Midtown Medical Centre, a family clinic operating two centres in the Indian state of Kerala, provided quality and convenient health care facilities to nearby communities. Founded in 2016 by six young entrepreneurs, the project had grown to two centres by the second year of operation, serving semi-urban and urban patients in the cities of Thrikkakkara and Aluva. In August 2018, the six entrepreneurs were considering expanding to a third centre, but they were unsure how to proceed. They were also unsure about the sustainability of the business model they had adopted for the clinic. They were aware of the importance of attracting new patients and having the appropriate space for the success of any health care clinic. Therefore, the six entrepreneurs were considering revisiting their marketing strategies to make them more effective.
Project Communication from Start to Finish is a five-chapter book by Geraldine Hynes, Ph.D., a communications expert, university lecturer, and author. Its key premise is that skills in project management are critical in a broad range of businesses and industries. A key knowledge area for project managers is communication. This book offers techniques and strategies that enhance communication in diverse environments. It offers innovative ways to bridge cultural gaps, increase understanding, and ensure project success. Project managers will learn how to build trust and rapport, manage conflict, listen, communicate expectations, give performance feedback, and overcome communication barriers. A look to the future includes best practices for using emerging technology when communicating with distributed teams. This book's concise format makes it a readable, practical guide, and it can also be used as a reference for fixing the most frequent communication breakdowns. Cases and examples are presented to illustrate applications of the communication principles from a project's start to finish. This chapter begins by explaining that communication is a key knowledge area for project managers and presents research findings that show the correlation between communication effectiveness and project success as well as organizational success. It then introduces the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (the PMBOK Guide), the premier resource for project managers, particularly the sections of the Guide that focus on communication competencies for project managers. In the third section of this chapter, project life cycles are described, as well as the role of communication at each stage of the life cycle. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the book's conceptual model "The Sequence for Success"-and shows how the model embodies ideas that are found in the PMBOK Guide.
Project Communication from Start to Finish is a five-chapter book by Geraldine Hynes, Ph.D., a communications expert, university lecturer, and author. Its key premise is that skills in project management are critical in a broad range of businesses and industries. A key knowledge area for project managers is communication. This book offers techniques and strategies that enhance communication in diverse environments. It offers innovative ways to bridge cultural gaps, increase understanding, and ensure project success. Project managers will learn how to build trust and rapport, manage conflict, listen, communicate expectations, give performance feedback, and overcome communication barriers. A look to the future includes best practices for using emerging technology when communicating with distributed teams. This book's concise format makes it a readable, practical guide, and it can also be used as a reference for fixing the most frequent communication breakdowns. Cases and examples are presented to illustrate applications of the communication principles from a project's start to finish. Chapter 2 is designed to help project managers learn strategies and techniques for communicating in agile and waterfall methods of project management; overcoming communication barriers; appreciating diversity; and developing cultural competence. It begins by demonstrating the importance of communication in two typical methods of project management-agile and waterfall. It then lays two "cornerstones" or basic concepts that are the foundation on which the Sequence for Success model of project management, introduced in Chapter 1, is built. The first cornerstone is diversity appreciation (Figure 2.1). The chapter also suggests several communication strategies that you, as a project manager, can adopt to capitalize on the advantages of workforce diversity. In the final section, the chapter identifies and defines the model's other cornerstone, cultural competence.
Project Communication from Start to Finish is a five-chapter book by Geraldine Hynes, Ph.D., a communications expert, university lecturer, and author. Its key premise is that skills in project management are critical in a broad range of businesses and industries. A key knowledge area for project managers is communication. This book offers techniques and strategies that enhance communication in diverse environments. It offers innovative ways to bridge cultural gaps, increase understanding, and ensure project success. Project managers will learn how to build trust and rapport, manage conflict, listen, communicate expectations, give performance feedback, and overcome communication barriers. A look to the future includes best practices for using emerging technology when communicating with distributed teams. This book's concise format makes it a readable, practical guide, and it can also be used as a reference for fixing the most frequent communication breakdowns. Cases and examples are presented to illustrate applications of the communication principles from a project's start to finish. Chapter 3 focuses on helping project managers learn strategies and techniques for various situations that entail formal interpersonal communication, including: receiving formal communications-listening, responding, and asking questions; communicating performance expectations; delivering negative information and corrective feedback; giving positive performance feedback; conducting formal performance reviews; and managing conflict.
Project Communication from Start to Finish is a five-chapter book by Geraldine Hynes, Ph.D., a communications expert, university lecturer, and author. Its key premise is that skills in project management are critical in a broad range of businesses and industries. A key knowledge area for project managers is communication. This book offers techniques and strategies that enhance communication in diverse environments. It offers innovative ways to bridge cultural gaps, increase understanding, and ensure project success. Project managers will learn how to build trust and rapport, manage conflict, listen, communicate expectations, give performance feedback, and overcome communication barriers. A look to the future includes best practices for using emerging technology when communicating with distributed teams. This book's concise format makes it a readable, practical guide, and it can also be used as a reference for fixing the most frequent communication breakdowns. Cases and examples are presented to illustrate applications of the communication principles from a project's start to finish. Chapter 4 focuses on helping project managers learn strategies and techniques for interpersonal communication competencies that can be applied in informal settings, such as: developing trust; developing emotional intelligence; increasing employee engagement; and building rapport. These conversations will help you get along with your project team, sponsors, and stakeholders and increase the likelihood of a project's success.
Project Communication from Start to Finish is a five-chapter book by Geraldine Hynes, Ph.D., a communications expert, university lecturer, and author. Its key premise is that skills in project management are critical in a broad range of businesses and industries. A key knowledge area for project managers is communication. This book offers techniques and strategies that enhance communication in diverse environments. It offers innovative ways to bridge cultural gaps, increase understanding, and ensure project success. Project managers will learn how to build trust and rapport, manage conflict, listen, communicate expectations, give performance feedback, and overcome communication barriers. A look to the future includes best practices for using emerging technology when communicating with distributed teams. This book's concise format makes it a readable, practical guide, and it can also be used as a reference for fixing the most frequent communication breakdowns. Cases and examples are presented to illustrate applications of the communication principles from a project's start to finish. Chapter 5 focuses on helping project managers learn strategies and techniques for communicating with stakeholders in a global context. Specifically, project managers will learn how to: communicate with distributed teams; use traditional and emerging communication technology; develop culturally sensitive project teams; and apply PMI standards for ethical and professional conduct when communicating. It also considers four major trends in the global work environment: growing reliance on teams and cross-boundary collaboration, increasing reliance on technology, expanding project teams' cultural sensitivity, and heightened emphasis on ethics.
This technical note helps explain what leadership really is, explores some of the factors that influence leader effectiveness, and introduces the basics of how people can begin to develop as leaders. It is an introduction to a very big topic area, but provides simple definitions and explanations of complicated concepts.
This case follows Nate Jamison as he determines which business entity to form for his growing City Moving Company (City Moving) in Washington, DC. From the start, Jamison operated City Moving as a sole proprietorship while he bootstrapped the business. Eventually he was able to get his own truck and hire two steady employees, and the three hope to formalize a business partnership to expand City Moving so that all three men can lead their own moving teams. To document the new ownership agreement, the partners know they need to properly register City Moving as a business entity. But which one would best fit City Moving's needs?
Unlike any other European airline, Ryanair DAC had long experienced impressive growth and performance thanks to its well-designed and ruthlessly executed low-cost carrier business model. However, the limits of growth did begin to appear, at which time the company adjusted its business model with an increased emphasis on customer orientation. As a result, cracks in the business model appeared and labour issues came to the fore. While the media and industry analysts were focused on these challenges, Ryanair was undergoing a quiet digital revolution, shifting the airline's business model toward a technology-based travel platform. With the problems in the business model and a shifting business strategy, could Ryanair achieve the ambitious growth targets it set for 2024?
In 2019, 15 years after entering the Canadian wine industry, Diamond Estate Wines & Spirits Inc. (Diamond), located in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, was poised for growth. In a fragmented industry with local, national, and international competition from well-established and new players, Diamond had decent positions in many industry subsegments. One aspect of Diamond that set it apart from other small wineries was its distribution business, allowing access to valuable channels in the Canadian market. The company had proven itself capable of most aspects of the value chain in the wine industry and was poised for growth. The question was, which of the many attractive options should Diamond pursue?
At the end of 2017, the director of HY Capital, was facing an investment decision. Two years earlier, HY Capital had invested in Dalian New Vision Media Co. Ltd. (New Vision), a company working on augmented reality products for early childhood education. The investment provided New Vision with sufficient funds to enter the market. However, after a quick success, New Vision had saturated the market and could not make further significant progress. Thus, New Vision’s management team proposed to alter the company’s strategy to move into kindergarten to grade 12 after-school education. The strategic shift could be lucrative, but it was risky and would require more funds to support product development. The director was now wondering, should HY Capital support New Vision with further investments or just exit the investment?
The case explores the journey of Fernandez Hospital (FH) and its evolution from a small maternity clinic to a tertiary-level hospital for women and children with a focus on accessible and high-quality healthcare in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Evita Fernandez, CEO of FH, was a vocal advocate of natural birth, contrary to the trend towards Caesarean section (C-section) deliveries seen in most hospitals across India. The case is set in the year 2014 and deliberates on the options that Dr. Fernandez had at different stages of FH's journey and the strategic decisions that she and her team made and implemented. It showcases the challenges FH faced in deciding what to do next while keeping its values intact. From studying the case, students will appreciate the need for organizations to develop a framework to help them analyze their current situation, establish priorities, identify opportunities, and make rational and well-informed decisions about the future. Dr. Fernandez had an expansive purpose of enabling safe deliveries in society at large. While an expansion of the existing hospitals may achieve this goal to the limited extent of enabling safe deliveries within her hospitals, it would not result in a much wider preference across the country for natural deliveries over C-section deliveries. The case ends with Dr. Fernandez and her team contemplating various options available to them.
Athena Bancorp was founded in 2016 by Beth Daniels, a banking professional with 15 years of experience in the industry. Daniels took advantage of what she perceived as a gap in the market caused by recent industry consolidation, a decreasing industry focus on branch banking, and tighter lending standards. Athena has an aggressive growth goal-"to grow to 15 branches, with loans and deposits increasing by threefold over the next five years." However, the bank's operating philosophy centers on a high-touch approach, and it relies on dedicated, highly-capable employees who are willing to work long hours. Burnout is setting in at the branch level and morale is declining. Daniels and her leadership team are struggling to hire enough employees to execute this strategy. The case illustrates a company whose success is driven primarily by its human resources (HR) strategy. It also highlights the opportunities and challenges of operating a service business with a high performance/high commitment culture. The case can be used to discuss topics such as leadership, management, organizational culture, strategy, motivation, and entrepreneurs. It is recommended for upper-level undergraduate students or MBA students in courses focused on organizational behavior, general management, human resource management, leadership, or entrepreneurship.
Roger Federer, widely regarded as the best tennis player in the history of the sport, walked onto the court to thunderous applause during in the second edition of the Laver Cup in September 2018. Named after tennis legend Rod Laver, the Cup pitted many of the greatest players from Europe against those from the rest of the world. Federer was more than one of the Laver Cup's main stars-he was an owner and co-creator. In fact, the idea for the event had originated in his boutique company TEAM8, which he co-founded in 2013 with his agent and business partner Tony Godsick. The Laver Cup's success had not gone unnoticed in the world of tennis. With traditional tennis tournaments such as the Davis Cup attracting new investors and with governing bodies such as the Association of Tennis Professionals planning to relaunch their team event, the competition for top players and for desirable slots on an already very full tennis calendar was stronger than ever before. Was TEAM8's Laver Cup well-positioned for long-term success?
Democratic institutions and other important decision-making processes in society have long been designed around the assumption that groups are better at making important decisions than are individuals. But, there is extensive research indicating that group decision making often falls short of its ideal-even when the stakes are high and consequences of the group's actions are substantial. This briefing note introduces three key biases that impede effective decision making in groups, and seven research-based strategies for mitigating biases in group decision making. Strategies discussed have been demonstrated to enhance the quality of decision making and avoid common pitfalls when making decisions in groups.
In May 2018, Singapore's publicly-listed Hyflux Ltd, which was once the world's fifth largest desalination plant supplier, filed for court-supervised reorganisation of its liabilities and businesses. The company's total liabilities had escalated to S$3.4 billion (Including contingent liabilities); while its readily available cash balance was S$18.9 million and its market capitalisation was S$165 million. The court granted the company a debt moratorium, which was extended several times as Hyflux explored options of capital injection from strategic investors, asset sales and rescue financing. The revelation that the once-star company was under water and drowning in debt shocked the stakeholders. How and why did this reversal of fortune happen? Were there any red flags leading to this fallout? How would the financial restructuring affect the stakeholders? Finally, what lessons in financial management could be drawn for the company, creditors, banks and investors?
The case demonstrates how Ant Financial, the leading Fintech company in China, carried out an innovative CSR project-Ant Forest and how the project creatively integrates social goals with business practices to create a significant social impact as well as strategic values. Ant Forest is an exemplar showcasing how an environmental initiative can synergize with the core competence of a Fintech company. For undergraduate or master students, the instructor can stimulate discussion on popular CSR practices and on how to improve their effectiveness by introducing creative designs such as gamification. For an in-depth discussion, the instructor can introduce the strategic thinking behind CSR activities and the implicit competition between firms and nonprofit organizations in delivering social goods.