unit 07

Unit 7 Creative Industry Awareness

The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. Creative workers are counted by what they do and what their enterprise produces. For example if someone was i the record producing industry they would be classified as belonging to the music industrial sector and someone who played an instrument would be classified as a musician. The whole purpose of this is to count the number of firms and the number of workers at one location. It also identifies places with high creative activity. To avoid confusion it also counts to someone who is working for a creative company but isn't exactly being creative E.G. a security guard working for a music company is still creatively employed even though they aren't creatively occupied. There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries. Cultural industries include industries that focus oncultural tourism and heritage, museums and libraries, sports and outdoor activities, and a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Thus cultural industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value,including cultural wealth and social wealth,rather than primarily providing monetary value. In 1999 creative industries except those with software and scientifically research and development accounts for about 4% of the worlds economic output.

The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. The projects that are being developed go through four phase of its life. The first one is the birth phase this is where everything is defined. Then these is the planning phase which is when the project is being planned out. Next comes the execution phase which is when the project is being built. Finally there is the exit phase which is when the project has been successfully developed. It is important that when a project is being built that its broken down into phases. This is so that the project manager and the project developers can effectively plan out how its going to be made. Its very important to organise project phases into industry specific project cycles. This is because each different industry sector has different needs for its project development. I am going to go through the four stages so that you understand what they are.

1. Initiation

This is the beginning of the project. This is where the project manager is appointed and has to select his team members based on their skills and experience. the most basic tools used during initiation are a project charter, a business plan, the project framework, the business case justification and the milestone reviews.

2. Planning

The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

3. Execution and Controlling

The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of risk analysis and score cards, in addition to business Plan and milestones reviews.

4. Closure or Exit

In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to itsproper completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase.

Businesses need aims and objectives to succeed, and most businesses benefit from taking stock periodically to determine or reassert what their aims and objectives are. To run a successful business it needs to have certain qualities. A business needs a reputation. This is so that people know what this business is about. It also shows how good a business is if it has a good reputation. It shows reliability and good customer service. If a business has a good reputation it is more likely to reel in lots of customers. Another this a business needs is advertising. How are you going to contact a business if you haven't seen it advertised? Sure you could use the yellow pages if you have heard of the name but why do then when there are other businesses out there that do the same thing and they advertise about it. It is important to have good advertisements both online and on the TV or even on a billboard so that people will notice it and that way you can pull in more customers. Its very important that your business makes profit. If you don't make profit then the business will go bust and be bankrupt. To make sure you make profit you must be selling your products or whatever it is your doing for more than you got the original materials for. You must also make sure that you have enough to pay your employees as well as to buy new materials to make more products. Finally you need to have plans for the future a good example is if you look at Apple. They have made macs, iPads, iPhones and iPods. They are all the same basic things. If you look at the iPod and the iPhone they are so similar, the only differences are that the phone has the ability to phone people and text people hence why its called the iPhone and its thicker than the iPod. Even if you look at the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. All they did was change the shape, update the camera, add a camera to the front of the phone and add a flash on the camera at the back and people bought the new iPhone 4 simply because its updated so make sure that when you are running a business that you have future plans.