Project Management Leadership and Skills: Planning and Control – Retail Store Canada | Business Case

Project Management Leadership and Skills: Planning and Control – Retail Store Canada | Business Case Study Assignment Help

Assignment brief

You have recently been appointed by a large investor in the UK who is seeking to develop Target stores in the UK but they have concerns over the problems Target US had with their project in Canada

Your assignment is to write a report on the prospective Target UK as a project – considering what is likely to go well and what not so well.

Your report should therefore focus on the project management aspects including the key risks e.g. loss of money and overrunning its schedule and not meeting the performance requirements expected from a project of this type.

Part A

This involves the preparation of a PowerPoint presentation of your business case and project plan as detailed in the assignment brief.

You are required to prepare the slides along with associated written presentation notes for submission with Part B.

Part A should be included in the beginning of Part B, in a Word/PDF document.

Part B

Produce a detailed business case and project plan, and any recommendations to the Project Board that you consider appropriate. You may want to use some of the sub-headings below, but that is entirely up to you: this is not a template.

Literature review

Provide a short, but critical view of literature around project initiation and planning, paying particular attention to the differences between different approaches and how those are relevant to your context. Provide justification for choosing one approach over the other

Introduction to your case

Identify the major planning problems with the Target Canada project and suggest how project management techniques might have helped to mitigate these problems

Project objectives

Performance Measurement / Management of quality

Stakeholder analysis

Activities to be carried out and scheduling including any milestones: your project plan must include a schedule created with Microsoft Project (MSP) or equivalent.

Resources to be used including project budget

Constraints and Risks

Communications to be used

In addition please discuss the following in your report:

Possible success/ failure factors for this project

Considerations concerning future operations

Include a bibliography of your sources.

ASSIGNMENT CASE STUDY INTRODUCTION

The assignment contains information from news and other sources.

We have sought to make this as close as possible to a live project brief.

Target – Canada
Project type : Retail store opening
Project name : Unknown
Date : Jan 2015  Cost : In the region of $7B

Synopsis

Drawn by lower prices, it is common for Canadian families to cross over into the USA to grab their shopping. One favourite destination has always been the US retailer known as “Target”. Famous for their large red and white bulls eye logo, Target’s reputation for good choice, low prices and solid quality was a natural choice for Canadians wanting to stock up on household products, clothes or electronics. Having reached a point of maturity throughout the USA, Target started looking for international expansion opportunities and their relationship with Canadian households seemed like a logical path forward.

As an entry strategy Target purchased 189 leases from the ailing Canadian retailer Zellers. Zellers had sold similar products to Target, but had failed to attain consistent profits. Providing access to many of the major malls across Canada, the move cleared one of the major competitors from the market and avoided the need to build up a retail presence on a piecemeal basis. The move however also committed Target to going big and going big quickly. While some leases were sold on to other retailers, Target arrived in Canada with a bang. Opening their first store in March 2013, they rapidly expanded and reached a peak of 133 stores in little more than a year and half.

Excitement was high and so were expectations. Canadians were used to the low prices in the US stores and expected a similar experience in Canada. Unfortunately those expectations weren’t met. Prices were comparable with other local retailers and the “Target” name was not enough of a draw. When you’re selling commodity items as mundane as toothpaste, the brand on the box matters, the brand on the receipt does not. Compounding the problem was the fact Target Canada suffered from supply chain problems that meant empty shelves that should have been stuffed with key products. Those problems were reportedly linked to the development of a new supply chain software developed specifically to support Target’s expansion into Canada. Used to high stock levels and plenty of choice, today’s buyers don’t have much patience for a store that doesn’t have what they want when they want it.

The impact was immediate and financial performance was lacklustre at best. Anyone who visited a number of Target stores when Target first arrived could have seen the number of customers could only be described as sparse. Those problems persisted as the rapid expansion of stores progressed and continued reports in the Canadian media reflected the disappointment Canadian shoppers were feeling. Those reports likely helped keep other shoppers away and Target Canada’s financial results remained weak. Various promises to address the concerns were made, but none gained the traction needed to put the project on the road to success.

On Jan 14th, 2015, Target Canada threw in the towel. With reports indicating that Target Canada may not have enough cash to make the next payroll Target Canada filed for bankruptcy. Total losses from their Canadian adventure are said to be in the order of $7B.

Note: In something of an ironic twist, Target’s own in-store marketing was telling the customers to expect more. “Expect more. Pay Less®” signs were prominently displayed throughout the store. It appears Canadians took the advice. They did expect more and they did pay less. Unfortunately the reason they did less paying was because they were doing less buying. Given the stories in the media concerning Target’s price practices in Canada versus the USA, perhaps an alternate marketing slogan may have been more appropriate for the Canadian market.

Contributing factors as reported in the press:

Failure to live up to customer expectations (Canadian pricing did not match lower US pricing).

Lack of situational awareness / lack of stakeholder analysis (failure to fully understand Canadian retail sector).

Quality related issues (failure to establish a reliable supply chain when first opening).

Lack of risk management (the expansion was very rapid and appears to be based on the assumption that the openings would be successful).