Project Report: Arcadia Group's New Shoe Range for London Fashion Week

This report examines Arcadia Group's project to introduce a new shoe range and compete with major brands during London Fashion Week. The introduction provides research background, aims, objectives, and rationale for the study, focusing on product development strategies within the retail industry. The project management plan outlines scope, cost, time, resources, communication, risk assessment, and quality measures. Gantt charts and a breakdown structure are included to visualize task timelines and dependencies. The research methodologies section discusses the interpretivism philosophy and the inductive approach used. The report addresses strategies for new product launches, advantages gained, and challenges faced. Findings, recommendations, and a performance review are provided, with references and appendices including a questionnaire. The project aims to provide insights into how Arcadia Group manages its new product development and market competition.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC:.............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Research background..............................................................................................................1
a) Aim and Objectives............................................................................................................1
Rationale.................................................................................................................................2
b) Project Management Plan..................................................................................................2
P3 Gantt charts and Break down structure ............................................................................4
c). Research Methodologies...................................................................................................8
d). Data Interpretation and Finding and Recommendations.................................................10
e) Covered in PPT................................................................................................................22
f) Recommendation..............................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................23
g) Performance Review ......................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................25
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................26
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................26

TOPIC:
Introduce the new product to complete with big brands in London Fashion Week.
INTRODUCTION
Research background
One of the way through which businesses tries to compete in the market is to create
something new and innovative from the products which are already being sold to the customer.
Continuous evolving product range of a business entity helps it in surviving long in the
marketplace and in engaging the customers as far as possible. Companies focuses on their
products development strategies so as to move along with the expectations of market forces and
needs and demands of customers. Launching a new products and services which are highly
different from the other brands renders a competitive advantage to the business concerns through
which they become able to lead in the market place. Another reason besides competing with big
brands, companies chose for product development for delivering new value to its target
customers (3 Reasons Why Product Development Is Important, 2015). The aim of developing a
new product is offering something new value to customers and this is one such thing which aids
the company in moving forward and growing.
The present research study is about the introduction of new product by Arcadia Group
which is planning of launching a shoe range in the market for competing other big brands in
London Fashion Week. It is a British multinational company operating in High street retailing
industry based in London ,United Kingdom. The current study will include a project
management plan of product development and its launch. Further, the study will employ
different techniques and methodologies assessing the strategies which the companies for
launching new products, advantages which the organisations have by introducing new products
and the challenges which the company faces while developing a product and in competing with
other brands in market.
a) Aim and Objectives.
Aim:
“To introduce the new product to complete with big brands in London Fashion Week. A study on
Arcadia Group”.
Objectives:
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 To identify the strategies used by businesses in retail industry in launching of new
products.
 To determine the advantage's an organisation enjoys with the introduction of new
product.
 To identify the challenges faced by the businesses in the launching of new product and
competing with the brand name in the market.
 To provide recommendations for successful launching of new product in the market.
Research Questions:
11 What are the strategies used by businesses in retail industry in launching of new
products?11 What are the advantage's organisation enjoys with the introduction of new product?11 What are the challenges faced by the businesses in the launching of new product and
competing with the brand name in the market?11 What are the recommendations for successful launching of new product in the market?
Rationale
The present research study is concerned with the determination of impact which the
product development have on companies in relation to competing with the big brands. This topic
was chosen for the research study for understanding the concept of new product's impact on the
organisation both in favourable and unfavourable way. Another reason why the scholar has
selected this topic for its research study is its academic interests. This research is going to help
the researcher in obtaining some useful insights how organisations forms strategies for
developing and introducing new products and how they use these strategies for gaining a
competitive advantage.
b) Project Management Plan.
Project development plan refers to the formal document which is designed for guiding the
team members involved in the project regrading the execution of the project. It includes the time
scale, Gantt chart which lays out the time and cost which each activity will consume for
completing the tasks (The Project Management Plan (PMP), 2019). The purpose of this plan is
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to communicate interest parties regarding the expectations of the project, to determine and
manage associated risks and to monitor and control the schedule and closure of the project.
Scope :
Scope of project refers to the range of activities that goes into a project and the factors
which defines the criteria for its success. This project will facilitate the useful insights which will
help in corporate and academic field (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Students will be able to create
more understanding regarding the concept of how product development help in competing with
big brands while the people of Arcadia company will be able to know what strategies other
businesses use for launching new products.
Cost :
Cost is a factor which represents the expenditure that will be incurred for completing the
project. The cost of project shall be determined very discretely as delayed costs could lead to
significant loses to the researcher. The research cost is estimated to be 5000. While on the other
hand, the cost of new product was calculated to be 800000.
Time :
Researcher's time management skills are very crucial for undertaking and accomplishing
a particular project. This is required for maintaining the efficiency and effectiveness of the
concerned research study (Meredith, Mantel Jr and Shafer, 2017). Total time which the study
will consume is 30 days. New product development is going to consume in 6 months.
Resources :
Research requires various resources for conducting a research and completing it such as
man, materials, equipments, money etc. The resources needs to be arranged properly so that a
study could be completed smoothly and outcomes of such research would be more discrete and
rational (Heagney, 2016). The present researcher has utilised financial, technical and human
resources for conducting the research in a desired manner.
Communication :
It refers to the flow of information from one person to another. It is basically an exchange
of idea, thoughts or information. Communication is an integral part of project management plan
as it specifies how the project is to implemented and what activates are assigned to whom
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involved in the project (Fewings and Henjewele, 2019). For present research, scholar has
selected documented reports, emails and conferences for communicating the results of research.
Risk :
It is a term which states the uncertainty which has the potential of causing harm or any
loss. Loss during the research could occur in the form of theft of data, wrong interpretation of
data, loss of collected data due to technical default etc. The scholar for the purpose of reducing
this uncertainty or risks has made appropriate strategies such as keeping the back up of data.
Quality :
Research outcomes must be reliable and viable which could be used by others for their
academic studies, further research studies, in making strategies by managers etc. This in short
stipulates about the quality of research study which must facilitate accurate and authentic results
(Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Scholar will employ quality maintenance measures such as key
performance indicators and variance analysis.
Resources: This is the most important things which is used in respective of getting accurate
sources such as money, stationary, internet or any facility which is needed to accomplished the
task. Thus, the research is accomplished if all the facility is provided to complete the project.
P3 Gantt charts and Break down structure
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors WBS Early Finish Early Start
Auto
Schedule
d
Selection of
topic 3 days Thu
6/27/19
Mon
7/1/19 1 Mon
7/1/19
Thu
6/27/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Developing
research aim
and objectives
4 days Tue
7/2/19
Fri
7/5/19 1 2 Fri 7/5/19 Tue
7/2/19
Auto
Schedule
d
brief plan
development 7 days Mon
7/8/19
Tue
7/16/19 1,2 3 Tue
7/16/19
Mon
7/8/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Research
methods
selection
6 days Wed
7/17/19
Wed
7/24/19 3 4 Wed
7/24/19
Wed
7/17/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Preparing
questionnaire 5 days Thu
7/25/19
Wed
7/31/19 4 5 Wed
7/31/19
Thu
7/25/19
4

Auto
Schedule
d
Sending
questionnaire
for data
collection
7 days Thu
8/1/19
Fri
8/9/19 4,5 6 Fri 8/9/19 Thu
8/1/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Recording data
set in a
structured
format
10 days Mon
8/12/19
Fri
8/23/19 6 7 Fri
8/23/19
Mon
8/12/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Interpreting
gathered data
set
12 days Mon
8/26/19
Tue
9/10/19 7 8 Tue
9/10/19
Mon
8/26/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Concluding
findings and
recommending
solutions
7 days Wed
9/11/19
Thu
9/19/19 6,8 9 Thu
9/19/19
Wed
9/11/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Formatting 4 days Fri
9/20/19
Wed
9/25/19 8,9 10 Wed
9/25/19
Fri
9/20/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Taking feedback 6 days Thu
9/26/19
Thu
10/3/19 10 11 Thu
10/3/19
Thu
9/26/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Doing changes
as per the
feedback
provided
5 days Fri
10/4/19
Thu
10/10/19 11 12 Thu
10/10/19
Fri
10/4/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Final
submission 4 days Fri
10/11/19
Wed
10/16/19 12 13 Wed
10/16/19
Fri
10/11/19
5

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M1
Milestone Schedule:
Particulars Due Date Justification
Aim and objectives 2 days 1 day is needed is cross
checked with the tutor.
Data collection 4 days 2 day, as data is to be
examined again so that
rectification can be done
Recommendation 5 days 3 days, guidance is to taken
from tutor.
Project management schedule:
Particulars Ways to monitor Time

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Aim and objectives Taking helps from tutor 2 day
Data collection Appropriate sources to be
undertaken.
4 day
Conclusion Feedback is to taken from tutor
and then monitor the changes
accordingly.
2 day
c). Research Methodologies.
Research philosophy :
It refers to the feeling of researcher regarding source, characteristic and development of
data into knowledge will take in research. There are various philosophies which could be used by
scholars that suits the kind of research study are undertaking such as interpretivism, positivism,
pragmatism. Interpretivism is a philosophy which considers small samples & investigations or
qualitative research (Pruzan, 2016). Positivism is related with large samples , it is highly
structured and suits quantitative research. Pragmatism philosophy is used where researcher uses
mixture of research designs. For the present study, researcher has used interpretivism philosophy
which helped it in assessing the strategies used by businesses for introducing new products in the
market.
Research approach :
It means the arrangement and process regarding how the research will be carried, how
that data will be gathered, assembled, analysed and interpreted. Scholars uses various approaches
such as inductive , deductive or abductive which best suits their research purpose. In this
research study, inductive approach has been applied by the researcher as it meets the aim of
study and also suits the qualitative nature of study (Murshed and Zhang, 2016). This assisted the
scholar in determining the positive impact which the new product development leaves on
Arcadia company's growth and success.
Research design :
It defines the type or nature of research study. It basically provides a structure for
answering the research problems. Different types of research designs are experiments,
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descriptive, review, correlation, meta-analysis etc. For the purpose of finding the challenges
which the Arcadia retailing company faces while planning, developing and introducing the new
product, the scholar has applied descriptive research design (Kamil and et.al., 2016).
Sampling :
It is a procedure of taking out a pre-determined number of people out of large sample
population. This sample represents the characteristics of the entire sample population. There are
different ways through which the sample can be selected such as probability sampling and non
probability sampling(Aithal, 2017). In Probability sampling, each of the element of population
has a equal chance of getting selected for the sample. In non probability sampling, elements of
sample population does not have an equal probability of getting chosen for the sample. The
probability sampling is further divided into random, Stratified,Cluster,Multistage,Systematic
samplings. In the present study, scholar has opted for random sampling so that each of the
component of sample population gets equal chance of being selected and there is no room for
any biasses.
Data collection :
It is described as the procedure of gathering and assembling data from all the relevant and
considerable sources for the objective of identifying the answers to the problems of research
study, for testing the hypothesis and for evaluating the findings. There are two methods of
collecting data such as primary and secondary data collection method. It is very important for the
researcher to select the secondary sources for collecting the data because the quality in terms of
reliability and viability of the research study depends upon the sources through which that data
has been collected (Data Collection Methods, 2019). The scholar have applied primary and
secondary sources for the present study for identifying the impact of new product development
on Arcadia for competing with the big brands.
Data analysis :
It is the process of transforming data into meaningful information with the help of sorting
and filtering data for facilitating decision making. It has two types ; qualitative data analysis and
quantitative data analysis (Flick, 2018). Qualitative research involves interview,
observations,experiments etc., where the pattern is drawn out of the collected data for the
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