The importance of managing an international event like FIFA 2018

FIFA being an international event and having the emotions of people across the world associated with it constitutes a large number of factors that are to be maintained in order to make the event a success. There are fans of football scattered all across the globe and there are many audiences who travel around the globe in order to get a glimpse of the matches that are occurring. Therefore, managing of an event with which the interest of millions of people is associated shall require vast amounts of resources and also a huge reserve of manpower. Moreover, a successful implementation of the management process shall also have to aim at developing intelligent strategies that shall address the needs of the customers through proper research and subsequent action informed by the research (Heagney, 2016). In the following section the various aspects related to the organization of the event shall be analysed through the perspective of the project manager of FIFA 2018 which was hosted in Russia.  

The term ‘voice of customer’ is used to connote the often complex process of capturing the demands, wishes and the aversions of the customers. But before commenting upon the voice of customer in context of FIFA 2018, the managerial structure of FIFA 2018 has to explained in detail. At the helm of affairs in FIFA is the supervisory committee whose task is to take strategic decisions regarding the organization of the event. It is headed by the Russian Prime minister Vladimir Putin and there are several notable ministers of the parliament as members. Directly below the Supervisory board is the Managing board whose job is to implement the instructions of the Supervisory Board and also taking care of the practical aspects of organization of the event (www.fifa.com, 2018). Therefore, the role of the project manager would be to carefully document the instructions of the Supervisory Board and integrate it with the various aspects of the event. Moreover, the reports regarding the success or the failure of the implementation should be regularly communicated to the higher board.
As it can be inferred from above, the responsibility of determining the voice of customer rests upon the management with the project manager at the head. Common ways of eliciting information regarding the needs of the customers include interviews, focus groups, contextual inquiries et cetera. But it should also be kept in mind that in case of this event traditional approaches might not always work as customers for this event are not restricted to a finite geographical area (Grudin, 2017). Prospective consumers reside in the entirety of the globe and therefore, certain innovative approaches have to be devised. For a beginning, the ways in which FIFA events have been organized in the past in other host countries have to be studied in detail. The problems that the customers faced in the past or the special characteristics of those events which were instrumental in providing maximum satisfaction to the customers have to be analysed (Veal & Burton, 2015). The present manager has to filter out the positive points of the past events and integrate them with novel designs that shall aim at removing the problems that were present. However, such an approach would only provide one with a theoretical understanding of the demands of the customers. Once, sufficient research has been done and the management team has a more or less conclusive idea from where to begin with, the second part of the process shall have to start. Since, a mere theoretical understanding is incomplete, the managerial body has to come into contact with the prospective customers. Since social media has done away with geographical barriers to marketing and communication, the board should put social media to strategic use (Liu, Xu, Sinha & Akkiraju, 2018). There are a large number of fans who follow the official event page and from there opinion polls can be organized regarding various issues that are supposedly important for the customers. These polls can also be crucial in getting an idea regarding the pricing of the tickets for both domestic and international customers (Masterman, 2014). The admins of the pages on social media shall have to regularly active in order to generate the maximum engagement. Queries and doubts of the customers shall have to be resolved with a certain sense of urgency. Adding to that, the managerial body should be receptive to the recommendations of the customers which shall have to be integrated with the operation process (Harrison & Lock, 2017).

Understanding the voice of the customer

Once the voice of customer has been obtained through the above mentioned measures, the next step would be critical to consumer requirements. The voice of clients would be constituted by opinions and demands that are often vague and inarticulate. The responsibility of the managerial body at this stage would be to translate the somewhat irrational body of knowledge about the customers into identifiable and rational goals that are to be gradually achieved and maintained by the body. The first part of this process would be to categorize and classify the opinions of customers under the sections of need and requirements. By need one means the absolutely indispensable aspects of a product or service that customers cannot do without whereas requirements are somewhat like an icing on the cake which are extras going along with the main product in order to make it more desirable and presentable to the consumer. But since, the present event is of such a grand scale it would do good to apply a more complex hierarchical order in devising the critical to consumer requirements. Maslow’s hierarchy of basic, expected, desired and unanticipated would provide a more nuanced perspective in coming to terms with the issues that have to be kept in mind in order to ensure maximum consumer satisfaction (Kumar, & Reinartz, 2018).
The basic need in this context would be to ensure proper seating arrangements of the visitors to the matches and also maintenance of the stadiums. It can be observed that the average seating capacity of the stadiums is about 70,000 to 75,000 viewers therefore, tickets should not exceed that number in order to avoid overcrowding. This shall also include the deploying of a team of personnel on ground that shall be able to assist the audience in times of problems and also look after the security measures.

Additional increments upon the basic service can include various things. For one thing, the management can make the seating arrangements more comfortable and also include provisions of food and beverages for the customers. It also has to be remembered that the customers would hail from a wide range of financial backgrounds with varied purchasing potentials. Therefore, tickets have to be made in a hierarchy in accordance with the buying power of the consumers (Solomon, White, Dahl, Zaichkowsky & Polegato, 2017). There should basic standard tickets in the beginning following which there should be what is the priced ones boasting of increments above the basic service like deluxe seating arrangements and complementary food and beverage et cetera.  

Devising strategies for meeting customer needs

Setting of critical quality parameters follows the process of determining critical to quality requirements. This step involves setting up of the conditions necessary internal to the organization which shall allow it to deliver the demands of the customers in an appropriate manner. Certain minimum standards of the process have to be set to that the actual output is at par with the results expected. The difference between critical quality parameters and critical to customer requirements is that the former signifies processes that are internal to the organization that would fulfil the conditions required for customer satisfaction.

Therefore, at this stage the managerial body by taking the recommendations of the supervisory body and initiate the appropriate measures necessary for fulfilling the requirements of the customers. This would include the formation of teams which shall be assigned to manage the various stadiums that shall hold the matches. Furthermore, these teams shall include a specialised structure consisting of wings looking after various avenues which are crucial to the successful organization of the event vis-a-vis a managerial entity at the top which shall coordinate the efforts of the teams failing which such a complex structure can work in a disorganized manner (Van der Wagen, & White, 2018).
A special team shall be assigned to manage the digital and technological aspect that is related to the event. This would include communicating with the customers online and also maintaining a proper digital communication network within the entire framework (Gmelin & Seuring, 2014).

Before embarking upon the implementation of lean project management it has to be remembered that lean itself is not an objective rather, it is an approach towards management that has to be continually prioritised in order to increase efficiency and achieve certain goals in the future. Therefore, lean management would first begin with a cultural change within the managerial body. The management of FIFA and also the employees working under it shall have to be acquainted with a fresh perspective towards the attainment of organizational goals that shall aid in the successful completion of the event.

All the plans that will direct the actions and the blueprints of those plans have to be decided upon by the supervisory body. The supervisory body comprises of the different ministers of Russia, including the highest minister, that is the Prime Minister. All the things that have to be done in relation to the catering and serving of food to the players and the staffs associated with it, the organization of the tools and machineries that are required to make the whole vent possible, the places of staying and residence for the players, the medical facilities for the players and general medical facilities for the audience have to be decided by them. Further, things related to the selling of the tickets of the matches, the pricing of the tickets, the materials to be used, the decoration of the audiences and their overall maintenance before the match all things have to be decided upon by the supervisory department. The directions shall be delivered to the managerial department and they are responsible for the execution of all the plans as per the blueprints of the event organization. The managerial department has to report their every kind of action and get the decisions from the supervisory department. The managerial department departments are just there to make the things as per the decision and the plans that shall be made by the supervisory department. All the actions and their decision shall keep on evolving with the time and the line of actions shall be changed as per the perceived consequences of each set of action performed at the previous stage. The lean management comprises of all these things, that is changing the management style as per the need of the present situation (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Things are learnt from past errors and changes are made and decision are taken in order to make the actions flexible and tailored as per the needs. The Deming cycle is applied in this kind of management style. The main elements of this management tool consists of the main parts, in short known as PDCA (Plan Do Check Act). ‘P; stands out for Planning and conducting the research, ‘D’ stands for Doing the development of the various solutions of the problem that have been identified after the planning has been made. ‘C’ stands for checking of the solutions and choosing the most effective and the best solution. After this checking, steps have to be taken in order to get the desired result. This course of action is directed and met by ‘A’ which stands for Acting for the reinforcing of the updated solution (Koufteros et al. 2014). This step includes all those actions that have to be taken in order to make the solution work. This process is performed in the lean management with the proper co-operation and the communication between the supervisory team and the managerial team. The Supervisory department also checks the security and the related state of affairs that are present at the venues of the match and the stadiums. Any kind of step and direction taken by them are all directed to the managerial team which comprises of only the different ministries. The managerial department takes the actions and any change or result is conveyed to the supervisory body, and by applying the Deming cycle, the course of change is brought into the line of actions (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014).

Setting up critical quality parameters

The acronym PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge. Our understanding of PMBOK has to be informed by the fact that it not something definite or standardized body of knowledge applicable to all organizations or projects but a set of rules, terminologies, practices, processes and theories that are specific to a certain project (Larson & Gray, 2015). Therefore, the body of knowledge that is in reference in this context has to be devised jointly by the Supervisory Board and the Managerial Board. From the research of the past FIFA events and also from successful examples of other sports related events like the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games. The examples taken from the above study shall be useful in the creation of an independent and self-sustaining epistemology that shall relevant to the organization of FIFA 2018. This knowledge should not only be accessible by all the persons involved in the management but also all of the members shall have to be educated in accordance with the terminologies (Snyder & Dionisio, 2017).

Quite similar to PMBOK in certain aspects PRINCE2 constitutes the running of process that are informed through the understanding of the proper background of the project by the implementation of certain proven practices. Therefore, the specific practices that were implemented in the past FIFA events and resulted in successes shall have to be replicated in the current scenario. Under the domain of PRINCE2 would include the sustained need for justification for a specific methodology that is being assigned to the process (Hinde, 2018). Roles and responsibilities of the various teams and subsequently their individual members have to be clearly defined. And most importantly, a rational and a scientific approach should define the ways in with the goals are pursued. The entire work has to be classified into smaller stages and one stage should be addressed after another in a systematic fashion. Thus, when all the stages are complete, the project can be finally closed.

Organizational Project Management does not indicate generic project management in the common usage of the term. Rather, it refers to the execution of the strategies that have been devised through research through a variety of approaches which include portfolio management, programme management and project management. Portfolio management involves the centralisation of processes, technologies and the methods that shall be used by the project manager or the top level management (Kerzner, 2018). Here, the managerial body of FIFA shall have to rationalize certain methods that shall inform the control and regulation of the various processes that shall be running simultaneously when the project is ongoing. Subsequently programme management shall maintain the performance of the processes and also inquire into places that shall require further improvement. Therefore, Organizational Project Management in FIFA shall aid in developing a self-sustaining organic body of processes that shall continuously strive for efficiency.

Implementing lean project management for greater efficiency

Although initially pertaining only to the IT industry the effectiveness of agile practices has been proved in other sectors as well. By agile practices one basically implies the project management to be conducted through an approach aiming at early returns on investment. It shall also involve the repetitive delivery of product developments. While the process in ongoing the customer has to be continuously involved with the developments that are taking place in order to ascertain whether the changes that are being implemented will be practically effective at the time of consumption (Conforto, Salum, Amaral, da Silva & Almeida, 2014)
Therefore, the management of FIFA has to create the services in such a manner that certain returns to the investment is attained. There shall be opportunities for consumers to book tickets on an ‘early bird’ basis at a certain discount in the initial stages of the development of the project (Jennings & Lodge, 2011). Moreover, the development process should be functioning actively even when the event itself has started. If certain errors arise in the initial matches, then the management should devote a team to study the errors and make sure that they do not happen in the subsequent programmes. The involvement of the customers in the process would mean that the customer’s perspective is also taken into account when designing the services. Therefore, only those aspects of the services shall be included that are desirable or relevant to the customer.

The scope of lean six sigma is limited compared to the other processes mentioned above in the sense that it is directed towards the minimization of defects and elimination of wastes (Morgan& Brenig-Jones, 2015). However, its apparently limited scope does in no way undermine the importance that it has for the project as the aims of lean six sigma are imperative towards increasing the overall efficiency of the management process (Douglas, Muturi, Douglas & Ochieng, 2017). The process of lean six sigma classifies and categorises the sources of waste under eight heads which are as follows (Tenera & Luís Carneiro, 2014):

• Errors
• Excess production
• Delays
• Under-utilised talents
• Inventory
• Rapid movement
• Over-processing 

Therefore, the management has to keep a check on the resources that are being used in the organization and also maintain a budget that shall be planned upon at the very beginning of the processes.

Conclusion

Thus, after pondering over the management of FIFA 2018 as a project manager, no doubt in a very restricted sense it can be understood that the organization of event of such a massive scale is a very complex task involving the supervision and proper management of a variety of process. The scale of the project can let one very well imagine the investment and risks involved in the conducting of the event. The key to success as can be understood from the above analyses is that an approach has to be implemented in the organizational ranks in the beginning that shall aim at continuous incremental improvement. And alongside, the customers shall have to be involved in every step of the development process.   

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