Robin Ash and Printzhof Press Case Solution

Problem Analysis

There can be numerous reasons for these arising problems. The executive team of EEH has considerable evidence that there is no active participation at the managerial level. The competitive landscape was changing rapidly and the management did not be able to adapt to the changing trends. This lack of interest by the management was evident from the increasing public complaints. In addition to this, the technology giants like Apple were seeing this as a potential business. It means this business was a profitable one to explore with more growth opportunities. However, the growth of printshop was stagnant.

Because of technological growth, the authors were open to publishing their own book as an open-source. While Ash was given the task to stick to the company’s vision of retaining the authors and attract more authors. This has become competitive since authors could use open source to publish their own material. New powerhouses in this field are aiming to attract employees and so it would be challenging for printshop to attract them. 

Printzhof has also been facing the problem of over employment. The majority of the management team has been in Printzhof for more than two decades. These managers are expected to stay and are given generous salaries and packages. As a result of that, there has been an increase in the overall expenses of the company. Like the overburdening of the management team, there was an over employment in the whole organization, more hierarchies then needed. This all cumulating raised the overall cost of the organization. In addition to this, the employees’ performance has continuously been decreasing. They are not motivated enough to work hard to achieve organizational goals to pace up with market growth. This would require the development of ancillaries and unprecedented efforts to gain a losing reputation.

Strategic Alternative 1

The first and most important step that needs to be taken is to get the managers on the step. One realized, from the above situation, that most of the problem is caused due to the sluggishness of the most important team of the company i.e. management. One has the option to replace the unresponsive manager with a proactive one, and David Quail is an attractive option having good track record. Raines was not very proactive, infect looked happy with the current performance. On the other hand, he has great knowledge of business with 35 years of experience. The current situation requires a layoff that might be hard without Raines. Moreover, this department is responsible for anticipation, employee motivation and increasing performance to catch up to market trends. The best solution is to keep Raines but giving him directions instead of laying him off. He can motivate employees and bring everyone to the same page with little counseling and training.

Strategic Alternative 2

The other alternative includes aligning with the company mission to treat the authors with special privileges and motivations to keep them work with the company. As part of the plan, they should develop technologies to catch up with the changing landscape.