M1 Explain Why Projects Can Fail

Projects can have a number of reasons as to why they can fail e.g. incorrect estimated timeframe of a project being completed to not having the correct amount of people involved in handling the project, in a project lifecycle if all four of the processes is not in place then this can consequently result in a project failing, below are just 3 of the countless number of examples of projects that have failed in the past.

Sinclair C5:

This is an example of a project that failed because the inventor of the Sinclair C5 named Clive Sinclair (pictured below) came up with the idea of creating a battery electric operated vehicle. This failed miserably because it was not commercially successful as well as it not being suitable and appropriate in terms of safety, this is because unlike a car as a vehicle the Sinclair C5 had a seat that was quite substantially low down (an example shown next to a car pictured below) so if for example the person pictured below driving the Sinclair C5 wanted to make a left or right turn firstly unlike a car the Sinclair C5 does not have any indicators to enable the driver to do this and let the person behind them know that they would like to make a left or right turn, so therefore this may involve the driver of the Sinclair C5 needing to stick his left or right arm (depending on which direction he wants to go) out to let the person know behind him that he would like to change his direction. This could also prove dangerous because if a driver of a car was travelling at reckless speeds they may just end up dislocating the arm of the person who is driving the Sinclair C5.

                                           

G4S – London 2012 Olympics Security: 

This is an example of a project that failed because former athlete turned British Politician Sebastian Coe otherwise known as Lord Coe was in theory the person responsible for substantially estimating the incorrect amount of security guards from G4S who needed to be in place for the one of the biggest games in British history where people from across the globe travelled to see it in action which was named the London 2012 Olympics. Due to the fact Lord Coe was held responsible for this grave mistake on more that one occasion it meant that the security company G4S were making a substantial amount of money as well as profit because the figures of necessary security guards needed for the London 2012 Olympics was again on more than one occasion incorrect, because of this monumental mistake it meant that the armed forces had to sacrifice their time to carry out the jobs that G4S were meant to carry out but could not carry out because they did not have enough security guards to fulfil the demands of Lord Coe in terms of his actual figure of security guards that were required at the 2012 London Olympics.

       

HMV Group Plc:

This is an example of a high street retail chain of shops that was enlisted as a type of project that failed because the retail company went into administration due to the strategy in general retail that was used and this was called “last man standing” in terms of music and films. Not only this but HMV failed when trying to expand and diversify into the entertainment market further one example is that they tried to increase sales with customers by selling at a fee digital downloads and music players but however Apple Inc. were the cash cow leaders in terms of digital downloads and music players with things like iTunes and iPods respectively that were appealing to members of the public worldwide as oppose to HMV who were limited to their market which was only the United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland. However, today HMV is trading on the high street because the retail company was bought out of debt and administration from Hilco UK for approximately £50 million and was no longer known as HMV Group plc when it what it was trading and listed on the London Stock Exchange as but is now rebranded and trading today as HMV Retail LTD. In a nutshell the key reason as to why a project involving a high street retail chain of shops like HMV failed is because they did not understand the changes in retail and because they did not grasp the fact that they could have used e-commerce selling and exposed its true potential a lot more that what they did do, the beauty of e-commerce selling for HMV as oppose to HMV selling their goods in store is that it would have enabled for them as a retail company to obtain all contact and personal details of each and every customer that makes a purchase of an item that they may be selling online, the reason for this is because they will then have their personal details for future reference and address of the customer being an example of valuable personal details that HMV will have as this will enable HMV as a retail company to post out marketing material to the customer as well as any discounts and promotions that HMV may have been holding at a certain moment in time when they were still trading on the market.

Conclusion:

In summary, we can conclude that the Sinclair c5 failed because Clive Sinclair could not find a solution to his problems as they both did not match, as well as this the second project that I expanded on which was the G4s London 2012 Olympics security, failed because firstly, Sebastian Coe gave G4s an incorrect amount of figures in terms of the security guards that were required for the London 2012 Olympics and secondly the G4s London 2012 Olympics security failed because G4s failed to understand that they did not have enough time to obtain 8,000 more staff and train them ready to be security guards at one of the biggest games in British History. Finally the third and final project I decided to expand on which was about the retail merchandise company named HMV they failed as a retail company simply because they had a lack of understanding about the marketplace.