Best Practices

Harrison-Keys

Harrison-Keys is a publishing company that is turmoil. They are trying to implement e-publishing to their stable of publishing materials. They have recently changed management due to failures of the implementation process. The new leadership does not share the viewpoint of the former leadership when it comes to e-publishing. The vendor for Harrison-Keys has been a victim of an “act of God” and there was no back-up plan in place for a secondary vendor. Harrison-Keys new management has given an deadline for the e-publishing project to be headed in the right direction. This paper will identify two companies that have like problems and the solutions they implemented.

Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks Organization operates in the National Basketball Association (NBA).The organization was in ruins during the 1990’s and needed a change in culture. The change came in the form of ownership and upper management in 2000. Harrison-Keys similarly changed their leadership in order to provide better results. The Mavericks, as an organization decided that the best method for achieving the desired results was to lead by wandering around. Upper management was to spend less time behind closed doors and more time being available to the staff. Through face-to-face interactions, management was able to stay in touch with what was really going on in the project and build cooperative relationships essential to project success (York, 2006). The new leadership at Harrison-Keys decided to have face-to-face contact with their staff in order to identify the current problems and set parameters to follow.

The Mavericks overall goal was to become an elite organization not only in the NBA, but in the world. They set up manageable goals with upper management and ownership taking the reigns as project leaders. They worked hand-in-hand with the employees on the projects. Such as, calling customers to buy season tickets or taking team photos. The concept of wandering around led to a better culture within the organization. Leadership was more aware of developments, anticipated potential problems, provided encouragement, and reinforced the objectives and vision of the project. They were able to intervene to resolve conflicts and prevent stalemates from occurring (Gray & Larson, 2006). Whereas, Harrison-Keys’ new leadership did not have complete confidence in the e-publishing business the Mavericks leadership believed in the project and that transcended into the employees belief in the project. The employees took ownership of their roles and strived to build upon their successes. Through frequent communication leadership alleviated concerns about the project, dispelled rumors, warned people of potential problems, and laid the groundwork for dealing with setbacks in a more effective manner.

The Mavericks led by example when it came to completing their projects. Leaders became known faces in the office not anomalies. They developed familiarity with different parties, sustained friendships, discovered opportunities to do favors, and understood the motives and needs of others. Wandering throughout the office led to a better working relationship among the staff and leadership. Six years after the management change, the Mavericks are the class of the NBA and a leading organization in the world.

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett- Packard is a company that has been cutting expenses wherever it can, in order to reach a specific goal. The company has outsourced its supply needs since the acquisition of Compaq Computers. Hewlett-Packard has saved money in this process, but soon found out that underestimating the need for back-up suppliers can be costly. Harrison-Keys also underestimated the need for back-up suppliers. Their main supplier was affected by an “act of God” and essentially brought their e-publishing project to a halt. Harrison-Keys failed to integrate total quality management with supply chain management. Meaning they had not evaluated any of the risks involved with the outsourcing company.

Hewlett-Packer had to be proactive in their approach to identifying obstacles or risks involved with outsourcing their supply needs. They identified two areas of risk management, a) core business risks and b) non-core business risks. Core business risks consist of supply chain risks and operational risks. Non-core business risks consist of event risk or “acts of God” and recurring risks (Berger et al, 2005). Hewlett-Packard established a decision analysis when deciding who to contract as a secondary supplier and how many secondary suppliers would be needed. They based their