MBA642: Project Initiation, Planning, and Execution for Levi Jeans

This report provides a detailed analysis of the project management failures that led to the market failure of Levi Jeans. It explores critical factors such as marketing strategies, target market demographics, cost management, market forces, competitor analysis, and the skills of the project management team. The report outlines a comprehensive project management plan utilizing the IPECC framework (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Control, and Closure) to revitalize the brand. Each stage of IPECC is meticulously detailed, with specific actions tailored to Levi Jeans' context. The report also identifies success criteria, including effective marketing, open communication, comprehensive planning, cost control, and risk management. It recommends the use of Basecamp project software to facilitate collaborative project management. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of implementing these strategies to ensure Levi Jeans' market success. The report is a complete project management plan for the success of the Levi jeans project. The plan covers all the stages of the project from initiation to the closure stage.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project initiation, planning and execution
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Conducting research on Levi Jeans.............................................................................................2
3. Project plan..................................................................................................................................4
4. Success criteria and software that is used in project....................................................................6
4a) Success criteria used in Levi’s Jeans for making it successful..............................................6
4b) Software used for managing project......................................................................................8
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

2
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
The Levi jeans were a market failure and therefore the main aim of the project is to create
a proper project management plan for turning them into success. The paper provides an
opportunity of conducting research in order to determine the cost, international factors and the
culture of Levi’s in order to determine the factors due to which Levi Jeans faced failure.
Additionally, the paper reflects steps that are required to be used as per IPECC for making the
entire project successful. Furthermore, the success criteria of the project are illustrated and the
paper also elaborates the software that is best for managing the project effectively.
2. Conducting research on Levi Jeans
It is found that proper market research is conducted in order to inform actions and for
providing a theory that generally contributes towards proper development of knowledge about
Levi jeans and how the illustrated factors become the reason behind the failure of the company.
Marketing
Proper marketing strategy is defined as the backbone for the entire business and thus it
helps in generating awareness about various types of services among the customers of the
organization (Seidlova, Pozivil and Seidl 2019). In addition to this, it provides information
about the needs of the customers and presence of improper marketing expertise faces challenges
in properly targeting the desired audience. Furthermore, the price of marketing generally grows
while the brand value of the organization decreases that further causes a number of issues.
Demographics of target market

3
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Levi’s helps in providing a wide range of products that further helps in targeting a
number of market segments for capturing demands. However, it is a time-consuming step to
identify the target audience and for successfully analyzing the research data and for effectively
developing campaigns to reach them effectively and Levi’s are unable to target market properly
therefore they face a lot of issues which can be considered an important reason for failure of
Levi’s Jeans (Merigo et al. 2016).
Costs
It is found that Levi jeans are mainly made up of cotton and therefore the company
invest huge amount of money for providing a soft fabric due to which the price of manufacturing
the jeans is quite higher. In addition to this, it company also add marketing cost and therefore the
price of the jeans become much higher as compared to the rates in which other competitor
delivers. This is considered as a major factor behind the failure of Levi’s Jeans.
Market forces
The market forces are the different types of factors that generally helps in influencing the
price and presence of goods as well as services within the market economy. It is found that the
government of UK generally tries to persuade the European Union for allowing the supermarkets
to import goods but it is found that the company is generally locked within an endless quest for
appearing innovative (Kleinaltenkamp, Plinke and Geiger 2016). It is found that in the year
2000, the company generally failed to make top 75 global brands and the inclusion of rival brand
become a major factor.
Culture of Levi’s

4
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The organization have strong values, creativity as well as handwork and they generally
use different types of innovative, sustainable as well as progressive practices. However, low
engagement of the employees as well as lack of flexibility with high employee turnover becomes
one of the factors that affects marketing of Levi’s due to which the business failed in the market
and does not provide strong competition in the market.
Competitors
It is found that Levi’s have a number of competitors in the market including Lee,
Wrangler, Spykar as well as Tommy Hilfiger. However, in order to effectively compete in the
market, the organization needs to utilize proper marketing strategy however, it is found that in
the absence of proper marketing, Levi’s is trying to preserve the integrity of the brand however
the brand generally run into difficulty due to a lot of reasons (Brace 2018).
Skills and personalities of PM
The project manager who is mainly involved with the project of Levi jeans are unable to
resolve the conflict as well as issues and due to which the company faced failure in the market.
In addition to this, communication is also considered as one of the major factors that the project
manager lacks and due to which they are unable to provide every single detail which is reflecting
that the marketing of Levi’s Jeans was going in wrong direction.
3. Project plan
IPECC, in PMBOK generally stands for proper collection of five different process groups
including initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing which are mainly utilized for
manufacturing and marketing Levi’s Jeans successfully in the present market.

5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Initiation step
In this phase, the project manager mainly articulates the vision of the project by
successfully establishing the goals and defining the expectation and scope of the project. In
addition to this, project charter is created that includes information associated with project
description, resources as well as project objectives (Meredith, Mantel Jr and Shafer 2017).
Moreover, proper feasibility study is conducted for properly evaluating the goals, timelines as
well as cost of the project. As the project of Levi’s jeans have proper business plan and the
project is considered to be feasible therefore the project is assigned to a project team.
Planning step
After the business plan gets green signal, the project requires a solid project plan so that
the project team members are effectively guided for completing the project work. A proper and
well-written project plan helps in providing proper guidance for obtaining different types of
resources and for acquiring financing as well as for procuring the needed materials for the
manufacturing and marketing of Levi’s jeans so that they can achieve success (Martens and
Carvalho 2017). In addition to this, the project plan includes details about the obstacles that the
team will encounter during the project cost and further allows the team to properly understand
the scope and project cost.
Execution step
The project manager identifies the fabric that is utilized for manufacturing the jeans and
generally hires experienced team members. The jeans are stitched as per the design that is
approved by the designer for making it innovative as well as trendy so that it can compete with
other brands (Badewi 2016). In addition to this, it is needed to conduct marketing with the help

6
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
of social media as well as advertising campaigns so that the buyers can be able to know about the
brand and can get to know about the newest jeans in the market. In addition to this, the
competition within the market must be analyzed properly and the manufacturing must be done in
such that helps in making the product different from its competitors and it meets the various
needs of the clients.
Control step
After the entire project is executed, it is necessary to constantly monitor the progress of
the project. In order to guarantee delivery, it is necessary for the project team to properly prevent
scope creep within the project by successfully calculating the key performance-based indicators
(Demirkesen and Ozorhon 2017). In addition to this, the time and cost of the project must be
tracked and this constant vigilance on the project generally allows the project manager to move
smoothly while undertaking the project work.
Closure step
The project is closed when the project team deliver the finished project to the customer
by successfully communicating completion to the project stakeholders for releasing the resources
to other projects. This is considered as one of the vital steps within the lifecycle of the project
that allows the project team for evaluating as well as documenting the project. After preparation
of the project documents, the resources who are linked with the project are released.
4. Success criteria and software that is used in project
4a) Success criteria used in Levi’s Jeans for making it successful
The project success criteria are generally defined as the standards through which the
entire project can be judged at the end for deciding whether the undertaken project is successful

7
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
in the eyes of the project stakeholder or not. The different success criteria that reflects that the
undertaken project is successful are elaborated below:
Proper marketing
Proper marketing strategies must be utilized in order to know the demands of the
customers so that proper product can be delivered which will fulfil the needs of the clients.
Furthermore, utilization of social media marketing, email marketing, as well as advertising
campaigns must be utilized for promoting new products in the market which further helps in
attracting customers as well as helps in increasing the revenue of the organization.
Open communication
An open communication channel is considered important for making the project
successful. When the project team of Levi’s jeans will work then if open communication is
present then the team will be able to discuss every small information and that plays an important
role in making the project successful (Frefer et al. 2018). Furthermore. When the team is
generally working on the schedule, it is quite important for the team to remain informed in every
aspect of the project.
Comprehensive planning
It is necessary to have a proper project plan for Levi’s Jeans so that everyone can be able
to know where the entire project is going. In addition to this, a good project plan is needed that
include all the information about the project deliverables, milestones as well as resource related
requirements which further assists in progressing as per the project (Joslin and Muller 2016). In

8
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
addition to this, proper planning generally helps the project team to meet the project deadlines
and for staying organized that further helps in making the entire project successful.

9
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Cost
The project managers need to control cost while manufacturing and marketing by
creating a cost baseline. In addition to this, the organization needs to price their products by
analyzing the prices of other brands so that price does not become a negative factor towards low
number of jeans sale globally.
Proper risk management
The work that is undertaken in the project does not go as exactly as planned and therefore
it is necessary to prepare a proper risk management plan in the planning phase. In this specific
phase, it is necessary to make sure that all the project stakeholder is informed about the risks that
can construct the project and the ways in which the project issues can be resolved. This further
helps in providing confidence to the team members and which assists in making the entire
project successful (Vieira 2019).
4b) Software used for managing project
Basecamp project software must be utilized for managing the activities of Levi’s Jeans
project as it is quite easy as well as intuitive to use. It further helps in allowing proper
collaborative project management (Mast et al. 2016). Basecamp is mainly used as it is very much
easy to make the to do list and additionally it helps in adding the clients of the project. In
addition to this, built in chat features are present within the software so that an individual can be
able to take quick question or make urgent clarification on a specific task which is considered to
be effective for making communication with the entire team of the project. Moreover, the built-in
feature of the project helps in scheduling the project activities properly so that the Levi’s jeans
project can be made successful (Septiawati et al. 2019).

10
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
5. Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entire paper that Levi’s jeans can be made market success
by undertaking proper research on various factors including competitors, cost, target market,
culture so that the reasons of failure can be analyzed. In addition to this IPECC from PMBOK is
used for creating the entire project and for reflecting how each stage of the project must be
executed. In addition to this, success criteria of the project are elaborated and moreover the
software that is used for managing the project is also reflected along with its benefits.

11
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
References
Badewi, A., 2016. The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM)
practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance
framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.761-778.
Brace, I., 2018. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for
effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.
Demirkesen, S. and Ozorhon, B., 2017. Impact of integration management on construction
project management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8),
pp.1639-1654.
Frefer, A.A., Mahmoud, M., Haleema, H. and Almamlook, R., 2018. Overview success criteria
and critical success factors in project management. Industrial engineering & management,
pp.2169-0316.
Gunn, J.K., Ernst, K.C., Center, K.E., Bischoff, K., Nuñez, A.V., Huynh, M., Okello, A. and
Hayden, M.H., 2018. Current strategies and successes in engaging women in vector control: a
systematic review. BMJ global health, 3(1), p.e000366.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2016. The relationship between project governance and project
success. International journal of project management, 34(4), pp.613-626.
Kleinaltenkamp, M., Plinke, W. and Geiger, I., 2016. Business Relationship Management and
Marketing. Springer-Verlag Berlin An.

12
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Martens, M.L. and Carvalho, M.M., 2017. Key factors of sustainability in project management
context: A survey exploring the project managers' perspective. International Journal of Project
Management, 35(6), pp.1084-1102.
Mast, A.R., Ellwood, E.R., Bruhn, R. and Riccardi, G., 2016, September. Biospex—A Basecamp
for Launching, Advertising, and Managing Biodiversity Specimen Digitization Expeditions.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Merigó, J.M., Gil-Lafuente, A.M. and Gil-Lafuente, J., 2016. Business, industrial marketing and
uncertainty. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Seidlova, R., Poživil, J. and Seidl, J., 2019. Marketing and business intelligence with help of ant
colony algorithm. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 27(5), pp.451-463.
Septiawati, E., Sutriyono, E., Juliantina, I. and Siswanto, A., 2019, April. Evaluation of Design
Planning Water Distribution System with Watercad v. 7.0 Simulation Program for Townsite
Basecamp Settlement Relocation in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra. In Journal of Physics:
Conference Series (Vol. 1198, No. 8, p. 082022). IOP Publishing.
Vieira, G., 2019. Success Criteria Adherence in Information Systems Projects. A Case Study on
Brazilian Companies.