As July approaches talk of the Olympics continues to grow and people are getting excited for the games to begin. Do people really think about what all goes in to making the Olympics possible? If you think that the athletes just show up the day of you are sadly mistaken. It takes years for the host city to prepare for the games to attend. I was in London for Spring Break and there was construction everywhere as the city was trying to build new venues as well as fix up broken streets and buildings.
Project management is a HUGE part of preparing for the Olympics. London has to take into account all the characteristics of project management, which include performance, time, and cost. New venues need to be built in order to host the events as well as provide room and board for the athletes. Preparing for this event takes a lot of time; however, they are also working under a time limit as they are given the time from when they get the bid till when the games start. Cost is an important factor as well. Rumor has it that the cost estimate for the games was very off and they have spent a lot more then they estimated. Performance of course is important as well. As you can tell a lot of work in put into making this summer event a success.
It’s important that while planning for the events the manager keeps in mind having time to plan, good communications, careful tracking and control, meeting the deadline, and meeting goals. I suppose once the games begin we can all judge the outcome of how well the project was managed. I’m guessing it is going to be better than we can imagine.
What do you think it takes to have a successful Olympics? How do you think they get it done in time? What else is important besides project management?
I can’t imagine the enormity of the scale of a project as large as hosting the Olympic games. For the last few years I’ve been managing and assisting in the coaching of an Olympic team for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and I can speak from experience that the Olympics themselves are a logistical nightmare on every level. In London’s case, right now, the games project managers really don’t have a choice in crashing whatever they can to be ready in time for the opening ceremonies. If the city of London wasn’t ready as the world watches, they would never live it down. They’ll be ready. http://afghanistanwaterpolo.com/
Creativity is such an important part of the Olympics because every host country wants to make their Olympics memorable. After watching the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, it was clear how much time, money, and effort was put into making the 2008 games a success. Having a successful Olympics doesn’t happen over night, and as we learned from the spaghetti/marshmallow project, it takes an awful lot of planning, teamwork, and most importantly- execution. It will be interesting to see how London will fare compared to the ’08 games, and how they use their resources to create a successful event.
Project management is an important factor that covers a broad range of activities included in putting on an worldwide event such as the olympics. As cost time and performance are all important factors other things that need to be looked at are the logistics during the games. How do we move the athletes as well as the spectators. Also there are political factors that need to be planned. In todays world with the middle east with so many countries with some many quarrelsome differences they cannot be placed near one another. Also things such as a waste management and clean up are important. Also as far as going over budget I feel like this happens at every olympics it is almost expected. A better idea is if you expect to spend 1 billion dollars you should be willing to spend unto 1.2 billion as a safety measure.
As mentioned in class, project management is an important part of planning an event. The Olympics, like any other event, consists of strategic planning and a lot of hard work. Planning for the Olympics doesn’t end when the construction is finished, it continues on to the days after the events. The smallest steps need to be completed in order for the venues to be finished. It is crucial to stay on task to get the projects done not only quickly but cost effectively. I do believe these tasks are done in time because of a successful project plan. When a country gets ready for the Olympics they are not only building venues for the greatest athletes in the world, but also creating jobs for the people in their countries.
The most important things I think that goes into having a successful Olympics is choosing a company who could be reliable and have had experience in constructing things on time and on budget. The companies who have done this before could be reliable and if anything goes wrong they know what to do and they could give you estimates of how much money or time is going to be wasted before everything returns to normal. And when you choose the best company you will most likely have the best workers working for the company thus the most important factor I think that go into successful Olympics is choosing the best company who has the experience you could rely on.
The project management is undoubtedly one of the most important and useful tools of Operations Management, especially in such great events as the 2012 London Olympics. This administrative tool allows advanced computer technology to plan all aspects necessary to run a project of any magnitude, with impressive detail of macro processes, processes, activities and tasks.
One of the most important topics is that project management, including logistics planning, without its execution any project would be unworkable. Consider, for example in the present case, 2012 London Olympics, how to achieve secure housing for the hundreds of athletes and other members of all delegations in the world, and in the same sense, for the thousands of visitors who will enjoy this event. But not only accommodation is the point, but it to is also necessary to ensure that they have all the supplies, which are bulky and expensive, in the right place, in the amounts necessary and appropriate to meet the requirements planned, and to meet potential contingencies, so that the event runs perfectly.
Logistics planning and its execution are critical to the realization of absolutely all competitive sports, but also for implementation of the inaugural events and completion of the Olympic Games. The spectacle of initiation of the Games showed the world the perspective of the grandeur and magnificence of the event to be held, and the closing show presents the pride of being able to present the Olympics, with precision and without against time, thanks to Project Management and Logistics System.
For as long as I’ve known, the Olympics have played a large role in our nation with different cultures from all around the world competing for the best possible metal. What people don’t realize are the time, money and effort that are put into hosting the Olympics in each city. I myself have been planning to attend the Olympics this year in London and can only imagine the uproar of prices on everything and enormity of people that will be attending as well.
A great advantage to hosting the Olympics is being able to prompt the city for more tourism, which in time will help pay off at least some of the expenses for the event. An enormous negativity to those that live in that hosting city would be money. People don’t realize that the hosting city for the Olympics have responsibilities of raising taxes in order to actually keep the construction and development for the Olympics afloat. Which can severely affect the citizens in that city.
Now, the Olympics may seem glamorous in all but a lot has gone into making it what it really is. This post is a great eye opener to those who don’t realize the time, money and effort that truly goes into developing successful events such as the Olympics.
It’s hard to imagine the process of preparation for such massive event like Olympics. Operations management is essential in order to complete the project successfully. The careful planning, time and performance are all significant factors in preparing for Olympics. I can’t imagine how hard and complex is to plan the timing and financing the project accurately. Olympics Games have the start date set and the project must be done by then. The level of responsibility in leading such project is overwhelming.
What it means to have a successful Olympics is the presentation, you have to show them that you have the right people, strategies, plan and execution of that plan. You have to make sure that you are prepared for any situation that arises at any point in time and that is what’s going to make good and successful Olympics.
Project management is one hundred percent a major factor of success when planning the Olympics. If you do not plan things accordingly, then things will be overlooked and someone will be blamed in the end. It is essential to plan big projects like this because time needs to be divided equally. We need to see what areas we can have slack and what are our most important tasks where we will not have any room for negotiation as far as time is concerned. The Olympics (especially the Summer) is the most watched on television across the world. Everyone is watching and waiting for something to go wrong, and the first thing that people will turn to in management. Who was responsible for this and who can we blame? Accepting responsibility for a project of this magnitude is something that one person cannot undertake, this is why it is controlled by several members so responsibilities can be divided equally.
The Olympics is such a huge event that is viewed by millions all around the world. Expectations are high, and each game tries to out do the previous years. It is only expected that time and money are core factors in the strategic planning of these events. But management will have a difficult time sticking to deadlines and staying on budget as the games approaches. The closer they get to the final date, the more results they want to see. Tensions run high at the risk of not being finished on time. A good manager has to be able to deal with all these pressures and carry on leading his team, making the best decisions about time and money.
To have a successful hosting of the Olympics I think, along with extensive and careful planning, there needs to be a safe and inviting environment. Having political issues under control is a major obstacle. The safety of the event is obviously a major issue and even with thoughtful planning bad events could happen, but how do you keep the players, their families and spectators safe? This is the issue that always interests me, when so many countries and cultures are combined in a competitive manner, it’s a recipe for trouble.