‘LiveShows Ltd' is a local UK based events planning company who plan, arrange and co-ordinate various events from corporate functions, weddings, sports events, festivals and many other types of events. They have been approached by the IOLC (International Olympics Legacy Committee) at the end of September 2014. During the Olympics the Velodrome Arena in London has been used to facilitate the Olympic martial Arts sports. After a recent budget review the Mayor of London identified the venue as ‘AT RISK'. It is claimed that the costs of refurbishing the venue may outstretch the potential earnings that could be generated through events. This is a brand new arena that was built and completed in 2010. The venue is a purpose built bicycle racing track and arena which has only been used as such before but has since been modified to be more suitable for martial arts.Several investors such as Japan, USA and Germany have shown interest in the venue because of its prime location. The reasons for the different countries interest are currently unclear and the mayor is aware that relations between Germany and Japan are strained as they are currently in a political battle over certain import and export policies. The UK is currently attempting to exit from war agreements that it has with the USA and this has raised tensions with the American administration. Some MP's have raised concerns with offering such prime real estate to foreign investors and have suggested that they may oppose this if clear economic benefit cannot be identified. It has been agreed that ‘LiveShows Ltd' will convert this venue into a multi sports venue that caters for a variety of different indoor sports. Once it has been converted it will be put to the potential investors for bidding. The mayor of London has set the deadline for bids to start at the end of January 2016 at which point the venue must be fully functional and operational. ‘LiveShows Ltd' has manpower, facilities and skills to facilitate all aspects of the refurbishment of this project and can cater for most of the expected visitors to the initial events. They have previously, on occasions been involved in setting up and arranging structural changes to venues but to date have never employed anyone within the company to do this. ‘B.O.B Construction ltd' has been outsourced for all of these aspects on previous tasks. ‘B.O.B Construction ltd' however can only deal with 75% of the required structure changes required to do this job and it will take them 14 months to get the venue ready.As with all projects of this scale, they (LiveShows Ltd) must consider health and Safety, security and legal compliance; something that until now have been outsourced to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that manage this for all businesses in the UK. The HSE has informed them that they are already occupied with several other Post-Olympic initiatives and are unable to take on this task as well and has given them a list of alternative providers that can do this. The HSE have also offered to give them the relevant training and support if they would prefer to manage this themselves. Security has been dealt with by Secureforce Ltd. Who has recently been highlighted for alleged malpractice and breach of employment regulations. They have been cleared of all accusations and are desperate to renew their arrangements with LiveShows Ltd. The mayor has highlighted security as a big focus considering the international investors targeted. LiveShows Ltd' must supply all staff for the opening events and must consider the investors profile and cultural backgrounds of new staff when recruiting for the initial events. ‘LiveShows Ltd' can facilitate 60% of the staffing with full time employees (who are mainly from the UK and Europe) that have already been trained to do these types of events, but will have to look at alternative options/manpower sources for the rest of the required staff. Japan is one of the favourites as likely investors in the project. The mayor of London has agreed and pledged £37 Million towards the project and ‘LiveShows Ltd' has £44 Million from various financial backers, to facilitate this refurbishment. The total cost of facilitating this refurbishment and initial events is estimated at £92Million. They will need to consider financial planning for the remainder but it is predicted that the event and new international investor will return revenue and profit 5 times higher than the initial costs of the project, and will secure employment for many people for at least another 5 years. The Chairman for the IOLC have requested a report from you on the approach that ‘LiveShows Ltd' intend to take, addressing in particular the points below
1. Identify possible constraints and problems that may hinder effective decision making. Explore and discuss the possible constraints or challenges that the company as well as the government faces, explaining why this would hinder effective decision making. Research to support your discussion must be included.
2. Consider different approaches and possible solutions that could be applied when making management decisions. Explain a variety of managerial solutions that could be considered for the challenges previously discussed. Please note that this does not have to be a definitive and final recommendation, as the Chairman and committee is merely looking for an outline to identify the general approach the company will be considering.
3. Evaluate different types of decision making and the various level at which this will be applied. Describe what types of decision were made in point 3, and the likely stakeholders that will be involved in making those decisions. This needs to be effectively linked to short, medium and long term objectives for the project.