Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes Harrison-Keyes is a major publisher with a long history of success with its 22,000 plus publications. Management has seen a fall in sales due to changes in distribution and new media. They have identified a new media that will help them to stay competitive in the industry. Executives believe that starting a new electronic book or e-book initiative will help solve the problem and will offer large profits. However, there have been many problems in getting this idea to fruition. This analysis will show how the lack of consistent leadership, attention to detail and the lack of reporting processes led to the failing of the project. It will finally offer some solutions to the dilemma in order to put their project back on track. Situation Analysis Issue and Opportunity Identification Several issues contributed to where Harrison-Keyes' e-book project is today. Though problematic, these issues have lead to additional opportunities that may help the situation. When one door closes, often another one will open (Parachin, 2005). There were four key issues identified in the scenario that were problematic to Harrison-Keyes. The first issue to be identified is the lack of a clearly defined project plan which causes confusion throughout the project. This issue could provide the company with an opportunity for a fresh, more organized start that is tracked and charted. The second issue identified was the lack of an adherence to a project baseline. Harrison-Keyes cut the project budget by 20%. This became an opportunity for executives to kill the project or at least re-evaluate it. The next issue was identified when Asia Digital failed to deliver due to a natural disaster. The need for a contingency reserve became apparent. This development gave Harrison-Keyes the chance to look for another qualified company that may have a better track record of being on time with their deliverables. The final issue identified was related to the time it would take the new company to get up to speed and deliver the product. It is clear that scope creep can cause problems that'll delay the completion of the project (Gray & Larson, 2005, p. 437). If the project is allowed to continue from this point, then it is an opportunity for Harrison-Keyes to put the project back on track to a successful completion. Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas The stakeholders have taken an active role in the forming and the running of Harrison-Keyes' e-book initiative. They consist of the Project Team which consists of the various employees that work at different levels of the project.
The stakeholders are Raider Inc., PLB employees, Johnson printing owners and employees. Raider Inc. is a stakeholder because they must make a decision that impacts PLB. PLB employees are stakeholders because morale can be impacted by the
New York: Random House, 2001. Web. The Web. The Web. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/priority/docDetail.action?docID=10235241>. Buchanan, Albert Russell.
Stakeholders are individuals and constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to its wealth-creating capacity and activities, and who are therefore its potential beneficiaries and/or risk bearers1. There are several different types of stakeholders associated with a corporation, and those stakeholders can have different views and opinions on what corporation's goals should be and how they should be running. I have interviewed three different stakeholders of Staples Inc., an employee, a customer and a stock holder, to find their relationship between them and the firm. Then, I will use this information to suggest how the firm should proceed and continue to have a better and more beneficial relationship with its stakeholders.
Andrews is a sensor manufacturer in the market. While the company has been unable to develop a straightforward competitive advantage over the course of the past three years, the competitive landscape of the market has become a significant source of concern for the company’s leadership. There are other companies out there who produce better products, or are able to compete strictly based on price cuts. It came to the CEO’s attention that there is an opportunity for Andrews to shift a large portion of its production to an offshore location. This decision will not only allow Andrews to reduce its labour and material costs, but will also allow for improved distribution practices.
Hines also bases her argument on the basis that despite the apparent technical failures in the development of CFs, projects are still undertaken. What reason is there to continue with a time consuming project unless there is a proper agenda for this. The tasks was neither technical nor functional but a way to provide integrity to the accounting profession and provide a appearance of a strong, firm, professional financial body.
formed project teams to look into issues and make suggestions on how to make it better. The
...ine and Gaudin was going to present. Reliant had done their homework on their demands, potential softness of the market and was preparing themselves adequately to be able to deal with any changes. Pacific was not as prepared at the negotiation table as Reliant, and was eventually backed into a corner on a single item in the renewed control, the option for Reliant to re-sale any VCM product they have left over. The was a major oversight on the final advice from Kelsey in securing a huge customer and giving them time in further analysis the demand and impact that the new manufacturers would cause.
The problem with this was that the new teams had a limited amount of time and the strengths on the two teams differed. The team in Canada knew about consumer preferences in their market, while the team in London knew more about the product itself, and not much about how the market was faring.
Production and distribution issues will also be addressed. Many production issues will be corrected as the facility is updated. Distribution is less of an immediate problem and future growth will resolve many of these concerns.
With the acquisition of Q&R came new management and policies. One of the factors that hindered the progress of the transaction was the six months of paperwork that had to be carried out in order to see it through. If this same project were to proceed within FleetBoston, Siebel could face significant delays which could allow their competitors (namely Oracle) to catch up.
The key managerial problem which John Fahey is facing is to decide as to whom the e-commerce head should report, in the current organizational structure of NGS, so that the new position gives him enough freedom to leverage the growth opportunities of the e-commerce platform efficiently. How much span of control for the new head is required to cope with declining print media sales and build the right balance between allocating investments and revenue allocations across different product units of the organisation? He should also have enough exposure to build strong customer relationships and brand loyalty by improving the membership program using e-commerce.
At the moment, Xerox had two clear distinct options. First option is to stick with what is best at printing, copying and delivering exclusively the Book-In-Time technology. Meaning, selling Book-In-Time equipment to all those elements of the value chain t...
During the past few years, the publishing and reading world has been facing a veritable digital book onslaught. E-books have been outselling print books on Amazon since 2011 (Polanka, 7). While digital book sales skyrocketed, print book sales, especially those of mass marked paperbacks, diminished. Even the fact that e-books are not much cheaper than print books does not seem to interfere with the former’s popularity. It would seem that the age of print books is about to end, and quite soon.
Through the years works of literature have been distributed through many different means. These means usually reflect and take advantage of the latest technologies. Dominant sources of literature have changed over time. Today, instead of scouring though the local library’s card catalog, prospective readers will likely log onto Amazon to find the latest book in their favorite genre. Media technology has made communicating increasingly easier as time has passed throughout history. Everyone is now encouraged to use media tools and is expected to have a general understanding of the various technologies available. Only time will tell what the future will hold for electronic media. The present avenues may one day be looked back upon as today’s Library of Alexandria and be just another ruin in the history of literature.
After scrapping an £7.5 million project to computerize its system, the London Ambulance Service put the project out for bid again. The new budget for development was one-fifth the cost of the prior project that failed and to be done in one-third of the time of the prior effort. Only one of the over 30 respondents was able to come in at or under that £1.5 number with the desired development timeframe (Beynon-Davies, 1999). That alone should have been an indication that something was wrong in the project. However, as typical with government/union type projects, the lowest bidder was selected to complete the project and work began.