products (like – energy drinks). Labeling– Labeling is the most important part of every energy drinks. It informs about the ingredients of the product, who made the product, safety issues regarding the product and the web address of the company. Speed, Tiger, Shark, Sting and Boost all maintain an informative and trendy labeling to help their customers to make the right choice. Their ingredients contain Carbonated Water, Carbonated Sugar, Vitamins, Preservatives, Colors, Antioxidant, Sodium Benzoate, Ca-D-Pentothenate, Citric acid, Tartrazine Yellow and many other things according to the standard or permissible level. They even mention on their labeling that, it can be harmful for children and pregnant women. However, they are manufactured by different companies. ‘Speed’ is manufactured by Food And Beverage Limited, ‘Shark’ is manufactured by Global Beverage Company Limited, ‘Sting’ is manufactured by Transcom Beverage Limited, ‘Tiger’ is manufactured by AST Beverage Limited and ‘Boost’ is manufactured by Boost Drinks Limited. Brand Positioning – One of the challenging things for the energy drink companies to do is, to create a permanent place in the customers mind about a particular brand. To do this, all of these energy drink companies need to locate their brands at 3 levels – i. Product attributes ii. Benefits iii. Beliefs and Values. i. Product Attributes: Even though Tiger, Speed, Shark, Boost and Sting all have the common color of the drink – yellow; their smell is very different from each other. Boost tastes sour, Tiger tastes both sour and sweet, Sting tastes like strawberry and both the Shark and Speed taste sweet. ii. Benefits: The common benefit any consumer can gain from having an energy drink is, ‘spiritual force’ – which will make them more active in their daily life. Still, every energy drink has it’s own way to inform about their benefits to their loyal customers. ‘Royal Tiger’ benefits their customers by recharging their energy physically, ‘Boost’ helps their customers with being more efficient, ‘Sting’ provides their customers with vitamins and other nutrients, ‘Shark’ strengthens the stamina of their customers and ‘Speed’ increases the concentration and performance level of the individuals who are consuming it. iii. Beliefs and Values: Satisfaction comes from the core belief that consumers hold in their minds about a certain product. Customers believe – ‘Sting’ and ‘Tiger’ will give them satisfaction with better taste, ‘Boost’ will boost their energy, ‘Shark’ will give them real power and ‘Speed’ will help them gain extra speed. This way customers share their different beliefs and value for each energy drinks differently. 1. 3: Price Analysis– Size of the Bottle Product Name 250 ml 270 ml 330ml Speed 25 BDT Shark 25 BDT – – Sting 25 BDT – – Boost – – – Tiger – 25 BDT – Size of the Can Product name 250 ml 270 ml 330 ml Speed 30 BDT – – Shark 35 BDT – – Sting – -Boost 170 BDT – – Tiger 30 BDT – – 1. 4: Promotion Analysis – Promotion : Advertising is the most crucial part of a company’s marketing mix. It is the first step to inform and aware the general public or the target group of customers about a product a particular company is offering. The five energy drink companies – Speed, Tiger, Shark, Sting and Boost; all of them are between the introduction and growth stage of their product life cycle. At this stage they are only informing the customers about their product including their benefits. Basically all the companies are following the same way to promote their products and these are some of the most common media channels used by them for doing promotion – television, radio, newspapers, magazines and internet. Target Group: Energy drink companies mainly target the major districts of Bangladesh. The local companies, like – Speed, Tiger have distributed their products in rural areas as well to attract a huge number of customers. Energy drinks are mainly used by the people who are between the age group of 16-30, because they comparatively need more energy in every step of their lives. So all of the companies aim to target them and make the product according to their needs to deliver complete satisfaction through their energy drinks. Their product is priced quite cheaply, so that people of different classes can buy them. Most of the energy drinks are claimed to be halal while considering the religious and social issues of Bangladesh. Message and Effect of the advertisements: Message (Add Story) – Each company make their advertisements differently even though their motive remains the same, which is to inform the customers about the product. Here are some of the advertisement stories of the five energy drink companies – 1. Speed – In one of Speed’s advertisements, they have shown some guys were trying to get up on a bamboo for the whole day without getting tired. Their motto is ‘Heavy Energy’. In other words, they are using emotional appeal. In newspapers, they post a picture from the screen shot of their advertisements and use the same motto, so that people can get a clear brand knowledge. They do not have any brand ambassador for their product and they are constantly sending out the notion to their consumers how Speed can let them gain unlimited energy. 2. Shark – There is an advertisement of Shark ‘20 takay Dhaka’, they showed a guy kicked another person from Chittagong and sent him to Dhaka after having Shark energy drink. They are using the motto ‘Real Energy, Real Power’. In their advertisements they use the rational appeal to attract customers. They have no brand ambassador, because they are not still going for intensive or aggressive promotion. 3. Sting -. In the television advertisement there was one young boy who went to a shooting spot with the hope of being a superstar. On that time one director was taking the shot of riding a motor cycle on that spot. Showing that the young boy moved forward to do that shot but the director did not allow him and insulted him that made the young boy very frustrated. After that the director was supposed to make that shot with the hero but unfortunately the hero failed to ride the motor cycle. Then the director asked the crowd who could do the shot. The first young boy showed up the courage and did that shot in a fantastic way. Everybody praised him a lot. They started celebrating the happiness together by dancing with sting energy drink. They were singing â€Å"Sting, Sting, Sting –Ullasher Shuru Ekhanei†. They are using rational appeal in their advertisements In the radio advertisement they play the same jingle. In newspaper the marketers use the picture of 250ml bottle of sting energy drink and write their jingle. They give the same ad in magazines too. In billboards and posters, the marketers add the picture in a big way that they use for newspaper and magazine. 4. Boost – In one ad they have shown that a young guy, probably of age 20 was walking along the roadside, on the background rap music is going on (sign of young generation). The lyrics was talking about getting energy, confidence and success. The guy had his neck tattoed and wore a sunglass, showing the style of recent youth fashion. He went into a departmental store, went to the refrigerator, there were other drinks (e. g. red rooster and red bull); but he picked up BOOST, then he paid for it, got out, drank it and got himself recharged and the soundtrack was saying as if he could fly now. So this is one example of their rational advertisements. They have not used any brand ambassador yet for their product in Bangladesh, and these two advertisements are not even shown in Bangladeshi channels, they are only available in You tube. 5. Tiger – The tiger energy drink has only one advertisement which is very popular. The brand ambassador Aiyub bachchu is the model for the advertisement. The advertisement showed that, when the popular singer Aiyub Bacchu attended a party, the audience requested him to sing a song. But at that time Aiyub Bacchu felt tired and bored. So he needed to recharge himself to get energy. So he took tiger and then sang a song with more power and energetic voice. In this way they try to attract customers by using the rational approach. They also do radio advertisement with the song of Aiyub Bacchu. In billboard advertisement they promote their motto ‘Recharge Yourself’. Effect – Different advertisements effect’s consumers differently. In general, all of these advertisements encourage people to buy their products. When people get satisfied with one product, they talk positive things about it, this way companies can enjoy the benefits of -word of mouth. Customers get to know through these advertisements how their everyday lives are going to be benefitted if they have these energy drinks. Personal selling: Personal selling is no longer considered as giving door to door service. It is a much wider concept nowadays. Companies not only their sell their product to the customers, they also build a loyal relationship with them. To keep on and for maintaining such a relation, companies must be ready to deal with different problems their customers have regarding their product. Unfortunately, none of these five energy drink companies do these in Bangladesh. They are more focused on advertising only. Sales promotion: In general, energy drink companies do not give any special discount on their product to boost their sales. Companies give incentives to their channel members to keep their product in the front line of their shelves, so that customers choose to have it by first looking at it. Sometimes they give energy drink on their own to the customers, because it make the customers feel the product is of high quality and that is why the salesman is offering it to them. Besides people generally do not look out for products those are kept behind the shelves, as it will be very time consuming. Advertisements do even contribute to generate the sales level sometimes. Though there are many other ways to promote sales, the energy drink companies mainly follow these two ways to carry out their sales promotion activity. Public Relation: To operate in this digital world it is very important for companies to maintain a good relation with both their internal and external publics, example – shareholders, customers. Some of the energy drink companies arranges concerts and sponsors television shows to interact closely with their customers. Example – last year Tiger organized one concert in Doha. Each of the five companies uses different and unique logos for their product. None of them are involved in doing conferences or giving press release. Buzz marketing is also a tool used by these companies to improve their relations with the general public and promote their product as well. Direct Marketing: Energy drink companies have their official websites, but their use is not very effective in Bangladesh. In huge shopping malls or in other areas, none of the energy drinks are available in vending machines. These products are not even sold by the companies directly over online or by using telephone. The only way they carry out direct marketing is through placing the advertisement videos in You Tube. The energy drink companies still lack good customer service, example – no service or facilities provided to give complaints or to share ideas about the product face to face with the customers. Promotion Mix Strategy: The demand for energy drink is not yet very high in Bangladesh. So all the manufacturers of these five energy drink companies use the push strategy. Manufacturers contract with wholesalers or retailers to pass down their products to their final consumers and also to encourage customers to buy the products. Sometimes manufacturers give incentives to the channel members to promote their product as well. Section 02: Marketing strategy for a new brand Figure: Spirit Energy Drink Figure: Logo of Spirit Energy Drink 2. 1: Introducing a new brand for energy drink – After analyzing the present market condition of energy drinks in Bangladesh, we have come up with a new idea of introducing a new brand for energy drink. The name of our energy drink will be ‘SPIRIT Energy Drink’. This new energy drink will hopefully win the hearts of our target customers and please them with the new taste and value of our product that we going to offer. This energy drink will not only make people active physically, it will also motivate them spiritually to move ahead in their lives with confidence. The motto of our energy drink is – ‘ignites you from inside’. With this motto we will give our customers the idea of how Spirit energy drink can add more liveliness in their lives. The name of our company is Spirit Beverage Limited and we are using ‘Spirit Energy Drink’ as our product’s logo. We have used picture of a guy inside the logo to show our customers what we are trying to say through the motto.roduct’inkurny is gy of Shark and make them more active. customers tend to buy more. 20202020202020202020202020202020. 2. 2: Design marketing strategy for the new brand – i. Segmentation We will segment the market of Spirit energy drink on the basis of geography, demography, psychography and behavior. Geographic Segmentation: We are going to serve Spirit energy drink mainly for the people of Bangladesh. We will offer Spirit energy drink within the different territories of Bangladesh, like- Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet, Rangpur and Comilla. We will be selecting these territories because these are the biggest district of Bangladesh and most of the people live in these places. We will offer our product throughout every individual district, starting from the departmental stores to the small local and street stalls. We are offering Spirit both in urban and rural areas as well. Demographic Segmentation: Our market will be divided into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family life cycle, occupation and education. We are going to offer our product to both male and female who are between the ages of 15 to 30. We are especially offering the product to the university going students, corporate persons and athletes too. Our product will be for the people of all religion as it will be product is 100% halal. Psychographic Segmentation: Spirit energy drink is for the classes of people who fall under – upper lowers, working class, middle class and upper middles. We are going to use personality variables to segment market like the gregarious and ambitious people. Behavioral Segmentation: We will be segmenting the market of Spirit energy drink on the basis of occasions and benefits. In summer it remains very hot in the middle of the day and for that time we will give a special offer to the customers called â€Å"Make Your Mind Cool†. People will get the same energy drink at a lower price during this time. We will give people other benefits like- we are not using preservatives in our product and our product will be convenient for the customers. ii. Targeting We will target our market within the segmentation. We are mainly targeting Dhaka because, it is the capital city of Bangladesh and highly populated and urbanized. Within Dhaka, we are targeting mostly the teenagers and adults – who are the university students. Female students are going to be a part of it too, because the size and growth rate of this segment is high. As there is going to be other substitute products and tough competitors of Spirit energy drink in the market, we will offer our product directly by setting some temporary stores of Spirit energy drink inside the campus of some big and renowned universities. This will help us gain competitive advantage over our rivals and make people aware of our product. We will explain about the benefits about our product and give other information’s regarding our product. Making people believe that our product is different will be our main target. We will offer the same product at the same price to all our segmented customers. iii. Positioning Our product’s motto is â€Å"Ignites you from inside†, by this motto we are trying to make people believe that, Spirit energy drink encourages people to move on no matter whatever situation they face in their lives. Our product will always remove the frustration from both their body and soul. Spirit is alcohol free and will be made and designed attractively to attract our customers. In this way we will differentiate and create a unique image of our product in our consumer’s mind. iv. Marketing Mix (4p) ? Design and description of the product – Customer Value and Brand Name: The first thing that we are considering about our product before we place it in the market is, it’s core benefit or core values. Customers always seek out for the benefit and the reason behind buying a product. They always value the experience they get after using it. In order to enter the market and establishing our brand successfully, we are going to provide the most refreshing and unique energy drink; which will spread liveliness and create more excitement in our customers life. They will not only buy one Spirit energy drink, they will buy one reason to hold on to being strong and face everything with more spirit in their lives. The brand name of our product is–‘Spirit Energy Drink’. We have named our product Spirit because it is easy to remember and meaningful at the same time. It will help the customers to distinguish and compare our product from others. Product Features and Design: Our energy bottle will be made in the shape of a space shuttle, with a combination of red and black color to give the igniting image. We will design our can just like other energy drink cans, which is made up of steel body with a cylindrical shape. In the middle of both the can and bottle, the name of our product will be written horizontally. The whole bottle and can will be black in color and the name written in pearl white. The shining stars above the name will give it a glowing and sparkling image. The guy standing in the middle of the name will exhibit the idea that Spirit energy drink has the ability to bring back everyone from darkness and add new value to their lives. Like all other energy drink, Spirit’s taste will be sweet and sour and the color of the drink will be red wine color. Packaging and Labeling: We plan to do very careful and colorful packaging to attract our target customers. The products are going to be well packaged and covered so that it stays protected in every condition. All the necessary information’s will be written on the body of bottle and can. Packaging will be done in two ways: 1. Plastic bottle – 300ml (Normal Packaging) 2. Steel Can – 270ml (Prestigious Packaging). Necessary warnings will be provided, like –it might be harmful for pregnant women and children. Manufacturing and Expiring dates will be written on the covers to warn the consumers about the product’s validity. Most importantly, the ingredients we are going to use are – Carbonated water, Refined sugar, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Benzoate, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6, Touraine, Citric Acid, Preservatives, Antioxidant, Ca-D-Pentothenate, Tartrazine, Mixed Fruit Flavor, Food Grade Flavor, Food Colors. There will be a Nutrition Fact chart too, describing the nutritious contents. Energy80 cal. Proteino gm Saturated fato gm Total fat o gm Sodium 20mg Sugar20 gm Carbohydrate 20. 5 gm Cholesterol0 gm Dietary Fibero gm Product Quality: Providing our customers with the best quality of energy drink is our prime purpose. We have made sure that our energy drink does not contain any harmful substances. It is alcohol free and free from every possible harmful effects. With the amazing taste and other attributes, we assure that our customers will be satisfied and buy Spirit more frequently. Design of pricing policy. Spirit is at the introduction stage of it’s product life cycle and we know the competition of energy drink companies is rising day by day in Bangladesh. We will use cost-plus pricing for Spirit energy drink, considering the present market and demand for energy drink. Though the demand of energy drink in our country is increasing with time, our product is still under pure competition, as there are already some other energy drinks in our local market. We will also consider competitors strategies and prices, how they set their prices and how much they charge from the intermediaries and consumers. We will focus on our target customers willingness and ability to pay for an energy drink. After considering the above issues we are charging 35tk for 270ml can and 30tk for 300ml bottle from our customers. For the 270ml can, our production is 30tk and after setting a standard markup to the cost we will be charging 32tk from our wholesalers, wholesalers will charge 33. 5tk to the retailers and finally the retailers are sell the drink at 35tk o the customers. For 300ml bottle, our production cost per bottle is 25tk and after setting a standard markup to the cost the wholesalers will buy each bottle at 27tk from the us. Wholesalers will charge 28. 5tk to the retailers and finally the retailers will sell it at 30tk each bottle to the customers. In short, we are charging the price for our product moderately to attract huge number of customers to buy it. It will help us to maintain a minimum level of profits for operating and keep running our business. Design of promotional activities – Advertising: For creating awareness and informing the consumers about our product we are going to advertise in more than one media. Our target is to do mass promotion to cover the maximum number of people in Bangladesh. Some of the major media channels through which we will be advertising are –television, radio, newspapers, online media and billboards. Television and internet are the most fastest and effective media channels to promote product, as most of the people spend their time on these. Newspapers though have high believability, do not last for a long period of time. Starting from the poor uneducated people of our society to the educated ones, everyone listens to radio. Therefore radio is also a very effective way to reach a huge number of customers at the same time. Add story – While broadcasting on television, we will show a random university student is sitting on a chair and lost deep inside at the sheer thoughts of failing in exam. Then suddenly one of his friends will come to him and give him a Spirit energy drink. After having the energy drink the boy will jump off and scream energetically that he is not going to give up. He will get motivated and feel more energized while doing his studies. He will realize that he can study longer and give more concentration in his studies after drinking the Spirit energy drink. Then finally when the results come out, he will do the top result in his university. He will then become extremely happy and appreciate how Spirit energy drink has helped him to achieve this success in life. This way we will draw conclusion to the add. In newspapers and billboards we will use the same boy, who will be smiling and holding a Spirit energy drink; conveying the same message about our product’s motto. In radio channels we use the same jingle which we will show in television. As we are launching a new product in the market, we want to deliver the same message to our target customers. It will help them to get a clear and specific idea of our brand and what we intend to provide. Our advertisement is designed in both emotional and rational way. Emotionally we are showing the customer, they can move on in their lives with the help of Spirit and rationally we are giving them the idea that Spirit energy drink is good for their health, as it increases concentration and strength. Sales Promotion: Sales promotion is another major step we will carry out to encourage our customers to purchase our product more frequently. Sales promotion can be done in many ways – giving discounts, giving lotteries, pop-up adds, etc. We will give incentives to the people of our channels to keep our energy drink in front of the shelves in all the stores we are going to supply. Consumers buys the product that are kept in front side, because people have an idea that good quality things are always kept at the front and they will not want to search for other product as that would be time consuming. In times of special occasions like Eid, we will announce special discounts or extra offers. We will sell our products in front of colleges, universities and major shopping malls. Therefore we will be exposing our product more to the public and will gain higher chances of selling our product, thus making more profits. Besides, none of our competitors are doing these things, so we can gain competitive advantage over them as well. Personal selling: Energy drink is a convenience product, and it is quite impossible to reach the mass people by employing thousands of employees for selling our product. This process is very slow and expensive. So we will not be selling our products personally. We will employ experts in offices, who will deal with customer’s view’s and problems. This way we will personally provide/sell our service them beside selling our product. Public relations: At the very first stage we will arrange a press conference to inform everyone about our product. Press media is very crucial, as interacting with them positively will encourage them to promote our product more creatively and positively to our customers. This way we can also have competitive advantage over our competitors. We will organize different concerts and sponsor television shows, this will give us an open platform to interact more closely with our customers and build a strong relation with them. Direct marketing: We are planning to open a Facebook page along with our official website where we will encourage people to share their views about our product. This will help us to keep track of our customers reaction towards our product. None of the other energy drink companies are doing much of these activities, so it is an easier way to grab a huge number of customers and market share this way. Online marketing is therefore more efficient and fast way of direct marketing in terms of receiving our customers reactions, complaints and comments and adapting to those changes to keep surviving and growing. Promotion Mix strategy: We will use push strategy for Spirit energy drink. Contracting with different wholesalers and retailers will help us to provide adequate supplies in every convenient and targeted locations. We will give them incentives to promote and supply our product more frequently to the customers. Design of distribution activities- We will go for intensive distribution for Spirit energy drink, because we want to provide stock our product in as many outlets as possible. We want to ensure that our products must be available where and when consumers want them. As our product is new in the market, we will directly offer our product to the target customers. We will be offering our Spirit energy drink to the customers through wholesalers and retailers. Within our limited resources we cannot afford to have our own distribution facilities, like – warehouses and showrooms and to hire sales people and support stuffs. We would rather contract with the wholesalers, so that they will take those extra costs and risks. Our target customers are the young university students, that is why we are contracting with retailers.