Reference no: EM133146137

Prepare and Conduct a Staff Meeting: New Product Strategy

Description:

In a report by Harvard Business Review, more than 70% of the 182 senior managers surveyed agreed that said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Respondents said meetings keep them from completing their own work (65%), come at the expense of deep thinking (64%), and miss opportunities to bring the team closer together (62%). Similarly, A study by Microsoft showed that unclear objectives, lack of team communication and ineffective meetings are among the top time wasters that workers around the world say make them feel unproductive for as much as a third of their workweek on average (Business Weekly, 2018).

Context and Instructions

In this assessment task, you will need to plan, prepare and lead a meeting playing the role of an organisational staff meeting to discuss a confidential new project. Your trainer/assessor will play the role of the Director.

Confidentiality aspect of the meeting is critical as the proposed (assumed) product strategy is unique in the market and the company wishes to protect is business and intellectual property interests. To support this, a sample Privacy and Confidentiality Policy document will be provided.

To provide the required context, the following business scenario is provided;

Sample Pty Ltd is start up information technology company developing enterprise software and cloud-based solutions for private, government and community organisations. The company responds to client and market needs and requirements and invests in tailored technology solutions for its clients. The new technology is also leveraged in creating further solution and related cross-industry products. The unique intellectual proposition of the company means that the company has a confidential and innovative methods of writing code snippets and modules and then compiling them to create a number of different products and solutions.

In the current year, the company has embarked upon creating a new software for one of the large government organisations and is looking for internal staff feedback and suggestions in the trial phase.

The project has recently hit the snag as;

Some of the programmers have stopped work demanding higher pay rate
The client wants the project tested before making a full payment (only an initial payment of 20% has been made)
The company needs to borrow funds at a high interest rate to fund the developments
The company is thinking about removing some of the identification and security features, which are expensive third-party products, to reduce cost

As a senior manager, you need to decide on your own stance on the above problems - and have a clear objective in mind. Accordingly, you need to persuade and guide the meeting discussion.

Task

Considering the above scenario and business needs, complete the following tasks;

Prepare a meeting agenda (state meeting purpose)
Send a copy of your meeting to the Director (trainer/assessor roleplay) and the nominated participants (as advised by your trainer/assessor)
Make any due changes and finalise the agenda
Call and conduct a meeting (meeting schedule and participants to be arranged by your trainer/assessor)
Provide time to the participants to review the brief and provide supporting information/documents
Provide a brief overview of the Privacy and Confidentiality Policy and purpose of the meeting
Provide copies of the policy and obtain audience signatures on the documents
Provide a brief overview of the planned product/project (make a brief presentation) and explain company's position (your stance on the issues) and roles of various stakeholders
Explain why the product is important and provide justifications/reasoning for the company to undertake the development work
Go through the agenda items and engage the audience in discussion
Listen, take notes and acknowledge differences of opinions
Take a note of varied response, opinions, and suggestions discussed for the formal minutes after the meeting
Use persuasive arguments and negotiate/find common grounds and solutions
Take control of the proceedings, maintain order, and amicably resolve heated arguments and conflicts
Provide a meeting and discussion summary
Following the meeting, prepare meeting minutes and email to your Director (trainer/assessor roleplay)