Managing a Successful Business Project

This report explores how multinational companies improve the recruitment, selection, and training of their employees to meet international requirements, using the case study of General Mills. It examines the project aims and objectives, project management plan, work breakdown and Gantt chart, qualitative and quantitative research, and provides recommendations and conclusions.

Unit 6: Managing a Successful Business Project
Qualification: BTEC HND (Level 4)
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................2
Introduction:..............................................................................................................................3
P1. Project aims and objectives.................................................................................................3
P2. Project management plan...................................................................................................4
P3. Work breakdown and Gantt chart......................................................................................5
P4. Qualitative and quantitative research................................................................................6
P5. Analysis of research data....................................................................................................9
P6. Recommendations and Conclusion..................................................................................12
P7. Reflective Journal.............................................................................................................13
References:..............................................................................................................................14
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Introduction:
This report will look at how multinational companies improve the recruitment, selection and
training of their employees to meet International requirements. In doing so, we will look at
the case study of General Mills.
P1. Project aims and objectives
Introduction of Company:
General Mills is a public company operating in food processing industry. It is founded in year
1856 by Cadwallader, John and James Ford Bell. Its headquarter is situated at Minnesota,
United State. They offer variety of products like pizza, soup, snacks, baking mix, yogurt and
many more at worldwide level. It is also American multinational producer as well as
marketer of branded food products. General Mills is a fast-growing global company in an
environment that is very dynamic. This poses a lot of challenges for such a large company as
they need to recruit the right people with correct knowledge, skills and behaviours to support
the company in their growth. Additionally, they also need to handle such a diverse range of
personnel effectively so as to cater for their specific needs keeping in mind the various
cultural, language, educational differences in mind.
Aims of this project:
The aims of this research project are to investigate the challenges faced by General Mills
within their HR function in meeting their international needs. These challenges effectively
revolve around the different local market needs that the company has to cater for all over the
world. Along with this, researcher main aim behind the report is to identify ways through
which respective company can enhance their recruitment, selection and training for
employees so that they effectively meet requirement of international level. By this company
also able to conduct their work in impressive manner at global market.
I will then attempt to evaluate how General Mills has overcome these challenges through
effective recruitment, selection and training strategies. When looking at this, I will collect
both employees and management feedback to evaluate their performance.
Finally, I will arrive at some recommendations for the company in light of my research and
analysis carried out in this report.
Project objectives:
In order to meet the stated aims, I have set the following objectives for this project:
1. To adopt no discrimination policy at General Mills workplace during staff training
program so that it will improve their performance for attaining international
requirement or standard.
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2. To implement the global HRM law to improve HR functions ( recruitment, selection
and training) in order to meet international standards.
3. To implement effective strategies in human resource practices that can helps in
attaining international requirement properly.
P2. Project management plan
Scope:
This research project will involve looking at the growth of General Mills as a global company
and the different challenges it has faced in the process of becoming a global company. We
will then proceed to looking at how General Mills has adapted their recruitment, selection
and training strategies to facilitate this growth. In doing so, we will also critically evaluate the
success of these strategies and finally recommend some changes or improvements at the end.
The scope of this research is global so we will be looking at the wide range of qualitative and
quantitative information from the head office point of view. Timewise, we will focus more on
the recent challenges, changes and decisions, ideally within the last five years. In respect of
General Mills, by conducting this research their management able to identify different way
which they can adopt in order to recruitment and selection that leads to effectively fulfilment
of international requirement. This will also help company in gaining more market shares and
profit by expanding effectively.
Cost:
In terms of cost, we will attempt to make good use of the existing range of information such
as Annual report, HR policies and achievements, reports and announcements issued by the
company and so. Whilst it is understood that this means relying a lot of secondary
information, this approach will help us save costs. To complement this secondary
information, we will aim to collect feedback from employees including management
personnel to avail all the many benefits that this primary information will offer.
Consequently, the cost breakdown will look like this. In context of General Mills, they
required approx £ 100 for implement or conducting research in effective manner. This is so
because for this they need to conduct various activities that required particular amount of
funds.
Cost Amount (£)
Data collection 20
Operational Activities 10
R&D Activities 10
Cost to IT Experts 30
Licensing Fee 30
Total Cost 100
Time frame:
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It is anticipated that the research project will be completed in eight weeks time, with possibly
additional time required for long term staff training and development depending on the
outcome of this research. I will show the breakdown of this eight weeks process in the
following chart by drawing a Gantt Chart. In order to conduct respective research General
Mills management required approx 10 weeks. In respective time duration they able to
implement effective training and development method which leads to properly attainment of
international requirement.
Communication:
The report will be communicated to the board of directors, with copies available for other
internal stakeholders such as middle management and shareholders. There are also
communication needs to appropriately agreeing the time and location with employees and the
mangers to collect their valuable feedback. Communication with my unit tutor is also critical
as I will need their guidance for successful completion of this project. In order to conduct
communication about the research General Mills management will conduct meeting in which
they discuss with their staffs about their objective. Through this they able to develop proper
decision because this method will leads to involvement of employees in effective way.
Risks & limitations:
Even though it is anticipated that the research will be extremely valuable in highlighting best
practices within General Mills and areas of further development, one possible shortcoming is
that it is not possible to do justice to such large global organisation within this short writing
of about 4,000 words. We will partly deal with this by focusing on key points relating to the
employees feedback on their involvement in the decision making and any relevant training
that is being provided to them to ensure that they provide valuable contribution to the success
of the company. Along with this risk and limitation associated with General Mills while
adopting respective research is that firm have limited investors due to that they may face
financial issues. Another major limitation incurred in this is company have very limited time
due to which there is a risk that related to research outcome.
Furthermore, given the nature of this research, there are risks involve regarding
confidentiality and data protection. This is because I will be gathering feedback from both
employees and the management of the company.
P3. Work breakdown and Gantt chart
Work Breakdown Structure has 8 objectives.
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Time management and ability to prioritise work are key skills for anyone involved in
administration and business management, so these skills will be tested during the course of
this project. However, in order to effectively implement the project and ensure timely
completion, I have used the following Gantt chart to layout the process that I will follow.
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Research
Project
Introduction
Aims and
Objectives
Literature
Rear-view
Research
Methodology
Data
collect
Data
Analysis
Submission
of final
report
Quantitative Qualitative
Recommend
ations
Communicatio
ns of outcomes
with
stakeholders

As is self-explanatory from the above, the project will take eight weeks in total to complete
with the last week reserved for staff training. In that last week, I have also incorporated third
party service to help deliver an effective staff training.
Gantt chart is defined as the horizontal bar chart which was developed in year 1917 through
Henry L. Gantt. This facilitates a graphical illustration of a schedule that aids them to plan
coordinate as well as trace particular works into projects. This is mostly utilised into project
management which are useful to plan a project as well as explain a sequence of works which
needs completion.
P4. Qualitative and quantitative research
There are different ways to categorise research but here we will look at primary and
secondary research, as well as qualitative and quantitative research.
The research that is conducted to gather first hand information for the given problem is
primary. Another way to look at this is to make sure that the information is gathered from the
main source such as collecting specific feedback from the customers rather than looking at
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already gathered or generalised customer information. In contrast, we have secondary
research that is the information already gathered previously perhaps for the same purpose or
slightly different one. A primary information subsequently quoted second hand becomes
secondary information.
Primary information is expensive and time consuming to gather as the questions are carefully
planned, sample of population has to be carefully picked to make the information relevant
and accurate and there are massive marketing and research costs. But the primary information
gathered as a result is much more reliable. On the other hand is the secondary information
that is cheaper and quicker to gather, even through a simple online search. But the currency,
relevance and reliability is not guaranteed. What needs to be done is to have a careful and
balanced combination of both as a lot of cost and time efficient secondary research will
complement and support primary information to meet specific needs.
Qualitative research is gathering of exploratory information that is non-numerical in nature,
such as asking open questions to customers on what they think about our product or gathering
suggestions from employees on what to improve. Quantitative information is the one that
more likely to conclude information by numerically weighing the answers such as asking the
customers or employees to give a score out of 10 to certain features. Whilst it is of utmost
importance that we explore the matters and issues in hand through qualitative research, we
need to be able to have lot of quantitative information to effectively evaluate and analyse
responses from large population so that effective decisions can be taken.
There are two type of methodologies which are used in order to gather information and data,
in respect of respective research researcher they adopt qualitative method because through it
they able to collect more authenticate and appropriate data. This will also leads to attainment
of goal and objective properly.
When collecting information, it is not possible to collect information from all the customers
or employees. Therefore, we need to collect information from a selected few people and this
process is called sampling. The most common method of sampling technique is simple
random sampling. This is where every item or individual in the population has an equal
chance of being selected. When picking a lottery winner, this simple method is used. It is not
complicated and unbiased too.
For the purpose of collecting information for this project, I used questionnaire to pick
primary information from employees within General Mills. The questionnaire was designed
in such a way as to collect quantitative information so that the analysis process is easy and
objective rather than subjective. I used the following questionnaire, and used simple random
samples to pick employees across the different geographical locations and functions.
Employee Questionnaire
Employee’s Name:
Geographic Location:
Department/Function:
Seniority Level:
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Please pick an appropriate rating for all of the following statements, where the numbers mean
the following:
1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neither agree nor disagree
4 = Agree 5 = Strongly Agree
1 2 3 4 5
The company has been very effective in recognising
new HR challenges facing their globalisation
campaign in an effective and timely manner
The company has always involved their staff
members in identifying their changing needs as part
of their globalisation campaign
The company has a robust system of identifying
needs to make changes to their HR strategies as and
when required
The changes implemented have always yielded the
desired results
The company recognises its employees as valuable
assets to be a successful global organisation
Their training and development Plan is effective
enough to be a successful global organisation
You are excited to be part of the company’s
globalisation campaign
To adopt no discrimination policy at General Mills
workplace during staff training program so that it will
improve their performance for attaining international
requirement or standard.
To analysis different methods which General Mills
can adopt for conducting recruitment and selection
practices for attaining global requirement.
To analysis effectiveness of human resource practices
or strategies that can adopt by General Mills for
attaining international requirement properly.
Do you think implementation of different legislation
in an organisation aid in meeting international
requirements?
Any Other Comment:
Date:
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As a next step, I gathered some qualitative information as well by interviewing key
management personnel at General Mills. Since there was a specific group that I needed to
gather the information from, random sampling won’t work so I had to use purposeful
sampling so that the information is relevant and useful. Purposeful sampling is subjective and
prone to be biased, but its use is extremely critical when very specific information from very
specific individuals is required.
The following is the layout of my interview that I conducted with different line managers
based in the UK and Romania. I picked five managers each from different departments such
as marketing and customer services.
Management Interview
Manager’s Name:
Geographic Location:
Department/Function:
Management Level:
Date of the interview:
1. For how long have you worked at General Mills?
2. How do you perceive the performance of the company as a global organisation?
3. How important are the employees of the company in meeting the corporate
objectives?
4. How has General Mills dealt with challenges faced by their HR function as a global
organisation?
5. What has worked for the company and what are the areas that need improvement?
6. Do you think that the company is moving in the right direction as far as their HR
strategies are concerned?
7. How does the company identify needs to make changes to their HR strategies?
8. Do you consider this system of identifying needs and improvement robust, effective
and efficient?
9. If you could change one thing at General Mills in terms of the HR management, what
would you change?
10. If you could pick one good thing about General Mills in terms of their HR
management, what would you pick?
Last, we talk about the much important task of collecting secondary information relating to
the HR function at General Mills. I was lucky enough to find some really useful information
in the Annual Reports of General Mills Global for the year ending 2016, 2017 & 2018. The
annual report of 2019 is not yet available. Furthermore, the Investors section at their website
had a lot of information about the company’s policies and performance such as presentations,
press releases, performance reviews, statements from key office holders. There are also
surveys gathered by both General Mills and third party organisation critically evaluating the
performance and market share of the company.
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All this provided a very useful background to all that the company is doing to ensure that
they remain a top global food company.
P5. Analysis of research data
Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and logical techniques to
summarise and evaluate data. This is critical in order to draw rational judgments from the
data collected from a wide range of primary and secondary sources.
When analysing qualitative information such as information collected through the interviews
from the managers, it is demanded that a logical link is established between apparently
unrelated pieces of information. For example, does staff satisfaction has anything to do with
staff turnover in an organization? Of course it does and this is where the academic abilities of
the researcher are really tested.
Therefore, I will first summarise the information collected from the questionnaire and the
interviews and then will create the link between the different information gathered above.
This will allow us to arrive at some logical conclusions so that appropriate recommendations
can be made for the attention of the strategic decision makers at General Mills.
Let’s start off with a summary of feedback collected through the questionnaire. A total of 57
people filled this questionnaire that was distributed using the online research company
Survey Monkey. These people mostly worked in the marketing, retail and customer function
across Europe.
Mean
Score
Standar
d
Deviatio
n
The company has been very effective in recognising new HR
challenges facing their globalisation campaign in an effective and
timely manner
3.7 0.2
The company has always involved their staff members in identifying
their changing needs as part of their globalisation campaign
3.9 0.4
The company has a robust system of identifying needs to make
changes to their HR strategies as and when required
3.4 0.2
The changes implemented have always yielded the desired results 3.8 0.3
The company recognises its employees as valuable assets to be a
successful global organisation
4.1 0.1
Their training and development Plan is effective enough to be a
successful global organisation
3.9 0.5
You are excited to be part of the company’s globalisation campaign 4.2 0.1
To adopt no discrimination policy at General Mills workplace during
staff training program so that it will improve their performance for
attaining international requirement or standard.
4.5 0.2
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To analysis different methods which General Mills can adopt for
conducting recruitment and selection practices for attaining global
requirement.
4.3 0.2
To analysis effectiveness of human resource practices or strategies
that can adopt by General Mills for attaining international
requirement properly.
4.2 0.3
Do you think implementation of different legislation in an
organisation aid in meeting international requirements?
4.9 0.4
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
The company has been very effective in
recognising new HR challenges facing their
globalisation campaign in an effective and timely
manner
3.7 0.2
Interpretation- By this data it can be analysis that more respondent are selected
agree option on respective question.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
The company has always involved their staff
members in identifying their changing needs as
part of their globalisation campaign
3.9 0.4
Interpretation- By this it can be evaluate that huge rate of peoples are agree on that
respective involve their staffs in decision making procedure.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
The company has a robust system of identifying
needs to make changes to their HR strategies as
and when required
3.4 0.2
Interpretation- By this it is analysis that more of the audiences select agree option
for respective question.
Analysis:
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Mean Score Standard Deviation
The changes implemented have always yielded
the desired results
3.8 0.3
Interpretation- Through this data it can be analysis that in the range of 5 more
respondents are agree on that change implementation leads to desire result.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
The company recognises its employees as valuable
assets to be a successful global organisation
4.1 0.1
Interpretation- By data it can be analysis that more peoples are highly agree that
respective company recognises their staffs.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
Their training and development Plan is effective
enough to be a successful global organisation
3.9 0.5
Interpretation- By this it is analysis that more audiences selected highly agree on
respective question.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
You are excited to be part of the company’s
globalisation campaign
4.2 0.1
Interpretation- More respondents selected option of highly agree on this question
that they want to be the part of globalisation campaign.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
To adopt no discrimination policy at General
Mills workplace during staff training program so
that it will improve their performance for
attaining international requirement or standard.
4.5 0.2
Interpretation- By this it can be analysis that huge section of respondents are
selected highly agree option of respective question.
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Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
To analysis different methods which General
Mills can adopt for conducting recruitment and
selection practices for attaining global
requirement.
4.3 0.2
Interpretation- By respective respond it can be determine wide section of
respondents chosen highly agree option for this question.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
To analysis effectiveness of human resource
practices or strategies that can adopt by General
Mills for attaining international requirement
properly.
4.2 0.3
Interpretation- It can be examine through given that more peoples are selected
highly agree option for respective option.
Analysis:
Mean Score Standard Deviation
Do you think implementation of different
legislation in an organisation aid in meeting
international requirements?
4.9 0.4
Interpretation- Through above data it can be analyse that more peoples are agree on
implementation of diverse type of legislation help firm in attaining their international
requirement in effective manner.
The least favourable score as given to the statement “The company has a robust system of
identifying needs to make changes to their HR strategies as and when required”, the score
being 3.4 with a standard deviation of only 0.2 again showing a bit of a consensus. This raises
some concern and we must relate this information with some of data gathered through
secondary research or primary qualitative research. This shows that the employees lacked
their confidence in the company systematically identifying needs for changes in their HR
strategies, perhaps much of the work is being done on ad-hoc and random basis.
Quite interesting, the statement “Their training and development Plan is effective enough to
be a successful global organisation” has a fair score of 3.9 but a standard deviation of 0.5.
This means that while most people strongly agreed with this statement, a few people strongly
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disagreed with it giving it the biggest standard deviation value. Again, we will need to
explore this further. We need to explore why the employees are not happy with the ongoing
training and development of employees, the best thing is to ask the managers about their
feedback too.
Another feedback that had a higher Standard Deviation of 0.4 is the statement “The company
has always involved their staff members in identifying their changing needs as part of their
globalisation campaign” with a mean score of 3.9, similar situation here where some people
had major difference that were polar opposite. Even though people on average were satisfied
with most of the statements, we need to investigate further these three statements when we
cross examine the evidence with qualitative and secondary information.
The best score given was to the statement that they were excited to be part of the company’s
globalisation campaign. The score was 4.2 with standard deviation of 0.1. Such low standard
deviation means that mostly there is a consensus over this statement. This means that despite
some concerns and suggestions given by the employees, they were happy overall to be part of
the company.
The notes from the various interviews showed some very good feedback where most
managers had been working at General Mills for more than five years and were very
passionate about the performance of the company. They believed that General Mills’s
decentralised approach towards dealing with their employees was critical to the success of the
company. They recruited people with localised knowledge, experience and qualification so
that they could make the most of the opportunities in the individual markets. However, there
were also points of concerns that somehow also linked with some of the concerns highlighted
by the employees through the questionnaire.
When asked what was the one think that the manager would want to change, three managers
identified a concern that sometimes the employees were unable to understand the core values
of the company and they had trouble involving the lower level employees in the decision
making process. This correlates with some of the employees disagreeing with how well the
company involves them in the decision making process with standard deviation of 0.4 for that
statement. This identifies a gap where there is potential for improvement as General Mills’s
decentralised approach also partially means that the corporate values of the global brand are
not equally adopted and endorsed across the globe and some employees are also feeling left
alone in the growth and decision making. One employee did remark that there was little
encouragement for them to be creative and innovative as the decisions were made use top-
down approach where the feedback of the employees at the lowest level did not matter much.
A review of the company’s core strategies as published on their website revealed a lot about
their focus on their products, innovation, R&D, cost cutting, increasing market share, focus
on the healthy aspect of their products and much more. However, quite surprisingly, there is
not a single mention of a strategy on how they want to use their employees as the key asset to
ensure steady growth throughout the world.
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To be fair, General Mills’s document Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments
2018 does have a section on promoting decent employment and diversity. There are some
promising aspects such as initiatives to support young entrepreneurs in Africa, pledge to
gender equality and equal pay, chef development programs and similar measures. However,
there is little data available to know that enough is being done for the size of the company. So
again, there is an indication that employees at the lower level might not be involved as much
or are benefitting as much from the global growth project. There is also a serious lack of
evidence on how well the company is training their employees to be at their best to serve the
company well while its growing globally.
Even though the above has not come in the way of the company in their growth as the
company reported 3% growth in sales in 2018 and also maintained trading operating profit
margin of 15.1%. Their EPS was CHF3.36, up by 45.5% as compared to 2017. Having said
that, this performance does not necessarily guarantee a steady future if the company does not
take care of the staff training and development.
P6. Recommendations and Conclusion
Recommendations:
Based on my analysis above, I recommend the following things to the company.
1. The company should consider a review of their staff training and development
strategies, to ensure that employees at all level are encouraged to present their ideas
and views on how to further do product and process innovation.
2. There are internal and outsourced training programs to make sure that leaders are
trained from within the organisation rather than solely recruiting top level managers
and leaders from outside the organisation.
3. Different measures should be explored to educate and promote the company’s core
values throughout the globe even though the centralisation of HR strategies is still
recommended to be kept.
4. To encourage staff for their initiatives and innovation by appropriately rewarding
great ideas and contributions. There are some easy cost-effective ways of encouraging
people such as by giving “idea of the month” award.
Conclusion:
As has been discussed in this brief study, the company has been growing well and has
maintained decent profitability levels. The company has done well to focus on the HR
policies by promising gender equality, encouraging young entrepreneurs, developing their
own chefs and other similar things. Their strategy to have localised HR policies and expertise
has also done well.
But I am concerned that they have not paid too much attention to how to involve all level of
employees to be well trained and be part of the decision making at the company. I am further
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concerned that the views and the feedback of the employees are not reaching the top level
decision makers. It is one thing to invest in new talents, it is another to upskill the existing
staff members, the latter is being ignored by the company. Well done to the company for
recruiting the best talent through their talent hunt strategies, but I see great potential for the
company to make better use of the knowledge, skills and talent of their existing employees.
Based on that, I have recommended the company to pay attention to the specific concerns of
the existing employees in order to improve their staff training and development. Further work
is also required to lift the morale and motivational level of their employees, including
appropriately rewarding them for their contribution towards the company’s success.
P7. Reflective Journal
Doing this project was a very interesting and challenging project, but I am glad that I have
been through that journey. From a point that I was clueless to this point that I have almost
completed the project, I have learnt so many things.
I have acquired some key knowledge and skills that will definitely help me in my real life.
The use of Gantt chart, the art of doing research, the experience of speaking to so many
people and finding their reviews, the sharpening of my communication skills are all a few
example of how I am a much more confident and knowledgeable person right now.
In the course of completion of this project, I overcame my fear of speaking to people to
collect information. This was crucial to boost up my confidence level and to get involved in
professional discussions. Speaking to the HR managers at General Mills gave me the
confidence and insight that I might have gained by simply studying textbooks. At the same
time, I feel that I am a much more confident ICT user as I have used Microsoft Word, Excel,
Survey Monkey, online research tools and so on. This is a sharp improvement from simply
knowing how to google search for basic information.
From a professional worker’s point of view, I learnt how to manage my time and how to be
disciplined in managing a project to reach the desired outcome. It was surely not easy when
everything is scattered and you don’t know what to do first and how to sequence your tasks.
But this I think is the whole idea of doing small projects as part of your studies, to get a sense
of how to make decisions and set directions on the go. So yes, it will definitely help me when
I am doing a real life bigger project.
As for the project itself, I am confident that it achieved the purpose it was meant to achieve, I
was able to set some aims that I achieved by carrying out this research. I was able to balance
between primary and secondary information, gathering both helped me to work within my
budget while also making sure that the valuable staff feedback was available. I was also able
to collect both quantitative and qualitative feedback, to counter the drawbacks of each and to
cross examine both type of information through critical analysis.
I do appreciate that there is a whole lot more that could be done such as exploring further
their recruitment and selection techniques and then critically evaluating them. But then again,
there are only about 4,000 words in which to do it all so I am not shocked if the actual
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research and analysis was a bit too little given that we are talking about such a large and
complex company that General Mills is. But I am glad that I now have the knowledge and
skills to do this project at a larger scale too, perhaps when I do my top-up degree with a UK
University.
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References:
Berry, R. (2013), Research Project, Florence: Taylor and Francis.
General Mills Annual Review 2018
Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2018 - Progress report
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