Helix Case Study - Due March 9 at noon

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yraber11

Business Finance

Description

irst carefully read the attached Helix case study. You must read the case before class on Tuesday! You will be creating a communications plan for Helix (attached is an example communication plan).

You have been engaged by Helix management to develop recommendations to help improve communication within the company. As a consultant, you are in a position to objectively observe the communication dynamics in this organization and make recommendations based on industry best practices.

Each part of this assignment is worth 30%.

Part 2: Conduct a stakeholder analysis using the attached matrix. For each section of the matrix, include bullet points or sentence descriptions. Include the matrix in the final assignment. (500 words - the words included in the matrix will fulfill this requirement, you do not need to write additional content)

Part 3: Year 1 Communication Plan (in expanded outline form -- 500-600 words)

The next step is to design a communication plan to help Helix achieve its business objective. The business objective is to align all employees with the company’s strategic direction.

  • Describe 2-3 target audiences and influencers for the stated business objective (in bold above) based on your stakeholder analysis matrix.
  • For each target audience, describe one communication objective intended to support the business objective (where is the focus: KNOW, THINK, FEEL, DO, etc.?). Include the principles of persuasion you will apply to support your strategy.
  • Identify one communication tactic/activity that will help achieve each communication objective, the channel(s) you’ll use, and success indicator(s).

Sample format (you will do this for 2-3 target audiences, based on your stakeholder analysis matrix):

  • Target Audience 1
  • Influencers Impacting Target Audience 1
  • Communication Objective 1
    • Know, Think, Feel - Where is your focus? How are you hoping to impact your audience with your communication efforts?
  • 1 Tactic You Will Use to Accomplish Objective
    • What channel(s) will you use to accomplish this tactic ?
    • What Principles of Persuasion will you employ?
    • What are your success indicators? Make sure your metrics are SMART (reference SMART goals in the textbook if you need additional information)

Be sure and reference the attached example, which includes a detailed sample communications plan as well as format for part 1 and 2.

This is not a research paper – you should only reference (follow APA guidelines for in-text citations) readings from CMN6010 or other CMN courses. No reference list is required.

Also see attached John Hammond's article, Learning by the Case Method. You may or may not be familiar with the case method, but it's important to learn how to maximize the value of this learning method. I have also attached a sample communications plan which should help explain the process more clearly.

User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Running Head: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

1

Situational Analysis
Name
Instructor
Institutional Affiliation
Date

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

2

Introduction
Helix, Inc. is privately-held computer-aided design (CAD) software development
company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the case of the increasing demand for its product
among the world, Helix purchased new buildings and hired new staff. In order to leverage its
distribution and technical support capabilities in the European and Chinese market, Helix
acquired a European company, Noveaum, branded as Helix Europe, and acquired a Chinese firm
in Hong Kong. However, the rapid growth of Helix brought some challenges. The company
failed to land several large global accounts and received complaints about its technical support
from several existing clients. Besides, the clash of cultures between Helix and the newly
acquired company, the overall acquisition created unfavorable conditions. First, there was an
atmosphere of tension among employees on both sides, and they felt unwilling to work with each
other. Second, as the case indicated that although it cost $700,000 a year from the Helix to run its
employee portal, the usage of the portal by European employees was negligible. This negligence
resulted in a financial issue as there was little return on the investment.
Situation Analysis
Internal Communication Weaknesses
One of the internal communication weaknesses is the lack of communication between the
company’s headquarter situated at Ann Arbor and the subsidiary in Europe, Helix Europe.
According to the case, before the merger, Helix Europe, formerly known as Noveaum was
Helix’s competitor. Therefore, it was normal that employees had stress and dissenting feelings to
the other company. Although Elliott noticed the strained relationship, she decided to solve this
problem later instead of communicating with the general manager of Helix Europe. Besides,

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

3

employees in Helix Europe preferred a more formal approach as they had “numerous meetings
and extensive documentation of each step in the sales and marketing process” (p. 2). The
company’s headquarter, on the other hand, favored a more informal approach as “decision are
made quickly by employees at all levels and all functions” (p. 3). As the case indicated, the
employees from both sides were not satisfied with each other’s approaches and processes.
Without effective communication, the differences in corporate cultures and values created
misperceptions about how the other company operated and limited the employee engagement
and interaction.
Another internal communication weakness is the working languages. The working
languages of Helix, Helix Europe, and Hong Kong offices were not the same. Communication
can break down even when some of its employees speak English as a second language.
External Communication Weaknesses
The first external communication weakness is the lack of communication strategy.
Argenti, Howell, and Beck (2005) argued that “an organization grows in size and complexity —
more markets, customers, products, services, employees, suppliers, investors and so on — the
need for a consistent communications strategy becomes even more critical” (p. 59). Helix’s
leadership team only focused on a localization strategy to expanding its market instead of
establishing a communication strategic plan to better align with its business strategy (p. 1).
Lack of customer segmentation is another external communication weakness of Helix.
While Parkhurst (2011) argued that “segmenting audiences helps professional communicators
stay organized” (p. 407), he also suggested that “cluster audiences by demographics,
psychographics, purchase price, revenue generated, or some other identifier that is important to

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

4

the company” (p. 407) could help the company to effectively communicate with its customers
and adequately consider the needs of the audience. However, as this case indicated, one of
Helix’s potential clients complained the issue of the company’s sales and technical support team
structure. Moreover, the existing clients complained about the “unresponsive and disjointed
technical support” (p. 2). Therefore, it is because of the lack of customer segmentation which led
to the failure to adequately considering the needs of the clients, and ultimately resulting in loss of
customers and company’s revenues.
Situational Analysis
Stakeholders

Attributes
What we know:
What we need to find
out:

Concerns/Expectations Communication
(What’s on their
preferences
minds?)

Desire impact
on:
Attitudes,
knowledge,
behaviors

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

Jane Elliot, the
CEO and cofounder of Helix

Jane Elliot is the CEO
of Helix. She has a
rather stressed
relationship with the
general manager of
Helix Europe, Kurt
Friedrich. She rarely
visits the European
offices.
Before creating a full
plan, the question of
how the CEO is
planning to handle the
miscommunication
between the North
American and
European stakeholders
should be addressed.

5

The CEO is concerned
about the company’s
inability to land several
significant accounts.
Furthermore, she is
worried that the strained
relation with the
management team of
Helix Europe will
negatively impact the
company’s performance
and processes (Gillis,
2006).
The communication
plan will detail the steps
that can be taken
towards building and
maintaining an effective
communication and
relationship.

Jane Eliot prefers
verbal
communication;
either face-to-face
or over the phone.

I would want
the
communication
plan to impact
the way the
CEO feels
about open
communic...


Anonymous
Awesome! Made my life easier.

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