Decisions in Paradise II

Decisions in Paradise II

As it was discussed in the previous paper, our company was looking at establishing a greater presence in Kava. Several issues and answers were needed to be researched for the meeting with the stakeholders. This paper will describe the various decision-making tools that were employed to prepare for the meeting.

Numerous tools are available to gather data that will assist stakeholders in determining if the project risks are acceptable. To start, we need to know who the stakeholders are. A stakeholder is defined as “individuals who perceive themselves to have an interest in the actions of an organization. They may be customers, shareholders, employees, or just members of society” (Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman, Toth, & Van Leuven, 2004, p.139). By identifying the stakeholders, the project planners can analyze the individual or group concerns through a stakeholder analysis.

De Kluyver and Pearce state that a stakeholder analysis is “the process of identifying and prioritizing key stakeholders, assessing their needs and concerns, and incorporating their ideas and insights into the strategy formulation process”( What is strategy, 2006, p.7). The analysis can assist with identifying who the project proponents are. Additional attention could then be used to research the concerns that the opponents of the project may voice. The primary goal is to have a majority, if not all, of the stakeholders in agreement with the final decision. The following figure identifies the project stakeholders.

From reviewing the stakeholders’ analysis, the key players are supporters of the project while on the other hand, security and fiscal office see the risks too high. The stockholders are predicted as being neutral. If the stockholders see that the risks are too high, they could be influenced by the opponents to change their decisions. Chris Morales is confident that after presenting all of the research data, the project will receive backing from the stockholders. The possibility of the company’s interest being targeted by terrorist would raise security concerns as well as the financial obligations. Our research must provide the answers to these issues to help reduce the level of concern on the project.

The government of Kava is seeking international companies for contract bids on establishing a network infrastructure for the government and public school sector. They are willing to pay for the services up-front as well as purchase equipment through their finance office. Our company’s fiscal department should see this as a low financial risk since IT Express will not have to purchase any equipment from company funds.

In dealing with the terrorism threat, the United States and Kava government have established a partnership to fight terrorism. Security has been increased by the use of camera surveillance and biometric screening at the country’s entry points. As the network is established, more security countermeasures can be brought on-line.

Our next project chart would detail the issues through cause and effect. A cause-and-effect diagram is used to for analyzing all possible causes of a problem so that all factors can be studied. Since the island of Kava has numerous threats in the form of natural and man-made, this would be beneficial in having all the threats involved on one chart. The causes would be sorted into their respective category with the effect as an end factor if the causes were not addressed.