Harrison Keyes

Describe the Situation

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Harrison-Keyes is a century old publishing company that has been publishing books the old fashion way. Harrison-Keyes in recent years has let to a decline in sales due to competition from low-cost retailers who's meeting customer demand by offering e-books, discounted books, and bargain books. Harrison-Keyes was not up on the technology side, sales began to decline, now a new CEO by the name of Meg P. McGill, brought her own ideas on how to improve sales one of them was e-books, which cause a lot of disturbance in the company. This new idea led Harrison-Keyes to face a respectful author not wanting to switch to e-books because of piracy, which can cause law suites. Managers not wanting to deal with overseas company because of communication barrels and commitment not being met, technology equipment not able to hold a lot of data and employees lack of skills in technology didn't help either. The e-book project offers many benefits such as no raw material, no returns, and on demand sales from the companies website. Harrison-Keyes inspires to become not only a successful company within the e-books business, but also a place where employees are motivated to work. Harrison-Keyes has to focus on communication in order to keep employees informed. The company implementation plans do not coincide with their strategic plan due to lack of management control.

The opportunity for Harrison-Keyes will be to bring management to the table and work out a plan for this project to cut on the problems. As for the authors, there can be a renegotiable contract or a trial run incentive program that could be put in place, technology training for all involved, find another overseas agent that will be willing to work deadlines, and give a time frame for a trial run with the solution to change if does not work.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Harrison-Keyes started the new project, which will affects different stakeholders. One of the stakeholders are the shareholders who sees the new e-book project as a must for the company. Shareholders expect the company to find ways to improve the sales of the company and this is a good way. The second group of stakeholder to whom the company is responsible to is their customers. In today's society people have busy schedules and would look for different ways to save time. Offering products in the form of e-books is convenient for consumer and will save them time. The sale of e-books will help keep the company existing customer base as well as provide means for the rest of the world to purchase their products through the internet. The last party the company is responsible to is author. One author in particular by the name of Will Harper who is a well-established and well-known author on the "A" list, do not believe in this project. His impression on e publishing is the sales of e-books will carry the potential for piracy from consumers.

The key players in the organization have different views but need to keep in mind these groups while making any kind of decision because it could have long-term effects on the company.

Frame the "Right" Problem

Harrison-Keyes will be a leader in the global market of publishing by managing the project plan implementation while minimizing the risks, which threaten the project.

Describe the "End-State" Vision

The vision of Harrison-Keyes will be the passion in the publishing industry. Through new technology, Harrison-Keyes will provide essential information to individuals and markets by providing leadership in diverse markets, consistent profit growth, and shareholders.

Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation

Research into companies who have success with similar issues will provide valuable alternatives for Harrison-Keyes to consider.

Alternative #1 Project Management System

Harrison-Keyes needed to decide on the style of project management that they needed in order to make the successful jump into digital publishing. "A project management system provides a framework for launching and implementing project activities within a parent organization. A good system appropriately balances the needs of both the parent organization and the project by defining the interface between the project and parent organization in terms of authority, allocation of resources, and eventual integration of project outcomes into mainstream operations (Gray & Larson 2006). Benchmark was conducted on a company called Gerald Martin General Contractors for establishing a project management system.

"Gerald Martin General Contractor (GMGC) is in a competitive field of construction and they focus on the customer's best interests" said Hainsfurther. The project manager in construction is a fairly new idea in New Mexico. The GMGC is one of the pioneers that have embraced the idea of a fully functional project manager that oversees all aspects of the building process. "The project manager is involved in the five Project Management Process Groups-Initiating Process, Planning Process, Executive Process, Monitoring and Controlling Process, and Closing Process. They are also involved in nine key knowledge areas: Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Quality Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Human Resources Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, and Project Procurement Management." Hainsfurther. As you can see this is a very extensive job responsibility of a project manager and in some cases there may be multiple project managers for one building project.

There are many aspects that GMGC must consider before proposing a bid to a potential customer. There is much vested time and effort to ensure that the company can win the bid but still build a quality product that the customer will be happy with. Communication with this process is a valid key to ensuring the success of any project and this communication starts with the first initial conversation with a potential customer for GMGC. "When we market construction management services, we look for owners who have capital expenditures that they've never had before, and either don't have the staff to handle that project or they don't have the time or expertise to complete this type of project." Hainsfurther. The Gerald Martin General Contractors have shown how effective communication is part of establishing a project management operation.