Week 2: Chapter 1&2

I totally agree with the point of "Team members who understand project management make the entire project run smoother. They make the project manager more effective because they make better estimates, identify risks, and participate in planning and problem solving."
As I mentioned before, I am working at a start-up Chinese newspaper firm which is having no more than 10 employees. The team is small, even though we performs our duties differently, we are required to participate meetings and have a free say to the project. I think it's smart to have all us understand the project and involved in planning, because participation will make us more responsible to the project. Once we have sense of ownership, we are willing to pay extra effort to make the project achieve the goal. Let employee feel themselves important to the project is a key!!

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On the chapter 1, it mentions that every technique in the book is a communication technique, designed to improve the formal and informal ways we communicate critical project information.

We are individual person who grow in different environment, so even though we receive the same message, we might come out different thought. I was watching the movie "up in the air" the other day and totally saw that communication is important theory.
To lay off people is difficult, but to tell the person who gets laid off is even tougher. How to make the person feel not so bad truly needs some communication skill, and I think that skill applies to everything.

Project: Caketail Music Cafe (CMC)

Caketail Music Café (CMC) is a start-up bakery and coffee retail plan to establish in Palo Alto, California. CMC expects to catch the interest of regular loyal customer base with its broad variety of coffee and pastry products. The company plans to build a strong market position in the city, due to the partners' experience and mild competitive climate in the area.

CMC aims to offer its products at a moderate price to meet the demand of the middle-to higher-income local market area residents and college/ university students.

CMC will also introduce the ‘Sports and Music’ elements as the connection between human. These two elements allow human to get together, express themselves and improve social interaction.

CMC is equally owned and managed by its two partners.

Miss Cherri Chiang has extensive experience in bakery & beverage, sales and marketing. She has 5 years of experience in food industry (Restaurant/ Bakery & beverage) in Europe, US and Taiwan

Mr. Edmond Low brings experience in the area of operation, management and administration with 8 years of experience in food industry (Bakery/ Banquet/ fast food chain) in US, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand.

CMC offers a broad range of coffee and espresso products, all from high quality Brazil grown imported coffee beans by providing each customer coffee and espresso products made to suit the customer, down to the smallest detail. CMC also offer others non-caffeine/ alchoholic beverage products.

The bakery will provides freshly prepared bakery and pastry products at all times. CMC will be introducing the main and new product of “Caketail” that expect to be the all time favorite for it consumer.

Vision

CMC will be the hub of entertainment for 58,598 Palo Alto populations. It will soon attract customers around Bay area (with approximately 7.4 million people).

Mission

CMC aims to offer high quality coffee, espresso, and pastry products at a competitive price.

CMC will create an atmosphere conducive to creative expression and promote the creative process.

CMC is the inspiration of the current social life around the world especially those that live in the urban metropolitan life. People will get together with their friends and families to watch a game or to listen to music. CMC will also be the focal point for businessman to meet up and create business opportunity for Palo Alto city.

Goals

Our primary goals over the 1^st year are:

1. Secure financing for start-up of at least $100,000 for space and equipment.

2. Locate the strategic space in Palo Alto.

3. Acquire equipment necessary for business, i.e. coffee pots, cappuccino machines, blenders, etc.

4. Make agreement with Brazil coffee distributors, and bakery vendors.

5. Create a cozy, artist friendly environment that suits CMC concept(i.e. choice of colors, choice of music, decor)

6. Open for business and aims to be listed among the top 10 hub of entertainment in Palo Alto by first half year of operation (within 6 months)

7. Break even by the fourth month of its operation as it steadily increases and achieve sales of $1.04 Million in Year 1.

CMC SMART goals analysis

With the Vision, Mission and goals statement above, it is crystal clear that CMC defined the specific plan to success with the aim to be the hub of entertainment and high quality products offered as we understand the business needs and nature well with all the market segmentation and analysis done.

We have also clearly stated the primary goal is to secure the start up cost for space and equipment purchasing.

Also, CMC target sales of ~$1 million by end of Year 1 of operation with expected break even by 4^th month of operation is measurable.

CMC partnership of Cherri Chiang and Edmond Low co-operate and agree to set the following humble yet realistic goals with their background of MBA knowledge and experience in food industry globally.

With the network established, we will be able to secure high quality raw material and supplies to support the business needs.

A year of prep and timeframe is reasonable for CMC to establish themselves as one of the most frequent café and entertainment spot in Palo Alto.

Who am I and why am I taking project management?

I am Pei-Jung Chiang. In school my major was graphic design and I thought I would always in this field untill taking MBA program. I still keep my passion on art and design, but I have more interests in business right now since it teaches me how to make more money. (don't know if it's true yet...we'll see :))

I am now working in a start-up Chinese newspaper company as an art editor. Since it is a start-up, almost everyone is required to participate in each project. I like it personally because that makes me learn more by intergrate with each other. Project management has became so important to us because the news update every moment and we need to generate it before releasing to the public. So, if we don't have good management, the project will be affected immediately.

So does other business, project management plays an important role of making good product or not. I guess I will have to learn the knowledge if I get a chance to own a business.

What I expect to learn? Well, I would say everything since it's a new field to me. Looking forward to learning something new!!

Strategy-A seven S Model example

Since I was doing 85 C as my final presentation for the Marketing class, I will apply this seven S into this popular chain stores.

Because 85 C is a coffee and bakery shop, the founder absolutely adopts a customer structure since it directly interacts with customers all the time. 85 C introduces five star food (skill) made by five star staff into local market (style) with affordable price (strategy) to attract those people who are pursuing quality food with not much money in the pocket. 85 s does not open for franchise, and it has a central kitchen to produce their product and deliver to the stores to maintain the same quality. (System) The store is built in a high class but friendly structure for all level of people to shop in the store, which is also its superordinate goal-everyone is able to enjoy a cup of high quality coffee and five star food with affordable price.

Operations-Capacity

I heard a Japanese restaurant that is so popular and widespread on the Internet. Last weekend I finally found a time to go visit, and I soon discovered the secret of why it is so popular. The capacity of the restaurant is limited to 8 people!! The waiting line is always long at anytime, sometimes you have to wait for two hours to get a seat to eat. The food does not surprise me much , I can find the same quality in other place for sure.
I guess the capacity of this restaurant plays a little magic here.

There is another example plays the same trick. Two same size of scoop of ice cream are contained in two different size of cup. The scoop of ice cream on a smaller size sells better because it looks bigger than another one. I think the visual effect plays the role here.

Business is all about psychology. So study human thinking and behavior might help on business growth.

Operations-Quality

Couple days ago, I was talking to one of my client who is an owner of a Japanese-Chinese restaurant that sells hand-made noodle and dumpling. According to her, the flour she used to made the products is imported from Japan that costs much higher than the flour we buy locally. So the price is few dollars more than the regular noodle dumpling restaurant. She said many customers ever complained to her that the price is a bit higher compare to other restaurant, however, she believes better quality food worth more.

For many people, things made in Japan means quality, and some people are willing to pay more for that. For some people, instead of going shopping in Wal-mart, they prefer shop in department store. In my opinion, maintaining quality is a strategy for a long term business, there are always "some people" willing to pay more for quality.

Finance

Finance, for me, is all about how to use money. To own a business, money issue always comes first, such as how much capital you need to invest, how much you can earn from it, how much you might loose...So we must take precautions to increase the rewards and decrease the risk.

By reading the book, it says that higher risks are associated with higher returns. For example, opening a small cookie shop obtains only little risk because the cost is low and there is not much unforeseen events, however, the profit might not be high, and earnings might be slow as well. Opening a high class restaurant, for instance, contains higher risk because of more cost and more things that need to be taken care of such as getting alcohol license or having nicer dining environment. The profit is definitely higher than opening a small cookie shop.

But, there is no guarantee which one makes more money than the other, having a good business plan is the key. This is why I am taking MBA program!