Communication

It is the responsibility of the project manager Andrea Vega to make sure the AMCE project team,
the project sponsor and the US ACME headquarter communicate effectively. Andrea Vega will
be located in Mexico City the majority of the 12 month construction period to monitor the
process and make sure the completion timeline remains on schedule. Constant communication
should occur between the team based in Mexico City and the US based team to keep informed of
the status of the project. Methods such as teleconferences and Skype can be used for regular
communication between the US and Mexican team members. MS Project will also be utilized by
the project manager to track the status of the project. MS Project will be a great tool because it
will allow approved team members to electronically make changes/ modifications to the plan and
indicate who and when changes were made. The project manager must implement
communication guidelines for the future operations in Mexico. It is important that managers be
fluent in English and Spanish to foster open communication and understanding. This will
promote a stable transition of AMCE into the MEXICO CITY EXPANSION PROJECT PLAN
17 Southwest regions. As with most things in life communication is one of the keys to success
and in this case AMCE must not only know but understand its new customer base.
Advertising and Marketing
From a business perspective ACME North America wants the Mexico City flagship store to be
successful in hopes of expanding and opening more stores throughout Mexico. To obtain this
goal a marketing plan will need to be configured in order to brand the new store for success.
Marketing plans and strategies used in the US may not necessarily be effective in Mexico.
ACME must investigate and determine the wants and needs of its Mexican consumers. It would
be advantageous if ACME was able to hire a Marketing Director who has experience working for
a company like Home Depot who has successfully already transitioned into the Mexican market.
Within the marketing plan it is imperative that goals are set in terms gaining certain amounts of
dominance in the home improvement industry. This will be the main factor to determine if the
ACME will expand in the future or even remain open in Mexico City. The Store Manager and
staff will also play a key role in terms of engaging with the customers and providing
knowledgeable insight in the Mexico City store. ACME will need to position itself as something
new and exciting than its competitors in the region cannot offer in order to be success and
profitable. ACMEs two main customer bases will be Homeowners and Construction workers
and/or Contractors. Do it yourself projects are extremely popular for Homeowners looking to
save some money. Advertising weekly specials or offering classes are promotions that have
helped promote Home Depots loyal following. Gimmicks ACME my want to consider utilizing.
Construction workers and contractors are also major markets ACME should market and advertise
to. Offering MEXICO CITY EXPANSION PROJECT PLAN 18 early opening hours for
contractors or discounts for materials purchased in bulk my steer that market share of business to
ACME. The sources of advertising are plentiful from emails, apps, TV or word of mouth. The

important thing is to let Mexico City ACME will be opening and all the products and services
that will be made available to them.
Cultural Concerns
Although Mexico and the USA are both located in North America there are numerous cultural
differences and legal differences that must be addressed and understood to be successful in this
region. First and foremost being respectful and sensitive of cultural and legal difference is
imperative to avoid delays and financial hardships. ACME must provide cross cultural training
so all parties involved will be aware of these differences before operations commence in Mexico
City. The language barrier is an aspect of opening in Mexico that may prove difficult if the right
people are not put into place to communicate. Even though most Mexican business people speak
English it is important to remember Spanish is the official language in Mexico. Many English
speakers have a bad habit of expecting everyone to speak English. People in other countries
appreciate when foreigners are respectful and speak the official language. All of ACMEs
managers will be fluent in both English and Spanish. In general Mexicans are known to be hard
workers, however religion, family obligations and relaxation are top priorities (Forbes 2012)
.The Mexican culture is more family originated than in the US. In the US we tend to have a
time is money mentality about life unlike in Mexico. It will be important for ACME to
understand and respect that its Mexican employees will expect and require different incentives
than its US employees. Also Mexicans tend to be MEXICO CITY EXPANSION PROJECT
PLAN 19 more personal than their US counterparts. They prefer face to face interactions and like
to take their time and get to know the other party during negotiations ( Unger & Frankel, 2002).
The US executives must be patient and embrace these cultural differences to be successful.
Legal Concerns
Having a Mexican Attorney who understands the Mexican legal system is paramount. In the US
the legal system is practiced under common law, however in Mexico the legal system is run
under civil law. Therefore hiring an American Attorney would be a complete disaster. It is
advised that all legal advice in terms of drawing up contracts, especially regarding mutual
expectation and obligation and settlement of disputes (Unger & Frankel,p 36). Only original
contracts are legally binding in Mexico. Corruption will be an issue in doing business in Mexico
as well. ACME may encounter Corruption from both the local and state levels. Yet another
reason why it is key to have a legal team in place that is aware of how to avoid and deal with
such issues. ACME may want to consider taking a strong stance against corruption within the
company to influence fair business practices (Unger & Frankel,p 25).Over the years Mexico has
been trying get rid of corruption, however old habits die hard and this is still an issue ACME
will encounter.
Conclusion

As the project comes to the conclusion, the Project team will focus its objective on completing
the project and reviewing the results with Project Sponsor and the stakeholders. To measure
quality and success the project team will return back to the scope of the project, Project Charter
and the Scope Statement documents. The documents will be reviewed in details and act
MEXICO CITY EXPANSION PROJECT PLAN 20 as a baseline to be compared to the actual
end result. This is done to ensure that the Acme project team has delivered on every objective of
the project and has done exactly what it set out to do. During the closure phase, the project team
will review all the risks, ones that occurred and ones that did not, documenting them and their
mitigating actions. One of the final items that are completed on the project is a customer
satisfaction survey (BC Open Text, n.d.). This is provided Acme to obtain information from the
Project Sponsor as well as key stakeholders on what was done right and key areas where
improvement may be necessary. This information along with other project documents will be
archived and stored for future records and to act as lessons learned. This information is vital as it
provides key insight in to future expansion of Acme Home Improvement stores to other global
markets. In the final days, the project team will have a celebratory party as a reward for
completing such a vast project. The following day, the project team will be disassembled and
returned back to its functional areas in the organization. Some of the employees will be
reassigned to other projects in support of future and ongoing efforts. At this point the project will
be transitioned to the store manager for managing day to day operations. He will be expected to
take over the store operations with minimal involvement with the project team after the project
completion date. He will have available to him all the archived documents, assumptions and
details of the project which have been finalized by the project team at completion.
mba@umuc.edu