Summary of Business Environments, Sectors, and Ownership
Business Environments, Sectors & Ownership: A Student Guide
Introduction
Implementation and project management turn a business idea into reality. This study guide explains how to transform a business plan into an action plan, manage change, and run projects so goals are achieved on time and within budget.
Definition: A project is a temporary set of activities with a clear start and finish that produces a unique product, service or result.
Part 1 — Transforming a Business Plan into an Action Plan
Steps to convert a plan into action
- Define the scope: What is the project's purpose? What are the first and last activities?
- Develop a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): break the project into manageable parts.
- Break each main activity into smaller tasks.
- Set timeframes: estimate how long each task takes.
- Set milestone targets to check progress.
- Assign accountabilities: who is responsible for each decision and task.
- Calculate resources: financial, human and technical needs.
- Plot tasks on a Gantt chart.
- Implement the plan.
- Communicate and review progress regularly.
Definition: A work breakdown structure (WBS) divides a project into smaller, manageable sections and assigns responsibilities.
Project manager skills (practical)
- Identify people, budget and time needed.
- Allow time for approvals and financing.
- Prepare a schedule and work backwards from deadlines.
- Break activities down and assign owners and deadlines.
- Allocate budgets for each part and create projected income statements.
- Monitor risks and unforeseen events.
- Regularly check and update the plan.
Action plan: a quick checklist
- What must happen?
- Who is responsible?
- When does it start and end?
- Did it happen? If not, why? (record and review)
Advantages of an action plan:
- Helps complete projects on time.
- Improves organisation for responsible people.
- Acts as a control measure to compare performance against standards.
- Prioritises activities.
Part 2 — Planning Tools
Timelines
- A simple line with activities marked in order and dates. Use for straightforward schedules.
Task analysis
- Dependent tasks: must wait until other tasks finish.
- Parallel tasks: can run at the same time as other tasks.
Gantt charts
- Bar chart showing each task's duration against time.
- Advantages: easy to prepare and read, shows concurrent tasks, responsibility assignments and visual progress.
Definition: A Gantt chart is a bar chart that shows the duration of tasks against time to help coordinate project activities.
Critical Path Analysis (CPA)
- Finds the longest sequence of tasks (the critical path) and the maximum time available for tasks. Useful for large projects because it shows which tasks cannot be delayed without delaying the whole project.
PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique)
- A network diagram that shows the order of activities, events, and the time or costs of each activity.
- Key terms: events (end points), activities (actions), critical path (longest sequence).
Definition: PERT is a technique that diagrams event sequences and timing to identify dependencies and critical tasks.
Part 3 — Change Management and Adapting to Change
What is change management?
Change management is the set of actions used to identify crises, plan responses, limit damage, assign responsibility, and resolve the crisis.
Definition: Change management involves planning, responding and managing the effects of sudden events that threaten the business.
Theories and models of change
- Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): redesign key processes to improve performance; small process changes can have large effects.
- Total Quality Management (TQM): everyone in the organisation works together to improve processes and reduce defects.
- Kaizen: continuous i
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Implementation & Projects
Klíčové pojmy: Transform a business plan into an action plan by defining scope and creating a WBS, Use a WBS to break projects into manageable tasks and assign responsibility, Plot tasks on a Gantt chart to visualise duration and concurrent activities, Use Critical Path Analysis to find tasks that cannot be delayed, Use PERT to map dependencies and estimate activity timing or costs, Prepare an action plan with What, Who, Start, End and Review questions, Manage change with models: BPR, TQM, Kaizen, and Kotter’s 8 steps, Recognise common reasons people resist change and support them through the 7 stages, Allocate financial, human and technical resources and allow time for approvals, Use timelines and task analysis to spot dependent and parallel tasks, Retrenchment and dismissal follow legal rules; workers can appeal unfair dismissal, Collaborative teams should set clear goals, resources needed, barriers and alternative actions