Home About Us Clients Publishing Consultancy   Our Approach   Case Study 1   Case Study 2 Outsourced Services At the start of 2003 MRP held initial discussions with a London-based publisher working in the European market. The publication is distributed to highly paid professionals and provides comprehensive news and analysis of their profession across the 15 jurisdictions of the European Union and beyond. 36 months after launch the publication had plateau-ed, and at the current rate of business growth seemed unlikely to meet the owners' aspirations of selling or merging the business in the next 3 years. Initial meetings with management explored the progress made to date and threw up a provisional list of outstanding issues to be addressed: • Advertising income had increased year on year to date, but relied almost exclusively on one   individual. Attempts to 'broaden the base' had had limited success • Subscriptions had grown but were not increasing at a fast enough rate. In summary, we agreed that with the client that our support should concentrate on: • The need to increase advertising revenue by 40% over a time span of 12 months • The requirement to increase subscriptions by 30% over a time span of 12 months • The lack of working and development capital in the business • The need for more management interaction • The higher than necessary direct cost base • Their web presence. Our start point was to undertake a fast but comprehensive audit of the client's current business practices, including: • Culture • Organisation • Processes • Policies and procedures • Print and paper • Website • Advertising • New and renewal Subscriptions • Distribution • Business development funding Over the following 2 weeks, to an agreed schedule, a series of interviews were undertaken. Utilising in total 4 consultancy days, the survey was organised as follows: •  Our core set of topics and questions was enhanced to cover areas of special concern for their organisation. •  Interview results and business practises are compared and collated within our 'best practice' framework. •  Using our experience and perspective we highlighted critical issues and present results and recommendations in a pragmatic and usable format. On completion of the survey we have delivered to our client: •  An independent assessment of their main strengths and weaknesses. •  An identification of high-risk areas. •  Recommendations for action in order of priority, particularly where we identify "quick wins" for the business (e.g. cost savings). •  Recommendations on the development of an appropriate 3-year Business Plan, against which the business can be managed and against which funding can be sought. We are now ready to move on to the next phase of implementation.
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