Project Management The project selected for this study is the opening of a new restaurant in New York City. This restaurant will be named: "Home Grown." It will be fashioned after the restaurant-creation in the television program "Fifteen" in the U.K. Food Network, a cable television channel has decided to open the restaurant by hiring fifteen trainees. The trainees will be taught all the requisite skills to chefs. Along with that they will also be able to assess the related needs of the restaurant industry. Jamie Oliver, the mastermind behind "Fifteen" in the U.K. has been selected to head this project along with his sous-chef who would be monitor the daily operations in NY City. The restaurant is to open on Christmas Eve, 2004 and it is hoped that it will be a success. Food Network has a budget of ten million dollars earmarked for this project. Any profits from this restaurant will be directed to funding education and training of underprivileged teenagers in NY City in the culinary industry.

Introduction: Project outline and scope

The project discussed in this report tracks the needs of setting up a new upscale restaurant in New York City, USA. Following the media coverage of "Fifteen" by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, the U.S. television network Food TV has decided to sponsor a program operated along similar lines. This report proposes a business plan. This plan entails the setting up of "Home Grown" in time for the peak holiday season of Christmas 2004.

History of the organization

Food TV is a commercially, very successful cable network channel in the U.S. It has becoming increasingly popular with the viewers. It has been cited as the major player in causing a food revolution in the U.S. The network is constantly on the lookout for new and innovating programming that can reduce the mystique surrounding high-end cuisines. Food TV seeks to encourage the average viewer to dabble in the art of fine cooking. The successful adaptation of "Iron-Chef" a Japanese food cooking competition in the spring of 2004 has spurred executives to look for similar options in other countries. Chef Jamie Oliver's "Fifteen" provided the bases for setting up a similar show in the U.S.

Food TV executives had a meeting with Oliver. They agreed to sponsor this new venture under his leadership fully. The location selected is New York City in the U.S. And the "trainee" chefs will be selected from the city as well. The new restaurant (as has been mentioned above) will be called "Home Grown." Its location will be downtown Manhattan, close to Wall Street and the business districts. The budget allocated for this project is $10 million for the initial setup cost. This money will also cover expenses for first year operations. Any profits from this venture would be donated to a center for disadvantaged youth for training and educational needs.

Project Outline and Objective

Prior to actual commencement of this new project, the network needs to ensure that all the objectives behind the intricate task of setting up a restaurant are adequately investigated. The project is a combination of a television show and a real life restaurant setup. For the purpose of this report, only the needs of setting up the restaurant have been investigated and analyzed. It is assumed that the network will provide only the necessary support and will not impact the head chef and planners' decision-making.

The main objectives of this project are listed as follows:

Selection the location for the restaurant

Designing and setting up facilities

Selection of the 15 trainees for the first year by Mr. Oliver and his assistant chef.

Training of the individuals selected

Menu creation and service execution

It is imperative that the restaurant be opened on Christmas Eve 2004 and within the budget allocated by the network. The trainees are also expected to perform and learn the art of cooking and kitchen organization.

Needs of the project

Although the network undertakes this endeavor with Oliver, it is assumed that Oliver's assistant chef who is New York-based will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of training the interns and the overseeing of the progress of the restaurant renovation and interior design. Identifying the needs for each project and developing an appropriate request for proposal is very critical. (Gido & Clements, 2003)

There are various challenges with respect to building code and local area compliance. These have to be dealt with at the onset of the project, during the location renovation and setup. (Kerzner, 1979)

Every restaurant project requires people to be wholeheartedly involved in the achievement or completion of a set of goals or objectives, in this case the opening and successful operation of the restaurant. Of all the assets that any employer possesses,...

(Kerzner, 1982)
Communication between the network's managers, the project manager, Mr. Oliver and the assistant chef is very important. It is important that every individual associated with this project, especially the project manager, understand the basic concept that the reason why a project is conceived, planned and executed is to serve a final customer. (Martin, 1976; Pruitt, 1999) The ultimate goal of this restaurant should be to train the interns and use their services to operate a successful restaurant

Stakeholders identified for this project

Studies indicate that many of the problems experienced in projects are of a management, organizational or behavioral nature" and rarely due to inadequacies in technique or skill. This is especially true of software related projects. (Clifton & Fyffe, 1977) For this project, the major stakeholders identified are as follows:

The TV network sponsoring this new project. Being a very successful food cable TV network, the organization would like to, with this restaurant, make a philanthropic overture, and as a result get into the good (or better) graces of its viewers. All proceeds from profits will be used for training and educating teenagers who are interested in the culinary field, and who would otherwise have not had the chance to obtain quality training. The network would however, be generating revenues from the creation and televising of fifteen episodes of the entire project with commercial sponsors to balance out the investment of $10 million for the startup of the restaurant. After the 2nd year, the restaurant would be financially self-supporting. Though, but the network would be involved in any decision-making.

The "trainees" selected for the restaurant is an internal stakeholder. Often, an employee of the organization is important as he or she truly represent the "heart and soul" of an organization. Modern organizations are of the opinion that their employees are the internal customers of the organization. (Keller, 2002) The trainees will operate in the restaurant for two years after which they will be considered trained. At the same time, after the first year, a new group of 15 trainees will be selected and this process will be undertaken for every year the restaurant will be in business. Mr. Oliver has signed a contract with the network to mentor the trainees for a period of 5 years. The contract could be renewed or another chef could be selected for the next five years.

An important external stakeholder is the customer who will be patronizing the establishment after it has been setup. The external market is very important for any organization. (Kotler, 2000) The need for the external customer's approval is very important and often the variables and influences acting on the external client can be very interlinked. (Kotelnikov, 2004) Often, the driving factor for many of the strategies planned by an organization is the external customers.

Suppliers and distributors to the restaurant are also important stakeholders. Factors such as logistics and distribution of products based on supply and demand, customs of source location and destination location, religious and political consideration and food preferences are all important considerations for any successful project. (Farrell, 2002) For the food industry, the freshness of ingredients and their availability often dictates the menu and the quality of the food served.

Milestones for "Home Grown"

Milestone

Task

Description and comments

Pre-project

Contract

The network has to establish a contract with Mr. Oliver to start the restaurant and establish a working partnership and team for the project. This includes signing on any assistant chefs for the project and the team definition. This team has to have a high degree of interdependency and interaction. (French & Bell, 1999) A temporary location is also selected at this stage for the training.

First Phase

Trainee & Location selection

The program needs to select 15 trainees. Advertisements for this program will be made on public television and radio. The program will select disadvantaged teenagers from poor neighborhoods who have the desire to enter the field but cannot afford formal training.

Location is very critical for any restaurant. NYC is an ideal location. The city has a sizeable population to support the launch of an upscale restaurant and at the same time offer the restaurant sufficient number of new trainees every year.

Second phase -- Part I

Renovations

After selecting the location and the site for the restaurant, the next stage is the restructuring of the area for the restaurant needs. Plans for restructuring will need…