Eagle's Nest Hotels Case Study - Detailed Implementation Plan Brief

Your Brief

For the allocated department, you are required to prepare the Implementation Plan of the Investment Idea which your syndicate recommended in your Detailed Investment Case. Any comments or suggestions made by the Directors at the presentation of your Investment Case may be ignored. It is your syndicate group's written Investment Case submission which should be used as your starting point for this piece of assessed work. The audience for the Plan is wide - anyone who needs to use it.

Allocation of Business Departments

In most Implementation Plans there are several sections which relate to the different departments in a corporate business.  You have been assigned just one of them (see the spreadsheet which will be made available after the Investment Case submission).  The departments used for this Case Study are: 

(1) Sales & Marketing,

(2) Operations,

(3) Finance, including Joint Ventures, Mergers and Acquisitions,

(4) HR. 

The allocation of departments to group members has been done using a random process.  Your group colleagues have been assigned other sections. With permission of the Module Leader, you will be allowed to swap your section with a fellow syndicate member in your own syndicate group.  You should work on your section independently and are not allowed to contribute to writing the sections being prepared by your fellow syndicate members. However there are key dependencies and links between each of the business departments so you may wish to discuss these links as a team so that your implementation plan reflects the full business requirements.

Whilst discussion of the overall investment plan and in particular the inter-dependencies between business departments is anticipated, it is emphasised that this is an INDIVIUAL assignment and you must write your whole submission by yourself.  You are obviously allowed to (and it is suggested that you do) liaise with your syndicate group team members to identify your department's dependencies with other business departments' plans.  But any instances of copying or plagiarism will be investigated and severely penalised. (The University reserves the right to use plagiarism software on student submissions).

Format of your Detailed Implementation Plan:

Your Detailed Implementation Plan must include the content shown on the following page.  Through background reading you will need to assess the precise requirements for your plan because the plan content will differ according to the business department for which it is written.

There is no single correct structure or format for this assignment. You will be judged on:

- The level of business and commercial awareness which you demonstrate

- The originality of thinking that has gone into your plan - background reading and research is required to score well here

- The readability (clear and concise English) and appearance/attractiveness of your plan

- How convincing your plan is to a business reader - included here is the professionalism demonstrated

- The structure - does it hang together nicely or is it a mixed up document and hard to follow?

- Identification and incorporation of the key links with the other business departments

- Completeness and accuracy - it should examine the likely requirements of your allocated business department to deliver the part of the investment idea for which you are responsible.

Expected Content

The plan should cover all of the following.  The precise content, length and detail of each area depend on the department that you are working for.  To complete the Implementation Plan you will need to study the 11 PowerPoint lectures and all weekly Reading materials in advance.

1. Overview of the Investment Idea being implemented

2. Impact on your department - details of how the overall Investment Idea affects your allocated business department

3. Time plan showing key activities and events for your section of the plan

4. Links and dependencies between your section of the plan and other departmental plans for your syndicate.

5. Milestones - key activities for your department which must be hit at specific times.

6. Risk plan covering the major risks relating to your department's section of the plan.

7. Resource requirements - staffing can be included here or as a separate section:

- From within Eagle's Nest Hotels - ie within your own department's responsibility and those to be provided to your department by other departments

- From outside suppliers

The precise resources depend on the business area for which you are writing the plan.  The following is not inclusive but indicates examples of some of the areas for specific departments:

- Sales & Marketing requires:

• Advertising media space
• Sales and other staff
• Web and telephony services

- HR requires:

• Employees for each department of different seniorities, job roles and different locations
• Training resources (materials, trainers, training facilities)
• Legal assistance for contracts and for any downsizing and severance needs

- Operations require:

• Real estate
• Construction and refurbishing contractors
• Operational procedures

-Finance, JV and M&A requires:

• Funding for each departments' expenditure
• Legal assistance
• Information on possible JV and M&A targets

-All departments require:

• Staff - of different skills and seniorities in different locations
• Funding
• Systems - IT and web based
• Premises

8. Financial plan - detailing the level and timing for funding.  Note - if you are working on the Finance department then you will need to cover the whole business in this item and it will be a major part of your submission.  You will also have to focus on any income generated.

9. Reference list - using the Harvard referencing system.

Written Presentation Tip

It is suggested that you use a structure with headings and sub-headings and use a numbering system.  Graphs (including Gantt charts), flow charts, bar charts to show time plans and summaries of key resources are all likely to add to the quality of your submission, as will appropriate tables.