Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes

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Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes

Harrison-Keyes is a global publisher of print products that specializes in scientific, technical and business books and journals, professional and consumer books, textbooks and other educational materials for all levels of study. Founded in 1899, Harrison-Keyes is shifting market to meet the needs of customers, by mid-1950s the company became a leading publisher of business, scientific and technical information (Apollo, 2008).

Recently, publishing companies have seen stagnating sales and in an effort to continue building success and remain competitive, Harrison-Keyes have hired a new CEO, replacing Meg McGill, a strong believer of e-publishing and the one who pushed for Harrison-Keyes to shift market to that of e-publishing. The new CEO, William Guardo favors traditional publishing and has little high-tech experience, the opposite of prior CEO, Meg McGill.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Under the direction of prior CEO, Meg McGill, Harrison-Keyes was implementing e-publishing through an overseas company Asia Digital. However, due to massive coastal floods, Asia Digital has been wiped out, leaving Harrison-Keyes without a digital company and no backup plans. Furthermore, due to the outsourcing, state-side employees are getting scared for their jobs and looking for a way out, even if that means leaving to work for a competitor. Furthermore, the budget for the implementation has been cut by 20%, leaving them with less to work with and more problems arising. The marketing campaign of e-publishing is not going as well as they have planned with original projections being around $16 million but only realized $3 million. With all these issues arising, the new CEO is giving the leadership team that is working on this implementation project a month to whip everything into shape or he is pulling the plug on e-publishing. He is not a big fan on e-books and does not want to keep throwing money at a project that is not bringing in any revenue.

Harrison-Keyes has various opportunities to explore from revamping their marketing campaign and covering different markets they may have missed. Something is going awry, whether because of the weak campaign or lack of buy-in from employees and customers. Harrison-Keyes leadership team needs to focus and get a buy-in for why this implementation is important to the publishing industry, especially if the company wants to continue to thrive with advanced technology.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Currently the major stakeholder in Harrison-Keyes is William Guardo, the new CEO who is replacing Meg McGill. He is not a big fan of e-book publishing and not real big on technology.

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