Why is dissertation a part of the PGEMP
course? It is a part of the course so that you learn how to develop an
original managerial approach in the context of your business - to tackle a
unique situation - and to create a specific learning outcome - based on an
original work to be done by you over a period of 3 months - which has not been
done before.
Writing a "Project Title" is the first part
First, the purpose of the title is NOT to attract readers to read it. Hence do not try to make it sound like a magazine article and do not worry if the title does not look "short, sweet and
attractive" like a magazine article title. From an academic
perspective the title can be even up to one page in length as it must
SIMULTANEOUSLY indicate 3 things
- A specific and time-bound plan of what NEW and ORIGINAL
field work you will do in a specific and time-bound fashion. Work that
has already happened cannot be submitted as original work. It is expected
that you should spend at least 8 days in doing this original work.
- A statement of specific and time-bound BUSINESS BENEFIT your
project will deliver to your employers in a way that the Business
Managers can be excited about. It can be about increasing sales, getting
better price, reducing cost, improving efficiency or effectiveness etc.
- The action of your doing the project will result into some
knowledge getting created. Hence merely doing what is already known can
be a project for your company but cannot be an academic project.
Second, it is very likely that a project taken up by your company /
department may NOT be suitable for you for 2 reasons. First, project taken up by your company / department would
need the effort of several people over a long period of time whereas the
project you choose needs to be based on YOUR effort over a period of 3-6
months. Second, a project given to you by your company may not meet ALL
the criteria specified above.
Examples of bad project titles
"Towards
operational excellence in our quality control department". It has no clear and specific business benefit, it
does not indicate what original work you will do and it also does not say what
specific new knowledge discovery will take place. This sounds like a good title
for a magazine article but is poor project title.
"To
increase the sale of XYZ in UK". It
spells the business benefit but not clearly. For example, to increase the sale
of XYZ by 40% in 3 years will need very different actions than increasing the
sale by 150% in 2 years. It does not indicate what is the original work. It
also does not show what new knowledge will get created.
"To
migrate the data from existing server to an outsourced data center" may be assigned to you by your company but it
cannot become the subject of dissertation because it does not involve
discovering anything original. It is a "doing" project and not a
"learning" project.
“Building
a chemical plant for a client at Nasik” is
an important project for your company - but this is too large a project for you
to take up - because the project will need contribution from many people from
your company over a couple of years !
Examples
of bad project titles converted into good
See
the Nasik project mentioned above. If you want, you can take up a part of this
project which you can attempt and complete individually over a few months.
For example your title can be "To conduct depth interviews of 10 site
engineers to identify what causes significant delays (requiring payment of
penalty) in the projects undertaken and then to study records relating to top 3
items mentioned by each, and finally to conclude what the company could have
done at the policy level to minimize these delays”. Why is this an acceptable title ? Because (a) it
describes original work : interviewing engineers, sifting through records,
making conclusions (b) it has a specific outcome : recommended policy changes
based on research findings (c) it is linked to business : minimization of
delays leads to reduction in payment of penalty (d) it is doable : you can plan
and complete the project individually over a few months.
“Changing
ill-performing distributors in UP within 3 months” could be an important
project for your company but not acceptable as a project by us. The reason is
that there is no originality, no research possibilities and no learning
outcomes. On the other hand, “Structured interviews of 20 discontinued
distributors and comparing their responses with 20 high-performing distributors
in UP to create a checklist of criteria for appointing future distributors”
is acceptable because (a) Original work : structured interviews of 40
distributors in UP (b) Specific outcome : checklist of criteria for appointing
distributors in future (c) Link to business : poor performing distributors
bring down the sales growth rate.
Use
the checklist of 5 items for titles
- Is my linked to business benefits
in a time bound and specific manner? For example : "Policies that help reduce project delays reduce
the penalties for late completion". Currently penalties eat away 15%
of the net profit of the division.
- Have I done some work already
before deciding on the title? For
example : "I studied the profitability of my company vis-a-vis our
competitors and found that we are paying far more penalties due to
late completion. As much 5% of the net profit of the division gets wasted
as a result".
- Have I decided what original work
I will do in the chosen area? For example : "I will study logged records of 10 projects done
by the division to identify top 3 reasons fof significant delays and
then conduct ABC analysis to select "vital few" reasons which
need to be tackled. From this I will select one reason and use root cause
analysis to make recommendations at policy level."
- What do I expect to happen as a
result of my findings For example : "My aspiration is that the penalties should come
down from 15% of PAT to 5% of PAT.
- Have I considered what will my
project report consist of ? For example : "My report will consist of (a) my workings of
calculating the possible financial impact of what I am planning to address
(b) my analysis of the records of last 10 projects done by the division
(c) how I identified and ranked the reasons for delays (d) root cause
analysis of one or two major reasons for delays (e) how I arrived at
policy level recommendations based on "d".
In
this particular case, an appropriate "title" will be "To try
to bring down the cost of penalty for project delays from current 15% of PAT to
5% of PAT - through my original work of studying site logs of 10 projects done
by my division and conduct an ABC analysis of the main causes of delays - and
subsequently to conduct root cause analysis of main reasons - and make policy
recommendations to management which will result into reduction of delays".
Every student wants to work towards a qualification
which has a good "brand value" attached to it. So let us see what is
the value of PGEMP ( Post Graduate Executive Management Program) qualification
from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research.
The following is a good live example which came into my
inbox. Please read his query and my reply.
PARTICIPANT : "I intend to
take up the project of reducing prepayments for home loans. The work would
include identifying the possible reason for prepayments & then recommending
policy changes to curtail the prepayments. This would involve talking to
different branches of the bank and also to other companies in the
industry".
OUR REPLY : I am pleased to see that the
basic elements are there ... how is it linked to your business .... and what
primary work you will do in order to generate recommendations. However you need
to put your proposed title in a proper form and submit to Mr Ashok Rao and he
will give you the formal approval. But for your benefit, as well for the same
for other participants, I am using the checklist (red letters) given in my blog
post "Writing Dissertation Title" below- to show how your title
becomes clear when you use it.
USING THE CHECKLIST
Q : Does my title make it clear how my plan is
linked to my business ?
A : Prepayment of a loan impacts the bottom line to the
extent of x% of PBT every year.
Q : Have I done some work already before deciding
on the title?
A : Yes, I have already found out from my other branch
colleagues as well as from my contacts in the industry that prepayment of loans
is a significant problem for them too and it seems to reduce the profitability
of lending from a highest of a% to lowest of b% with average being x%.
Q : Have I decided what original work I will do in
the chosen area?
A :
Although studying the causes of prepayment is important for improving our
profitability, I have checked with my mentor and my boss and they agree that
this area has not been studied before and therefore this project will make an
original contribution to our company and probably the whole industry! I intend
to (a) first compile the statistics of prepayment over the last 3 years in 10
branches of my bank (b) identify high and low incidences of prepayment through
this study (c) Using a structured questionnaire, to systematically interview
managers from such "high" and "low" branches to identify
what could be possible reasons for these differences (d) Have a meeting with my
boss and mentor to internally discuss these findings and arrive at
recommendations including predicting how much the recommendations will cost and
how much will they benefit.
Q : What do I expect to happen as a result of my
findings ?
A : I am planning
to reduce the prepayment by 50% within 1 year.
Q : Have I considered what will my project report consist of ?
A : My report will consist of following sections
- Section 1 : Financial impact of prepayment currently
- for various loan products
- for various locations
- over the last 3 years
- Section 2 : "High" and "Low" incidence products
and locations based on the above
- Section 3 : How a structured questionnaire was developed and tested
- Section 4 : Results of undertaking systematic interviews using this
questionnaire - of managers from such "high" and "low"
branches - to identify what could be possible reasons for these
differences
- Section 5 : Minutes of my meeting with my boss and mentor to
internally discuss these findings and arrive at recommendations
- Section 6 : My final recommendations of what we need to do
- Section 7 : When implemented how much my recommendations will cost
and how much will they benefit.
Dissertation / Projects
Herein
you don the hat of an internal consultant and addresses real issues
faced in your business. You are expected to take up the topic in
consultation with your mentor.A project is almost like a "Mini Ph D"
and goes through a well defined structure and flow of milestones as
follows.
Why is there a "Project"?
The
project is given so that you understand how to define and solve an
original problem in an original fashion. Afterall every problem in life
is not in the book and managers are required to solve such original
problems many times. The project teaches them a systematic method of
approaching such situations. It a way of learning how to learn.
Everything is not a "Project"
It
frequently happens that what a company considers to be a project may
not be acceptable as a project for our course for the simple reason that
most of the projects that your company is pursuing may be large
projects involving many people and needing periods longer than a year to
complete. The project that we expect is an individual project
and it needs to be completed in a matter of 4-5 months. It needs to be a
"bite sized" project which can be completed in about 200 hours by the
participant including planning, meetings, secondary research, primary
work, tabulations, conclusions, report writing and viva voce.
Criteria for calling it a "Project"
A project is expected to have the following characteristics in its "title" itself.
- it should be linked to a real and significant business issue of the company
- it should aim to arrive at recommendations towards a specific SMART purpose.
- It should involve some original / field work aimed at finding / uncovering something relevant
Stages of aProject
A
project goes through major stages of (a) Proposal (b) Primary Work (c)
Conclusion and Report. Major milestones under each of these 3 are as
follows. The mentor is expected to know the status of milestones and
help and guide the mentee in achieving quality as well as timeliness of
these milestones. The mentor is also expected to be present for both
the proposal defense stage and Viva stage ... yellow highlights below.
- PROPOSAL : Draft, Revised Draft, Proposal Defense Meeting, Finalized Proposal
- PRIMARY WORK : Field work consists of secondary and primary work and is defined at the proposal stage in terms of various chapters.
- CONCLUSIONS AND REPORT : Tabulation, Interpretation, conclusions, draft report, Viva and final report
