Research Proposal on "Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes Harrison"

Research Proposal 5 pages (1806 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes

Harrison Keyes is a well-known and successful publishing house. After having managed to satisfy their customers needs for years, it now finds itself in a situation which might degenerate into a general crisis. The company decided to invest in e-books, but the marketing campaign failed. The failure was caused by a series of factors such as the loss of the main supplier, the lack of communication between the teams, the fact that the teams goals were not integrated into a single purpose, the absence of a back up plan, etc. Additional issues that the company must address are represented by the resignation of the former CEO and the tension felt among the workers. A new CEO means a new vision regarding business. This vision must be well defined and communicated to the staff in order to be able to define a strategic business plan to get the company out of the crisis. At the same time, an internal communication campaign needs to be implemented at all the levels in order eliminate the tension and better motivate the employees.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There are a lot of issues that Harrison Keyes needs to deal with in order to make sure that it will survive. The main problem is that while the company decided to implement a marketing campaign in order to promote e-books the campaign failed and instead of making the planned 16 million profit, they only managed to cash in 3 million. The factors which contributed to the current situation are the following: the loss of the main supplier of digitizing, the absence of a back up plan in case of crisis, scarce cooperation and integration between the teams, poor internal communication, scarce motivation of the employees.

The company conducted a market research which demonstrated that there is a large interest in e-books. Harrison Keyes implemented a marketing campaign which had been conceived according to the patterns they had been used before and have proven their efficacy before. Since the campaign failed, the problem resides either in a research campaign that did not properly target the customer or in a marketing campaign that was not adapted to the customer's profile. Regardless of the case, the issue appears to be a better definition of the target market and the best means in order to reach it. Since other publishing houses are making profits through e-books, a better identification of the target customers represents a big opportunity for further profits.

The failure to sell as many e-books as planned was caused partly by an unexpected event, the floods in Asia which caused the company's supplier to go out of business. The fact that there was no back up plan caused a four-week delay which had visible consequences. In addition to creating such a back up plan, the company must also implement a better internal communication campaign in order to better motivate the employees and provide better cooperation between the teams as well as an integration of their specific goals.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are three main stakeholder categories involve din the present Harrison Keyes situation. On the one hand there is the CEO and the management team whose main concern is the profitability of the business. On the other hand, there are the employees and the customers. If the customers expect to get the same quality products that the company provided before in order to achieve its current position, the employees expect to be treated fairly and get the needed motivation. It may be argued that a conflict occurs between these two stakeholder categories because it is the company which needs to invest massively in order to satisfy the needs of the others. This is true to a limited extent because be investing in the satisfaction of the employees and the clients needs, Harrison Keyes will actually be able to maintain itself on the floating line and even more.

One of the factors which contributed to the present crisis is obviously the poor motivation of the employees. This is caused because of the poor communication which takes place inside the company. The Human Resources responsible testifies that people manifest their concern with the possibility of being fired or the company being closed on a daily basis. This affects the manner in which they fulfill their duties and hence, the final product which comes into the hands of the customer. Therefore, the company is most likely to solve its ethical dilemma by solving its internal problems in order to obtain the profits that will get it back on track and having achieved its goal.

End-State Vision

Harrison Keys is among the most successful publishing houses. It obtained this status by knowing how to respond to the constantly changing needs of its customers and by always offering high quality products. At the time being it faces a major crisis caused by both internal and external problems. The end state vision of the company is the same as it has been until now: achieve success through the just identification of the customers needs and their satisfaction.

In order to transform this end state vision, the company needs to implement a series of measures which will fulfill the necessary end state goals. The former CEO has recently resigned and it seems there is an important difference in the approach to business of the current person in charge. In order to eliminate the confusion within the company, the core values and beliefs should be clearly defined, as well as the approach to business that all the employees need to embrace. Secondly, it seems that the CEO is undecided regarding the e-books issue. This means losing both time, energy and financial resources. The short-term goals should be decided in a more specific manner. In addition, it should be made clear to the employees if there are or are not going to be layoffs in the near future. Restating the company identity, as well as implementing an internal communication campaign might do wonders for employee motivation and solve one of the major problem currently faced by Harrison Keyes, that is, their human resources.

Since the absence of a crisis management plan was one of the factors which contributed to the present crisis, it is safe to say that conceiving such a plan is in order. Outsourcing always presents risks and these should be taken into consideration in a manner which would never leave the company at the mercy of fate. The previous marketing campaign failed which means that despite having had a successful pattern, the publishing house should consider adopting some changes in order to better adapt to its customers needs

Gap Analysis

The end-state vision of Harrison Keyes positions it as a successful publishing house which manages to obtain the desired profit by satisfying the customer through high quality and good prices. At the current time, the company is facing the failure of its latest marketing campaign, the loss of its main supplier, the threat of loosing important human resources, uncertainty about its future plans, etc.

The problem resides in the very approach to business, in the sense that it is not clear. The difference of perspective between the former and the present CEO cause confusion within the company. This confusion must be eliminated. The company vision must be restated and if necessary revised. Its values and beliefs must be once again communicated to all the employees and a clear, short-term and long-term policy must be conceived as well. Another issue that must be addressed as soon as possible is the lack of integration and cooperation between the teams. This can be resolved through open communication at horizontal and vertical level, but also between the levels in order to eliminate roomers and install a climate of trust and security.

The main problem is internal and it is of utmost importance to solve it in order to be able to solve the external problems that will affect the interests of an important category of stakeholders, that is the customers. An analysis of the company's latest strategies must also be made in order to understand what is the source of error. The publishing house is still investing time, money and energy into the development of a new product, that is e-books. However, the CEO is not very supportive of the initiative and this is a problem. One must always do the things in which he believes in, otherwise its only a waste of resources. A well documented conclusion must be drawn reading this issue in order to conceive further strategic plans.

Conclusion

All in all, Harrison Keyes faces a serious gap between its end-state vision and the situation it finds itself in currently. The major problems are represented by the lack of proper internal communication and the failure of a recent marketing campaign due to the lack of a backup plan. The lack of internal cohesion can be solved through a communication campaign which would also solve the HR issues. This campaign however, can… READ MORE

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