Description
Case analysis of Random House
HISTORY
1925
• Established by Bennett Cerf and David Klopfer • Acquisition of Smith and Haas, created a brand
1959
• Random House went public • Acquired Alfred A. Knopf • Listed on NYSE
• RCA purchased random house, but failed to capitalize potential energies • S.I. Newhouse purchased Random House
1965
BERTELSMANN
• Founded as a publishing house and print shop in July 1835 by Carl Bertelsmann • Its acquisitions :
Bantam in 1980 Double Day in 1986 Dell in 1986
• Formed BDD (Bantam, Doubleday, Dell) • Lost focus on core business and suffered huge losses
Merger and Integration
Restructuring And Transformation
• Reduced staffing and manufacturing costs • Restructure distribution network
Benefits
• Rise in operating revenues • ROA increased from 4% to 19%
New Acquisition
• RANDOM HOUSE • In July 1998, for 1$ billion
Feel
• Leverage the global reach of • random house for global expansion • RH and BDD had complementary • strength areas. This provided BDD an opportunity to capture the whole market. • • Publish books in different genre to give tough competition to competitors • • Through RH, BDD could expand into similar and adjacent business with higher efficiency. For eg: RH dominated in literary, adult trade where BDD did not have a strong presence
Benefit
BDD designed a new corporate structure for RH RH was facing the problem of higher cost, higher number of employees and structure BDD had a lean management, better technology, knew mass markets Major presence in markets where BDD had only a modest presence.
ASHRIDGE PORTFOLIO DISPLAY •Acquisition of random house – High benefits and High feel •Fell in the Heartland zone
RANDOM HOUSE IN 2003
Corporate Strategy And Structure
Managing Imprint
• Different imprints were combined to reduce overhead and competition • Encouraged internal competition- Until there was at least one external bidder, editors of different imprints bid against each other • Factors determining the auction included – price, status of the imprint and the editor, strength of the publishing house in various aspects – marketing, distribution, personal relationships
Managing Authors
Bought the rights from the authors, whose books they published
Helped in retaining an author Generating revenues in peak time
Managing Editors
Market leader in compensation Internal competition
Pick the right people having the talent and passion for work
Balancing tension between managing talent and bottom line management – eg. Ann Godoff
Freedom and independent to editors in decision making
Managing RH and Bertelsmann
• Publishing was one of the core businesses of Bertelsmann. It did not allow its other business to influence the publishing arm. • Increased cohesion among the various divisions of the group and cross divisional synergies • Increased business to Bertelsmann’s printing group, centralized HR and IT functions under RH • Exploited possible and useful synergies and discarded others – publishing and printing
Bertelsmann-AOL deal
Bertelsmann CEO, Gunther was against the deal.
• He was consolidating the balance sheet of the company and reducing debt levels • The publishing industry was going through a slump • Random House pulled out of the talks just as the two companies were completing an agreement. • The Bertelsmann executives said that the decision stemmed from delays in the closing of Bertelsmann's sale of its Springer professional publishing division.
Olson, Random House’s chairman, was a strong advocate of the deal
• He sought it to increase the market share of Random house • Inconsistent responses from Random House and Bertelsmann's headquarters regarding the deal were received • Senior Random House executives continued to pursue talks with AOL Time Warner about buying the book group even after the decision by Luther.
Literature versus Commerce
• Consolidation of companies deteriorated the quality of literature. • Cottage industries were able to produce finer art work than big publishing houses • Literature had been commercialized by big publishing houses to generate high revenue at the expense of art and skill • Increased volumes eroded the quality further
Value Chain of the Publishing Industry
B&N – backward integration • Purchased Sterling publishing selling private label equivalents • Position their own books in areas of store with highest traffic Hurdle for B&N • Lack of literary luster • Overcome its image as only a store • Competition form an established publishing house Electronic Purchasing • Authors had begun to publish their work online • Digital – substituting the print business
SWOT Analysis – Current position of RH
Strength
• Strong market share • Large list of bestselling authors • Support of an established parent company
Weakness
• Perceived stigma by readers in target market associated with reading large print books • Slump in the publishing market • Reducing margins in the mindustry
Opportunity
Growing target audience with a high level of disposable income Forward integration and setting up its own stores in key locations for distrbution Acquisitions and potential partners mergers with
Threats
• Online or digital content • Audio books and other media formats • Competing large print publishers • Backward integration by distributors
RH – Way Forward
Expanding business through different channels – utilizing the digital opportunities and selling ebooks Promote famous and renowned authors
Maintaining strong relations with the authors
Mergers and acquisitions to acquire a larger market share and better position with the retailers
Restructuring RH. Turning it into small divisions which function independently as cottage industries for publishing books in their genre. Focus on supply chain and build it as a differentiating factor
doc_887652491.pptx
Case analysis of Random House
HISTORY
1925
• Established by Bennett Cerf and David Klopfer • Acquisition of Smith and Haas, created a brand
1959
• Random House went public • Acquired Alfred A. Knopf • Listed on NYSE
• RCA purchased random house, but failed to capitalize potential energies • S.I. Newhouse purchased Random House
1965
BERTELSMANN
• Founded as a publishing house and print shop in July 1835 by Carl Bertelsmann • Its acquisitions :
Bantam in 1980 Double Day in 1986 Dell in 1986
• Formed BDD (Bantam, Doubleday, Dell) • Lost focus on core business and suffered huge losses
Merger and Integration
Restructuring And Transformation
• Reduced staffing and manufacturing costs • Restructure distribution network
Benefits
• Rise in operating revenues • ROA increased from 4% to 19%
New Acquisition
• RANDOM HOUSE • In July 1998, for 1$ billion
Feel
• Leverage the global reach of • random house for global expansion • RH and BDD had complementary • strength areas. This provided BDD an opportunity to capture the whole market. • • Publish books in different genre to give tough competition to competitors • • Through RH, BDD could expand into similar and adjacent business with higher efficiency. For eg: RH dominated in literary, adult trade where BDD did not have a strong presence
Benefit
BDD designed a new corporate structure for RH RH was facing the problem of higher cost, higher number of employees and structure BDD had a lean management, better technology, knew mass markets Major presence in markets where BDD had only a modest presence.
ASHRIDGE PORTFOLIO DISPLAY •Acquisition of random house – High benefits and High feel •Fell in the Heartland zone
RANDOM HOUSE IN 2003
Corporate Strategy And Structure
Managing Imprint
• Different imprints were combined to reduce overhead and competition • Encouraged internal competition- Until there was at least one external bidder, editors of different imprints bid against each other • Factors determining the auction included – price, status of the imprint and the editor, strength of the publishing house in various aspects – marketing, distribution, personal relationships
Managing Authors
Bought the rights from the authors, whose books they published
Helped in retaining an author Generating revenues in peak time
Managing Editors
Market leader in compensation Internal competition
Pick the right people having the talent and passion for work
Balancing tension between managing talent and bottom line management – eg. Ann Godoff
Freedom and independent to editors in decision making
Managing RH and Bertelsmann
• Publishing was one of the core businesses of Bertelsmann. It did not allow its other business to influence the publishing arm. • Increased cohesion among the various divisions of the group and cross divisional synergies • Increased business to Bertelsmann’s printing group, centralized HR and IT functions under RH • Exploited possible and useful synergies and discarded others – publishing and printing
Bertelsmann-AOL deal
Bertelsmann CEO, Gunther was against the deal.
• He was consolidating the balance sheet of the company and reducing debt levels • The publishing industry was going through a slump • Random House pulled out of the talks just as the two companies were completing an agreement. • The Bertelsmann executives said that the decision stemmed from delays in the closing of Bertelsmann's sale of its Springer professional publishing division.
Olson, Random House’s chairman, was a strong advocate of the deal
• He sought it to increase the market share of Random house • Inconsistent responses from Random House and Bertelsmann's headquarters regarding the deal were received • Senior Random House executives continued to pursue talks with AOL Time Warner about buying the book group even after the decision by Luther.
Literature versus Commerce
• Consolidation of companies deteriorated the quality of literature. • Cottage industries were able to produce finer art work than big publishing houses • Literature had been commercialized by big publishing houses to generate high revenue at the expense of art and skill • Increased volumes eroded the quality further
Value Chain of the Publishing Industry
B&N – backward integration • Purchased Sterling publishing selling private label equivalents • Position their own books in areas of store with highest traffic Hurdle for B&N • Lack of literary luster • Overcome its image as only a store • Competition form an established publishing house Electronic Purchasing • Authors had begun to publish their work online • Digital – substituting the print business
SWOT Analysis – Current position of RH
Strength
• Strong market share • Large list of bestselling authors • Support of an established parent company
Weakness
• Perceived stigma by readers in target market associated with reading large print books • Slump in the publishing market • Reducing margins in the mindustry
Opportunity
Growing target audience with a high level of disposable income Forward integration and setting up its own stores in key locations for distrbution Acquisitions and potential partners mergers with
Threats
• Online or digital content • Audio books and other media formats • Competing large print publishers • Backward integration by distributors
RH – Way Forward
Expanding business through different channels – utilizing the digital opportunities and selling ebooks Promote famous and renowned authors
Maintaining strong relations with the authors
Mergers and acquisitions to acquire a larger market share and better position with the retailers
Restructuring RH. Turning it into small divisions which function independently as cottage industries for publishing books in their genre. Focus on supply chain and build it as a differentiating factor
doc_887652491.pptx