International Business Issues and Practice

This document explores the complexities and challenges of international business issues and practice with a case study on Vodafone. It discusses project management, key areas, and risk mitigation strategies.

International
Business Issues and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Ways in which project management is conducted in the company ............................................1
Key areas of project management ...............................................................................................7
Critical analyse along with appraise regarding how organisation manages and mitigates risks.
How it affects success and failure. ..............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
International business refers to business transactions which takes place beyond boundary
line of a nation. It encompasses trade of knowledge, products, technology, capital etc across
national extremity as well as at transnational scale. It involves diverse formats such as moving
products from one nation to other and contractual agreements which allows usage of processes,
commodities and many more. Similarly, international business issues are the complexities and
challenges that a company faces while operating at transnational state (Conforto and Amaral,
2016). While operating at global level, there are wide number of issues that are faced by a
business. In addition, international business practice refers to the activities and operations that
are executed while managing business internationally. To understand international business
issues along with practice, Vodafone Company is selected. It is one of leading network providing
service that is based on London, UK. The company owned as well as operated in nearby 25
nations addition to have partner networks in around 47 nations. Its division provides information
technology together with telecommunication services for corporate clients in more than 150
countries. The aim of the entity is for operating its services in large number of countries along
with satisfying all the stakeholders that are involved in its operations.
The report includes information about how project management is conducted in the
business for support planning mitigation as well as contingency planning for hazards and risks. It
also discusses key areas within project management. Further, it also analyse and appraises the
ways the company manages and mitigates risks addition to how it influences success and failure.
MAIN BODY
Ways in which project management is conducted in the company
Vodafone is well popular along with leader in technology communication via fixed,
broadband, TV as well as mobile. The company have large experience in digital transformation,
convergence, championing financial services, and connectivity along in emerging markets. It has
grown in international business as well as became most valuable brands across globe. It has
record to having around 625 million mobile, 22 million television and 27 million fixed
broadband customers as of March 31, 2020 (Vodafone. 2020). All these customers are involved
with business through Vodafone's associates addition to joint ventures. The company believes in
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power of new communication network along with technology for transforming lives and
societies.
Project is defined to a temporary endeavour which is premeditated for producing unique
service, commodity or outcome with clearly stated beginning and end that are to be undertaken
for attaining objectives, particularly for adding values or bringing beneficial change (Kivilä,
Martinsuo and Vuorinen, 2017). In context to Vodafone, it engages with various projects
including customer satisfaction, device management, merger with 3/Hutchison through joint
venture entity, creating new business unit and so forth. One of the project that Vodafone is
managing in current timing is “Repositioning Vodafone in enterprise market”. In this project, the
company work closely with its enterprise marketing team over 12 month duration for devising
marketing framework along with toolkit which supports repositioning of the business. The main
centre of the project is to create comprehensive and compelling brand image,
Project management is defined to the practice for lading a group or team for meeting
criteria along with accomplishing objectives at nominative duration. Main challenge to manage
project includes attaining all goals of project in defined constraints. In an organisation, all the
information related to project are clearly described in documentation that is created at initial
stages of development procedures (Kucharska and Kowalczyk, 2016). Major constraints in
managing project that are common includes scope, quality, budget along with time. It involves
application of techniques, knowledge, tools etc for aligning resources and reaching towards
objectives within specific constraints.
The managers of organisation conducts project management through analysing and
implementation working in different phases. It supports planning mitigation along with
contingency planning for risky situation. The project manager of Vodafone conducts effective
management of the project which supports aspects of planning mitigation as well as contingency
planning for risk through processes and phases. According to Malsam, 2018, projects involves
lot of moving. To conduct successful project management, it is necessary to coordinate and track
all the points through breaking down project in smaller pieces that are said to project phases. In
context to Vodafone, following are processes and phases through which project management is
properly conducted:
Initiation: It is the stage wherein all projects begin. Herein, project managers determines
value of project and its feasibility (Martens and Carvalho, 2016) . Prior to approval and rejection
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of project, certain documents are prepared in order to sell working to different sponsors and
stakeholders. In Vodafone, project managers prepares two documents including business case
and feasibility study. Following are the documents for project of Vodafone:
 Business case: In this project, project managers of company justifies requirements of
project which comprises analysing investment returns and other details. In context to
project of Reposition Vodafone, entire details related to investment, strategies and many
more. It also includes actions that the company will take for achieving success of
mitigating risks associated with projects.
 Feasibility study: This document involves evaluation of project objectives, timeline for
completing, resources will be required and other elements (Martens and Carvalho, 2017)
. The project manager of Vodafone have defined identified that the main objective of the
project is to create compelling addition to comprehensive image of company in emerging
enterprise market. The key resources required in the project are financial resources,
intellectual resources, human resources etc. The entire project will be completed in 12
month period with coordination to enterprise marketing team.
Planning: Once the project manager gains approval for the project, then the next is to
assemble team of it as well as initiates planning for managing the project in order to attain its
objectives on time as well as within budgetary constraints. In order to conduct project
management, the project manager of Vodafone plans entire project with its team and superior
authorities. It comprises planning for required resources, finance and materials. Moreover,
planning mitigate occurrence of risks and gives entire team proper direction. Project managers of
Vodafone conduct planning through Gantt Charts to plan and schedule all the activities that are
to be conducted for achieving of project and making it successful. Through Gantt Chart, project
managers make simple timelines, create task dependencies, set milestones, assign tasks to
individual in team along with balance workload properly. Moreover, In planning stage, future is
forecasted and predicted by project manager so to devise mitigating actions or strategies via
contingency planning for various number of risks (Samset and Volden, 2016). For example,
reputation risk is the major risk that have chances to occur in the project of repositioning
Vodafone. To mitigate it, contingency planning is necessary so that timely actions are
implemented to reduce its impact on business and management of project. Other than reputation
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risk, there are various risks that can occur while completing the project. The contingency
planning for mitigation risks is done through devising risk register which is as follows:
RISK SEVERITY RESPONSIBIL
ITY
MITIGATION AND
CONTINGENCY ACTIONS
SCORES
(Out of 10)
Loss of
reputation
HIGH Project Manager This type of risk is related to
loss of reputation of company
that can influence image of
brand in enterprise market. In
order to mitigate reputation
risk, project manager of
Vodafone are planning for
integrating risk into strategy,
keeping team members update
about the actions, making
values operationally,
controlling processes,
communicating clearly and
employing active monitoring
facility (Sunder, 2016).
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Decline on
brand
positioning
MEDIUM Marketing
manager
The risk can occur of the
marketing department fails to
execute the strategies for the
project of repositioning
Vodafone. In order to mitigate
the risk, the company will
establish a connection with
consumers along with
prospects, reinforcing brand's
differentiating qualities and
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4

implementing marketing
campaigns.
Loss of
existing
offerings
MEDIUM Project manager In any project, loss of current
sales of the offerings have
huge chances to occur in
nearby future (Zaira and
Hadikusumo, 2017). In order
to mitigate the risk, project
manager of Vodafone will pay
attention towards current
clients, run promotions, create
packages and bundles, use
social media platform and
build community.
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Shortage of
finance
LOW Finance
Manager
The risk is concerned with
shortage of finance in the
project. To mitigate the risk,
finance manager of Vodafone
will focus on outflow of cash
as per the defined budget and
will also emphasis on
maintaining reserves so that
they can be used in crisis time
while conducting project.
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Execution: When the entire planning is done, then the next is to start or work on the
project. It is the stage in which rubber hits road. In context to Vodafone, managers manages the
project through executing all the plans into actions. Moreover, the entire team is stimulated
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positively for following the plan and completing allotted or assigned tasks as per defined aspects
(Allen, 2016). In this stage, project managers of company monitors progress through using
project management tools that are as follows:
 Timeline: It is visual project management tool which assist in tracking progress of
project. In Vodafone, project managers uses time line for visualising the time till which a
task or activity is required to be completed. Moreover, it is more sequential manner for
looking towards tasks over time.
 Status table: It is other project management tool that project managers adopts for
tracking procession of project, it do not comprise more detail related to project duration
along with task relations, despite focuses towards status together with complete progress.
By using status table, project managers of Vodafone evaluate performances of employee
and understands who to reach in case some problem arises in some activity for reposition
the brand. Along with this, project manager have responsibility for delegating along with
overseeing workings on each member on project together with maintaining healthy
relationships with al the people engaged so that management of project is conducted
properly (Blank and Dorf, 2020).
Monitoring and control: It involves keeping to the schedule or agenda, reporting to
interested parties along with key stakeholders, monitoring budgets as well as ensuring that the
implementation of project matches with initial planning. In order to make sure that entire project
planning are effectively actualise, all aspects related with the project are monitored together with
adjusted as per requirements (Denning, 2018). In context to project of Repositioning Vodafone
in enterprising market, project managers measures project progress along with instrument to
deliver related information, monitor scope as well as control changes, measure quality for the
activities or tasks deliverables and if found that the planned quality is not met then wide number
of changes are made in the project steps for improving quality of deliverables. Moreover, while
conducting project management, managers also control the expenses, delays in working and cost
changes.
Closure: Project are not over till they met goals and objectives. The last process through
project management is conducted in closing it out (Padalkar and Gopinath, 2016). In context to
project of repositioning Vodafone, project managers ensures to complete project deliverables as
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per the planning, close out outstanding contracts addition to administrative matters, disseminate
with actual parties and archive paperwork.
With the mentioned processes and phases, Vodafone has successfully conducted project
management for its project that is repositioning Vodafone in enterprising market. With this, the
company have make a unique position in the world. With this project, the entity have received
framework addition to supporting assets and the business has rolled out in more than 15 new
nations.
Key areas of project management
Project management is a diverse field. It is all about executing techniques and other
essentials for projecting activities and task with the hope of meeting all the requirements of
specific project (Samset and Volden, 2016). Major goal of project management is for producing
complete project that complies properly with objectives of clients. In many cases, project
management's objective is for shaping along with reforming brief of client for feasibly
addressing their objectives within available budget and time.
As per Hasan, 2017, project management has developed from certain simple principles to
wide subject along with diverse complex concepts. The field of project management includes
diverse number of key areas which are relevant to a project as whole. These areas coincides with
project processes in chronological manner. Moreover, the key areas are considered as core
technical subject matter which are significant for effectively managing project. In context to
Vodafone's project, the details of key area of project management are as follows:
Scope management: Lack of project scope along with scope creep are main reason for
project failure. Moreover, scope management comprises of processes and phases to determine
that project involves work required for completing project in successful manner. Aspects related
to defining and documenting workings are part of scope management (Conforto and et.al., 2016).
In context to project of Vodafone, scope management includes deliverables, problems that will
be solved by project and many more. The details of project scope management are defined
through work breakdown structure. It includes milestones concerned with the project.
Cost management: Almost all project managers consider to manage cost against project
as one of biggest challenge. Nevertheless, cost management acts as difference maker among
successful project to that of project failure. In present era, various projects gets abandoned due to
constraints related to budget. Project cost management comprises estimation of cost, determining
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budget and controlling costs. In context to Vodafone's project, the estimated costs is of £ 180000
to £ 250000 for 12 months in order to reposition the brand in enterprising market. For this, the
company have also set budget and aims to work on that only. To control costs, project managers
of the brand are using techniques such as cost tracking, earned value use, budget planning and
project change controlling.
Communication management: Ineffective along with poor project communication may
wreck havoc in project progress that can take the project towards failure (Padalkar and Gopinath,
2016). In order to complete projects successfully, it is important that all the team members must
be on same page. Addition to it, all the activities and working should be performed as team for
attaining common goals in the project. All this are achieves through effective, timely and regular
communication, project managers of Vodafone undertakes various activities such as identifying
stakeholders and interested parties, planning communication with them, distributing information,
managing expectations of all involved people and reporting performances that results in
uninterrupted communications in the entire or throughout the project for repositioning the brand.
Integration management: Project integration management refers to activities addition to
systems required for recognising, describing, combining, integrating and coordinating multiple
processes with management process groups of the project (Voitenko, Achkasov and Timinsky,
2019.). It is crucial for project management to keep eye on each aspect related to project and
check that all the aspects are working as per the plan. Project managers of Vodafone integrates
its resources and provide them information for their roles and responsibilities along with make
clarity in messages and objectives of project. With this, obstacles are easily identified and timely
addressed before situations going out from hands of project managers.
Time management: In a project, the biggest complexity that project managers faces is
completing projects on defined time. It is seen that various projects fails under supervision of
effective and competent project managers just because they fail to meet deadlines (Martens and
Carvalho, 2017). In case with project of Vodafone, project manager focuses towards defining
activities, sequencing all, estimating required resources and time, develops schedule and control
it that helps in completing activities of project that is repositioning Vodafone within enterprising
market and achieving successful results.
Quality management: project having high quality is that which have potentials for
satisfying needs of market as well as do not entails any sort of deficiencies and defects. In
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Vodafone, project managers along with the team emphasis towards requirements of clients and
customer wants so that it becomes possible for them to achieve as maximum as highest quality in
delivering telecommunication services for reposition the brand. At last, it is necessary for all the
projects to align with requirements of users so to be popular as high quality project (Lutchman,
2016).
Human resource management: In management of project, human resource management
is key area that is mostly ignored. It refers to set of activities and processes that are part of
organising, leading together with managing members in project team. In context to project of
Vodafone, clear strategy is adopted by project manager for recruiting and staffing people along
with inducting them for project teams. In this aspect, sub processes used by project managers of
the company includes building human resource management plan, hiring project team, training
and development of people in teams and managing them properly (Dalcher, 2016).
Risk management: In a project, risk management is key area to complete projects in
successful manner. Effective risk management helps in preventing projects from failure.
Moreover, project managers reduces chances of occurrence of any risk type through following
proactive approach along with managing risks in beginning stage (Laufer, 2016). For protecting
the project of Repositioning Vodafone from the risks, project managers performs set of activities
including planning risk management, identifying risks and preparing risk register, undertaking
qualitative addition to qualitative risk analysis, risk response planning, monitoring addition to
controlling risks. When some project managers ignores risks then there are lot of chances that the
project suffers failures.
The mentioned are key areas of project planning that are necessary to be considered by
all project managers in order to make the projects successful. Project manager of Vodafone
initiates workings by considering all the described key areas while managing the project to meet
success aspects.
Critical analyse along with appraise regarding how organisation manages and mitigates risks.
How it affects success and failure.
According to Safa, Von Solms and Furnell (2016), In order to mitigating the risk,
organisation should be uses a process that involves identification of risk, analyse the risk,
evaluation or ranking the risk, treat the risk and monitor and review the risk. The management of
Vodafone identify the risk in relation to business that is reducing the positioning the organisation
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and also affected the profitability negatively. In this, managers should conduct the market
analysis and contact with people who share their problems at the time of buying products and
services. After identification of risk there is needed to analysis them that states the reason why
organisation is facing the problems. This helps to develop the understanding of nature of risk and
potential that affects project goals and objectives. In next step, evaluation and ranking is given
by managers by determining the risk magnitude that helps to make the decisions about is risk are
acceptable or not in running the business. If risks are serious then risk manager needed to focus
on them which can help to get them a option to reduce the problems and increase the business
activities. The next phase is related to treating the risk by response and making proper planning
that can help to come out from business problems. In this, managers are accept the changes and
bring innovation in their telecommunication services which can help to deliver best services. The
ending step is monitoring and reviewing the risk which is uses by management for evaluating the
risk and taking right action by resolving problems. This can help to improve the business
performance and maintaining repositioning in business environment by increasing offering and
delivering effective services.
As per the views of (Fan and et.al., 2017), a business organisation who wants to go
internationally, facing different types of issue and problems that has affected their business. This
is important for organisation to identify the issues and get a optimum solution which can help to
improve the organisational productivity and profitability. In changing environment, a business is
required to required to formulate different policies and regulation for the purpose of mitigating
risk and problems in relation to a business. Vodafone is facing different international issues
while preparing the project “Repositioning Vodafone in Enterprise marketing” that needed to
solve the issues by taking right action. For resolving the loss of reputation and maintaining good
position management of organisation should provide the attractive products and services in
telecommunication sector that can make happy customers and increases the satisfaction level
which can may reduce the loss of reputation. The another risk is decline on brand position which
can be mitigate by using digital marketing and technologies which can help to provide the
information regarding product and services that increases brand position. As organisation is also
facing the shortage of fund problem that can be solve by taken the loan from different financial
institution which can help to arrange the funds and maintain the good performance in changing
environment.
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The ways risk and managed and mitigated influences success and failure of project. It has
been analysed from the statement of Olechowski and et.al. (2016) when project managers are
able to manage and mitigate risks then it influences success of project positively. However, when
unanticipated risk occurs and it becomes impossible for project managers to manage addition to
mitigate risk then it affects or influences the project towards failure. In context to project of
Vodafone, project managers are facing some complexities in managing various risk including
reputation, lack of funds and many more that affects the success for reposition the brand within
enterprising market. Moreover, it affects success of the project when some activities or strategies
are misunderstood by people or client's and stakeholders. For example, Vodafone has posted
some advertisement related to its telecommunication service that only includes information about
company in enterprising market. This makes people confusing and are not able to understand it
properly what it is for and what is the objective behind advertisement. This will influence
repositioning of brand drastically. This also results in declining demands for its services,
reducing attention of audiences and many more. In such situation, it becomes necessary for the
managers of the company to provide a justification about what they wants to say and what is the
objective behind advertisement. Along with this, necessary changes are also made in the strategy
so that people becomes aware and understands the intention of company that may result is
success or repositioning the brand in enterprise market (Brundu and Richardson, 2016) .
Failures of project are affected in project management in many ways. One is when
project managers of company are least interested in workings and are sleeping managers. In
project of Vodafone, there are some managers that have least interest in the project because of
which communication, time, cost, human resource management and other areas associated with
management of project are not properly focused results in huge influences of project failures
(Galli and Kaviani, 2018).
Managers of Vodafone are recommended to focus on all the principles and practices in
order top mitigate risk properly. Moreover, proper communication also plays essential role in
success of project so it is also recommended to organisational managers and authorities to
provide proper support to the project manager through effective communication and sharing
required resourced.
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CONCLUSION
From the mentioned report, it is concluded that management of project is significant for
company as it assist in realistic planning, honing towards priorities along with defining project
objectives, strategic alignment, managing process, quality control and reducing costs. Project
management decreases costs involved in projects through making improvements in efficiency,
optimising resources as well as mitigating risks. The aspects adopted by the company in
conducting project management includes processes and procedure for managing project
effectively. The stages that help in conducting project management includes Initiation, planning,
execution, monitoring and control. Planning stage widely support contingency planning along
with planning mitigation of risks trenchantly. Key areas that are part of project management are
quality management, communication management, risk management, cost management and
hence forth. There are strategies and actions that are undertaken by business organisation in
order to manage together with mitigate any type of risk.
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