Harrison-Keyes Solution Paper

I am a journalism graduate with honors and 3.84 GPA, I am an above average writer and have been published in the SLC Tribune and Deseret News over 100 stories.

I am taking a class in intro. to accounting and am having a very hard time with the concepts, especially cost of capital.

I can off dozens of 4.0 papers on multiple topics, especially position papers. I am working as an administrator at the SLC Veterans Medical Center for 6 years.

My paper is below:

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: Harrison-Keyes

Problem Solution: Harrison-Keyes

Mike Watson

MBA 590 Strategic Implementation and Alignment

January 29, 2007

Problem Solution: Harrison-Keyes

To remain competitive in an evolving market of any kind comes only to those organizations focused on an effective change objective, who keep a sustaining commitment to that effort, overcome the inevitable resistances to their progress, and reach the point where the change itself becomes the norm and its benefits are concrete. As Harrison-Keyes is quickly discovering, lack of proper planning, especially when taking on a revolutionary and bold move such as e-publishing can be ultimately devastating, and even disastrous if they delve too far into the project without a clear set of objectives for each functioning entity to complete along the way. Harrison-Keyes is making moves to keep viable and successful during economic pressures and difficulties inherent in the publishing industry where most companies are forced to make these types of bold moves in order to sustain growth and even just to stay in business. The move to enter the e-publishing realm is an absolute necessity for the company to remain competitive today.

Harrison-Keyes is a typical example of a publishing company that is experiencing many of these same issues and business dynamics. The senior management team at Harrison-Keyes has realized this challenge and is committed to devising an effective and innovative business strategy that will enable the organization to carry out strategic thinking, direction, and action leading to the achievement of consistent and planned results. This will also allow the firm to identify short-term objectives for creating a clear, measurable basis for developing budgets, schedules, trigger points and other mechanisms for controlling the implementation strategy. (Pearce and Robinson, 2005,p293). This paper will first describe the situation facing Harrison-Keyes, develop the problem statement, and then develop the end state goals.

Situation Background (Step 1)

The publishing industry has been among the most financially productive industries in the world in last several years. Nevertheless, most recently the industry can no longer be considered a safe domain for entry into its now highly competitive business environment. Harrison-Keyes has suffered the woes plaguing the entire industry as competition from low-cost retailers is being intensified in practically all segments of the industry. The company needs to overcome the competitive pressures, meet customers' demand, realize high profits, and expand its sales. To do so, the senior management team must react quickly enough and put a premium on strategies that are the product of a well-designed and effective problem-solving activity.

Because of the previously described circumstances, many publishing companies are now seeking to change their scale of operation, their structure, and their strategic orientation. For the senior management team at Harrison-Keyes, the success of the company in remaining competitive are completely dependent upon their ability to revitalize the company by developing successful market strategies that minimize competitors' strengths while maximizing the firm's dominance in the industry.

Harrison-Keyes faces a number of challenges as it considers its present opportunities and strategic market prospects. The organization's managers must address these challenges promptly and carefully in orders to be ultimately succeed in their strategic market planning process. One of the primary challenges facing Harrison-Keys is getting a clear picture of how they want to move forward with the e-publishing process. At this point they are having difficulty with IT and software updating installations as well as a serious issue with the outsourced digital publishing of the materials.

Challenges and Opportunities Identification

The issue of adopting e-publishing to remain both successful and competitive in the publishing industry is one of the biggest issues that Harrison-Keyes faces. The senior management team at Harrison-Keyes faces the challenge of convincing the Board of Directors about the financial benefits of the new strategy. The senior management team has to show the Board of Directors they have nothing to fear in taking this move in order to receive their support, which is an absolute necessity for implementing strategic decisions that will shape the firm's financial strength and hence improve shareholders' interests. To do this, the senior mangers at Harrison-Keyes must demonstrate their abilities to establish a strategic direction for the firm. The support of the Board of Directors will also increase employees' commitment to the new direction and provide the senior management team with an advantageous and conducive environment for the project to function effectively.

Harrison-Keyes also faces the challenge of meeting an ultimate deadline set for having e-books ready for the public consumers. The management team must develop an effective operational plan that focuses very specifically on how the firm is going to implement the strategic plan and achieve the results needed. As a company about to embark on an essentially unknown and untried territory, the best option would be to attempt a series of micro-managing systems to ensure their capabilities with individual tasks, such as preparing the necessary software for the product, and engaging the outsourcing company to ensure timely and quality services from that end.

The development of an effective strategic plan for achieving the long-term goals of increased revenue, and market share is best initiated through the creation of a series of tactics that have specific and measurable activities that can be integrated and performed in a work breakdown structure (WBS). The senior

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