As the team progresses through the execution of e publishing serious delays aroses and as a result, costs increased and confidence in the organization’s ability to execute the e-publishing initiative waned. The implementation of the e-publishing initiative is spiraling out of control; and the project team as well as management is at a loss. The project team has failed to establish a “project scope” from the project management team by which they can measure performance. How can the team missed to measure the extent to which the delays would be affecting the organization if barometer exists from which to compare? HK project mangement team can develop a project baseline that clearly delineates costs, and expected scheduling. This will allow the organization to measure effectively various data points within the project against the established deliverables.
Harrison-Keyes is attempting to transition between the traditional printed books to e-books. The new CEO, Meg P. McGill is trying to believe that by offering e-books versions of their printed book, they will be able to survive the changes that occur in the industry. This is because HK believes, according to company research that the e-book sales trends is increasing and if the trend continues the e-books can provide large amounts of profits for the company.
There are other problems that the company must address immediately and is the hesitation of some players within the organization regarding of the effects of e-publishing on the general operations of the company. They fear they will loose in the process due to piracy. One of the company most valuable authors, Will X. Harper, a Pulitzer winner, disagreed to digital technology. His main fear in publishing his work in e-books is due to possible pirates who can still his intellectual property, make copies and sell it at lower prices.
The company must find a way to overcome the obstacles in order to reach their goals and enter into the digital community and market. Finding a resolution of these problems will allow HK experiencing promises of the opportunities that they projected.
Finally, one last issue is the creation of a project management team that can supervises outsourcing e-publishing work from companies, which are outside US territory. It is difficult to control companies work and quality from far, so if HK creates a project management team, which can control timing, quality of work and other possible obstacles they can face in order to keep credibility and reputation before their customers.
In addition to developing a baseline, the organization must create a contingency plan for keeping a reserve to their account expenses for unforeseen costs. CITE:Contingency planning is an important step missed by Harrison-Keyes as part of the implementation process. Because of that error, the project has resulted in increasing costs positioning the project in a potential stoppage. For instance, the flood in India has wiped out HK and the project team does not have a secondary supplier in place to complete the work. This gap left the organization handcuffed. In addition, the cost of the hardware and software could have been cover if a contingency reserve plan were in place.
The management team has an opportunity to revisit the issue of contingency reserve to establish one that will allow a buffer for the organization. With each development in the e-publishing implementation, the management team should begin to question whether the project scope was properly developed. An effective project scope would be necessary to bring the project back on track. CITE:The project scope is a definition of the end result or mission of your project the primary purpose is to define as clearly as possible the deliverable(s) for the end user and to focus project plans? (Gray & Larson, 2005-6, p. 100). Jan and her implementation team has an opportunity to revisit the project and tweak it as necessary to ensure the scope is clearly defined to prevent expectations from surpassing commitment to the final deliverables.
Mis-communication within those in charge of the e-book project management implementation is a result of lack of vision for which has permeated through to the entire organization. HK is in a state of flux - uncertainty surrounds the legitimacy of the project as well as the project’s ability to drive the intended benefits for the company. The project manager as well as the implementation team should tap into the power a strong vision can create. Having a vision inspires team members to strive for the best. A shared vision unites professionals with different backgrounds and agendas for a common goal. It helps to motivate members to subordinate their individual agendas and do what is best for the team. A vision involves the less tangible aspects of project performance. CITE:It refers to an image a project team holds in common about how the project will look upon completion, how they will work together, and/or how customers will accept the project? (Gray & Larson, 2005-6, p. 356).
In summary, HK issues are because in first, they did not implement a plan or roadmap defining the project scope setting the stage for developing the project plan. Second, there was no project scopechecklist, which is the keystone for interlocking all elements of a project plan. Third, there was a lack of promote organization change by the management and an effective strategic plan. Fourth, there was not a contingency plan and recognizition for risks. Fifth, was missinga unified, cohesive, and collaborative leadership team and there was a low employee morale. Sixth, a high turnover rate and lack of proper budget plan and last one a missing target sales.
The opportunities for HK are in creating in first, a roadmap or implementation plan scoping for the future financial goals. Second, to design an effective strategic global plan, which can clarify the direction of changes and creating a contingeny plan for each risk increasing international market share? Third, is to have the opportunity for aligning stakeholders to balance the business and needs. Finally, to have the opportinity installing an innovating campaign to gain customers buy-in new services in the e-publishing.
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas
Harrison-Keyes stakeholders are the new hired CEO, Meg P. McGill, CFO, Robert Smith, Jan Peters, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Head of the Implementation Team, Will X. Harper, a well established and well-known author which became known to be the “author’s opposition group. In addition, we have Dharma Joyce, Executive Vice President of Global Strategy, and Mike Simmons as Vice-President and responsible for all legal operations and involved in digital rights management, Marsha Goldfarb, Senior Vice-President Marketing, Mac Evans, CIO and Pete Ross as Production Manager. Others stakeholders are Jaclyn Crighton and Time Dorn, which are representing regular employees.
CEO, Meg supports e-publishing initiative and her strategy is to bring up e-book sales numbers to the Board of Directors to approve her plan of driving the company to the digital era of publishing no matter what. She is trying to convince authors like Will X. Harper that there are copyright laws that are not yet in black and white regarding copyrights protections. In addition, she is aware and concern about the few problems, which have arisen regarding the new software implementation that permits to sell books directly from the company’s Web site. Meg is accepting the blame for not having the right software having the capacity to handle the loads that is required for e-commerce. She is fully aware of the target dates in schedule and a plan for allocating available resources to the problem. The problem she knows affects the projected company profits.
Dharma Joyce is in charge of seeking and developing global expansion opportunities for the company. Dharma is facing with the deadline in Asia and her defense for the lack of creation of a contingency plan for each risk is that due to the loss of Asia Digital.
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Jan Peters is the head of the implementation team who did not create a Road Implementation Plan including a Contingency Plan for each risk as he admitted: “Sir, there were quiet a few issues that we simply did not count on when we wrote our original implementation plan. It just wasn’t thorough and now we’re paying the price.” It was a lot of work in a small amount of time. He felt Meg’s presures in a daily basis but he understood there were no excuses to leave out the contingency plan implementation. Peters has just been two years with the company and was eager for a promotion. Peters desire to make a success of the e-publishing initiative may be based on his drive for a promotion.
Mary Smith, Senior Vice-President has instituted several morale improvement programs. As a result, she is view as someone who truly cares about employees and staff members, whom feels comfortable in approaching her with their problems and concerns. Even though Mary feels sorry about the business losses of Asia Digital from her point of view, this could be better for the company employees. She believes that the outsourcing has caused the general fear and uncertainty of employees to lose their jobs and possible lay-offs. With these morale issues looming within the organization and the potential departure of key editorial staffers, Mary’s plate is full. The record of accomplishment she has built with the organization has being tested and the resignation of Jaclyn and Tim has compounded the issue leaving her in the precarious position to rectify the human capital challenges within the organization.
Marsha Goldfarb has some explaining to do. The marketing campaign designed to drive the e-publishing launch failed. She made some significant strategic errors with the campaign. These included such things as using a marketing technique that did not complement the e-book format. In addition, the launch of the e-book campaign coincided with the launch of a major book campaign, thus splitting the market attention and cannibalizing the organization’s resources. This resulted in Harrison-Keyes only reaching 18.75% of its projected sales. The lack lust performance of the marketing campaign negatively affected the implementation efforts of Jan and the project team, which served to polarize their interests.
Will X. Harper, famous author is having his reservation for e-books publishing due to possible “piracy” of his intellectual work. He is concern about the possible revenue loses he can incur due to online piracy. He thinks pirates easily can copy his work online and sell it cheaper.
The leadership team is having a conflict of interest representing a major problem of the leadership with Jan Peters and Marsha Goldfarb. This is classical case of abuse of power where the team objectives are in conflict due to poor planning and lack of comminication between leaders and a weak marketing strategy.
Employees as Jaclyn and Tim are unhappy with the company e-publishing plan. Few of the departments who are part of the publishing process cycle seem having low morale and lacking of a sense of integration within the company. Production hiccups leading to missed deadlines. The employees have to determine in accepting or not the company for not meeting deadlines in order to be more productive. Based on the attempts of Jan Peters and Meg McGill to contact Asia Digital Publishing, the ouraourced company was still unable to meet the set deadlines.
Frame the “Right” Problem
Describe the “End-State” Vision
Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation
Evaluate the Alternatives
- Narrow List of Alternatives
Identify and Assess Risks
Make the Decision
Develop and Implement the Solution
Gap Analysis
Evaluate the Results
Conclusion
References
References
Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2006). Project management: The managerial process (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Retrieved on July 13, 2008 from
International Data Publishing Forum (IDPF) formerly Open e-Book, EPUB Support from List of Publishers-An Open Letter from AAP to IDPF, Retrieved on July 13, 2008 from
University of Phoenix (2008), Scenario one: Harrison-Keyes publishing, Retrieved on July 13, 2008, from
