Project Management: Business Case for Launching Target Store UK

This case study presents a business case for launching a Target store in the UK, drawing lessons from the unsuccessful Target Canada venture. It emphasizes the importance of thorough market research, efficient supply chain management, and robust risk and financial management. The analysis incorporates project management principles, including initialization, planning, execution, monitoring, and control, highlighting the need for clear objectives, stakeholder analysis, and performance measurement using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The study identifies potential risks such as repeating past mistakes, communication breakdowns, and service quality issues, while also outlining success factors like Target's reputation for quality products at competitive prices and the opportunity to rectify previous errors. Effective internal and external communication strategies are deemed crucial, with recommendations for enhanced marketing and knowledge sharing. The conclusion underscores the significance of risk analysis, stakeholder engagement, and resource management for the successful launch and potential future expansion of Target stores in the UK and Europe. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

LAUNCHING OF TARGET STORE IN UK

The Case
It has been observed that people from Canada are
preferring the buy thigs from Target. USA as the
quality of the product is good and the price is
reasonable. The success of the Target store at USA
made the management of the organization to set up a
new Target store at Canada. However, the launching of
the new store at Canada was not successful

Reason of the failure of Target Store, Canada
• Due to lack of efficiency in the supply chain management the
store at Canada could not provide sufficient stocks of products to
the consumers.
• There was a lack in the market research before launching the new
store at Canada.
• The price of the products were almost same in the Target store
compared with the other retail stores.
• Lack of proper risk and finance management.

Mitigation of theses problems:
The success of the project management planning is dependent on clear
objective and good planning and scheduling methods along with proper control
and feedback system. The key performance indicator (KPI) indicates the areas
of the project to be measured.
In this case, the theory regarding the development and implementation of the
project can be taken inti account (Tryon 2016). According to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge the life cycle of the development of the
project contains five stages- initialization, planning, execution, monitoring and
control and closing.
At the stage of initialization the requirement gathering is needed to be done in
a proper way. The clarity in the requirement mitigates the chances of scope
creep. The scope creep indicates the sudden changes in the middle of the
development of the project.

Mitigation of theses problems:
Apart from following all the steps in the project management life
cycle there are other things those are needed to be done in order to
complete the project in such a way that it will able to deliver the
right outcome. Some of these things are analysis of the stakeholder
management and risk analysis. Apart from that certain project
planning along with the work breakdown structure is needed to be
done for analysis and identification of the risk.

Measuring the performance of the project:
Performance measurement is also regarded as quality measurement of the project. In order
to maintain the quality of the project or product following factors should be followed-
Making all the employees aware about their role and contribution in the project. The team
members of the project management team are needed to do their task in a proper way
maintaining the quality.
It is the responsibility of the project manager to assure that-
The measuring function for the quality of the project is well organized and practical.
Constant training and emphasize on the team work will ensure that the team members are
working towards a goal for delivering the project in a cost effective way along with
maintain the quality.
Using KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is another way which will indicate the performance
of the implemented project or program.

Stakeholders and their responsibilities:
The stakeholder analysis indicates that the role of the project
manager is important for the successful launching of the Target store
at UK. The project manager with good sense of managing the project
will overview the failure factors if the Target, Canada project and
will try to mitigate the possibilities of happening those mistakes
(Bachrach et al. 2015). The management of the Target is responsible
for the selection of the right project manager for the compilation of
the project (P. Wilson and Beard 2014). It is the responsibility of the
project manager to research about the stakeholder and situation of
the retail market of UK.

Possible risks associates with this project:
There are certain factors which may become the reason for the failure of this
venture of Target. Some of these factors are-
• Repeating the mistakes of Target store at Canada.
• Not maintain the right flow of communication in the organization and the
marketing is not done in a proper way.
• The quality of the service may not be up to mark.
• The lack of proper market research may bring the gap in understanding
between the capacity of the organization and demand of the consumer. In
that case, the sale at the Target store at UK may decrease.
• Lack of proper risk management and stakeholder analysis may cause the
failure of the store.

Possible success factors:
There are some of the factors those can be considered as the success
factors or the opportunities of the project. Some of these factors are-
• The Target is famous for providing quality products in lower price,
which can become an advantage for the organization.
• The Target has experienced the failure in launching the business
outlet at Canada. In this case, while, launching the store in UK the
organization can rectify the mistakes.
• The market situation is competitive which means there is a chance
for the new company to enter the retail business.

Communication:
The communication in this case can be done in two ways-internal
communication and external communication. The internal communication
indicates the communication between the different hierarchies of the
organization (Olins 2017). While the external communication indicates the
communication between Target and the target consumers (Olins 2017). Both
these communications are important for the proper launching and running of
the business of Target in UK. In order to enhance the external communication
the marketing for the new launch of the Target market is needed to be done
properly (Matzler, Veider and Kathan 2015). There should be organization
clarity and knowledge sharing so that the communication between the
employees of different hierarchy can be maintained in a proper way.

Future Scope:
In case, considering all these matter if the launching of the
store is successful, the management of the Target may think
about the expansion of the business in all over the Europe.
The management can also consider the opportunity for
launching more stores in UK. Thus the Target may become a
brand name for retail products.

Conclusion:
The identification of the problems at Target Canada store will
help to make the risk analysis. The risk analysis of this project
would be helpful to mitigate the risks regarding the launching
of the new store. Moreover, stakeholder analysis and resource
management would help to project to deliver its outcome in a
proper way. After the analysis and the identification of the
problems further recommendations has been made to improve
the overall quality of the project.