Customer Inclusion is Key for Project Success

CUSTOMER INCLUSION IS KEY FOR PROJECT SUCCESS By Course Name Professor’s Name University City, State Date of Submission Customer Inclusion is Key for Project Success Introduction Organizations use projects in a number of ways, including shortening the times in the market, finding solutions to challenges on how to speed up the development of new product in the market, creating new categories of products and achieving the goals of the company. Effectively deployed projects majorly concentrate on the priorities and needs of customers through the organization of a firm’s internal resources in a dynamic, efficient and flexible manner. Projects are important for companies because of their potential to contribute to a company’s survival, profitability, and expansion, especially in the global business environment that has increased competition. The global business environment is rapidly changing, and in turn, it has affected the way companies make decisions. The traditional strategies and policies set by companies are ineffective in the current environment due to the uncertainty and turbulence of the business world. In fact, some decisions made by organizations in the current environment can only be applied temporarily to solve a certain problem, which might not reoccur. Therefore, businesses need to adopt new ways of maintaining their competitive edge. For this reason, projects have become more popular with businesses. To counter the cross-functional development, shortened product life cycles, high rate of technological obsolescence and complex challenges within an organization, firms have adopted various project management strategies. As a result, a large number of projects have been initiated over the years in several countries. High-value capital goods (CoPS) play a significant role in the global economy and industrial growth. These products are defined as highly expensive engineering and software-intensive goods, engineering constructs, systems, infrastructure and networks that contribute to economic growth (Davies and Hobday 2005, p. 6). The development of CoPS is highly profitable for countries and for this reason, most developing nations are adopting such goods to boost their growth. However, over the recent years, several high-cost projects have been unsuccessful due to the challenges involved in managing such projects. Majority of the failed projects lacked good strategy and a proper understanding of the entire scope to develop the necessary management tools to accomplish the projects. However, the challenges not only apply to CoPS companies, but to the entire project businesses. High-cost goods and services rely on the customer’s preferences, which means that the consumer is actively participating in the project. To ensure that the customer is completely satisfied, businesses need to employ other services such as training and consultancy. The involvement of customers in the creation of products cuts across both capital and consumer goods as the needs and preferences of consumers are constantly changing. Aside from that, companies should also constantly improve their management strategy to cope with the changing environment. However, the capabilities of a company determine its ability to complete the project as per the sp...