Project CEO Selection

Project: CEO Selection
Use the same organization you identified in the Week 1 portion of the project. (APPLE COMPANY)
Throughout this assignment, the critical importance of finding the right successor for the company’s CEO is paramount. The right candidate needs exemplary leadership, vision, and strategic planning abilities along with many of the other personal and professional qualities that have been discussed in this course thus far.
To begin finding the right successor, conduct a detailed analysis of the given organization’s current CEO, including the strengths, weaknesses, leadership and communication styles, and personal characteristics that make this leader dynamic and successful.
· What are the attributes of the current leader that you want his or her successor to possess? Why are such attributes necessary for a successor?
· What are the characteristics or traits of the current leader that you do not want his or her successor to possess? Why are such attributes not desirable?
· What other traits might need to be considered?
· Is there a job description available for your CEO? What are the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the position?
Based on your research and answers to the above questions, you should be able to:
· Create a matrix or job audit form describing the ideal candidate to succeed the current CEO.
o What are the essential personal and professional qualities to identify in candidates (i.e., what must you find out about candidates)?
o What are the important but perhaps less essential qualities (i.e., what would be good to know but should be secondary issues compared to the essential qualities?)
· Describe in detail the methods and tactics you would use to identify, source, recruit, and screen candidates, both internally and externally, for the CEO position.
· Include strategies for identifying the candidates with the personal and professional qualities that you desire in the next leader for the company.
Submission Details:
· Support your responses with examples.
· 5-page paper. Cite credible sources in APA format.
· Post your response to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.
^^WEEK 1 SELECTION AND ASSIGNMENT TO REVIEW^^^
Question 1
Succession plan is a necessary tool every company needs. A succession plan enables the organization to promote a talent approach culture by employing skilled workforce and the best talent. This paper will focus on Apple Company that has an elaborate succession strategy. Apple is also one of the leading electronic companies in the world.
Question 2
The mission of the apple company is “to bring the best user experience to its customers through innovative, hardware, software, and services.” The mission of the company is dynamic and subject to change.
The corporate culture of the Apple Company is the major driver of its success. The culture of the company focuses on developing and maintaining a commercial philosophy, beliefs, values and similar behavior among its workforce. The company has established a culture that reinforces human resource in attaining its strategic objectives. The cultural attributes of the company are aligned with the drive for innovation that is a major factor in market competitiveness. (Heracleous, L., 2013). Apple Company culture is based on creativity, innovation, top-notch excellence, secrecy and moderate competitiveness.
The leadership structure of the company is hierarchical, with remarkable divisional features and less powerful operational matrix. The feature of Apple corporate leadership structure includes spoke- and- wheel hierarchy, product-based divisions and weak functional matrix. The company has adopted democratic leadership mostly attributed to CEO Steve Jobs which was important in creating mutual understanding in the decision-making process. Currently Tim Cook has adopted ‘quiet’ leadership style that is seen to be effective.
Question 3
The company has experienced a number of challenges resulting majorly from the competitiveness in the market arena. These challenges include maneuvering trade uncertainty. Trade barriers and uncertainty are particularly emanating around china and United States trade policy. The uncertainty has forced the company to develop plans on how to relocate some of the products from china to cut down the risk of trade tariffs. The company is also facing steep competition with the Qualcomm that has resulted into legal show down. The battles were as a result of patent fees and licensing rates, in which apple sued Qualcomm in three countries and counter suit by Qualcomm, accusing apple for trading secrets to Intel. The battles have damaged the prospects of the company as shareholders are held in panic.
Similarly, attaining iPhone unit sales projection has been a challenge. The company has been targeting to sell approximately 200 million units of its product. In 2019 the company shifted away from its unit sales and still got disappointment in meeting the set target. (Damanpour & Aravind, 2012). This short fall has lowered the shares of the company. Similarly, the company is facing another challenge of selling investors on the services story. Business analyst have pointed out that recent reports indicate that apple iPhone unit sale is obsolete, and it will take time for investors to internalize new regime. Evidence shows low demand on iPhone, the new regime is task to guarantee investors that unit sale is not the future for the company’s success. However, it will take some period of time to convince iPhone heavy investors to buy the narrative.
Finally, the company is also facing the new challenge of planning for the arrival of 5G network. The discovery of the 5G will upset the competitiveness in the global market of smartphones. They expect their rival companies Samsung and Huawei to deliver 5G enable phones. They can result to negative competition to the apple company since company’s projection in terms of growth will be low.
Question 4
After apple CEO Steve Jobs resigned, Apple shares dropped by 7% after the announcement. Although the decline was foreseen before the trading started and was suggested that Apple shares were switching hands for $365 each. The shares rose beyond $370 by daylight and were exchanging at exactly 0.6% down in early afternoon. The traders were digesting the effect of Apple losing its charming head, who had led the way since its close bankruptcy after returning to the company in 1996. He restructured the company to be the world most treasured company by market value. Steve Jobs was not only a visionary leader from a technology industry view but also a micro manager.
Apples competitors’ shares rose overnight, due to investors’ anticipation that Apple might trip after Steve Jobs resignation. Samsung electronics company shares recorded a 2.5% increase while HTC smartphone maker gained 1.35%. Apple Company appointed Tom Cook as Steve’s successor. He was best placed for the position because he was the company’s chief operating officer and he has been in day-to-day charge of Apple Company when Steve’s health needed prolonged absences. Steve Jobs had provided not only personal leadership but also strategic vision at the top of the company, as probably the most visible and well-known CEO of any technological company. Tim Cook will face some challenges stepping into these tasks, as a trusted pair of hand but hardly a charismatic or a visionary figure.
References
Heracleous, L. (2013). Quantum strategy at the Apple Inc. Organizational Dynamics.
Damanpour, F., & Aravind, D. (2012). Organizational structure and innovation revisited: From organic to ambidextrous structure. Handbook of organizational creativity.
Marengo, L., & Pasquali, C. (2012). How to get what you want when you do not know what you want: A model of incentives, organizational structure, and learning. Organizational science.

Project Scheduling

1. Refer to exercise 9 in chapter 6, analyze the data provided in the diagram – SEE ATTACHED.
Using Microsoft Project, compute the project network diagram and proper timing to complete the project. Address all required information in the description presented in exercise 9.
In addition, respond to the following questions:
a. Determine which tasks are on the critical path. How long will it take to complete the project.
b. A task that is on the critical path for this project has increased by 7 days. Will the project end date be delayed? If so, by how much?
(Place your responses into a Microsoft Word file)
2. Complete Chapter 6, Exercise 18 – SEE ATTACHED.
Use Microsoft Project and create a project schedule based on the information provided in the problem.  Will the project be completed in 45 weeks?  In your Microsoft Project file, insert a text box in the Gantt bar area (go to FORMAT – DRAWING – TEXT BOX) and place your response in the text box.
Submit your Microsoft Word file and your two Microsoft Project files.
SEE ATTACHED ASSIGNMENT SCORING

Project Management Assignment . Capstone Project

 Project Management
Requirements 
This assignment is based on the Zanpac Financial Services Customer Care Centre case study (attached).
You have been appointed Project Manager for the Customer Care Centre project at Zanpac Financial
Services. The Director of Technology  (CTO) has asked you  to “do an initial  scoping of  the project”,
keeping in mind that the project should be finished by the end of August 2021.
As you are new to Zanpac Financial Services, you inquire as to what should be covered in an initial
scoping of  the project. This step in Zanpac’s project management methodology is called a “Project
Charter” and is used to lay out the basic parameters of the project for signoff by the Project Sponsor
and key members of the Executive Team. If the broad parameters of the project are accepted, then
the project may proceed to the project planning phase.
The project charter must contain the following sections:

  1. Document purpose
  2. Project Background
  3. Project Goals / Objectives
  4. Project Value Statement
  5. Project Stakeholders (with position, name and contact details)
  6. Project Success Criteria
  7. Project Constraints
  8. Project Scope (product‐oriented scope only)
  9. Three level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  10. Recommendations and Approvals

The project charter must be written in the context of the project and use the assignment template. The project charter must include all ten sections detailed in the template.
All diagrams, figures and tables (if used) should be numbered, titled and explained the text. All lists
All material derived from other works (except the assignment case study) must be acknowledged. If
using material derived from other sources the report must have:

  1. A bibliography/reference list of all works included in the research report. This should list the

books and articles, which have been quoted or used in the research report; they should be
arranged alphabetically by author’s surname with anonymous works listed first

  1. The acknowledgement of all evidence and sources of information using the Harvard Referencing

System.

  1. If diagrams and tables are used to explain the text they should be numbered, titled and, if copied

Project Management Assignment . Capstone Project

 Project Management
Requirements 
This assignment is based on the Zanpac Financial Services Customer Care Centre case study (attached).
You have been appointed Project Manager for the Customer Care Centre project at Zanpac Financial
Services. The Director of Technology  (CTO) has asked you  to “do an initial  scoping of  the project”,
keeping in mind that the project should be finished by the end of August 2021.
As you are new to Zanpac Financial Services, you inquire as to what should be covered in an initial
scoping of  the project. This step in Zanpac’s project management methodology is called a “Project
Charter” and is used to lay out the basic parameters of the project for signoff by the Project Sponsor
and key members of the Executive Team. If the broad parameters of the project are accepted, then
the project may proceed to the project planning phase.
The project charter must contain the following sections:

  1. Document purpose
  2. Project Background
  3. Project Goals / Objectives
  4. Project Value Statement
  5. Project Stakeholders (with position, name and contact details)
  6. Project Success Criteria
  7. Project Constraints
  8. Project Scope (product‐oriented scope only)
  9. Three level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  10. Recommendations and Approvals

The project charter must be written in the context of the project and use the assignment template. The project charter must include all ten sections detailed in the template.
All diagrams, figures and tables (if used) should be numbered, titled and explained the text. All lists
All material derived from other works (except the assignment case study) must be acknowledged. If
using material derived from other sources the report must have:

  1. A bibliography/reference list of all works included in the research report. This should list the

books and articles, which have been quoted or used in the research report; they should be
arranged alphabetically by author’s surname with anonymous works listed first

  1. The acknowledgement of all evidence and sources of information using the Harvard Referencing

System.

  1. If diagrams and tables are used to explain the text they should be numbered, titled and, if copied

Project Management Course

Project Management Course 
Develop an appropriate two-level WBS for a construction project. This requires you to develop the WBS and describe the activities / tasks / components within it. (40 points)
[The assignment should be 700 – 750 words, and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced), and attached as a WORD file.]

Project Management Course

Project Management Course 
Develop an appropriate two-level WBS for a construction project. This requires you to develop the WBS and describe the activities / tasks / components within it. (40 points)
[The assignment should be 700 – 750 words, and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced), and attached as a WORD file.]

Project Management Ethics Case Study

Below is a scenario involving a common reporting situation in which the project manager needs
to make an ethical decision on how the project’s status is reported. Submit an essay in which you
describe in detail how you would respond to this situation and why.
A Day in the Life of a PM: Monthly Project Status Report Meeting
While you are preparing for a monthly project status report meeting with your client and
leadership team, you receive word from a project team member about a serious technical
problem on the project that will negatively impact the project’s time line. This last-minute update
is not good; the executive project steering committee restated earlier this week that meeting the
completion date was priority one.
You are confident that the problem can be resolved, and that any delays can be made up and the
project can get back on schedule. However, in similar situations in the past, the client has
demanded a meeting with the entire project team to discuss the issue in detail and taken
additional micro-managing actions until the issue was resolved. These additional steps resulted
in further delays to the project time line.
What should you tell the project sponsor, and the leadership team, during the monthly project
status meeting?
Use at least 2 references.

Project Management (Sonic Inc. Case study)

Sonic, Inc.
Sonic, Inc. is an organization with serious problems. Founded in 1963, it was once a leader in drug plastic manufacturing. However, due to increased competition in that sector, it slowly changed its focus over the years, and now specializes in the manufacture of medical devices, aerospace components, and electronics. It employs 3000 people in its three divisions, located in seven facilities throughout the United States.
The problems with the current organization are almost too many too mention. It seems to have no clear-cut goals, employee and management turnover are high, the workforce seems demoralized and reports low job satisfaction, and a lack of financial resources has resulted in substandard working conditions. The psychological contract between employees and management is very weak.
Employees have accused management of making ethical compromises. There is a lack of advancement opportunities, and employee training and opportunities for employee continuing education are almost non-existent. Employee teams are never used to solve organizational problems, inter-departmental conflict is high, and reports of customer dissatisfaction are numerous.
Value conflict is high at Sonic, and many employees report a high-stress working environment. Some employees seem withdrawn, and conflicts and arguments between employees and departments are frequent. There is a noticeable lack of diversity in the workforce, and employees say they are tired of the Theory X style of management used by organizational leaders. Employees report that personal need satisfaction is low, and some have laughed sarcastically when asked if various need levels on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are being met. “Are you kidding?” has been a common response to the question.
Employees at Sonic report feelings of negative inequity, feeling they are giving more in terms of time and effort than they are receiving in return. Very few employees report having job-related goals other than collecting a pay check. They complain about the organization’s inadequate performance management system, poor performance monitoring by management, and a general lack of feedback on their performance. Most report not having received a realistic job preview when they were hired.
Without question, the organizational climate at Sonic is poor, and a lack of trust permeates the company. Employees blame their low productivity on poor communication with management and other departments, and some report never having seen or heard of such a demoralizing organizational culture, or an organization with a strong resistance to change or lack of unity of command.
You have been hired by the new corporate chief executive officer to fix Sonic’s problems-not its marketing problems, although they are also quite severe, but rather its people problems.
Each week, you will face a set of specific challenges relating to Sonic. Your final paper will include your response to 12 of these issues. You will have turned in a minimum of 8 of the challenges for review by the instructor. The left-over challenges can wait until you submit your final project document in Week 7 or you could submit an extra one each week so that your final submission will benefit from the feedback.
you will submit the final project document to the final project document assignment.
It is your responsibility to compile the final project document. This requires summarizing the work that was submitted each week in paragraph format. Appropriate citations are necessary, but the document should not contain bullet lists, numerical lists, diagrams, visuals, or indented quotations (40 words or more). While it is appropriate to use citations as necessary, they should be used sparingly. The final project document should include a title page, table of contents, and a separate heading for each week’s work. The heading can simply be “Week One Summary” or “Week Five Analysis”, or a more creative heading if desired. The final document should not exceed 12 pages in length or about 3 pages each for each of the weekly sections. This may require eliminating certain parts of the weekly submissions. The final document needs to be paginated.
Your weekly submission should be two full pages in length (12-point font), with no bullet lists, numerical lists, diagrams, visuals, or indented quotations (40 words or more). The paper should be paginated, and not contain any definitions or explanations of the concepts being discussed. The concepts being discussed should be directly applied to Sonic, with Sonic’s name mentioned throughout the document-no less than every three or four sentences. It should include a title page, a heading for each topic addressed so as to clearly distinguish between topics, and a references page. The title page and references page do not count toward the two-page length. The title page should clearly mention the specific challenges being addressed.
The total project (everything mentioned here) is worth 400 points. There will be four question submission reviews (weeks 2,3,5 and 6), each worth 50 points (individual grades based on the quality of individual submission), and the final project document submitted worth 200 points.

Project Planning and Management Assignment (Reflection Paper)

Project Planning and Management Assignment 
Use MS Project for Gatt Charts and Network Diagrams where necessary
Assessment Details
A: Summative Assessment: Individual Reflective Report on Project (100%,
compulsory).
Based on the given project scenario, write a 5,000 words (including appendix and
references) project planning report addressing the following project tasks. Please note that
you may work in groups with your fellow students for discussions but the report has to be
completed individually.
Project Scenario: as the chief student representative in the Business Strategy class, you have
been given a total £5,000 budget from the Faculty of Business, Greenwich University to organise
an academic conference on the topic of ‘Towards sustainable business model innovation in 2020’.
All the students in your class are requested to work in groups to prepare the presentation slides
and to dress formally to present their ideas. Their audience include both the academics from the external universities and business experts from external industries who are invited by the Faculty
of Business. However, as the organiser, you and your project team must prepare a list of potential
audiences; once it is approved by the Faculty of Business, you need to prepare the invitation card
and send them out on behalf of the Faculty. A small scale of prize-giving ceremony is also needed
at the end of the competition.
In your project planning report, you are required to provide details of the following six tasks:
1. Prepare Project Scope Statement to state the project’s objectives, deliverables, technical
requirements and milestones.
2. Prepare Work Breakdown Structure (WBS, to include at least 10 activities) for the project.
3. Based on the work breakdown structure (WBS) above, create a Gantt Chart, a network
diagram and indicate the critical path by using MS Project software.
4. Explain who your stakeholders are and how would you manage them.
5. Discuss what your project risks might be and how would you manage them.
6. Explain how you would evaluate this project in terms of key project success factors.

Standard Project Plan for Building a House (Project Management)

Standard Project Plan for Building a House (Project Management)
Requirements:
1) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) dictionary
2) Cost management
3) Time management
4) Network diagram with critical path
5) Resource breakdown structure
6) Risk register
7) Risk matrix