Projects and Dissertation

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.

1. PROPOSAL : Draft, Revised Draft, Proposal Defense Meeting, Finalized Proposal
2. PRIMARY WORK :  Field work consists of secondary and primary work and is defined at the proposal stage in terms of various chapters.
3. CONCLUSIONS AND REPORT : Tabulation, Interpretation, conclusions, draft report, Viva and final report