Gap Analysis Harrison Keyes
Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes
Do you remember the days of going to the library and checking out a book or using a book in the library for a paper you were researching or just wanted to read about technical issue?
If you do then one of those books could have been published by Harrison-Keyes, however are the days of using the library gone? Once upon a time, not too long ago, people prophesied the end of the printed book (and magazine and newspaper). That didn't happen, of course. As good as technology is, it couldn't match, let alone beat, the experience of reading a printed book (Kantor,2006).
Harrison-Keyes started as a publishing company for many literary giants however changed their focus to more technical books in the late 1950’s. Harrison-Keyes specializes in scientific, technical and business books and journals, professional and consumer books, textbooks and other educational materials for all levels of study and publishes about 2000 new titles each year. However today many publishing companies are feeling the pains of many discount retailers cutting into their profits and Harrison-Keyes is no exception.
Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification
Under the direction CEO, Meg McGill, the Board of Directors at Harrison-Keyes decided to jump on the technology band wagon and implement e-book publishing. However under McGill’s management, the e-book initiative was not going well after six months, so the Board of Directors fired McGill and brought in William Guardo as the new CEO. Guardo has been in publishing for more than 30 years -- most recently as the President of a competing publisher -- he favors traditional publishing, has little high-tech experience and is not a big fan of e-books.
The issue for Harrison-Keyes is that the goals of this new endeavor were not planned out accordingly. While research has been done that suggests that society has embraced the technology age and...
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