4 Graham Smith is Operations Director of Catering Food Services (CFS) a ￡1·5 billion UK ba

4 Graham Smith is Operations Director of Catering Food Services (CFS) a ￡1·5 billion UK based distributor of foods to

professional catering organisations. It has 30 trading units spread across the country from which it can supply a

complete range of fresh, chilled and frozen food products. Its customers range from major fast food chains, catering

services for the armed forces down to individual restaurants and cafes. Wholesale food distribution is very much a

price driven service, in which it is very difficult to differentiate CFS’s service from its competitors.

Graham is very aware of the Government’s growing interest in promoting good corporate environmental practices and

encouraging companies to achieve the international quality standard for environmentally responsible operations. CFS

operates a fleet of 1,000 lorries and each lorry produces the equivalent of its own weight in pollutants over the course

of a year without the installation of expensive pollution control systems. Graham is also aware that his larger

customers are looking to their distributors to become more environmentally responsible and the ‘greening’ of their

supply chain is becoming a real issue. Unfortunately his concern with developing a company-wide environmental

management strategy is not shared by his fellow managers responsible for the key distribution functions including

purchasing, logistics, warehousing and transportation. They argued that time spent on corporate responsibility issues

was time wasted and simply added to costs.

Graham has decided to propose the appointment of a project manager to develop and implement a company

environmental strategy including the achievement of the international quality standard. The person appointed must

have the necessary project management skills to see the project through to successful conclusion.

You have been appointed project manager for CFS’s ‘environmentally aware’ project.

Required:

(a) What are the key project management skills that are necessary in achieving company-wide commitment in

CFS to achieve the desired environmental strategy? (15 marks)