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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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Corporate Strategy and Pricing Policy

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Strategy looks at where a firm wants to be in the future.
Strategy involves an analysis of the firm and its market, making strategic choices and then implementing those choices.
Firms have to consider a wide range of factors prior to adopting any strategy, not least the sort of market structure it operates in; what rivals might do in response; how consumers value the product; what its cost structures are and how these compare to rivals; the extent to which brand loyalty affects demand; and the price elasticity of demand.
There is considerable debate over strategy – ultimately we might conclude that if it was easy then everyone would do it well and be successful!
There are a range of pricing strategies (or tactics).
Price is only one aspect of positioning a product – i.e. where the product sits in relation to the market.
Any decision on price will be one part of the overall strategy of the firm.

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OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES

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