Part B. Based on your analysis, prepare an agenda of the top three action items that Ramsey should discuss with George Gibson and Ted Rosenfeld during their upcoming meeting.
The top action items that were actually implemented, according to George Gibson:
1. (and possibly trim) staff. Refer to Walker's organisational chart in Exhibit 1 of the case and ask who should be accountable for the new profit plan. As currently structured, no single manager is accountable for the profitability of the children's book line. Accordingly, Walker created a children's publishing unit in 1998. The children's editorial director was made the publisher of the new children's book division, with profit and loss responsibility for all children's marketing, sales and editorial activities. Walker did not cut any of the four staff.
2.The number of titles and develop key titles within each division. After the decision point in the case, the list of titles was cut further by 30% (from 100 to about 70 new titles per year), with a resulting 6% increase in sales. As compared to 10 years ago, Walker's sales are now about twice as high with half the number of titles. The cut was made across all divisions.
3.<Tab/>Within the children's book line, decide which segments to cut and on which to focus. Walker cut new titles from 30 to 20 new titles per year. Walker eliminated the illustrated B&W segment and B&W nonfiction segments entirely. Walker focused on the picture book segment, although some non-fiction illustrated and photo are still published.
4. Decide on which customer groups to focus. Walker decided to focus on younger readers. Intuition will continue to play a role in such decisions.
5.Revise vendor strategy. Walker cut the number of copies per title printed on the first printing from 7,500 - 10,000 copies down to 5,000 - 6,000 copies per title. Walker also received slightly better prices by giving the printer the entire printing contract. As a result, COGS fell from...