Forum 7: Project Research
Instructions
In this forum you will consider which research strategies might be appropriate for finding solutions to the client needs associated with your analytical report.
1. Post a brief statement of the client problem you are trying to address and the purpose of your research study. (See Example 1 below.)
2. Post at least three key questions you will need to answer to determine the best solution, along with the resources you could use to answer those questions. Who might you talk to? What resources (print or electronic) might provide helpful information? (See Example 2 below.)
3. Respond substantively to the postings of at least two of your peers in 150–300 words each. For each posting, do you have any concerns about the student’s proposed research plan? If so, how might the student address those concerns? Describe the pros and cons of the student’s proposed resources, based on the guidelines you learned this week. What other resources might help the student answer the stated research questions?
Example 1:
XYZ company currently has no private break room space for employee use. The company has had many requests for such a room to serve various purposes, including private meditation, breastfeeding, napping, and other personal uses during the work hours. An initial scan indicates that other companies are providing such a room for their employees. To stay competitive and to meet the needs of its employees, company XYZ is considering whether to create a private break room for its employees.
Example 2:
How common are these types of rooms in other companies?
• Business trade journal
How extensive is the need or desire for this offering?
• Company-wide survey of employees asking about their interest in this type of room
Is there a room available for this purpose?
• Building management interview
How much would this room cost to lease the building?
• Building management interview
• XYZ legal department (to see if a special rate for rooms has been negotiated)
What would the benefits be of offering such a room?
• Interviews with other companies that have already implemented such rooms
• Public interviews with experts (e.g., NPR interview: “Napping Makes Inroads in the Workplace”)
• Company Web sites (e.g., Luxe Vivant Web site article “Who is Napping”)
• Psychology journals
Peers’ posting：
1.
Bracketron, a consumer electronics’ accessories company, currently can improve upon communication and accountability to optimize project process efficiency and outcomes. I work on the product design team as a product design specialist. When working on a product development project, I am working with the graphics team and marketing team. The project typically starts with an idea. Product Design develops this idea. Graphics and marketing help polish and realize this idea through packaging and marketing. With many people from different backgrounds responsible for different parts of the process, communication and accountability are key for the product to be successful. Having more organized, effective, and innovative procedures in place can help with these issues. I will look toward other companies’ organizational/work flow tools utilized and assess what new tools and procedures can be potentially implemented to help improve project operations.
What are ideas Bracketron employees have for improving project work flow?
-Will interview a couple of Bracketron employees, specifically including Senior Product Design Specialist Nina Johnson, who is in charge of workflow organization within our product design team.
What tools do other companies utilize for organization, work flow, accountability, and communication during a project process?
-Will complete online research to learn about good options for tools to utilize
What advice can a successful company give to improve our operations? How do they infuse organization, accountability, and innovation in operations throughout a project process?
-I will interview a contact I have from the Nerdery, maybe also someone from Target. I will see how these companies deal with these issues. It may be interesting to see how the Nerdery operates (a medium sized company) compared to Target (a large corporation), and see if any of either of their practices could be inspiration for some potential operations procedures/tools to be implemented at Bracketron’s scope (a smaller, growing company)
2.
The PwC Midwest Tax Region is made up of six markets, each market housing multiple offices with the exception of Minneapolis (which has just one) Over the last five years Minneapolis has developed new processes in which the engagement teams not only meet, but far exceed both their monthly billing and collections goals without fail. This has improved the overall realization and engagement margin for their market significantly. The team structure and its newly developed process is unique to Minneapolis, but due to its success, Midwest Regional leadership has decided to implement this framework in all other markets. Some of the challenges they face include (but are not limited to) staffing, capacity, and training; but if executed properly the overall benefits to the company’s bottom line could be exponential.
What is the current staffing situation in each market, their capacity/utilization?
a. Each market has an HR leader as well as an HR deployment specialist. They have reporting capabilities and insight that can prove useful.
What training will be required? Who will provide training?
a. The Minneapolis market has been led by Finance senior Associate Brian Davis who worked to develop this framework. He and his team should be able to help work together in creating a training process/materials.
What are the current expectations on each market, what are their current finance practices? How much transition time do they need before hard goals are set on them and results are expected?
a. There is a Midwest regional finance team that should be able to assist in gaining a better understanding of each markets current WIP issues and overall margin. This, along with consult from HR, we should be able to determine a reasonable timeline.