publisher visioning session senior management retreat 1999
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Cairns
Managing Partner
Information Media Partners
Visioning Session
Senior Management Retreat 1999
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Introduction
Michael Cairns is a publishing and media executive with over 25 years experience in
business strategy, operations and technology implementation. As a business
executive, Mr. Cairns has successfully managed several troubled and under-
performing businesses, creating new business opportunities, developing new funding
sources and enhancing shareholder value for investors. His years spent as an
operating executive have largely been with brand-name publishing companies such
as Macmillan, Inc., Berlitz International, Wolters Kluwer Health, Reed Elsevier and
R.R. Bowker. As a consultant, Mr. Cairns has worked with clients as diverse as
AARP, Hewlett Packard, InterPublic Companies and Reed Elsevier with an emphasis
on business strategy, market development and corporate development.
His skills and experience include:
Business and corporate strategy development and implementation
Operations management and business transformation
Traditional and digital publishing and operations
Print-to-digital transformation and adoption of new business models
Software development and software services
Mr. Cairns holds an MBA (Finance) from Georgetown University and a BA from
Boston University. He has served on several boards and advisory groups including
the Association of American Publishers, Book Industry Study Group and the
International ISBN organization. Additionally, he has public and private company
board experience.
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Michael Cairns
Information Media Partners
Strategy Consulting
New York, London, Melbourne
Tel: 908 938 4889
Find me:
LinkedIn Twitter Blog Flickr InstaGram
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Information Media Partners
Michael Cairns established Information Media Partners in 2006 as a boutique strategy
consulting firm focused on the information and education publishing segment. The work
conducted by the firm includes product development, corporate development, sales
management and corporate reorganizations. We work with established businesses, private
equity owners and potential acquirers.
Examples of our work include:
Reorganized and re-focused a $25 million software publishing company by aligning
business operations with client priorities; implementing internal collaboration tools and
project management standards; re-building executive team to focus on effective and
efficient management
Defined a new business strategy for a large non-profit association and advocacy group,
expanding their business model into global markets to exploit their core knowledge and
expertise across a broader market
Led an information technology capabilities review at a large international advertising
holding company. Completed over 200 interviews in 15 international offices and multiple
group focus sessions to define the operational ‘gaps’ between existing agency capabilities
and those necessary and important for client delivery by region
Completed a sales management effectiveness review for a global software company and
defined six key project initiatives to improve sales effectiveness, market development and
account management
We approach our client engagements in a standardized, logical manner which creates the best
environment to identify key business drivers, administrative and logistical road blocks and/or
product or market definition issues. Our investigative approach leads to better insights into
your businesses and supports the development of workable solutions and recommendations
for success.
Visit the Information Media Partners website for more information.
Sample Client List
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E-commerce in the Publishing Industry
E-Publishing trends
Strategic/market issues
Operations issues
Implications for Publisher
Overview of demonstrations
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A paradigm shift from products to services...
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Fragmented marketplace
Stable operating
environment
Past
Limited innovation
Hard asset utilization
Author relationships
Publisher & Editorial focused
Decentralized operations
Low inventory turnover
Consolidation
Concentration on
financial performance
Present
Product driven: push
Hard asset utilization
Rights management
“Professional
management”
Centralized operations
Low inventory turnover
New competitors
Balanced scorecard
Future
Service model: product pull
Soft asset leverage
Modular rights management
“Voice of the customer”
Networked environment
High ‘content’ turnover
Industry
environment
Business
model
Operations
model
E-Publishing trends
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…and raises new strategic and market positioning issues
Issues
Market environment of rapid innovation
New competitive landscape
Branding impacts of new electronic products
Alliances and partnerships
Direct access to consumers by content originators
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Implications
Experiment with new approaches to packaging and
delivery
Recognize period of co-existence of electronic and
print: duplicate costs
Watch non-traditional competitors closely
Anticipate competitors’ strategy options
Manage relationship of traditional and electronic
brands
Develop information assets that support core brand
values
Use “Value nets” to leverage business portfolio
Ensure end-to-end customer responsiveness
Establish publishers’ ‘value add’ in consumers’ minds
Strategic issues
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E-Publishing brings six broadly defined operating
challenges
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RICHER
•Rights
•POS/Inventory
•Digital Objects
BETTER
•Demand driven
•Multi-media
EASIER
•New Products
•Reuse Data
TIMELY
•As and when
required
FASTER
•Days not
months
EARLIER
•Continuous
development
Distribute and
Fulfill content
Manufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Operations issues
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Media- and title - independent content drives
product development
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Issue
Rigid editorial and production processes: inherently inefficient and cumbersome
New acquisitions: concept of broad, “leverageable properties”
Need for complex management of permissions, rights and royalties
Implication
Establish media independent content development processes
Assess authors/titles on leveragability of properties across divisions and format
Ensure rights negotiations take into account a broader range of business options
Operations issues
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Fundamental content development process changes
facilitate E-publishing
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Issue
Content is dispersed and undervalued across enterprise
Content is not linked to related business information (e.g., rights, availability, contracts
Limited editorial and production cataloguing methodology to enable process consistency, content leveraging, legal approvals, reviews, etc.
Implication
Enhance competitive position via time-to-market improvements
Improve margin by decreasing production costs
Improve control of assets by linking content to associated meta data
Standardize and centralize content creation and distribution
Operations issues
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Often for the first time, publishers are gaining direct
contact with users
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Issue
From one to multiple business models
Management of marketing and customer data: potential revenue streams from advertising, commissions, list management
The Internet enables a one to one relationship with customers
Implication
Develop multiple electronic store fronts Develop distinct genre, geographic lines to
maximize customer target segmentation Develop electronic cross-merchandising to
capture incremental revenue
Leverage customer information for individually targeted marketing and sales programs
Develop collection and privacy/security methodology for customer data
Manage customer life cycle from initial contact to segmentation to (re)purchase
Operations issues
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Product manufacture is ‘pushed’ to sales channel
and customers
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Issue
Customer demand for more flexible, ‘build to order’ content configuraton
Current manufacturing processes are not designed to be profitable for low batch custom publishing
Increases in non-text formats: audio, video, images, live action
Implication
Enable customers to create books based on targeted index that sources content from content library
Design new manufacturing and content storage processes to profit from short run custom printing
Maintain process and distribution flexibility to catalogue and distribute new/alternate forms of content
Operations issues
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Distribution and fulfillment becomes an opportunity
to add value
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell, Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Issue
‘Back office’ becomes ‘front office’
Channel conflicts: distributors, wholesalers, retailers, online retailers
Current retail environment allows a customer to select and acquire products immediately
Implication
Make ‘Back office’ (billing, technical support) a point of value-added client service
Design Internet sales to complement retail relationships
Upgrade distribution capabilities to accommodate direct-to-consumer sales
Improve logistics of the Internet retail environment to respond to customers’ needs
Operations issues
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E-publishing may require large changes in the value
chain
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Distribute and
Fulfill contentManufacture
Content
Sell Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
Fulfill contentProduce ContentManage Affiliates
& Partners
Manage Database
Marketing
Acquire
Customers
Traditional Model
Online/Interactive Model
• Petersons
• Third Party
• Data Mining
• Customer Care
• Content suppliers
• ‘Portal’ sites
• Channel conflicts
• Non output
specific
• Billing and
Collections
• Inventory
Mgmt
• Demand
planning
• Sales force
utilization
• Product
development
costs
• Content (what)
in Context
(when)
Implications
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E-publishing may require large changes in the value
chain
Distribute and
Fulfill ContentManufacture
Content
Sell Market
and Promote
Produce and
Organize Content
Acquire, Edit
and Reformat
Content
TRADITIONAL MODEL
Fulfill ContentProduce ContentManage Affiliates
& Partners
Manage Database
MarketingAcquire
Customers
ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MODEL
• Billing and
Collections• Inventory Mgmt
• Demand planning
• Sales force
utilization
• Product
development
costs
• Petersons
• Third Party
• Data Mining
• Customer Care
• Content suppliers
• ‘Portal’ sites
• Channel conflicts
• Non output
specific
• Content (what)
in Context
(when)
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E-publishing will create substantial growth
opportunities for Publisher
Print format textbooks
• universities
• professional
channels
Customized &
interactive course
materials
• universities
• professional
• channels
$
Print format textbooks
• global marketplace
• regions, countries with high
growth in 17-24 year-olds
$
Perpetual, distributed
interactive learning &
certification of mastery
• workplace
• residence
• application-driven
$$
MARKETS
NewExisting
PRODUCTS
New
Existing
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Michael Cairns
Managing Partner
908 938 4889
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