Project Management Plan For PepsiCo’s Premium Soup Launch

Project Context

Planning is one of the most crucial aspects that ensures that the launch of a newly developed product is successful. The launch of a product is preceded by multiple other operations that includes, development, manufacturing and marketing. The discussed project plan is dedicated towards a new product development. The product in development will be a new range of premium soups for PepsiCo Inc. The discussed firm is a global leader of beverages, snacks and drinks and hence, offers a brand value that will be attached with the launch of the new product. Hence, the development of the project plan for the development of the new product have been done accordingly.

The plan in the following sections have offered project context and rationale for the proposed plan. Furthermore, some project management techniques have been developed and discussed in context with the firm and the product. The discussed techniques include SWOT analysis, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Gantt Chart, Risk Analysis, RACI matrix and Stakeholder Management Strategy (SMS). All the discussion of the selected techniques has been done while the images have been appended in the appendices section. Finally, the whole plan has been concussed and summarised in the conclusion section to conclude on the paper.

PepsiCo is a major food and beverages brand that have established itself and is now planning to launch a new premium range of soup for its customers. The brand is known for its young customer base and its unhealthy nature of products. Hence, the discussed product is crucial as it will mitigate the image of the brand as an unhealthy brand and will offer it diversification so that it can jump in new product development and launch. Furthermore, the economic benefit offered by the product is another crucial aspect that needs to be taken in consideration and hence, it is crucial to define the project for the development, production and launch of the product efficient. The project will also address the sustainability issue of the firm because of the growing consciousness towards health products among the customers around the globe.

The project in discussion is crucial for the firm as it will open new ways for the firm to move in other directions. Furthermore, the growing awareness about the health consciousness also makes it a great opportunity for the firm to earn more revenue and establish itself as a brand that offers healthy food and in the process will offer sustainability to the firm in long run. Another important advantage of the project is that Pepsi is a globally established brand and is reachable to in even the most remote area where other soup brands are not reachable. It provides the firm with the opportunity to capture those areas and become a global leader which can be leveraged to gain competitive advantage. Hence, it is crucial to define different aspects of the projects to ensure the success of the project because the product can prove to be very crucial and beneficial for the firm in discussion and will eventually benefit the customers.

Rationale for Proposed Plan and Choice of Methods

The discussion above has made it evident that the product and project is beneficial for the firm. However, it beneficiary will not be the firm only but will also benefit the customers and the society. The discussion above has made it evident that the firm is a global brand and can even reach the most remote area availing the customers at those areas with the opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle and the discussed benefit will also extend to the state and eventually globally. Furthermore, with PepsiCo, other major companies will also jump in the competition offering customers with more opportunities and benefiting as a whole in the long term.

The project plan in discussion have selected six different project management techniques/ methods to detail different aspects of the project. The selected methods are SWOT Analysis, Work Breakdown Structure, Gantt Chart, Risk Analysis, Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted and Informed (RACI) Matrix and Stakeholder Management Strategy. The selected methods/ techniques are very crucial part of the project management as they define different aspects of a project. SWOT analysis will present the project team to assist in understanding different opportunities and challenges that is being faced by the product and the firm so that proper decision can be made. The WBS will enable the project team to carry out the activities of the project with greater efficiency and accuracy so that a successful delivery of project can be made. The Gantt Chart will assist the team to follow a proper schedule based on the activities. Risk Analysis will mitigate the chance of project failure and hence has been selected as part of the discussion. The RACI matrix will define the roles of different stakeholder and hence, it has been selected so that every stakeholder will act accordingly. Finally, stakeholder management plan has been provided so that a proper management can be done to ensure that the delivery of project is successful.

The image attached in the appendix 1 is a summary of the SWOT analysis of the proposed project. The analysis has presented the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats of the new product.

Strengths:

1. PepsiCo is one of the biggest Brand and the discussed brand value of the firm will enable them to establish their new product fast and with great efficiency.
2. Leadership is one of the most prominent aspects of PepsiCo and will help in the success of the to be launched product.

• Distribution and Supply Chain of the firm is broad and effective which will enable the firm to reach even the remotest areas making the reach feasible.

1. Tie Upsof the firm will be utilised to promote the product in major events such as sporting events, music concerts and others.

Weaknesses:

1. Competition is one of the major concerns for the firm because firms like Healthy Choice, Lipton and others are well established brands for canned soup.
2. Perception towards PepsiCo is of making the unhealthy drinks which may lead to lack of interest towards product.

• The brand is known as a Youngster Brand so it may be challenging for them to attract other age grouped customers who are interested in soups.

1. Past failed products such as ‘Crystal Pepsi’ is a weakness of the brand that it need to cope up.

Opportunities:

1. Healthy Options is one of the best options that the company can leverage to attract more customers.
2. Diversification is a huge option that can be leveraged by the firm and with the success of this product they can jump in new markets.

• The firm can do more CSR acts to mitigate their brand image as unhealthy brand.

1. R&D is one of the ways through which the firm can come up with healthier soups in future.
2. Flavours is one of the strong opportunities that can be leveraged by the firm to promote its product.

Threats:

1. Competitors such as Lipton, Nestle and other soup producers are a major threat for the firm as they have established their soup range.
2. Unhealthy Factor associated with the company is one of its major weaknesses.

• Economic Slowdown in the sales of the firm and the global economy will be a major weakness for the firm and the launching of the product.

1. Government Norms where the canned food products are banned is one of the major challenge.

Work breakdown Structure abbreviated as WBS is a project management/ system engineering method which is deliverable oriented in nature and breaks down a project into small components so that the team would find ease of project delivery. The image attached in the appendix 2 is the work breakdown structure of the discussed project. It has offered an insight into the projects based on the activities that will be the part of the project. The activities have been divided in 4 phases that includes initial phase which will be dedicated to defining of the project, followed by project planning phase where all the project plans such as scheduling, budgeting and others will take place. The third phase is plan development phase where all the plans needed for the project will be developed and the final phase will be execution and closing phase where the development and implementation of the plans will undertake.

SWOT Analysis

The initial phase includes the project definition, objectives, scope defining and deciding activities. The project definition is the activity where the project will be defined that will be dedicated to establishing an outline for the project in discussion. In the following activity, the objectives of the project will be defined so that a proper framework for the project can be developed. The next step will be defining the scope of the project so that a clear definition of the expectation can be defined of how it will benefit the firm and its associates. The final activity will be deciding on the activities so that the project can be delivered with accuracy and effectiveness. All the activities will be dependent on its predecessors. The second stage is project planning phase where the activities will be scheduled, the budget will be dedicated, a risk assessment will be done to identify the risk and finally the approach that will be adopted to present the brand will be decided.

The next phase is plan development phase where the plan for different activities will be developed. The developed plan will be product development plan (how the product will be approached), product manufacturing plan (it includes sub-activities), marketing plan (based on the branding strategy), risk mitigation plan (based on risk assessment), stakeholder management plan, operation management plan, quality assurance plan and staffing & personal develop plan will be included. The final phase will be execution and closing phase where a press notification about the development of new product will be released so that a hype around the product can be generated, that will lead to development (of samples to ensure success), production and launching activity to close the project.

The table presented below is the Gantt Chart of the work project in discussion. The chart has been divided in different phases that starts from 3^rd January 2019 and ends at 03^rd December 2019. The activities have been divided in 4 phases that includes initial phase which will be dedicated to defining of the project, followed by project planning phase where all the project plans such as scheduling, budgeting and others will take place. The third phase is plan development phase where all the plans needed for the project will be developed and the final phase will be execution and closing phase where the development and implementation of the plans will undertake.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
Development of New Soup Range for PepsiCo	240 days	Thu 03-01-19	Wed 04-12-19
Initial Phase	40 days	Thu 03-01-19	Wed 27-02-19
Project Definition	10 days	Thu 03-01-19	Wed 16-01-19
Objective Defining	10 days	Thu 17-01-19	Wed 30-01-19	3
Scope Defining	10 days	Thu 31-01-19	Wed 13-02-19	4
Deciding Activities	10 days	Thu 14-02-19	Wed 27-02-19	5
Project Planning Phase	60 days	Thu 28-02-19	Wed 22-05-19
Activities Scheduling	20 days	Thu 28-02-19	Wed 27-03-19	6
Budgeting	15 days	Thu 28-03-19	Wed 17-04-19	8
Risk Assessment	15 days	Thu 18-04-19	Wed 08-05-19	9
Branding Strategy	10 days	Thu 09-05-19	Wed 22-05-19	10,9
Plan Development Phase	120 days	Thu 28-03-19	Wed 11-09-19
Product Developing Plan	10 days	Thu 23-05-19	Wed 05-06-19	11
Product Manufacturing Plan	15 days	Thu 06-06-19	Wed 26-06-19	13
Selection of Production Plant	4 days	Thu 06-06-19	Tue 11-06-19	11
Raw Material selection	4 days	Wed 12-06-19	Mon 17-06-19	15
Approach for manufacturing	7 days	Tue 18-06-19	Wed 26-06-19	15,16
Marketing Plan	20 days	Thu 27-06-19	Wed 24-07-19	11,14
Risk Mitigation Plan	20 days	Thu 25-07-19	Wed 21-08-19	10,18
Stakeholder Management Plan	15 days	Thu 28-03-19	Wed 17-04-19	8
Operation Management Plan	14 days	Thu 27-06-19	Tue 16-07-19	13,14,20
Quality Assurance Planning	11 days	Wed 17-07-19	Wed 31-07-19	21
Staffing and Personal development Plan	30 days	Thu 01-08-19	Wed 11-09-19	20,22
Execution and Closing Phase	95 days	Thu 25-07-19	Wed 04-12-19
Press Notification	10 days	Thu 25-07-19	Wed 07-08-19	18
Development	30 days	Thu 08-08-19	Wed 18-09-19	21,25
Production	45 days	Thu 19-09-19	Wed 20-11-19	26
Launching	10 days	Thu 21-11-19	Wed 04-12-19	27

Sl. No.	Risk/Vulnerabilities	Description	Likelihood	Impact
1	Improper Project definition	It will hamper the scope, objective and overall project leading to failure.	1	5
2	Ingredients	Non-availability of ingredients or low quality ingredients may develop challenges for product success.	2	5
3	Project team	Unbalanced and unskilled project team may lead to challenges for project success.	1	4
4	Promotion	Ineffective promotion may lead to failure of product due to high competition.	3	4
5	Regulatory Issues	Illegal processing of product may land the firm and product in trouble	2	4
6	Improper Planning	Improper planning will impact the project progress and will impact the	2	5
7	Improper Research	Improper research on the product, ingredients or the targeted audience may lead to failure of product.	2	2
8	Wrong Branding	Wrong Branding may lead to failure of product.	3	3
9	Health Concerns	The nature of products by PepsiCo may develop concern for the customers and that is a threat for the product.	2	5
10	Lack of Interest among audience	It may be because of their perception towards PepsiCo (that is considered developer of unhealthy products). Furthermore, warm countries such as the South Asian and African countries and other warm country citizens are not very interested in soups and hence, the company may face lack of interest towards the product in warm countries.	1	3
11	Ethical issues	Adoption of unethical measures for the manufacturing and launch of the product will influence the perception of the customers towards the product and impacting the firm in long-term while as a short-term impact, the product will fail.	3	3
12	Technological flaws	If the technology at the manufacturing unit fails it will impact the quality of the product and eventually lead to failure of the product. The failure may impact the canning, which will lead to rotting of the soup, inadequate mixture of ingredients will impact the flavour and taste influencing the first opinion of the customers. Similarly, multiple other technological risks are available.	3	3
13	Supply Chain Risk	Improper supply chain may risk the quality of the product and may also lead to the delay in areas where the customers are waiting for the product, eventually killing the hype for the product.	3	3

Likelihood	5
4				5	2
3			8 11 12 13	3	1 6
2		7		4	9
1			10
1	2	3	4	5
Impact

RACI Matrix	Project Manager	Project Planner	Financial Manager	Human Resource Manager	Quality Manager	Risk Analyst	Marketing Head	R&D	Operational Manager
Defining Project Objective	R	I	I	C	–	–	I	C	–
Project Plan	R	R	C	I	–	–	C	R	–
Branding	R	C	C	–	–	C	R	A	–
Budgeting	R	C	R	C	–	C	–	–	–
Product Development Plan	C	R	C	R	A	I	–	–	A
Product Manufacturing Plan	I	R	C	R	A	C	–	C	R
Marketing Plan	R	C	R	–	–	C	R	I	–
Risk Assessment	R	C	C	C	C	R	C	–	C
Risk Mitigation	R	C	A	A	A	R	A	C	A
Operational Support	–	C	C	R	–	–	–	–	R
Quality Assurance	–	C	I	A	R, A	–	–	–	A
Press and Publicity	R	I	–	-I	I	–	R	C	–
Staffing & Personal Development	R	R	C	R	–	–	–	–	I

The table presented above is the RACI matrix of the project in discussion and reflects the core task of the project and the stakeholders along with the role of the latter in the former. The left most column represents the tasks and the top most row is reflection of the stakeholders that are part of the project. The matrix presents the relationship between the task and the stakeholders through use of different RACI matrix codes. The codes here are ‘R’ for “Responsible”, ‘A’ stands for “Accountable”, ‘C’ represents the “Consulted” and finally ‘I’ represents the “Informed”. It could be better understood by the example of Defining Project Objectives, where project manager is responsible for the task, while Human Resource and R&D (Research and Development) are consulted and Project Planner, Marketing Head and Financial Manager are informed. In certain cases, one of the primary stakeholder are also playing different roles such as in the quality assurance activity, the Quality Manager is both responsible and accountable for the discussed activity.

Stakeholder	Role	Influence	Goal	Contribution	Management Strategy
Project Manager	Will Overlook all the activities and responsible for the project successful completion	Highest	To deliver the project within time, quality and budget	Will contribute towards team management and communicate between project owner and team.	–
Project Planner	Will plan all the activities and resource allocation of the project	Very High	To ensure that the project is being managed and carried out with efficiency and accuracy.	Will contribute in ensuring a proper team and project planning.	With proper communication and data to make adequate decision
Financial Manager	Will be responsible for all  the financial resources	High	To ensure that the financial resources are being used utilised with conscious and effectively.	Will contribute by making proper utilisation of financial resources	Through communication and financial audits.
Human Resource Manager	Will manage and be responsible for the human resources	High	To ensure that the human resources are offering maximum productivity and their concerns are being mitigated for maximum output from them.	Will contribute by making proper utilisation of Human resources	Through meetings, employee feedbacks and others
Risk Analyst	Will analyse the risk and responsible for mitigating them	High	To ensure that the project risks are being analysed properly and adequate measures are being taken to ensure the success of the project.	Will contribute by mitigating the project risks.	Through meetings and progress updates
Marketing Head	Will be in charge of the marketing and promotion of the product	High	To ensure that the product reaches to maximum number of customers and their perception towards the product is satisfactory.	Will contribute by ensuring that the customers are interested in the product	Through meetings and reviewing the product hype among the customers
R&D	Will research and gather input for the decision makers.	Very High	To ensure that the decision makers are being provided with ample data and recommendations for proper decision making	Will contribute by supporting decision makers in making decisions.	Through meetings and progress updates
Operational Head	Will be in charge of all the operations of production and development	High	To ensure that the production and development activities are given proper attention so that the final product is good.	Will contribute through product development.	Through Product testing and face to face meetings
Quality Manager	Will be in charge of the quality of work and the deliverables to ensure that the project success after being launched.	High	To ensure that the quality of the product is high and up to the mark.	Will contribute by ensuring the quality of the product.	Through Product testing

Work Breakdown Structure

Conclusion

The discussed project plan is dedicated towards a new product development. The plan has been developed by taking consideration of the production, development and even launching of the new product that is a premium range of soup. The product in development will be a new range of premium soups for PepsiCo Inc. Hence, the project plan has accounted for different aspects of the plan. The Project context and rationale of the project has been discussed so that a better understanding of the project in discussion. Furthermore, the justification for the methods and techniques selected for the discussion of the project plan has also been provided. The selected methods are SWOT Analysis, Work Breakdown Structure, Gantt Chart, Risk Analysis, Responsibility, Accountability, Consulted and Informed (RACI) Matrix and Stakeholder Management Strategy. 

The project plan has discussed SWOT analysis of the product and have identified that the brand image of the firm is the most prominent challenge for the firm as it is considered to be unhealthy. However, the launch of the product is also offering the firm with opportunity to mitigate its brand image and also earn high revenue because it’s for reach and brand value. The WBS and Gantt chart have presented the primary activities of the project along with the schedule for the project. The risk analysis of the product has also identified different risks that are associated with the product and those risks needs to be mitigated so that the product and the project is successful. The RACI and Stakeholder Management Strategy has offered an insight into the roles and obligations of the stakeholders. Hence, to conclude the discussion it would adequate to state the firm can leverage the product but it needs to provide proper attention to it and project planning.

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