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Harper Collins Publishers

Case Study: Harper Collins Publishers – The Harper 360 Programme

Integrated two leading American imprints with no loss of income into one efficient system

Harper Collins wished to integrate two American imprints Zondervan and Thomas Nelson and bring them under new Global brand ‘Harper Collins 360’. They had brought on a new UK Affiliate Publisher to build their profile in the UK who had extensive sales and marketing experience but limited experience of the publishing industry.

Brief

I was brought in to

  • provide the Publisher with insights into the UK Christian publishing industry and an introduction to key accounts.
  • integrate an independent US supply chain within the UK operation.
  • ensure monthly budgets were hit throughout this transition period by creating and maintaining income streams.

Objectives achieved

The US supply chain was extremely slow and unresponsive creating operational difficulties with the UK distribution centre and could take many months to bring product to the market. I first spent time understanding the proven systems Harper Collins had elsewhere in the business and then set up a number of meetings with every step of the supply chain – from Glasgow to the US – to talk about how we could create a supply system that ran smoothly and quickly. By using expertise and experience from within the company I was able to develop a solution and put together a strategy that enabled the US/ supply chain to fit with the UK system. This new system, within 6 months, transformed the supply chain that previously might take several months, to a supply chain that could deliver within a working week.

Achieving these objectives required:

  • Rapid learning of the internal systems.
  • Working with and gaining the support of people throughout Harper Collins both in the USA & the UK.
  • The ability to work at both a macro and micro level.

Throughout this process sales budgets were achieved.

Testimonial

Mark Hurley’s work over the last months has been valuable in helping us get the 360 program up and running and your industry knowledge and attention to detail are much appreciated.

Rod Schumacher,
Vice President International Sales

To learn more about how Mark Hurley Consulting helped Harper Collins Publishers, please email Mark Hurley.