Week 2 Case

Project Management at Hp

Parit Agrawal

MS510: Human Resources Management

Professor Louis Lopez

February 8, 2015

Project Management and Maintaining Competitive Advantage

The aim of this case study is to understand and evaluate the project management and the steps that Hp needs to take to maintain the competitive advantage they have created, also to keep in mind to transfer the skills to the new generation as their initial trained employees will soon retire. Collaborating with ESI International, Ron Kempf has decided to train the employees working under him to achieve “project management professional” designation. This is their initial step to measure the changes that will be observed after the training is complete. To make the training effective HP used its knowledge management capabilities and internal strengths to make the training effective (Lepak & Gowan).

Analyzing Need Assessment for the Staff

The global market is intensely competitive and human resource is the main way to create competitive advantage. Ron Kempf realized they needed to train and develop their staff so that they can get the designation of “project management professional”. This forward thinking allowed, planning their internal activities according to the demands of the clients and allowed Hp to create a competitive advantage in the market. The training allowed Hp to develop its workforce quality and capabilities allowing increased sales, motivated employees, happy customers and profit maximization with minimum cost for the training (Lepak & Gowan).

The Impact of Training on the Issues Faced

The major concern for the manager’s at Hp currently is to maintain the competitive advantage they have created and pass the acquired skills and knowledge to the new generation of employees as 20% of the employees who received the initial training will be retiring in 5 years. These issues can be easily addressed when the training is being provided, they should initially aim at providing...