project management

Outline the key environmental forces which have influenced how projects are managed. How have these key environmental forces changed the way projects are managed

The Key environmental forces which have influenced the way projects are managed are both internal and external,When talking about the external factors we are actually looking at elements such as political ,economical,social ,technological and international(PESTI).These element have played a major role in how projects are managed today and has given rise to the importance of project management.This is because of the challanges and problems in today`s modern society involves risk and uncertainty ,with rapid changes in technology and increase in competition had made project management more complex as well as key to success in the business world.External factors are unavoidable and uncertain and could couse disastrous impacts on the performance of the organization in managing different projects.”The more uncertain and changing the environment ,the more complex is the organization structure likely to be”(pilcher 1992)

An example of major project include the American Manhattan project in which the first atomic bomb was created during world war 2 ,the project was basically meant to be completed in the shortest time possible because the Americans wanted to be the first to build it and stay ahead of the Nazis.This project involed a great deal of advance research and technology and it also helped in exploring new areas of science and engineering for the people who worked on this project .The technological advantage for any organization is one of the key external factor for high tech companies such as computers,electronics,phanmaceutical and communication,For example When Apple introduced Macintosh in response to this the Microsoft introduced windows vista ,apart from that we also see heat in competition in the communication industry such as nokia ,Samsung,motorolla ,sony and so on .Each of this companies are competing each other to become the market leader to obtain as much market share and brand loyalty as possible.This is one of the reason where the nature and scope in managing the project have changed .

Projects often tend to make life much easier and fruitful and if the project is not successful it can also have a negative impact.one of the example is the Mangla Dam project of Pakistan.The aim of the project was to build a Dam so that it can store more water and therefore resolve the issue of electricity shortage.It was meant to be finshed between the year 2002 and 2005 but it was not completed and due to the failure of this project the country is facing high levels of electricity shortage and load shedding.There may be several reasons why the project could not be completed ,could be technical or may be it was costly.But because of this failed project it effected the country in many areas .

Economic factors such as inflation ,rate of economic growth ,level of unemployment has affected organizations in many ways.When a project is undertaken by an organization it is given a budget ,With increasing amount of inflation the use of scarce resources have become more costly which inturn increases the budget of the project .This makes the job of project manager more complex and difficult as he has to manage the entire project with limited budget ,apart from this he also have to fully utilized the resources and not wasting it and within the budget given for the project.

Social factors play a pivotal role in managing projects because they influence the behaviour of the organization interms of employees attidudes and behaviour,Understanding human needs are very important for a project manager,social issues such as health and safety,recreational needs,education,living and working conditions need to be addressed in order for the success of the project.For example an organization choose to undertake a project and there fore select a team and a project manager to complete the task ,if the team members feel they are working in an environment which is risky,or if they are not treated with respect or they are not being rewarded or their needs are not being fullfiled can create a negative impact on the project and will totally change the way the project is managed.With highly motivated team members will enable the project to be managed flexibly with more chances of success,

International factor are also important because they are the factors which came in existence because of globalization.With rapid changes in development of new trends ,business and project management the element of uncertainties have increased,

Organization with different corporate cultures and perceptions are now competiting against each other and have forced them to follow different approaches and policies to cope as well as stay ahead of their competitors.This is the reason in today`s world organization undertake more and more projects and manage them in their own unique way so that other companies or competitors may not be able to dublicate it.

In todays modern and technically advanced society it has become very important for organizations and the project managers to fully utilize the internal resources available to them while managing different projects.The internal factors which has changed the way projects are managed can be catagorized as manpower,materials,machines,money and methods .The project managers have full control of these factors but they need to be indentified properly ,with complete honesty .Failed and poorly managed projects are the reason why these factors are very important,These factors are the main resources of an organization and are major contributors to the way projects are managed .For example a project manager who have control over these resources is unable to manage them properly which can inturn lead to project failure and can be very harmful for the organization.however it is also very important for an organization to identify its Strenths and Weaknesses,for example two firms are competing each other for high market share ,high revenue and one of these firm has an advantage of better technology ,now it is up to that firm how it manages and utilize this strength and vise versa. Organizations are suppose to fully utilizes their core competencies in order to succeed and every organization have its own unique competencies ,due to this reason project managing process differ becouse different organizations work according to their mission statement, their culture,their aims and objectives and their policies,.

project management

Explain the difference between what is project and what project management is.

To differenciate between a project and project management one must start by understanding what a project is .A project is something which has an objective ,it requires range of resources which can be internal as well as external .Every project have its own life cycles also called as project life cycle ,they normally starts slowly and with a passage of time they reach the peak and then begins to decline and finally they are terminated this is because every project is given a limited time line within which they must be completed which is why projects have a finite life.There were some very comprehensive articles written by Paul o.Gaddis in the Harward Business Review(May-June1959) which actually gave an extensive importance to Project Management .In one of his notion he defines project as “an organizational unit dedicated to delivering a delevelopment project on time ,within budget and within the technical performance specifications given to it”

When an organization is undertaking a project the main reason for this is to accomplish specific goals which can actually be achieved with the help of Project management.It is basically a careful approach to panning and guiding project processes from the beginning of a project to the end.According to the Project Management Institute the processes goes through five stages which are commencement ,planning,organising,controlling and closing.In the first phase of the process the main objectives,goals and strategies of the project are indentified,it is very important as it gives an overall picture of what an organization is aiming for and why is it aiming?.Different diagrams and graphs are used such as Gantt charts and PERT charts to create a graphic representation of the project plan.In the organising phase the organization decides who should be involved in the organizing and managing the project other than that the project management authority ,responsibility ,policies ,procedures and techniques are established so that the project can run smoothly without disrupting other functions and operations of the organization.it has been argued that during this phase the work flow and the project coordination must be managed horizontally and not vertically,which means that the chain of command of an organization should be horizontal the reason being is that with the horizontal chain of command the work is organized across the various functional groups working with each other as it leads to better coordination and communication among employees and managers

The fundamental of a project is to deliver something new,therefore professionals and specialized people are normally hired to do the job ,this is because in the third phase it is required by the team to evaluate the progress of the project.Therefor cost ,schedule and technical performance standards needed for the project is established and also an information system for the project is also established.With the help of proper means and evaluation techniques the management team can see the progress of the project as well as identify the risks and come with any new decisions required at this phase.

While the project goes through organising and controlling phase it uses several considerable resources which actually speeds up the project management process but as the project reaches the completion or the termination stage it slows down .Hence in the last stage the resources which were used by the project are transferred to other organizations and the project is terminated .Finally the people or the project team is rewarded for their commitment towards the completion of the project .This is how the project is differenciated with project management because project is something which can be said as an idea ,a brand new experience ,something which has been never done before ,something which has never been achieved before and project management is a root and the key for achieving it through both human and non human resources.

Project management

Explain what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the functional,
matrix, and dedicated team approaches to managing projects?

Functional Type Organization Structure

There are different types of organization structures ,some organizations are functionally structured ,some are project type while some are matrix organizations.Functional structure is one of the most commonly used structure by companies and sometimes it is also known as the classical or traditional structure.In this type of structure the main authority lies in the hands of functional managers as it is a kind of a top-down hierchy based structure.

Functional structure generally have vertical communication channels hence the communication and decision making can be good but because the main authority lies with the top functional managers or supervisers which inturn make the communication process slow.Different functions carried out in the organization can be very flexible ,in the event when the functional manager has to deal with budgeting ,costing and different other kind of work load he can simply assign anyone who is fit for the job this is because functional manager has control over all the manpower resources.In this type of structure employees mainly work alongside with other employees who share the same interest as they would be working in the same department with similar kind of tasks hence they can help each other in solving problems.Apart from that when the organization is undertaking a single project and the scope of the project is narrow then it can assign a proper functional unit to deal and handle the project this can lead to indepth analysis of the project which inturn can increase the success chances of the project.

While there are negative aspects of this kind of an organization structure,Generally it has been argued that organization who undertake multiple projects at the same time should have a horizontal communication structure which makes communication and decision making much easier while functional structure lack the contribute of horizontal and direct communication,this increases time to complete the project because of slow responce.secondly employees could be demotivated while working on a project because they are given a particular segment of a project to work with and are unlikely to share there views to the senior management.Normally all projects have project managers assigned to complete the projects but because authority lies in the hands of functional managers and therefore project managers may not be given the priority and full responsibility by the functional managers which might make their job more frustrated and which can also lead to low motivation as they are not given full access to the organizational resources.

Matrix Type Organization Structure:

The matrix organization is said to be the most complex structure as it is a combination of both project and functional organization structure.It was actually created so that it can eliminate the disadvantages of the functional and organizational structure while keeping their advantages . so unlike the functional structure the matrix have two chain of commands ,this consist of project manager and the functional manager so the project team is required to report to both their respective project manager and the functional manager example of Famous organizations who follow this kind of the structure are British Aerospace and the motor company Renault.Many companies apply matrix arrangement in different kind of way ,it can be permanent or it can be temporaryas well for example organization might want to stay in a simple functional structure but they may temporarily set up the matrix structure to work on specific projects.This type of structure also allow different departments along the chain of command to work and coordinate with each other .Lets take an example .There are four ongoing projects in a company and the structure of the company is matrix.Now there would be 4 project managers handling each project and they will each have a project team while on the same time they will be working under one supervisor or in other words the project director.Members in the project teams are taken from different departments of an organization and they can be either working temporarily or permanent depending on the how well they do and project manager.The matrix structure generally have 3 forms which are functional.balanced and project matrix.

Although there are levels with vertical command but with matrix structure the project manager have greater authority over the organizational resources unlike the functional structure,hence he is more motivated and more focused towards his task Since the project and functional structure are spreaded over each another or overlaid the projects can use a flexible amount of technology and expertise from several functional departments in the organization.it also help indivisuals who are working in the organization to gain more knowledge and learn more because they work on several projects within the organization .The main aim and objective in this type of structure is the customer focus.All the projects carried out in an organization are focused towards the needs of the customers .while this type of structure also have disadvantages the main disadvantage is the multi reporting system hence it is like going against the principle of unity of command because employees actually have two bosses ,the project manager as well as the functional manager this can be very stressfull for the team members .In some cases where an individual is working on multiple projects he can have multiple project managers to report to.In matrix structure as the resources are being shared across different projects and different functions there are possibilities where conflict can occur on the use of resources because every project manager would want the best resources for his/her project.

Dedicated Teams:

In this situation the organization creates a separate team who work independently to finish a specific project ,the team members are hired on permanent basis from within the organization as well as outside and they have a single project manager,This team does not work within the organization ,organization may have administrative control over the project but normally it let project manager to do what ever he/she wishes as he would have the maximum freedom to finish the project with the given resources.Top computer companies like Apple and Ibm have used this kind of approach and had been successful.

This type of structure has its own advantages and disadvantages .This is a very simple way of completing a project because it wont disrupt the ongoing operations of the company and secondly the project manager and his team wont be disrupted as they would be working independently ,hence it increases the focus on the project ,and disregarding what is happening in other departments ,team will focus on the task given to them.Unlike the functional structure ,dedicated teams can finish the project more quickly because they would be dedicated in finishing the project rather than worrying about other obligations and duties.This type of structure also tend to motivate people who are working in a team ,they feel as if they are more recognized and they have been given the task to prove how good they are and their capabilities are seen.while on the other hand this can be very costly for the organization ,as they have given project manager and the team to use the resources freely which can lead to wastage of resources if they are not being utilized in a proper way.Sometimes this type of work can also lead to something known as Projectitis,when dedicated teams finish a complex task and project ,the members working in the team are normally put back to their old operations and when they are not hired again they feel that their prestige is being taken away from them and it can create jealousy and low morale. between employees .After the project is finished and the team members are sent back to their original functional department they might feel it difficult to catch up as they had been absent for a long time from their functional area

Project management

Define a project. Explain with examples what are five characteristics which help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization?

A project can be defined as something which is very complex ,it has a specific and limited time line which means that it has a start as well an end .Apart from normal or day to day business routines which take place on frequent basis while at the same time a project is a non routine task which means doing something which has never been done before .Every project when undertaken is given a budget which is the cost to complete the project and successful projects are said to be those projects which are completed within the cost and time assigned to them.Projects are also successful when resources are effectively and efficiently utilized and according to the need of customer or the sponsor.Although a project contains the element of risk and uncertainty which is why projects cannot be completed with total accuracy.

The actual characteristics of a project are.

1,It must have an objective ,when ever a project is undertaken the project manager and his team knows what they are meant to do and accomplish.

2,When a project has been started or undertaken it must finish ,for example a bicycle race has a starting line as well as a finish line just as a project have.

3,Projects are complex therefore everyone does not have the capability or knowledge to do selected tasks ,therefore projects can have different members from different departments of the organization but the members are usually highly trained professionals.

4,When an organization is undertaking a project they know that this is something that has never been done before.it can also be reffered as a brand new experience.

5,This is one of the most specific and important characteristic which is the time limit given, Every project is given a specific time limit for example if a project starts and has been given 30 days to finish it that means the project must be completed within 30 days.secondly project is given a budget for example let say 1.2 million pound has been allocated to the project which means that the project should be finished within this budget in simple words it is like a spending limit. .if extra money is required for the project then it cannot be said as a succesful project .This is bound to happen as the project consist of elements such as risk and uncertainty ,apart from that it can also be due to poor planning and lack of effectiveness , efficiency and performance.

A project is only said to be a project if it fullfill all the characteristics mentioned above.

Correction corporation of America is the largest operator of private prisons in the United States .They had almost 8000 phones at 40 different company owned facilities and they were having communication problems so they decided to undertake a project in 2006 therefore they adopted a next generation voice system which actually transmit voice over data networks .The average spending of the project was around $11.11 million but the project helped in reducing telecommunication problems and apart from that it also reduced there management cost.this is one of the example of a project because it covers the characteristics a project must have to be classified as a project ,they actually replaced their old telecommunication system with a new one which generally was a one time activity .The actual budget given to the project is not known but average spending is given. The project shows that they did something which has never been done before and consist of elements such as performance ,time and cost.

Banks can be another example to differenciate projects from other daily functions carried out in an organization Banks provide facilities such as lending ,mortgaging ,borrowing ,their data base is uptated on a regular basis ,they create annual reports,these operations or functionas are not specified as projects because it does not full fill the characteristics of a project .But for instance if the bank were to introduce or upgrade their entire networking system which requires an objective , a specific time , budget and also requires selected and specialized staff then we can say that it is actually undertaking a project.

When talking about the airline industry a very famous disaster recovery project was taken by an American domestic airline called the jetblue airways.The airways which started 2000 and ended up with a revenue of $2.4 billion were facing problems due to heavy ice storms in many cites .Following the hurricane Katrina in 2005 and heavy ice storms during that time of the year created problems such as time delays ,handling reservations ,rerouting traffic and so on.what they actually did was they waited for the meltdown at the john f kennedy airport and the CEO Mr Mees and the entire jetblue information technology team barely slept for a week .They worked day and night to put in a heroic effort as they manage to get operations back on track while pushing their systems to the maximum limit ,they managed to create entirely new database ,tools,and applications to fix these problems as they arose and for the future

Booking flight ,making tickets,reservations are daily operations in the airline industry but the disaster recovery project taken by the Jetblue airways was a complex and one time project and is said to be successful because of the effective,efficient planning and performance of the Jetblue technology team.

Hence the above mentioned example gives us a clear understanding of a project and how a project is different from the daily operations of an organization

Innovation at SAMSUNG

Samsung electronics business is divided into five main components. . The products are very technology oriented and its designs are up to the modern day requirements. Weather it is memory chips, hard disks, the TFT LCD, mobile phone, video game consoles Samsung products are recognized as a trusted and reliable brand. We shall be discussing some of Samsung’s products representing its five business dimensions in evaluating its role in innovation and technology.

Types and Patterns of Innovation

Digital media is one of the most competitive areas in the electronic market. Companies have to introduce new products with the latest technologies offerings and representing new designs. Although Samsung has launched its Black Jack handset which has all the features of a new and latest technological handset as well as the design is ultra slim. The key pad is Qwerty which is a new feature in handset market.

TV’s:

It is also the one of the most demanding and famous form of digital media as global demand reached 194 million sets in 2006 (Samsung annual report 2006).

Samsung electronics has competed in this market by offering the television which are flat panel LCD’s.

The examples of LCD, plasma TV, and HD TV are:

• Samsung LE-32R87BD (32 inch LCD TV)

• Samsung PS-50Q97HDX (50 inch plasma TV)

• Samsung LE-19R87 (19 inch HD TV)

All above Samsung products are very competitive and getting a good market share for Samsung because of good technology high definition LCD and flat panel.

Samsung was able to get the biggest market share globally in TV market by making products which responded affectively to diverse customer base. Samsung has achieved a distinctive position of capturing the highest sales revenue in large screen TV for five consecutive years according to a report by Display search in 2006. This was because of research and development program that enables them to build strong technology products as three TVs mentioned above that produce a portfolio of modern day customer requirements in terms of innovation and technology.

Mobiles:

Digital media is information technology. This business requires a focus on services which is telecommunication and broadcasting and the channels to deliver i.e. wireless or wired telecommunications.

Mobile phones are now a day very fast growing products and demands research and development that is up to the requirements. Samsung has a wide range of mobile phones that target different customer segments. As mobile phones are no longer used for “talking only” purpose. Samsung mobiles have the latest products with smart designs and advanced technology that makes it a perfect choice for any customer globally.

Samsung SGH-U600 ultra edition:

This mobile phone has all the features that reflect the latest and advanced technology and innovation. Such as:

• It supports GSM network (technology + requirement)

• Camera (quality + competition + technology)

• Weight (81.1g)

• Slide (design + innovation)

Samsung SCH-B600:

Samsung mobile SCH-B600 is worlds first mobile to have a 10 mega pixel camera in a handset. This is the pure innovation and technology domination by Samsung electronics.

Organizing for Innovation

Samsung is able to innovate through it offerings with creativity that lies in its people. With fast changing technology it is important to do research and developments work at the same speed. The process involves the market research from product manufacturing.

Samsung innovation plan for its products is given in three dimensions:

Design:

Design holds a product image and talks about its properties. It is the first look and thought about a product. Samsung has understood the importance of creative and smart designing of their products that enables them to offer their products differently than competitors.

Samsung business is global and it involves different markets to operate. They have seven design centers across the world which allows them to produce their products according to the market demand. One of Samsung innovation design strategy is to manufacture the products that are reflection of user requirement. For this purpose they have specially allocated a User Interface (UI) laboratory so that they can experiment and innovate new products. an example of this is Touch Messenger Braille Mobile phone which design concept was created by designers working in the UI laboratory in china. This product has the new feature of Braille Text message with Braille layout and Braille keypads.

Marketing and Branding:

Samsung electronics is a very successful brand. Its brand value was 16.16 billion dollars in 2006 according to interbrand. By the effective use of internet and marketing strategies Samsung business is in 60 countries. Customers who buy Samsung product do have a feeling for it as a premium brand. Their marketing campaign presents lifestyle stories in which Samsung products play the hero role. Samsung understand that the customer purchase decisions are influenced by emotional factors as well as the product features.

Samsung corporate image is driven on the basis of social values. This is how they advertise their products which also include some public benefits and social contributions.

Sponsoring events, organizing cultural experimental marketing helped Samsung to create a brand that suit a local market but has the image of a leading global brand. Samsung has sponsored main sporting events like Olympics, Asian games which have helped it to give a chance to customers to experience the business in a way that is more social and not asking for profits.

Research and Development:

R&D is a main feature of any business growth. Samsung R&D program ranked the company 9^th in 2006 according to a report by financial times. The companies that were above Samsung were not mainly dealing with electronics. This is one of the competitive and differentiating factors behind Samsung success.

The investment is increasing day by day behind R&D programs. Mainly this is divided into three parts as the development phase deals with the marketing and awareness of the product which will be entering the market in one or two years time. On the other hand the technology phase requires four to five years in order to deliver its final offering. This takes time as it involves research and experimentation.

An example is Bordeaux LCD TV series which is a recent development by Samsung. As the technology changes so quickly so the importance of patents is even greater. There are companies that realize this concept and to deal with this Samsung has its own Chief Patent Control Officer position that is responsible for the bio technological patent issues. In 2006 Samsung patent numbers were the second highest among any US company as they registered 2,400.

Internal environment of MARKS AND SPENCER

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

1. >>>>>> RESOURCES

2 . >>>CAPABILITIES AND CORE COMPETENCIES

3. >>>>>>>>> FINANCIAL RATIOS

FINANCIAL RESOURCES:

In 2007 M&S total revenue was £8.6bn.It turend out to be a good year for marks and spencer .Their market share increased in all areas.M&S is supported by strong management and they have already completed 70% of store modernization by the end of 2007.Their total capital investment amount to £792.4m and apart from that their net cash generated in the year ending 2007 was £231.1m.M&S net debt on 1^st april 2006 was £1729.3m which has reduced to £1453.9 m on 31^st march.

ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCES:

Firstly the good thing about marks and spencer is that their organisational structure tend to be very flatter which means cutting some layers of management and giving employees at the remaining level with more responsibility and teamwork.M&S have successfully differenciated and created a competitive advantage over their competitors through key services which include empowering suppliers and manufacturers with design reponsibility ,managing supplier relationships,their brand management ,excellent customer services and providing excellent working conditions .

TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES:

By looking at their annual report of 2007 M&S has increased its spending on supply chain and technology from 39 million to 114 million pounds in 2007.The project includes changes in their financial system as well as a major projects to replace tills.M&S is also working on upgrading their ordering system and to use a single integrated order platform across all channels of stores telephones and online .Furthermore M&S has won the innovation in energy efficiency awards 2005 in the development of its `cohesive` remote integrated energy management system.

PHYSICAL RESOURCES:

Ownership is a key strength for M&S ,The total stores amount to 240 from which 21 is owned and 219 stores are franchised. The total property owned by M&S in percentage is 70% and 30% is leased.According to M&S financial report they had stated that overtime they will increase the leasehold but will aquire it where appropriate and will retain the key assets

M&S CORE COMPETENCIES:

IMPROVED CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND SUPPLY CHAIN:

To have a more efficient capital structure M&S gave 2 billion pounds to its shareholders so it can retain the financial strength and flexibility to fund future growth.Primary margin on clothing is rising at a faster rate for M&S ,their main priority remains as eliminating duplication and increase tranparency by establishing good relationships with their supply partners. M&S have achieved a great improvement in quality ,value ,product apeal and availability.

100% OWN BRAND.:

M&S only sell products and brands exclusive to them and hence guarantee customer the quality,value and service they have come to expect.M&S focuses on building strong relationships with core customers and hence delivering them with significant improvements in product appeal availability and value.Almost 10 million customers a week visit M&S stores hence still one of the best known,best trusted retail brand in the world.

Capability/ Resource	Valuable	Rare	Costly to imitate?	Non-substitutable	Competitive Consequence
Brand and Reputation	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Sustainable competitive Advantage
Relationship with Supplier	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Sustainable competitive advantage
Managerial Skills	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Competitive Parity
Financial Resources	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Competitive Parity
Consumer Relationship	Yes	No	Yes	No	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Capacity to Innovate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Human Resources	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Sustainable Competitive Advantage

FINANCIAL RATIOS:

CASH FLOW 2007

Working capital £114.1m

Interest and tax £282.6m

Dividends and shares issues £215.7m

Other movements £3.4m

Net cash generated £231.1m

GROUP PROFIT BEFORE TAX

UK £156.5m

International £21.8m

M&Smoney £25.6m

Total 2006/2007 £965.2m

RETURN ON NEW STORES

2006/2007 Store openings Retail parks Simple food

Investment £26m £82m

Sales-Year1 £80m £128m

Incremental EBITDA-Year1 £14m £12m

ToTal Return On Investment 54% 15%

M&S 2007 100-POINT PLAN.

The 100-point plan means that by 2012 M&S will become carbon neutral, send no waste to landfill, extend sustainable sourcing, set new standards in ethical trading, and "help customers and employees live a healthier lifestyle," according to the company.

"Every business and individual needs to do their bit to tackle the enormous challenges of climate change and waste," explains M&S CEO Stuart Rose. "While M&S will continue to sell great quality, stylish and innovative products, our customers, employees and shareholders now expect us to take bold steps and do business differently and responsibly. We believe a responsible business can be a profitable business. We are calling this "Plan A" because there is no 'plan B'.

Rose continued: "M&S will change beyond recognition the way it operates over the next five years. We will become carbon neutral, only using offsetting as a last resort; we will ensure that none of our clothing or packaging needs to be thrown away; much of our polyester clothing will be made from recycled plastic bottles instead of oil and every year we will sell over 20 million garments made from Fairtrade cotton.The company has received praise from a number of quarters. For example, Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future, noted that "This plan sets a new benchmark in the way businesses should be tackling critical sustainability challenges like waste, fairtrade and climate change. It raises the bar for everyone else - not just retailers, but businesses in every sector. We all know that even at the end of these 5 years there will still be a huge amount for M&S to do but we warmly welcome the scale of the ambition of this plan in particular the commitment to include customers and suppliers."