Assessment 3 Information
Subject Code: | MBA642 |
Subject Name: | Project Initiation, Planning and Execution |
Assessment Title | Levi Jeans Type 1 |
Assessment Type: Length: | Individual Report 2000 words (-/+ 10%) |
Weighting: | 40% |
These jeans were a market failure. Create a project management plan to turn them into success.
Assessment Description
In this individual assessment, students will be given an opportunity to analyse the organisational factors that promote effective project management by analysing elements of the project management planning and execution phases that may give rise to ethical compromises. More importantly, students will practice creating an integrated project management plans that meet industry standards and objectives.
Assessment Instructions
You are required to use at least 12 sources of information and reference these in accordance with Kaplan Harvard Referencing Style. These may include websites, government publications, industry reports, census data, journal articles, and newspaper articles. These references should be presented as a reference list at the end of your report.
Assignment Submission
This file must be submitted as a ‘Word’ document to avoid any technical issues that may occur from incorrect file format upload. Uploaded files with a virus will not be considered as a legitimate submission. Turnitin will notify you if there is an issue with the submitted file. In this case, you must contact your workshop facilitator via email and provide a brief description of the issue and a screenshot of the Turnitin error message. You are also encouraged to submit your work well in advance of the deadline to avoid any possible delay with the Turnitin similarity report or any other technical difficulties.
Assessment 3
Subject Code: MBA642
Subject Name: Project Initiation, Planning and Execution
Assessment Title: Levi Jeans Type 1
Assessment Type: Individual Report
Introduction
Project Management as defined in PMBOK is a science and art of managing project. The project management has five processes commonly known as IPECC- Initiating, Planning, Executing, controlling and closing. If the process are not followed properly it can lead to failure of the project (Heldman, Baca, Jansen & Jansen, 2007). The output of one process has to be input to other process.
The report studies a very popular real life project failure, “Levis Jeans” project. Despite having a great brand value and lots of investment and funding the project was big failure. The report identifies the reasons of failure of Levi’s jeans and the lack in project management processes that led to the failure of the product.
The report also mentions the right project management techniques that should have been followed in order to make the project of Levi’s jeans a success.
Background of Levi Strauss & Co
Levi Strauss & Co was founded by Levi Strauss a Bavaria immigrant to San Francisco. Looking into the need of hardworking people he though to design clothes to endure anything and hence manufactured the first denim jeans (Levi.com, 2020). These denims nowadays are known as blue jeans. Back in 1873, the tailor named Jacob Davis started to use copper rivets on the points of strain on pants making them very durable and at the same time differentiating from the competition products.
The Levi’s jeans gradually became very popular and had monopoly in the market. The company reached the sales of $1 billion by 1974. However in 1990s the share of the company fell and the market was dropped to nearly half. All the market campaign of the company were falling apart. The failure of Levi was compared to the failed utopian management experiment. The managers of the company had good intentions and were working towards the expansion of the company but they were not guided by any plan or process. The company was technically sound with knowledgeable people who knew how to make good products, a large retail store chain of 220 stores all over the world but lacked project management and adhere to the customer needs and expectation (Munk, N., n.d.).
What is Project Management
PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is a collection of various standards, practices and procedures that can help in completing the projects successfully. PMBOK defines 49 processes for effective project management which has been put across five PMBOK process groups as follows:
Source: (lucidchart.com, 2020)
What went wrong with Levi’s Jeans?
Levi’s Type 1 Jeans was launched in 2002 with a huge marketing budget. The product was very different form the usual jeans cut and design and had exaggerated pocket details and super drak denim finish. Levi claimed it to be the bold fashion jean of the decade (Ireland, Hoskisson & Hitt, 2005). The product was however a failure. Market researchers concluded that the failure was because the product was very expensive as compared to its earlier range with no additional quality to support the high cost. The commercial used to advertise the product was considered to be misguiding for the patrons of the jeans. The needs of the customer were not taken care off (Bonander, R., 2020).
It was argued that the market was changing and jeans were not only looked up as a necessity abut as fashionable product. Other brands like Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt and Ralp Lauren revolutionized the product with stylish jeans and keeping the pricing competitive (Ireland, Hoskisson & Hitt, 2005). This new product was too bold for the existing fan following of Levi and failed to appeal the prospective customers. Thus turning out to be complete failure.
Factors leading to failure of Levi
The problems that led to failure of Levis Jeans can be stated as follows:
Lack of Project Management At Levi’s
From the project management perspective there was lack of proper project management at Levi Straus & Co that led to the failure of its product and the company in late 1990 and early 2000. The failure in effective project management can be identified as follows:
Project Management Approach to make Levi’s Successful
The adherence to the project management steps and processes as laid down under the IPECC phases of the PMBOK can lead to success of Levi’s in the following way:
Conclusion
Project management is a blend of art and science. PMBOK defined the standards and processes that are helpful in project management but every project is unique and no set of processes can ensure the success of the project. The personal skill of project manager is required to make decisions and identify the strategy that will work for a project. Where a planned management of a project can lead to unprecedented success, the lack of proper plan and preparedness can lead to failure of projects. The organizations though should never miss to learn lessons from the failed projects and avoid the similar mistakes in future projects.
Levi’s is the best example of this, the company enjoyed monopoly and huge market share till mid-nineties when it had a decade full of failure due to wrong production of product and unplanned decisions. However the company learned from its mistakes and soon revived as the market leader in Jeans by 2010.