Question

Pureswing Golf, Inc., manufactures and sells a full line of golf equipment including clubs, golf balls, leisurewear, and ancillary equipment (bags, rain gear, towels, etc.). The company competes in a highly competitive and fast-paced industry against better-known competitors such as Nike, Taylor Made, Titleist, PING, Calloway, and Cleveland. Among the keys to success in this industry are the continuous introduction of new club models, innovative engineering and design, and speed to market. As a smaller company trying to stay abreast of stronger competitors, Pureswing places great emphasis on the project management process to remain profitable. At any time, the company will have more than 35 project teams developing new ideas across the entire product range.

Pureswing prefers to find promising engineers from within the organization and promote them to project manager. It feels that these individuals, having learned the company’s philosophy of competitive success, are best equipped to run new product introduction projects. For years Pureswing relied on volunteers to move into project management, but lately it has realized that this ad hoc method for finding and encouraging project managers is not sufficient. The failure rate for these project manager volunteers is over 40%, too high for a company of Pureswing’s size. With such steady turnover among the volunteers, successful managers must pick up the slack, and they often manage five or six projects simultaneously. Top management, worried about burnout among these high-performing project managers, has decided that the firm must develop a coordinated program for finding new project managers, including creating a career path in project management within the organization.

Questions

1. Imagine you are a human resources professional at Pureswing who has been assigned to develop a program for recruiting new project managers. Design a job description for the position.
2. What qualities and personal characteristics support a higher likelihood of success or failure as a project manager?

Answer 1

A1.

JOB DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT MANAGER

The Project Manager manages the key projects of the clients.
Setting of deadlines, delegating responsibilities, controlling, monitoring and summarising the progress of project consists of the main tasks of the project manager.

A successful project manager works directly with customers to ensure deliverables are provided within the scope and budget of the project. The manager coordinates with all other departments to be sure that all aspects of the project are compatible.

SKILLS REQUIRED

• Requires a bachelor's degree in any management course or a related field.
  
• Experience of minimum 2 years is preferred in the field or a related area.
  
• The candidate should be familiar with the concepts, practices and methodology.
  
• Must be able to perform a variety of tasks for the team.
  
• Must be experienced enough to make judgements and take decisions.
  
• Should be creative and innovative with a broad mindset.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Must be able to coordinate all resources with the third parties or vendors.

• On-time delivery of the project within the given time frame and budget.

• Involving all the concerned stake holders in the execution of the project and keeping them up to date with the progress.

• Must ensure that the resources are available and allocated properly.

• Develop a comprehensive project plan to monitor and control the progress.

• Ability to manage and compensate the changes in the project plan if required.

• Ensure the project performance with the use of proper methods of evaluation.

• Report to the concerned parties as and when needed.

• Manage cordial relations with the clients and all of the stakeholders.

• Minimise risks with the help of Risk Management.

• Allocate the project's tasks to the staff members according to their skills, knowledge and experience.

• Develop and organise spreadsheets, diagrams and documents of the project.

• Oversee all the aspects of the client's project.

A2.

QUALITIES REQUIRED

-Good working experience in the field.

-Excellent communication skills.

-Excellent writing skills.

-Good organisational skills such as attention to detail.

-Should be good at multi tasking.

-Strong practical knowledge of Microsoft Office.

-Certification in Project Management Professional (PMP) / PRINCE II is preferred.

CHARACTERISTICS FOR SUCCESS AS A PROJECT MANAGER

1. Knowledge of developing budgets.

2. Good a maintaining budgets.

3. Coaching and delegation to be subordinates,

4. Supervision to the staff members.

5. Proper knowledge of staffing and recruitment.

6. Project Management

7. Risk Management

8. Good at planning

9. Performance Management and evaluation of the workers.

10. Knowledge of Inventory Control.