Strategy is Implementation
This paper discusses the problems that Harrison-Keyes. Inc. faces. The paper tries to find solutions to the identified problems by relating them to the approach of other companies and identifying how the various level of an organization approach the same kind of problems. The paper also presents the risks on the suggested solutions to the problems identified.
The research aims to present concepts for effective strategy implementations based on theories and on companies that have effectively implemented their strategies.
Harrison-Keyes, Inc. is a leading global publisher of technical, scientific, business books and journals, professional and consumer books, textbooks and educational reading materials since 1899. The company holds about 22,700 active titles and publishes about 2000 new titles each year. In recent years, the company has felt the competition from low-cost retailers and other publishing industry players.
To address the issue on competition, the company launched e-book publishing about six months ago. In six months time, the company was not able to meet even half of the projected sales from e-book strategy. As a result, the CEO who initiated the e-publishing strategy was fired and replaced by a new CEO who has little high-tech experience and preferred traditional publishing than e-book publishing. The management that started the e-publishing except from the CEO comprises of the same people, from the CFO, CIO, up to the production manager. It is very clear, from the fact that Harrison-Keyes did not meet the projected sales, that there are existing problems with the implementation of the strategy.
Generally, the problems with Harrison-Keyes are problems in implementing the strategic plan. These problems are ineffectively coordinated activities and poorly defined tasks to employees as well as unanticipated problems and uncontrollable external factors such as the problem with Asia Digital, the company they outsourced for the digitalization of books and the low sales on e-books. The company also has problems due to inadequate information systems as well as lack of capabilities of some employee like the company’s CIO.
Lack of communication is the first problem of the company. The strategy was not communicated and interpreted well to the employees thus confusion arose. E-publishing requires outsourcing to convert traditional books to digital form. The idea of outsourcing gives the employees the perception that there will be possible layoffs as e-publishing continues. Confusions about job functions also arose because of the lack of knowledge and awareness of employees about the e-publishing strategy. Because of these, employees now feel uncomfortable working with Harrison-Keyes; some of them already left the company and transfer to other publishing company. If this confusions among the lower level of the organization continue, Harrison-Keyes might loss some of their potential employees that has been in the company for years.
It is the role of the middle management to communicate the strategy to its subordinate; it is the duty of the middle managers to make sure that the strategy is effectively implemented by all the members of the organization. According to (1998), strategy is defined as 5 P’s: a plan, a ploy, a pattern, a position and a perspective. Plan is a guideline to deal with the situation; ploy means a scheme intended to outwit the competitors; pattern is the consistency in behavior over time. Strategy as a position looks outside an organization, seeking to locate the organization in a market while as a perspective, strategy looks inside the organization which includes not only the upper management but as well as the employees in lower level of the organization, all of them sharing one goal and vision.
At Harrison-Keyes, only the upper management seems to understand the strategy while the lower level of the organization finds it difficult to adopt with the strategy, resulting to poor implementation of e-publishing strategy. The middle managers only apply the strategy as a plan and a pattern, failing to apply strategy as a perspective.
Middle managers play key role in implementing strategy. The four main roles that are expected from middle managers are championing alternatives, synthesizing information, facilitating adaptability, and implementing deliberate strategy (, 1992). With these four roles, the middle managers serve as the interface between the lower level employees and the top levels of management. They are the one responsible for the implementation of the strategies or changes generated by top managers (2000).
Implementing deliberate strategy involves communicating the organization’s goals, to plan the required actions as well as scheduling and control. The challenging part of this role is communicating the strategy effectively so that subordinates will find the strategy important and motivating them to perform their job effectively.
Facilitating adaptability means that the middle manager act as facilitator of change, removing obstacles like contradictory goals, and ensured the required resources. It involves empowering personnel. Harrison-Keyes should therefore train current employees for them to gain technical knowledge necessary for e-publishing. It is important that most of the company employees appreciate the e-publishing strategy so that they can implement the strategy effectively.
For Harrison-Keyes, it is necessary that the middle managers understand first the concept of e-publishing strategy so that they can communicate the strategy well to the employees, making them understand the importance of such strategy for the good of the entire organization. In that sense, not only the top management will be enthusiastic with the new strategy, as well as the employees at the lower level of the organization. The middle managers should also give employees the assurance that they can keep their job because the company will still continue the traditional way of publishing despite of e-book publishing.
It is important that middle managers clearly defined each employee’s task after the changes brought about by the strategy. Their tasks and activities should be well coordinated and are align with the newly implemented strategy.
Another problem of Harrison-Keyes is unanticipated problems brought about by the uncontrollable external factors. Due to flood in Asia that affected the outsourcing company that provides Harrison-Keyes the primary services needed in e-publishing, the company has missed deadlines in production causing delay on the release of their products. The management has never anticipated this kind of problems thus it has no back-up plans. From the beginning of the project, the company has already encountered problems with Asia Digital and yet the management did not prepare for solutions in case of problems with the outsourcing company. It is important to understand that in every plan, problems and hindrances may arise.
The company could have had another back-up outsourcing company in cases like this. Also, they could have started acquiring knowledge and equipments so that they can start some preparation and formatting within the house so that they will outsource only those functions related to e-books that can not be done in the company. If only the company has a more knowledgeable and capable CIO that can effectively support high-tech projects like e-book publishing, then the problem will not be as big as what Harrison-Keyes has now.
In formulating a strategy, problems caused by external factors such as the suppliers, the customers, the mass media and the competitors that can not be controlled by the company should be anticipated and resolved in the formulation period rather than in the implementing stage to avoid delay or cancellation of the strategy. Major problems that can be brought by the strategy should be identified beforehand to provide alternatives even before the problems occur.
Moreover, the marketing strategy of Harrison-Keyes seems to be not effective to attract more customers that cause their projected sales to be much lower than as expected. This is another problem caused by external factors; the company used the standard and traditional marketing techniques to campaign for the e-books. The company should have realized that with the introduction of e-books, the company expands its operation and enters a new market. New market often requires new marketing messages and better understanding of the market. It requires careful study, market research and test marketing (2002).
Generally, the problems faced by Harrison-Keyes have something to do with strategy implementation. Strategy implementation is a stage in strategic planning. For effective strategy implementation, the strategy should be translated into more detailed policies that can be understood at the functional level of the organization. The functional level includes marketing, research and development, procurement, production, human resources and information systems (2006). At these functional levels, issues and problems that were overlook at the higher level of the organization might be visible for the people who really implement the strategy are at this level. Implementation stage of strategy also involves identifying the required resources and putting into place the necessary organizational changes.
There are some key ingredients for effective strategy implementation (2002). These are: people, organizational, structure, control systems, and culture. In implementation of new strategy, a company should position the right people for a certain task. For example, e-book publishing requires intensive knowledge in information technology but the CIO of Harrison-Keyes has outdated knowledge and skills in technology; as a result, the project seems to be failing because of lack of support of someone knowledgeable on technology.
It is also necessary to design the organizational structure to enable and support implementation (1962). The CEO of Harrison-Keyes was replaced but the entire management team remains the same. Harrison-Keyes must try to reorganize its management, putting more capable people that can bring the strategy into action. The use of controlling systems to monitor and control implementation (1977) is also needed to deal with uncertainties. Control systems can be classified into customer related, operations related, employee related and financial related systems (, 2002). The culture of Harrison-Keyes will also definitely be affected because of the transition from traditional publishing to a technology-driven company; culture needs to be shaped to suit and complement the strategy.
One good example of a company that reorganized and underwent major changes is the Ford Motor Co. After some of failures with their ‘world car’, the company decided to reorganize to make the ‘world car’ strategy effective. When Ford launched Ford 2000 (1999), a strategy that addresses global competency by marketing the ‘world car’, the company underwent organizational change, from a centralized type of organization to matrix type which created synergism through shared responsibility on functional departments. With the new type of organizational structure, Ford has been flexible and can response rapidly to the changes (1998) and uncertainty in the automotive industry.
Another example of company that has implanted its strategy effectively is the UCB, a biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium. As a pharmaceutical company and to adapt to global competitiveness, it should be innovative and has extensive research and development team. To address these issues, its CIO created globalization strategies for its Information system (2004); the company upgraded all their systems and included a web portal that provides access to company information. The company also teamed up with a call center company that entertains queries of clients across the globe. In choosing the right call center for the company, they conducted a bidding to determine the most capable call center for the needs of the company. Through IT, the company has met the expectation of the public by providing the people innovative products that can compete in the global market. With UCB’s Management Information System strategy, the company has improved its information and intelligence sharing for its research and development
Conclusion and Recommendation
In six months, Harrison-Keyes has failed to implement the e-book publishing strategy. In my opinion, it is primarily because of the contradictions from some of the members of the management even during the strategy formulation. The members of the organization have different views on this strategy that contributes to the ineffectiveness of the strategy. Members of the organization, from the top level management to the lower level members should share the same goals and vision and focus on the same direction in order for a strategy to be successful.
To have the same goals and vision, the top management should educate and communicate the plans to the lower level of the organization through the middle managers. Through good communication among the members of the organization, employees of Harrison-Keyes will not be uncomfortable with the strategy but instead be supportive and optimistic about it.
Moreover, if the key ingredients for effective implementation of strategy mentioned above are met, the company can deal with uncertainties and uncontrollable external factors easily. If the formulated strategy is aligned with the organizational structure, control systems are in place, and there are competent managers, there should be no problems in implementation (1998).
With the case of Ford, it has aligned its strategy through organizational change while UCB has effectively implemented its global strategy through improved information system and determination of the most efficient call center company that is mot helpful for the company. The company should also adopt the strategic management tool called scenario planning which is designed to deal with major uncertain shifts in the firm’s environment (2006).
Harrison-Keyes should learn from Ford by strategic reorganization as well as from UCB by improving its information system and technology needed for e-book publishing. Because Harrison-Keyes is a leading publishing company, they can easily look for other reliable outsourcing company to do the digitizing of books; the company should have the ability to have good partnership with its external environment such as the suppliers and the customers through enhanced marketing strategies.
Formulation of strategy is an important stage of strategic planning but will be useless if not implemented effectively therefore we can conclude that strategy is all about implementation.
References:
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