1. Problem / Key Issues. a. What is the main problem to be solved? Robin Ash, (the protagonist), and chief operating officer (COO) of Printzhof and VP OF EEH, needs to decide how to execute the changes needed to produce continuous maintainability within the company’s culture and operations, while perilously improving the organization’s idea of educational materials, with the aim of growing market share, earnings, and income. b. What are the key issues (sub-problems) that need to be resolved in order to solve the main problem?
First, in order then implement the necessary changes to the company’s culture and operations, she as to gain the buy-in of Ernest Nygren, (the retiring CEO of Printzhof) and Lars Kross (the acting CEO). Secondly, her concern was the lack of product development. Paul Davidson, director of Product Development, was not providing capital to the publishing representatives for accessory materials for textbooks, and this resulted in discontented customers who began drifting to another publisher’s commodity. Lastly, human resources required immediate attention.
Harry Raines, the manager of Human Resources, slacked in his role, believing the part of human resources was limited to policy adherence and paperwork. . What case data / facts helped you resolve the key issues? “Although Nygren had retired, he retained a position on the Education and Entertainment Holdings (EEH) board and owned 4% of its voting common stock” (Cespedes & St. Clair, 2012). He was considered a powerful influence at Printzhof, with continued long time relationships with some of his associates and frequently speaking to employees.
She also wanted to control her correspondence with Kross, although strictly speaking, he was her superior, ultimately the authority for motivating employees to proceed more quickly and on a fresh course rested on her. With Ash’s approach with Davidson in product development, she realized replacing him would be a revolutionary move, with his vast amount of resources and favorable connections with present authors that allowed him entry to a wide web of possible new authors “Although Printzhof had added more online resources for the best-selling texts in its product line, the market found those efforts uninspiring”(Cespedes & St. Clair, 2012).
She pondered if he had the prowess to recover the respect and trust of the programmers, who had been employed with huge suppositions about prosperous multimedia assignments that never eveloped. In her attempt to resolve the issues in human resources, “Ash believed that the manager of human resources, Harry Raines, needed to be a full strategic partner in helping to develop the business as well as its employees” (Cespedes & St. Clair, 2012). Her initial thought was to replace him, but she quickly realized with his tenure of 35 years with the organization, he was an important information source. In addition, she could utilize his relationship with the employees to her advantage, in communicating the new direction for the company.
3. What business acumen (analytical tools or concepts) did you pply to the resolution of the Key issues? There are several concepts I could apply to assist me in accomplishing these goals. I think those relating to culture and business challenges, technology and strategy, human resources, the new leader and the change agent will be instrumental to these needs. Culture and Business Challenges are truly needed to provide stability and internal growth.
The culture as it stands is not one that demonstrates flexibility, this is evident with the company’s performance ratings, where sound ratings were stated regardless. A better system of ranking is definitely required. The business challenges require a more aggressive strategy in order to remain competitive in their market. Many faculties appreciated subsidiary materials because they assisted busy instructors in managing the additional requirements of their occupations and assisted to- provide more student contentment. Technological approaches also guided choices that assisted publishers to participate in the used book market. New techniques in printing and packing gave rise in the 1980’s to custom publishing programs, which allowed the individual instructor to select a subset of chapters from a book (or from ultiple books) that the publisher produced a course-specific text for student purchase” (Cespedes & St. Clair, 2012).
A more competitive strategy was needed for Printzhof. “For one thing, while other publishers had begun producing certain textbooks as e-books, eliminating costs for raw materials, manufacturing, and warehousing, and shipping, Printzhof had not seriously explored the opportunity”(Cespedes & St. Clair, 2012). Complicating the matter more, a cost analysis revealed the company’s administrative costs and salaries were 16% of revenues in contrast to the 8 to 9% of the revenues the other EEH divisions attained. Human Resources could use the VABES method to gain a deeper understanding of their employees needs and direct their incentives and benefits plan towards fulfilling those needs. As a new leader, Ash will need to take charge and ensure everyone is on the same page in adhering to the policies. Internal committees can assist in providing feedback information as well as in the implementation stage.
She should also listen closely to and challenge her management team while moving slowly to avoid making mistakes in implementing these changes. As the change agent, Ash must realize leadership commends management; it is not a substitute or it. The Problem Solving model is an excellent tool to assist in the initial stage of this process. The art of persuasion is another useful tool in the sense, “Effective persuasion becomes a negotiating and learning process through which a persuader leads colleagues to a problem’s shared solution” (Conger, 1998).
Lastly, the “Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization, which are: establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, planning for and creating short- term wins, consolidating improvements and roducing still more change, and institutionalizing new approaches” (Kotter, 2007). These concepts can assist Ash with the organizing and the implementing her changes. 4. What is the solution? Robin Ash should execute a flexible organizational culture, developed by management to attain particular strategic goals.
She will need to gain the support of Earnest Nygren and Lars Kross and other key members of management to achieve these goals. She will need to move quickly in implementing short- term changes and more cautiously with her long term ones. Such changes should include possibly partnering with Apple to nter the digital revolution, revise the 20- year- old mission statement, increase sales reps with better training on a broader range of products, strengthen ancillary packages to support the texts, and eliminate and consolidate job duties of managers and assistants.
By bringing admin cost and salaries in line, she could increase revenues another 7%. She should keep in mind to celebrate the small accomplishments that promote progress towards the long- term strategic goals. The key to change is understanding change is often a difficult process, and with all processes it takes time. She must be patient and allow the ecessary time for her changes to develop, but also be able to measure those developments.
5. What steps are needed to be taken to implement and evaluate this solution? a. Implementation. There are two key issues that will need Ash’s immediate attention, change management and engaging the company. Change management and engaging the company must occur in the sense, Ash has to persuade the current management teams on acknowledging the need for change, then put together a committee consisting of management and employees to develop a vision and strategy for supervising and implementing the changes.
Once this is ccomplished, and her strategic goals are in line with those of the organization’s, then she should communicate her objectives to the company, coordinate her efforts to motivate the employees through human resources with a more efficient performance evaluation process, which will allow for a ranking system and promote competition for advancement. Also, she will need to strengthen the efforts of the management team in raising the sense of urgency in directing and operating these changes. The key to her success will be holding the management staff accountable and instilling reasonable timetables for achieving these goals.
Control. The control of this process rests with the internal change committee, who has the responsibility of ensuring deadlines and that goals are being met, as well as providing Ash with feedback through quarterly meetings. This allows for quick responses or adjustments to any issues that may arise and need attention. c. Contingencies. The only contingencies that may occur would be if an element of the management team is not willing to adapt to the needed changes. Then Ash may need to consider replacing that individual in order to keep the company moving forward towards its strategic goals.
