Project Stakeholder Management: Prezzo Restaurant Case Study Report

This report delves into the intricacies of stakeholder management within projects, focusing on a case study involving the UK-based Italian restaurant, Prezzo. The introduction defines stakeholder management and its significance, emphasizing the impact stakeholders have on project outcomes. The main body explores the practical aspects of managing stakeholders in projects, including identifying stakeholders, ensuring their agreement, and maintaining effective communication. It discusses the importance of aligning project visions with stakeholder interests, using Prezzo's expansion plans as a context. The report then integrates stakeholder management theory, including Freeman's normative theory and analytic theory, to provide a theoretical framework. A case study is presented, detailing the challenges Prezzo faces when opening a new branch, specifically issues related to food supply systems. Furthermore, a model for stakeholder engagement in project management is proposed, encompassing processes such as identifying stakeholders, planning engagement, managing engagement, and monitoring engagement, which are essential for project success. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and the significance of effective stakeholder management for Prezzo's project success.

PROJECT
STAKEHOLDERS
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
a) Management of stakeholders in projects............................................................................1
b) Support discussion with stakeholders and other management theories.............................2
c) Select a case study and describe it as stakeholders issue...................................................5
d) Model for stakeholder engagement in project management..............................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Stakeholder management is defined as a systematic engagement, analysis, identification
and implementation of actions which are designed to have proper engagement with stakeholders.
Stakeholders are those individuals which have interest in a project, portfolio, program or
business activities of a company as outcome of these aspects impacts them in a considerable
manner (Bourne, 2016). Different projects and program posses a variety of stakeholders which
have varied interest. This assignment is based on Prezzo which is a UK based Italian Cuisine
restaurant, situated in London. This report will cover management of stakeholders within
projects along with discussion of stakeholders and other management theory. Stakeholders issue
in context with business is discussed and a model is prepared for stakeholder engagement.
MAIN BODY
a) Management of stakeholders in projects
A project is considered as a successful activity when it meets the expectations of different
stakeholders. A project can be any business activity which is performed by an organisation in
order to attain expected outcomes. Stakeholders are those persons which posses a vested interest
in the business activities of an organisation. In case of Prezzo, which is an Italian restaurant in
UK, potential stakeholders will be customers, government, local residents, suppliers, employees,
competitors, local residents etc. Company is working on a project where new chain of restaurant
will be established in England. There are some steps that can be considered by the manager in
Prezzo so that all stakeholders can be managed in an efficient manner. Some of these steps are
mentioned below:
 Identification of all stakeholders in the beginning of business activity or project. If they
will not be identified in the starting, then their different agendas can impacts the working
of Prezzo in a negative manner (Chih and Zwikael, 2015). In case of Prezzo, internal
potential stakeholders are employees, executive and management of company whereas
external stakeholders includes customers, suppliers, creditors, local community and the
government. In order to achieve success, company is required to meet expectations and
interest of all stakeholders.
 Another way is to assure that all stakeholders must agree on business project and their
deliverables. In case all stakeholders will not agree, Prezzo will be required to carry out
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modifications. For ex, if restaurant is adding a new branch in England with main dish
spicy pasta garnished with chilly sauce and customers in that region do not prefer to eat
it or supplier denies to supply material required to prepare it. In this case, manager have
to modify the dish or ingredients so that every concerned stakeholder can agree.
 Management in Prezzo is require to have effective communication and interaction with
their stakeholders before or while working on project. This will benefits different
stakeholders to became comfortable with one another. In this way, complexities faced by
companies such as lack of funds, resources and man power can be solved in an unified
manner.
 Vision of project must be clear and every stakeholder must be engaged with different
activity through out the process. This will helps in maintaining interest of stakeholders
with business. In case of Prezzo, as company is launching a new branch, if timely
information about project will be given to the stakeholders they will feel more stasified
and engaged (Eskerod, Huemann and Savage, 2015).
In this way, different stakeholders can be managed in projects without facing any
difficulty. If above mentioned aspects will not be considered then it will became difficult for
Prezzo to perform their business activities in a profitable and organised manner.
b) Support discussion with stakeholders and other management theories
Stakeholder management theory: It is a theory associated with business ethics and
organisational management which aims to address values & morals while managing a firm.
These values and ethics can be related with corporate social responsibility, social contract theory,
market economy.
Freeman normative theory
This theory is given by Edward Freeman and he states that stakeholders of company are
those individuals which get impacted by firm and its workings. Principles associated with this
theory is defined below:
 Principles of corporate legitimacy: According to this principle, company is required to
be managed so that benefits of different stakeholders can be maintained. Also,
stakeholders are needed to participate in those decision which impacts their welfare. In
case of Prezzo which is opening a new chain in England, new dishes must be added by
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taking feedback of customers and employees so that they can feel satisfied about service
of restaurant (Golini, Kalchschmidt and Landoni, 2015).
 Stakeholder Fiduciary principle: Manager in Prezzo is required to take those decisions
that will impact the interest of stakeholders in a positive manner. If stakeholders such as
investors, suppliers, employees, customers will not satisfied by decisions of company
then new project which is opening a new branch in England can became a failure.
Analytic theory
This theory is given by Friedman and Miles and this theory states relationship between
organisation and stakeholders. This typology can be defined on the basis of two distinctions
which are mentioned below:
 Incompatible and compatible in respect with material interest & ideas.
 Necessary or contingent relations. Necessary relation is linked with set of logically
connected idea. Contingent relation have no link with internal structure.
In this regard, different stakeholders for Prizzo are divided below:
Basis Necessary Contingent
Compatible Type A
Top management
Partners
Shareholders
Type B
Customers
Related organisations
common trade associations
Incompatible Type C
Employees
Trade unions
Government
Creditors
NGO's
Type D
Competitors
rivals
 Type A: All concerned stakeholders of Prezzo are connected with one another and
company in a considerable way.
 Type B: Different stakeholders have same interest but do not posses any direct relation.
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 Type C: These stakeholders have opposite, unconnected and separate interests. They
opposes view of each other.
 Type D: These stakeholders are linked with company but their relationship is threatened.
System theory:
It is the theory which applies to examine and conceptualise the trust and relationship the
stakeholders have with an organisation in order to achieve long term profits. It promotes
interrelationship among stakeholders and organisation through interaction and maintaining
healthy environment at workplace. It is further classified into open and closed systems which
allows the stakeholders such as employees, management etc. to communicate each other without
facing any interruptions.
Interrelationship between sub-systems:
Prizzo has many sub-systems including departments, processes and individual employees
and as a system it also forms part of society as a higher order system. The structure of an
organisation as a profitable engineered system thus it is very much dependent on the
establishment and nature of its interactions and relationships with its internal sub-systems and
society as its external supra-system.
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c) Select a case study and describe it as stakeholders issue
Case study
Prezzo is a British owned Italian restaurant which is successfully operating in London. In
order to enhance its market presence, company is planning to open a new branch in England.
Area where company is planning to introduce their new chain is situated at north side of
England. This location have less human population due to geographical structure. In this regard,
company has initiated meetings with different stakeholders to acknowledge their opinions and
help. Different stakeholders of restaurant are investors, suppliers, employees, manager,
executive, government etc. In accordance with this proposed plan, meetings were conducted.
Managers and executive of company seems fine with the decision of launching new branch in
north side of England. But other stakeholders such as investors, employees, suppliers etc. are not
satisfied and they are predicting some issues that can take place. These issues are concerned with
food Supply systems.
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Company has planned to open new brand in that location because property rates are
cheap there and that place have some tourist spots. But concern of other stakeholders is that
opening restaurant in that area will results in less sales and revenue. In case of food distribution
and home deliveries, restaurant employees will face difficulty due to rugged terrain surfaces.
This will results in late arrival of food to customers due to which they may lose interest in
service of company (Heagney, 2016). Suppliers are concerned that they will face difficult in
supplying required resources and materials in that area. Investors are not in favour because they
feel, this plan will not be able to achieve success due to which their investment will go in vain
and they will face financial issues. In this way, stakeholders of Prezzo are facing different issues
which are related with food supply systems.
d) Model for stakeholder engagement in project management
According to the Bernie Roseke, (2018) Stakeholders are the important component of an
organisation who are responsible for providing their maximum efforts for the growth of the
company. These stakeholders needs to keep engaged in the business activities so that they can
continuously provide their efforts to the organisation (Heravi, Coffey and Trigunarsyah, 2015)
(Joslin and Müller, 2015). Prezzo is launching their new branch in the England and the
management needs to engage the different stakeholders of this new branch in the business
operations of projects. The management of the Prezzo restaurant needs to identify their
stakeholders in order to engage them in the business activities in an effective manner. These
stakeholders can be identified by the management of Prezzo by using the Project Stakeholder
Management. There are 4 processes in this model which are discussed below: Identify Stakeholders: It is the first process in which the stakeholders of the project are
identified by the managers of Prezzo before initialising the project. This step is essential
so that the requirements of the stakeholders can be fulfilled. This is also beneficial for
satisfying their needs so that they can engage in the project based on their interest rather
then engaging forcefully or by pressure. The stakeholders of the project of the Prezzo can
be customers, suppliers, employees, investors etc. Plan Stakeholder Engagement: It is the second process in which the plan for engaging
the stakeholders in the project is developed. This process is the component of the overall
Project Management Plan which is developed by project manager of Prezzo in order to
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specify about how the project will interact with each and every stakeholder. This plan
determines and analyses the two items for each stakeholder which are The level of
interest the stakeholder has in the project, and their ability to control their interest in the
project (Sánchez, 2015). The technical knowledge of the stakeholders may be the major
factor for planning the front end of project. This process also present and analyse the
concerns of all the stakeholder for ensuring the success of the project of Prezzo. Manage Stakeholder Engagement: This is the third process in which the project
manager of Prezzo consults with the different identified stakeholders throughout the
project in order to ensure that their needs and expectations are meeting accordingly while
the project is being executed. The interaction with the stakeholder is done according to
the plan developed for Stakeholder Management in second process and changes are done
accordingly in the plan for meeting their expectations.
 Monitor Stakeholder Engagement: This is the last process of this model which is a part
of the Monitoring & Controlling process group. This process should needs to be executed
in regular intervals of time throughout the entire project in order to determine the
effectiveness of the Stakeholder Management Plan. However some of the actions are no
specified or defined in this process as in other process such as M&C processes (Sunder
M, 2016). These actions includes reviewing stakeholder communications, gathering
information about them, asking them regarding their feeling in the project or their
concerns for the project etc.
Through this above discussed model, the project manager or management of the Prezzo
can satisfy the needs and expectation of their stakeholders of England branch in order to satisfy
them. Also the managers can engage the different stakeholders effectively in various projects if
their needs are satisfied or met (Turkulainen, Aaltonen and Lohikoski, 2015).
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned report, it is concluded that stakeholders constitutes an essential
position in managing projects. There are different kind of stakeholders such as customers,
employees, management of company etc. These stakeholders posses a visible impact on the
company and their operations. Stakeholder issues can reduce the interest of stakeholders in
business activities due to which company can face complexity in managing their businesses.
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PMBOK is an aspect that will helps in preparing right model so that engagement of stakeholders
within company can be sustained.
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