Mba590 - Implementation Plan Concept Worksheet

Implementation Plan Concept Worksheet

University of Phoenix

Strategic Implementation and Alignment

MBA 590

February 13, 2008

Implementation Plan Concepts Worksheet

Concept Application of Concept in the Scenario Reference to Concept in Reading

Organizational Politics

Robert Smith, CFO of HK feels uncomfortable with the financial projections for the e-books strategic initiative and didn’t approve of the e-book strategy from the beginning. Will Harper, a well-established and well-known author have reservations about e-books. These are some of the few issues HK publishing is facing and this affected the overall strategy (Anonymous, 2008).

McGill, CEO of HK has to play some politics to outcome this agreement and move ahead with the e-book publishing project.

While selecting projects for implementation in an organization, a major factor that influences project selection, funding, resource allocation or prioritization is the extent of individual and organizational politics. Organizational politics can be defined as actions by individuals or groups to acquire, develop and use power and other resources in order to obtain preferred outcomes when there is uncertainty or disagreement over choices (Gray, 2008).

Politics exist in every organization and can have a significant influence on which projects receive funding and high priority (Gray, 2008).

Project Structure

Project Structure is decided by the stakeholders. Key players such as the CEO and CFO have the initial input as far as the structure of the project is concerned. However, this structure has to be approved by the Board of Directors and other stake holders such as author Will X. Harper. Negotiating personal preferences and organizational politics is much like playing a chess game, where a brilliant move to sacrifice a piece or two results in decisive gains in terms of positional advantage (Gray, 2008).

Strategic Management Process

Strategic management is about the organizational success now and in the future. This management and research approach concentrates on the firm's ability to organize its routines, capabilities and resources for success. Harrison-Keyes failed to establish a Strategic Management Process to identify the steps and assign actions on how they were going to transform from a hard back publishing company to a digital publishing company when they over looked the publishing agreement which the corporate lawyers.

A strategic management plan will need to be developed to inventory available resources and the get the identify resources and to establish the responsible parties for deliverables to managing a successful project. If the company is going to be successful with strategic planning and implementation, there must be a breakdown of outcomes laid out. Not only would this allow for the organization be more efficient, it will also allow time for re-evaluation if needed. Strategic management is the process of identifying, deciding and implementing the intent and how the company will get there. Strategy describes how an organization intends to compete with the resources available in the existing and perceived future environment

(Gray, 2008).

Strategic management is the process of assessing “what we are” and deciding and implementing “what we intend to be and how we are going to get there.” Strategy describes how an organization intends to compete with the resources available in the existing and perceived future environment (Gray, 2008).

Implementation plan

HK does not have a company wide implementation strategy for its new initiatives. The implementation plan will need to include all parts of the organization. This creates an opportunity for setting short term wins, developing a rewards system and gaining company wide consensus on the strategy.

There is a lack of understanding and consensus on strategy among top management and middle-level (functional) managers who independently implement the strategy; they refer to this as the implementation gap (Gray & Larson, 2008).

Project scope

HK failed to define its project scope of becoming a digital publishing company to all the employees involved, so they can clearly understand what was to be delivered and the future goals. The project scope has to be developed, well documented in writing for future reference and communicated with all departments that play a roll in completing the project.

HK's current project scope is poorly defined which is causing the development of a barrier