Case study: Infiniti Events Company Read the following case study before answering the questions that follow. Infiniti is an event planning a company that strives to continuously improve their planning and coordination offerings to stay in business and to grow. Their MD, Thandi, has developed a business case to extend their corporate events offering to include the coordination of weddings, since many of the wedding event services and processes are similar to the corporate events they currently coordinate. The new offering has yet to be defined and developed. Thandi recently hired a project manager to assist in this development task, because she does not have time to work on the development of the vision, values and requirements of the company, since she is constantly attending to customers. Although Thandi is responsible for developing the strategic objectives, she wants the new project manager to assist her by outlining how the product life cycle phases can effectively be managed, using a project management approach. Thandi calls a meeting with the new project manager Riaan to discuss his responsibilities in introducing their new wedding events project, and to provide an overview of which presenting operational problems should be turned into competitive advantages.   The catering staff and the alcoholic beverages staff do not seem to be coordinating their efforts to make the most of wine prices, as they plan menus to take advantage of introductory pricing being offered by the wine estates when new wines are launched. Thandi is convinced that Infinity can do better on pricing through better menu and wine list coordination. She would also like Riaan to explore if other events and catering companies might be willing to join them in placing bulk wine orders with the estates for price discounts.   Weddings can be quite competitive and often point to social standing in society. Couples are constantly looking for ways to impress their friends and families by introducing novel ideas at their wedding. Thandi heard about a new video photo booth being marketed abroad where guests can record a short video message for the bridal couple at the wedding venue. She has socialised the idea with a few prospective bridal couples, and they liked the video booth suggestion. Thandi would like to be the first event coordinator in the country to offer the video booth and asks Riaan to contact the overseas supplier and explore lead times for shipping.   Thandi has noticed that sometimes Infiniti’s table decorations are inconsistent and vary in appearance, finishes and size. The decorations are made up as individual components by three groups of workers when they are not helping with catering or cleaning, and then these components are assembled by the serving Assignment One: 1st Semester 2021 © IMM Graduate School PRM201B staff at a later stage. These groups do not seem to be talking to each other about the production of the decorations, resulting in poor continuity in the finishes of the table decorations. She would like Riaan to propose a way to improve this.   Infinity’s unique and personalised napkin rings have become their signature memento for event guests. They use an exclusive supplier of unique monogrammed damask napkin rings, which are presented as gifts when the guests go home. These personalised napkins rings are much in demand and one of the reasons that clients decide to book with Infiniti. Thandi wants Riaan to investigate ways of protecting this competitive advantage.   Thandi thinks that with the client demographic being conversant with technology, the invitation process can be optimised through the use of technology. The invitations, confirmations, guests’ dietary preferences and gift registry are all candidates for automation, which would not only improve efficiencies, but also reduce cost and turnaround time for these activities. She would like recommendations on how to get the best value for money in this domain.   Considering the product life cycle from the MDs point of view, name and differentiate the main and subordinate phases that provide input to the project phases and specify the key outputs/documents for each of these phases.

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Case study: Infiniti Events Company

Read the following case study before answering the questions that follow.

Infiniti is an event planning a company that strives to continuously improve their planning and coordination offerings to stay in business and to grow. Their MD, Thandi, has developed a business case to extend their corporate events offering to include the coordination of weddings, since many of the wedding event services and processes are similar to the corporate events they currently coordinate.

The new offering has yet to be defined and developed. Thandi recently hired a project manager to assist in this development task, because she does not have time to work on the development of the vision, values and requirements of the company, since she is constantly attending to customers. Although Thandi is responsible for developing the strategic objectives, she wants the new project manager to assist her by outlining how the product life cycle phases can effectively be managed, using a project management approach.

Thandi calls a meeting with the new project manager Riaan to discuss his responsibilities in introducing their new wedding events project, and to provide an overview of which presenting operational problems should be turned into competitive advantages.

  •   The catering staff and the alcoholic beverages staff do not seem to be coordinating their efforts to make the most of wine prices, as they plan menus to take advantage of introductory pricing being offered by the wine estates when new wines are launched. Thandi is convinced that Infinity can do better on pricing through better menu and wine list coordination. She would also like Riaan to explore if other events and catering companies might be willing to join them in placing bulk wine orders with the estates for price discounts.

  •   Weddings can be quite competitive and often point to social standing in society. Couples are constantly looking for ways to impress their friends and families by introducing novel ideas at their wedding. Thandi heard about a new video photo booth being marketed abroad where guests can record a short video message for the bridal couple at the wedding venue. She has socialised the idea with a few prospective bridal couples, and they liked the video booth suggestion. Thandi would like to be the first event coordinator in the country to offer the video booth and asks Riaan to contact the overseas supplier and explore lead times for shipping.

  •   Thandi has noticed that sometimes Infiniti’s table decorations are inconsistent and vary in appearance, finishes and size. The decorations are made up as individual components by three groups of workers when they are not helping with catering or cleaning, and then these components are assembled by the serving

Assignment One: 1st Semester 2021

© IMM Graduate School

PRM201B

staff at a later stage. These groups do not seem to be talking to each other about the production of the decorations, resulting in poor continuity in the finishes of the table decorations. She would like Riaan to propose a way to improve this.

  •   Infinity’s unique and personalised napkin rings have become their signature memento for event guests. They use an exclusive supplier of unique monogrammed damask napkin rings, which are presented as gifts when the guests go home. These personalised napkins rings are much in demand and one of the reasons that clients decide to book with Infiniti. Thandi wants Riaan to investigate ways of protecting this competitive advantage.

  •   Thandi thinks that with the client demographic being conversant with technology, the invitation process can be optimised through the use of technology. The invitations, confirmations, guests’ dietary preferences and gift registry are all candidates for automation, which would not only improve efficiencies, but also reduce cost and turnaround time for these activities. She would like recommendations on how to get the best value for money in this domain.

 

  1. Considering the product life cycle from the MDs point of view, name and differentiate the main and subordinate phases that provide input to the project phases and specify the key outputs/documents for each of these phases.

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