Question: Amber Briggs looked nervously at her watch
Amber Briggs looked nervously at her watch as she sat at the front of a large table in the cafeteria at Kerzner Office Equipment. It was now 10 minutes after 3:00 and only 10 of the 14 members had arrived for the first meeting of the Kerzner anniversary task force. Just then two more members hurriedly sat down and mumbled apologies for being late. Briggs cleared her throat and started the meeting. KERZNER OFFICE EQUIPMENT Kerzner Office Equipment is located in Charleston, South Carolina. It specializes in the manufacture and sales of high-end office furniture and equipment. Kerzner enjoyed steady growth during its first five years of existence with a high-water employment mark of more than 1,400 workers. Then a national recession struck, forcing Kerzner to lay off 25 percent of its employees. This was a traumatic period for the company. Justin Tubbs was brought in as the new CEO, and things began to slowly turn around. Tubbs was committed to employee participation and redesigned operations around the concept of self-managing teams. The company soon introduced an innovative line of ergonomic furniture designed to reduce back strain and carpal tunnel. This line of equipment proved to be a resounding success, and Kerzner became known as a leader in the industry. The company currently employs 1,100 workers and has just been selected for the second straight time by the Charleston Post and Courier as one of the 10 best local firms to work for in South Carolina. AMBER BRIGGS Amber Briggs is a 42-year-old human resource specialist who has worked for Kerzner for the past five years. During this time she has performed a variety of activities involving recruitment, training, compensation, and team building. David Brown, vice president of human resources, assigned Briggs the responsibility for organizing Kerzner’s 10th anniversary celebration. She was excited about the project because she would report directly to top management. CEO Tubbs briefed her as to the purpose and objectives of the celebration. Tubbs stressed that this should be a memorable event and that it was important to celebrate Kerzner’s success since the dark days of the layoffs. Moreover, he confided that he had just read a book on corporate cultures and believed that such events were important for conveying the values at Kerzner. He went on to say that he wanted this to be an employee celebration—not a celebration conjured up by top management. As such, she would be assigned a task force of 14 employees from each of the major departments to organize and plan the event. Her team was to present a preliminary plan and budget for the event to top management within three months. When discussing budgets, Tubbs revealed that he felt the total cost should be somewhere in the $150,000 range. He concluded the meeting by offering to help Briggs in any way he could to make the event a success. Soon thereafter Briggs received the list of the names of the task force members, and she contacted them either by phone or e-mail to arrange today’s meeting. She had to scramble to find a meeting place. Her cubicle in human resources was too small to accommodate such a group, and all the meeting rooms at Kerzner were booked or being refurbished. She settled on the cafeteria because it was usually deserted in the late afternoon. Prior to the meeting she posted the agenda on a flipchart (see Figure C11.1) adjacent to the table. Given everyone’s busy schedules, the meeting was limited to just one hour. THE FIRST MEETING Briggs began the meeting by saying, “Greetings. For those who don’t know me, I’m Amber Briggs from human resources and I’ve been assigned to manage the 10th anniversary celebration at Kerzner. Top management wants this to be a special event—at the same time they want it to be our event. This is why you are here. Each of you represents one of the major departments, and together our job is to plan and organize the celebration.†She then reviewed the agenda and asked each member to introduce him/ herself. The tall, red-haired woman to the right of Briggs broke the momentary silence by saying, “Hi, I’m Cara Miller from Plastics. I guess my boss picked me for this task force because I have a reputation for throwing great parties.†In turn each member followed suit. Below is a sampling of their introductions: “Hi, I’m Mike Wales from maintenance. I’m not sure why I’m here. Things have been a little slow in our department, so my boss told me to come to this meeting.†“I’m Megan Plinski from domestic sales. I actually volunteered for this assignment. I think it will be a lot of fun to plan a big party.†“Yo, my name is Nick Psias from accounting. My boss said one of us had to join this task force, and I guess it was my turn.†“Hi, I’m Rick Fennah. I’m the only one from purchasing who has been here since the beginning. We’ve been through some rough times, and I think it is important to take time and celebrate what we’ve accomplished.†“Hi, I’m Ingrid Hedstrom from international sales. I think this is a great idea, but I should warn you that I will be out of the country for most of the next month.†“I’m Abby Bell from engineering. Sorry for being late, but things are a bit crazy in my department.†Briggs circled the names of the two people who were absent and circulated a roster so that everyone could check to see if their phone numbers and e-mail addresses were correct. She then summarized her meeting with Tubbs and told the group that he expected them to make a formal presentation to top management within 10 weeks. She acknowledged that they were all busy people and that it was her job to manage the project as efficiently as possible. At the same time, she reiterated the importance of the project and that this would be a very public event: “If we screw up, everyone will know about it.†Briggs went over the ground rules and emphasized that from now on meetings would start on time and that she expected to be notified in advance if someone was going to be absent. She summarized the first part of the project as centering on five key questions: when, where, what, who, and how much? She created a stir in the group when she responded to a question about cost by informing them that top management was willing to pay up to $150,000 for the event. Megan quipped, “This is going to be one hell of a party.†Briggs then turned the group’s attention to identifying a common meeting time. After jousting for 15 minutes, she terminated the discussion by requesting that each member submit a schedule of free time over the next month by Friday. She would use this information and a new planning software to identify optimal times. She ended the meeting by thanking the members for coming and asking them to begin soliciting ideas from co-workers about how this event should be celebrated. She announced that she would meet individually with each of them to discuss their role on the project. The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m. 1. Critique Briggs’s management of the first meeting. What, if anything, should she have done differently? 2. What barriers is she likely to encounter in completing this project? 3. What can she do to overcome these barriers? 4. What should she do between now and the next meeting. Figure C11.1: 
Transcribed Image Text:
Celebration Task Force Agenda 3:00 Introductions 3:15 Project overview 3:30 Ground rules 3:45 Meeting times 4:00 Adjourn
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> Assume you are a member of a class on project management. Each student will join a team of 5–7 students who will be responsible for creating, planning, and executing a fund raising project for a designated charity. The fund raising proj
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> What does the term “escalate” refer to, and why is it essential to project success?
> What are the best practices used by firms to outsource project work?
> Why do firms outsource project work?
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> What does the acronym BATNA refer to and why is it important to being a successful negotiator?
> Why is the principled negotiation approach recommended for negotiating agreements on projects?
> Break into groups of four to five students. Assign half of the groups the role of Owner and the other half the role of Contractor. Owners: After saving for many years you are about to hire a contractor to build your “dream home.” What are your objective
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> What are the fundamental differences between fixed-price and cost-plus contracts?
> What are the elements of an effective project vision? Why are they important?
> What are the differences between the five-stage model of team development and the punctuated equilibrium model?
> What can a project manager do to avoid some of the pitfalls of a highly cohesive project team?
> What are the unique challenges of managing a virtual project team?
> The technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management are two sides to the same coin. Explain.
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> Why should a project manager emphasize group rewards over individual rewards?
> Assume that you have the following decision-making options: (1) make the decision on your own with available information, (2) consult others before making a decision, and (3) call a meeting and reach a consensus, seeking to arrive at a final decision eve
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> Why is a conductor of an orchestra an appropriate metaphor for being a project manager? What aspects of project managing are not reflected by this metaphor? Can you think of other metaphors that would be appropriate?
> What are some of the key environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed? What has been the effect of these forces on the management of projects?
> What is the difference between leading and managing a project?
> Why is trust a function of both character and competence?
> Why is it important to build a relationship before you need it?
> What differences would you expect to see between the kinds of influence currencies that a project manager in a functional matrix would use and the influence a project manager of a dedicated project team would use?
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> You work for a large consulting firm and were assigned to the Gold Star LAN project. Work on the project is nearly completed and your clients at Gold Star appear to be pleased with your performance. During the course of the project, changes in the origin
> Define a project. What are five characteristics that help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization?
> You are driving to a project status report meeting with your client. You encountered a significant technical problem on the project that has put your project behind schedule. This is not good news because completion time is the number one priority for th
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> How can a cost-duration graph be used by the project manager? Explain.
> It is possible to shorten the critical path and save money. Explain how.
> What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing project scope to accelerate a project? What can be done to reduce the disadvantages?
> What are five common reasons for crashing a project?
> Reducing the project duration increases the risk of being late. Explain.
> Identify four indirect costs you might find on a moderately complex project. Why are these costs classified as indirect?
> What is the impact of governance on managing an individual project? Why is this approach important in today’s environment?
> Why is scheduling overtime a popular choice for getting projects back on schedule? What are the potential problems for relying on this option?
> Given the data and information that follow, compute the total direct cost for each project duration. If the indirect costs for each project duration are $90 (15 time units), $70 (14), $50 (13), $40 (12), and $30 (11), compute the total project cost for e
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Reduce the schedule until you reach the crash point of the network. For each move identify what activity (ies) was crashed and the adjusted total cost.
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Reduce the schedule until you reach the crash point of the network. For each move identify what activity (ies) was crashed and the adjusted total cost. N
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Reduce the schedule until you reach the crash point of the network. For each move identify what activity (ies) was crashed and the adjusted total cost. N
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Reduce the schedule until you reach the crash point of the network. For each move identify what activity (ies) was crashed, the adjusted total cost, and e
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Assume the total indirect cost for the project is $2,000 and there is a savings of $100 per time unit reduced. Calculate the total direct, indirect, and p
> If the indirect costs for each duration are $300 for 27 days, $240 for 26 days, $180 for 25 days, $120 for 24 days, $60 for 23 days, and $50 for 22 days, compute the direct, indirect and total costs for each duration. What is the optimum cost-time schedu
> Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Assume the total indirect cost for the project is $700 and there is a savings of $50 per time unit reduced. Record the total direct, indirect, and project
> You are the assistant project manager to Rassy Brown, who is in charge of the Nightingale project. Nightingale was the code name given to the development of a handheld electronic medical reference guide. Nightingale would be designed for emergency medic
> Go to an Internet search engine (e.g., Google) and type in “project communication plan.” Check three or four that have “.gov” as their source. How are they similar or dissimilar? What would be your conclusion concerning the importance of an internal comm
> Each year countries enter their sailing vessels in the nine-month Round the World Whitbread Sailboat Race. In recent years, about 14 countries entered sailboats in the race. Each year’s sailboat entries represent the latest technologie
> Given the project network derived in Part A of the case from Chapter 7, Brown also wants to be prepared to answer any questions concerning compressing the project duration. This question will almost always be entertained by the accounting department, rev
> Several complications arose during the course of trying to meet the deadline of January 20 for the “Now” Wedding rehearsal. Since Lauren was adamant on having the wedding on January 21 (as was Connor for obvious reasons), the implications of each of the
> On December 31 of last year, Lauren burst into the family living room and announced that she and Connor (her college boyfriend) were going to be married. After recovering from the shock, her mother hugged her and asked, “When?” The following conversatio
> Rassy and the team were concerned with the results of your analysis. They spent the afternoon brainstorming alternative ways for shortening the project duration. They rejected outsourcing activities because most of the work was developmental in nature a
> How does resource scheduling tie to project priority?
> Why is it critical to develop a time-phased baseline?
> How does resource scheduling reduce flexibility in managing projects?
> Explain how time is wasted in management of projects.
> Buffers are not the same as slack. Explain.
> Why is the implementation of projects important to strategic planning and the project manager?
> Distinguish between project and feeder buffers.
