Project Management: Development of New Canned Soup Product - Baxter

This project management assignment details the development and marketing of a new canned soup product, "Tomato & Parmesan with Fire Roasted Garlic" by Baxter, targeting the Canadian market. It covers essential project management practices including PESTLE analysis to assess the political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental factors, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to organize project components, and a Gantt chart for scheduling. The assignment also includes a risk analysis with mitigation strategies, a Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) matrix, and a stakeholder management strategy. The project's initial budget is £2.5 million, with a 120-day timeline. Market research is conducted to analyze the competitive landscape. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to consumer preferences, health-conscious lifestyles, and technological advancements in food manufacturing. It outlines key project phases, including research, production planning, and marketing, to ensure successful product launch and market penetration.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management: New product development
Name of the student:
Name of the University:

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background context and rationale of the project.............................................................................3
Methods used for the project...........................................................................................................5
PESTLE analysis for the project..................................................................................................5
Work Breakdown Structure for analyzing the project components.............................................6
Gantt chart for the project............................................................................................................9
Risk Analysis for the project and identify a Risk Management Strategy..................................12
Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted and Informed (RACI) Matrix for the project.........15
Stakeholder Management Strategy for the key project stakeholders.........................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References..................................................................................................................................19
Appendices....................................................................................................................................23
Appendix1..................................................................................................................................23
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................23
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................24
Appendix 4.................................................................................................................................24

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Introduction
This paper reflects the roles of project manager and professional project management
practices involved during study, expansion, development and marketing of any new canned
product for a food manufacturing industry. This canned product which is nominated for this
particular report is “Tomato & Parmesan with Fire Roasted Garlic of Baxter”. In order to gain
effective and measurable economic growth and sustainability in the competitive market it is vital
for project managers and marketing heads to identify the target market and target audience for
the premium rage of canned soup products. Already many similar soup manufacturing
companies are ruling the UK market.
Therefore, before launching this product the project manager should conduct some
methods to avoid potential risks. Before the final initiation of the project a project chart will be
organized to design the complete process. A PESTLE analysis is conducted along with Risk
management strategies, stakeholder management plan, WBS (Work breakdown Structure), RACI
matrix and a Gantt chart. The initial budget estimated for project is £2.5 million; therefore the
project requires to be completed within a timeframe of 120 days in this budget maintain the
quality of the product as well. A market research is also presented in the paper to analyze current
status of the existing and new competitors.
Background context and rationale of the project
These days people are becoming more conscious about their daily life style thus they are
expecting healthier food products from different manufacturing companies. As a result the
manufacturing companies are also giving their attention on the quality of their food products.

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This project is about the study, expansion, development and marketing of a new premium range
of canned soup- “Tomato & Parmesan with Fire Roasted Garlic” of Baxter. The company is
focused on manufacturing a collection of deeply flavoured and rich canned soups that will
extremely indulgent and distinctive from other similar manufacturing companies. The product
that Baxter is going to manufacture with quality and healthy ingredients is” Tomato & Parmesan
with Fire Roasted Garlic”. The target set for the launch is Canada and before the launch the
project team will conduct a detail market research. The project plan that is presented here
includes the critical success factors, tools, techniques and metrics as well. Each one of the
development activities are developed considering proper tools and techniques. For achieving
project aims, all project development criteria are required to be sequentially followed by project
team members and project leaders as well. For launching the new canned product in the Canada
competitive market a detail internal and external market analysis is needed in terms of PESTLE
analysis and SWOT analysis. It will help the project leader to recognize the present status of the
market along with the business and marketing strategies that would help Baxter to meet the
expectation and stipulate of the customers.
After conducting research in the Canada market a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
should be developed to breakdown a large project into small parts. It would help to reduce the
level of complexity for any project. This paper summarizes the new product development
accomplishment factors, process tools and techniques and also some additional useful
information as well. The WBS would also help to locate the task responsibilities among the
project human resources. It will also identify the physical resources that are responsible to
accomplish each project activity. Then a Gantt chart, RACI chart and a Risk analysis framework

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is also prepared in this research paper. It is duty of the scheme associates to complete the project
in the assigned timeline and budget.
Methods used for the project
PESTLE analysis for the project
For accomplishing the scheme in assigned funds and time, the project group members
and project manager of Baxter food manufacturing company should conduct the PESTLE
analysis to understand the current market status and competitor of Canada. Proper understanding
on the market status will help Baxter to meet the quality, price and product requirements of the
customers of Canada. The entire Canada food industry has comprehensive strategies and policies
which account for the threats as well as opportunities in the PESTLE model for analysis. The
PESTLE analysis gives insight over external factors which whole food industry needs to include
considering the current trends and market condition as well. The factors identified in the
PESTLE analysis are elaborated in the below section:
Political factor: The Canada food industry has opportunity for further improvement on
its standards of both organic and GMO free products. The Canada food industry also has
opportunities for further expansion due to its regulations over GMO as well as organic food. The
Canada food industry offers free trade agreements and low labour standards in the developing
countries. The entire food industry has taken step into the opportunities based on political
dimension.
Economic factor: The different factors that can be a threat to Baxter’s new product
development project are financial stability, higher rate for employment in United States and the

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continuously increasing rising labour cost in the rising countries. Considering the entire food
market of Canada, its economic and gradual growth will be measured successfully. It has also
been analyzed that, the rising labour cost is minimizing the operational issues in Canada. Thus, if
Baxter targets the Canada food market for launching the new food product then it would be
commercially beneficial for the organization.
Social factors: It is analyzed that, the social status of the Canada food industry gives
increasing emphasize on healthy lifestyles of the customer, increases wealth gaps and also
increases the cultural diversity. The entire food market has opportunities to maintain the growth
instead of rising wealth gaps. Therefore, it can be said that, Baxter should analyze social
conditions in terms of customer influence, employees and investors before final launch of the
“new canned soup product”.
Technical factors: The Company needs to consider the technical aspects before launch
of new canned premium soup product. For manufacturing, preparing cans and labeling the cans
different technologies must be considered by the project executive and group members before
launching the new food product. The company website must present allergy notices along with
caloric information.
Legal factor: The various legal factors those are to be considered by the project team
members and marketing head of Baxter before launching the project in Canada market are data
protection law, healthy and safety laws, anti-trust law and discrimination laws.
Environmental factor: Apart from the above mentioned factors the other factors related
to environmental those are needed to be considered include climatic changes, renewable energy
resources used, water pollution regulations, recycling, waste management process etc.

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Work Breakdown Structure for analyzing the project components
A Worn Breakdown Structure helps to present the activity or deliverable hierarchy. In
other words, a project manager can get sufficient benefits after design and implementation of
WBS. A WBS can make a project simpler one and reduce the level of overall complexity. It also
prevents the work from slipping through crack. The project team associates would be able to
understand where the project activities are suitable. The WBS tool guides the project team
members to prepare a project plan in an organized manner. With the help of this tool unwanted
activities can be successfully eliminated. It reduces the risks associated to time, cost, and staffs
and prevents to implement changes. The WBS for the project is elaborated in the below section:
The plan is expected to be finished in the assigned finances and timeline if the above
mentioned activities are sequentially followed by the project head and other allocated team
associates. The main four work packages for the project are project beginning phase, research
plan, production planning phase and marketing.

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Research and marketing
schedule for the canned
product
Canned products
marketing schedule
Design of the research
plan
Development of
project scope
statement
Designing the
research objectives
Identification of
research
requirements
Project team
allocation
Marketing team
allocation
Identification of
target market
(location)
Consideration of
research method
Training to market
research team
Developing
schedule
considering the
initially planned
budget
market analysis
Internal market analysis
SWOT analysis
External market analysis
PESTLE analysis
Primary market research
Raw data collection
through survey
Primary data analysis
Data interpretation
Secondary data collection
Secondary data
analysis
Secondary data
interpretation
Result
Internal discussion
among the market
analysts regarding
collected data
Improving existing
research plan
Market campaign
Target market
analysis
Target audience
analysis
Online marketing
through social media
Product launch event
organization
Final product launch
Figure 1: WBS for the project
(Source: Created by author)
Gantt chart for the project
GC is a project tracking or monitoring tool that must be used by the project supervisor to
track whether a project is governing towards proper objectives or not. It helps to prevent resource
over allocation, overrunning time and budget challenges. It will help the project group to
visualize current status of the project and ensure that the communication among the team is
running properly. The rate of productivity will increase and also the supervisor would be able to
measure the project success in terms of scope, budget and time. The tool gives clarity to dates,
time management and ensure accountability and in terms of project timeline. With the help of

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Gantt chart, project management can be moved up in value chain with Project Management
Office (PMO).
Figure 2: Gantt chart or schedule for the project
(Source: Created by author)
The schedule prepared in the above section will help project associates and project team
members to track project progress. Baxter should use this tool while design, manufacturing and
marketing the product in the competitive Canada food industry. The Gantt chart will help all

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project stakeholders to recognize the detail requirements and elements. In order to replace
meetings and make the status update error free and faster than previous the developers need to
use the Gantt chart.
Risk Analysis of the project and identification of Risk Management Strategies
In order to build regular process for review and update the project to the next level Baxter
premium range of canned soup manufacturing company may face different risks those required
to be resolved and avoided. The process of risk management strategy is comprises of four
different stages in terms of identification of risk, assessment of risk, prioritization of risk and risk
mitigation. It implies that for avoiding the occurrences of potential risks firstly eh risk should be
identified and then analyzed for developing mitigation strategies. The potential risk and their
management strategies are elaborated in the below section:
Risk
Id
Risk description Impact Likelihood Risk
ranking
Mitigation strategies
R1 Risk with demand: If
the project manager
and manufacturing
company fails to meet
the demand of the
target customer in
terms of quality, taste
and price then the
project may fail to gain
business profit from
High (4) Possible
(3)
High
(12)
Before final marketing
and launch of the
canned premium soup
Baxter should analyze
the requirements and
demand of the
customers.

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the implementation
R2 Overrunning budget:
While monitoring if it
is found that the
project is running
beyond the expected
budget then it may
result overrunning
budget risk.
High (4) Unlikely
(2)
Medium
(8)
Before the initiation and
planning of the project,
the finance manager and
the project manager
should conduct a
feasibility analysis and
make sure that the
project process are
properly defined so that
it can be completed
within the assigned time
frame and budget.
R3 Lack of business
strategies: If
competitive business
strategies are not
developed by the
project manager then it
would cost major to
the company success
and commercial
expectations.
Catastrophic
(5)
Most
unlikely (1)
Low (5) Depending on the
market condition such
as competition and
demand of consumers
the project manager and
business analyst should
develop the follow the
business strategies
throughout the project
design, development

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and implementation life
cycle.
R4 Brand risk: If the
quality of the food
product fails to meet
the expectation of the
customers then it
would create brand
risk
Catastrophic
(5)
Most likely
(4)
Extreme
(20)
Before the final launch
of the product in the
target market the
product should be tested
by internal group of
customer. Therefore,
feedback must be
considered to improve
the product and after
that only the product
should be launched in
the market.
R5 Risk with price: If the
price is found to be
higher than the other
similar product
manufacturing
companies then it will
become a major risk to
the Baxter.
Medium (3) Most likely
(5)
High
(15)
The price of the product
should be set based on
the affordability of the
target customer group.
However, the price can
be increased or
decreased based on its
demand among the
targeted customers.