That is correct, to get someone within the tabletop gaming industry who also has good business acumen, experience and qualifications, OR a businessman, suitably qualified and experienced who is a table top gamer.Originally Posted by Mauler
They would also need to have a strong connection and respect for what has already been built; Citadel and GW's 'legacy' (I would say up until and including LoTR)
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I would suspect your ideal candidate would be someone with strong business and leadership experience who was also a gamer (good luck!). I suspect, however, your second best candidate would be someone with strong business and leadership experience who was not a gamer; the last thing GW needs is someone trying to learn the business side when they are already doing so much wrong.
As long as you have someone willing to learn and understand the products a company produces, I don't have a huge issue with them lacking gaming experience. Go interact with the fans and the community and you can see how much people care about this stuff. More dangerous would be another five plus years of people who learn the "GW way" of doing business even if they love the background.
The road to bankruptcy is paved with good intentions.
I reckon we should start a facebook group where we encourage people to buy £20 of GW shares and then elect Reinholt as head of GW, so it will last forever !
In all honesty, my dream job would be a senior manager at Games Workshop ! I am Senior Finance Professional (chartered) with a lot of commercial and general business experiance (but not retail) who has played 40k since 2nd edition (with breaks), Warhammer, a number of specialist games, bookes etc and see my sig..... I am a fan ! I would genuinely love to get into that company so it is a shame I dont live close enough to Nottingham, as I am 2 hours away - but hey you have to follow your dreams so who knows, the commute maybe worth it
It is true to say though that you do not necessarily need to have gaming experiance, just have all of the right attributes and transferable skills/experiance but product knowledge / passion would be worth a lot, although sometimes that means you may come with entrenched views, which sometimes is not the best - there is a lot to say in business for true objectivity !
The Inquisition - from nothing to something log! Update 15th September 2012 - Ordo Malleus Inquisitor progressed- Project on ICE !
A Tomb World Awakens! Update 31st January 2013 - Flayed Ones !
I AM A GW FANBOY - THERE I SAID IT !
Proud member of the Safehouse !
Bear in mind that whoever comes in to change things is going to spend most of their first years at GW fighting the existing status quo yes-men culture. Kirby isn't just going to hand over his dividend gravy train until after he's retired. And if he enjoys the lifestyle of being an executive who just raises prices to maintain static revenue to pay himself a dividend, he may be around for a long, long time. The only opportunity for change inside GW is after failure. The last time GW had failure during Kirby's "fat and lazy" years, they just cut costs and doubled down on the massive price increase strategy.
That is the case for a lot of businesses - cultures are not easy to change and many "change agents" under-estimate how entrenched cultures can be, but at the end of the day if the CEO is delivering results, share price rises and paying out dividends that will be enough to keep the shareholders happy.
As it stands, unlike many opinions on here, I personally view GW to be on extremely solid ground as a company, however, the challenge lies over the next 5-10 years on how to keep the products fresh, how to keep your customers supported, what do you do in the face of growing competition and when will they realise they are close to going over the "price point". Personally they need to leverage even more their fantastic IP !
The Inquisition - from nothing to something log! Update 15th September 2012 - Ordo Malleus Inquisitor progressed- Project on ICE !
A Tomb World Awakens! Update 31st January 2013 - Flayed Ones !
I AM A GW FANBOY - THERE I SAID IT !
Proud member of the Safehouse !
I think they have another 50% to go in their price hikes before they'll reach any sort of demand destroying tipping point. But even 10% average increases in price opens the market up to small competition as that's 10% more margin for the little guys to find a niche in.
The australian market runs at a loss. That is their price tipping point.
It is more than 50% of the UK's price too.
Rule books here are AUD $124 RRP, that at current currency conversions is a little over 80 Pounds, nearly double current UK RRP.
Australia: where Forgeworld is the CHEAPER alternative to Games Workshop
GW Purchases since RoW terms of trade change in May 2011 'the antipodean embargo':
Also, do you mean short-term loss or long-term loss?
The AUS prices are definitely causing short-term losses (observable), but I would suggest they are causing grotesquely larger long-term losses in that GW is locking into leases to fund unprofitable retail operations while simultaneously shrinking their customer base towards zero while their competition gains in Australia. Less customers and more entrenched competitors is a long-term recipe for bankruptcy.
This is why I think GW's ideal pricing point is not the immediate supply / demand cross; GW seems to fail to understand that supply and demand in wargaming depend on number of gamers (if you have the greatest game every, but literally zero people play it, it's going to be hard to charge a premium), and the more people you have, the more valuable it is. Thus, as GW shrinks their player base, they actually make people want to pay less for their product.
Witness the abandonment/reduction of GW in favor of other gaming systems in many LGS in the US.
I reckon we should start a facebook group where we encourage people to buy £20 of GW shares and then elect Reinholt as head of GW, so it will last forever !
I agree Reinholt, i think that they have gone beyond the point of pricing out the profitable market. The have been consistantly making, albeit small, losses for several years now, as well as a diminishing fanbase, and they should only have themselves to blame, but i suspect they blame the customers.
Australia: where Forgeworld is the CHEAPER alternative to Games Workshop
GW Purchases since RoW terms of trade change in May 2011 'the antipodean embargo':
Were just not buying enough stuff, I knew we were to blame
My Nids army project http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...Mint-Choc-Chip
Old school RTB01 Marines http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...01#post6718201
I used to buy at least $300 of GW stuff every year if not closer to $400. But I just got to the point where I couldn't justify the prices and the (seems like) constant changing of books just bugged the heck out of me. I'm finishing my marketing degree and I'm just screaming at how inept GW is being in terms of understanding their market segments. "Yeah let's come out with a set or two that is actually OK (OK being a loose term) in value and then sticker shock new players with other models!" -_-
I've jumped ship, having recently refocused my interests, and narrowing down my hobbies to tabletop gaming, and Mantic is my new ship so to speak. Sure their models aren't for everyone, but "upgrade kits" essentially more bits for your models are being talked about for each type of unit and I think that will change a lot of people's minds, and when they redo the terrible dwarfs.
They need to do a whole lot of things to get better. From a personal standpoint I would like lower prices as well as as an accelerated release schedule.
Wouldn't an accelarated release schedule include a quicker point of change between editions?
I am still a fan of the 3rd edition era, and one of the main reasons, broken as it may have been (rhino rush anyone?) it stood the test of time for quite a while, there were many expansions and additions, rather than revisions and editions.
IT was the longest running edition as well.
Rogue trader - 5yrs
2nd edition - 5 yrs
3rd edition - 6 yrs
4th edition - 4 yrs (also known as 3.5, for the relatively few number of rule changes made)
5th edition - 4 yrs
GW could and would sell a lot more product by having a fairly priced product, a balanced product from a rules/gaming perspective, with a stable life, allowing people to start new armies and multiple armies just as side projects.
I bought a VC army for WHFB for $300 AU, it was 2000 pts and it was well rounded. it was a GW package that i bought from a GW store. Now $300 AU would be lucky to buy a unit of blood knights. That sort of money here is very attainable, even at a student level, but the difference in VALUE in terms of time, volume, perceived value etc could not be greater; a complete, rounded, playable army vs one singular unit.
They need to have a serious change of culture, but even a change of captain at the helm would be unlikely to change this, as corporate culture is very deep seeded. Bankruptcy could actually be a good thing for GW, and a fan based Co-op could be the answer.
Who is GW's biggest shareholder?
How many shares are available?
Australia: where Forgeworld is the CHEAPER alternative to Games Workshop
GW Purchases since RoW terms of trade change in May 2011 'the antipodean embargo':
No, because they're still releasing models fairly slowly. They don't even care if all the armies for a game get updated for an edition.
And that is something that they should change, as that is largely what the consumer wants. There are some armies that can get away with a good errata and faq revision, but some rules change the dynamic for other armies too much, and then there is the wait. was it 11 years for Dark Eldar?
Australia: where Forgeworld is the CHEAPER alternative to Games Workshop
GW Purchases since RoW terms of trade change in May 2011 'the antipodean embargo':
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