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I'll admit my idea for book deadlines is a bit speedy. Just seems like they take forever these days.

I also like the idea of comics. It's something the current customer base would buy, and it would open the door to the comic consumer as well.

I think OP has just about everything, but I'd add one more: Rather than making more Space Marines, I'd instead roll them into one large codex, and expand every army from that point on to be just as diverse and interesting. This means numerous Chaos Warbands, Kabals for the Dark Eldar, Craftworlds for the regular Eldar, Ork tribes, etc. etc. etc.

That way, while yes, some units may be cut and simplified from the current SM 'dexes, every army becomes interesting and varied. Who remembers the 3rd Edition CSM codex? I'm thinking something along those lines for every book.

Second, I'd fire Matt goddamn Ward. Grey Knights wear power armour but they are NOT a normal SM chapter.

In addition, I'd get into electronic distribution more, including creating a first-party, free to use army building software that will help players build their armies up to the standards of the current rules.

EDIT: Forgot something! I'd make Forgeworld a more integrated part of GW's official rules. Their approach to rules creation and beta-testing is a major leap forward, and I'd like to see that represented in the main rules and unit creation process. (also, more infantry, less tanks would be nice).

1: Revamp Specialist Games - sell Blood Bowl off to FFG, throw Battle of Five Armies in the bin, cancel Inquisitor, Necromunda and Mordheim to be replaced by proper skirmish supplements for 40f and WFB (see point 2). This will leave SG with Epic, BFG and Warmaster to which I would add a re-done Man o' War. This gives SG a proper focus on large scale and naval supplements for the core systems.

2: Revamp the core rules. Each system (40k, WFB and LotR) gets a Rulebook, Skirmish supplement (with rules for warband vs warband and warband vs boss/grunt games) and a Companion book (for things like streamlined apoc rules, seige warfare, streetfighting, campaign rules, etc).

3: Rescue Chaos! End the love-in between the Chaos powers but bring back the crossover of different types of worshipper - WFB has the Daemons, Beasts and Warriors books, 40k would have Daemons, CSM and LatD. In both cases your general's mark would determine what you could have in the army (the same mark, undivided or unmarked) unless your general had mark of chaos undivided which allows you to mix-and-match but would be very expensive. Core troops come the same 'dex/army book as the general but with allies allowed from the other books.

4: Re-organise IoM codices for 40k. They would get Space Marines (ultrasmurf-focussed) and a big supplemental 'codex astartes' with all variant chapter rules in it. Then they would get Imperial Guard and a big supplemental 'codex imperium' with rules for Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, Ad-mech explorators, Chambers Militant, Assassins, Hive Gangs and Ecclesiarchy forces. This could be used as a stand-alone book or as a source for allies for IG/Marines based on which HQ choices were taken.

5: Run all the core systems on a 6-year turnaround with all armybooks to be updated within the first 3-4 years.

6: Compile a 'fluff bible' for all staff writers to refer to, to ensure consistency and continuity. Devise a 'standard template' for all rulebooks and army books. Institute a rigourous playtesting scheme for all new rules. Each new book will have an editor who will be held responsible for normal editorial duties and to ensure compliance with these three key elements. Every model should have an appropriate and consistent background and its in-game abilities, cost and rarity should match those to ensure every option in an army is equally viable.

7: Overhaul White Dwarf to become a proper tool to support the hobby, not just a glorified advert.

8: All store staff to be re-trained as genuine 'hobby specialists', not salesmen.

9: End the culture of secrecy and be open about the forthcoming products so as to drum up interest.

10: Support more events to increase interest and cover all different aspects of the hobby up to and including proper competitive tourney support.

aerethan wrote:What changes would you make if any? You are the man(or woman) in charge now, and can reform the company as you see fit since you are the majority share holder.

I would do the following:

.

Redesign White Dwarf to become a hobby magazine instead of a giant GW advert. I'd also get actual players to write for it with useful information instead of people who just push the flavor of the month.

Start an actual advertising campaign to attract new players instead of relying on word of mouth.

Show veterans some love by making them the focus of sales. Our job isn't done until everyone has every model!

Release confirmed information about release schedules, upcoming models etc. No more 2 weeks notice on new stuff.

Maintain an open suggestions forum for constructive criticism and new ideas.

Allow better use of IP for things like movies and video games. IMO GW has been too stingy with this.

Bring back the Bitz service.

Allow open beta playtesting of upcoming army books.

Release models for every unit entry in a book. No more guessing as to what the hell a mangler squig looks like.

Update every army before a new edition of the core rules are released. 6th edition wood elves you say? NEVER

So what would you change?

Keeping ideas quoted:

1) Return to 20 man Plastic infantry boxes for Fantasy. Keep 40k at 10's for plastics.

2) Price freeze. Possible reduction of 10% to 20%.

3) Consolidate retail stores in certain areas (like Maryland where they are too close together.) Consider expanding retail operation into major cities in the US where GW is not represented.

4) Roll Specialist Games into Forge World. Bring back Citadel Journal under Forge World with a focus on SG, the IA Campaigns, Warhammer Forge and player generated content. Reboot all Specialist Games. Bring Forge World out of the weeds and into the mainstream of the hobby.

5) Bring back alternative army lists in White Dwarf.

6) Unhook from the Lord of the Rings franchise.

7) Finish movement of all units into plastic. Characters to resin. Phase out all use of metal. Roll out conversion kits that re-open modeling options from the classic ranges. (example: the vast variety of Chaos pieces that have existed. Alternate heads, weapons etc.)

8) 4 armies for 40k and Fantasy per year until all are up to date with current rule set. All new kits are released before the next book release.

9) Bounce Mat Ward. Bring back Andy Chambers, Rick Priestly and Toumas Pirinen. Never bring Alessio and Gav back. Put others in the studio "on notice" (Kinrade, Cruddace).

10) Bring back more of the old board games through Fantasy Flight.

11) Bring the fun back into the hobby. Eliminate all sponsored tournament play that aren't significantly weighted by "soft scores" any "official" tournament is staffed entirely by company staff who do -all- judging on strict guidelines (especially for sportsmanship.) Drum the dregs, chipmunks and nerdragers out of the hobby.

I actually wouldn't change as much.

White Dwarf would absolutely get reformed - a smaller, cheaper, more hobby focused publication, with all kinds of "Opponent's consent but they really shouldn't refuse it" rules.
The advertising is almost useless in the internet era anyway - is there really anyone who says 'hey, I saw it in WD, now I know I have to have it?" No, we've already seen it on the internet, discussed its merits, etc.

One thing I would do would be make a line of miniatures with more roleplaying oriented themes - hive gangs, militia, etc. And more Xenos! Maybe have them available as allies in the main game.

I would actually have MORE rules without models, to encourage creativity and the purchase of bitz.

I'd get a much wider playtest thing going - publish beta rules on the web, get feedback, then write the final codex.

Actually, I'd probably take over much of the game development myself. : )

I'd get better writers for the codex fluff. Wow, the fluff has been bad the last couple of years (ever since Tau Empire).

Bakerofish wrote:...and after all those changes, youll still have message boards full of disgruntled players longing for 'the good ol days'

vet gamer "you remember when it was 'all marines all the time?'? Man, I wish they brought that back..."

ehehehehehe

ignore me.

This made me laugh

Lots of wish listing here, not sure it's all financially viable for the company myself. For instance, I don't think the bits service would even break even unless you charged a load for each bit, so I would open the older catalogues but you'd have to buy complete figures. People couldn't order 20 copies of Nagash's left arm for instance.

I think I'd sack the senior management team and bring in new people to really take a look at the company's approach to the number of stores and where they are, and do something about advertising properly. GW simply don't advertise, it's mad if they effectively want to be an expensive toy shop. They only advertise through WD which only their own customers buy. They only games workshop related adverts are for computer games and the like which are all third party. GW did have that partnership with De Agostini to do Battle Games in Middle-earth, that was hugely successful - do more like that!!

Howard A Treesong wrote:Lots of wish listing here, not sure it's all financially viable for the company myself. For instance, I don't think the bits service would even break even unless you charged a load for each bit, so I would open the older catalogues but you'd have to buy complete figures. People couldn't order 20 copies of Nagash's left arm for instance.

I think I'd sack the senior management team and bring in new people to really take a look at the company's approach to the number of stores and where they are, and do something about advertising properly. GW simply don't advertise, it's mad if they effectively want to be an expensive toy shop. They only advertise through WD which only their own customers buy. They only games workshop related adverts are for computer games and the like which are all third party. GW did have that partnership with De Agostini to do Battle Games in Middle-earth, that was hugely successful - do more like that!!

I know right? There's a theoretical "what would you do" thread and it has a ton of wish listing.

This is wierd.

I'd raise your "sack management" with a "take the company private".

Hmm starting to feel a wee bit market reasearchy eh? Honestly though I wouldn't throw away $150 million just for fun, that kind of money you WANT to see a return.
If you're that kinda person I'm pretty much below the bread line here feel free to donate for stuff other than plastic toy soldiers
Till then I'll keep scrimping and saving and pondering a new purchase in a few months time

Worglock wrote:I know right? There's a theoretical "what would you do" thread and it has a ton of wish listing.

Well I'd like to do a lot of things, but torpedoing the company by having a nostalgia-fest and bringing back Squats and putting lead back in the figures is not one of them.

AgeOfEgos wrote:
Alessio was lead----Jervis has stated as much---and Alessio wrote the main rules. The design studio always pitches in ideas/scenarios (Ever since 40k was around)---but 5th was his baby---and the best edition of 40k imo yet.

Writing main rules, when supervised, he might be okay at.
But he should never, ever, ever be put in charge of game balance. He wouldn't know balance if it bashed him upside the head with a claw hammer screaming "I'M BALANCED, I'M BALANCED!".

He publicly apologized for the Chaos Codex---but that was the direction the studio had at the time.

That was the direction that Alessio wanted. And people think Jervis is ridiculous.

He didn't write the Dark Angel Codex. Your anger is misplaced.

I'm aware he didn't "write the Dark Angel Codex".
However, the ideas that were put into it were his.

kestral wrote:

White Dwarf would absolutely get reformed - a smaller, cheaper, more hobby focused publication, with all kinds of "Opponent's consent but they really shouldn't refuse it" rules.
The advertising is almost useless in the internet era anyway - is there really anyone who says 'hey, I saw it in WD, now I know I have to have it?" No, we've already seen it on the internet, discussed its merits, etc.

The problem with WD I think is with the tight budget it is obviously being run on these days.

The lack of 'journalism' in the mag, is because they are not paying people to write articles for it. Although it has got a little better over previous issues, and since the ultimate low point of the 'Giant Issue', compare it to any mag pre issue 300 and the content is shameful.

Agree with your point totally though about the amount of advertising - again, pasting photos onto the pages along with the back of box blurb is a cheap way of making a magazine. And I think it's currently surviving on the goodwill of it's customers, who remember how it once was and still buy it with the illusions it might return to that way once again.

Liquidate and re-purpose the business into a strip club franchise

AvatarForm wrote:Liquidate and re-purpose the business into a strip club franchise

That's ridiculous.

No one is going to pay to see redshirts nakkid...

Codexes/rulebooks
Just to annoy Kan, I would combine all the SM codexes into one, shunting a lot of the fluff into a companion book.

I would do the same for the Chaos codex, putting CSM, daemons and renegade IG rules into a single book, as well as mutant/LATD rules.

All the codexes would be cut down to rules only with a minimum of fluff and the fluff would come in a separate book. This to make it easier to carry rules around and to look up rules.

All rulebooks would have a standard layout to make it easier.


White Dwarf
As was mentioned in the first post: open it up to other companies, fan articles, etc.

Specialist Games
Update and bring back all specialist games and continue supporting them with events/etc.

Updates
Updates starting with most out of date codex/rule set with 1 update every 4 months (staggered every 2 month between WHFB and 40K). There would be 1 specialist game update every 6 months.

Community
Scale back the B&M stores in untenable locations and focus on building up community projects (FLGS, game clubs etc). Have a section on the website dedicated to advertising upcoming events for them and their locations/contact details etc.

Increase external advertising to bring in new players and bring back old ones.

Other things
I like some of the ideas made by people in the thread. The fluff bible for example would be very good.

Kanluwen wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:
Alessio was lead----Jervis has stated as much---and Alessio wrote the main rules. The design studio always pitches in ideas/scenarios (Ever since 40k was around)---but 5th was his baby---and the best edition of 40k imo yet.

Writing main rules, when supervised, he might be okay at.
But he should never, ever, ever be put in charge of game balance. He wouldn't know balance if it bashed him upside the head with a claw hammer screaming "I'M BALANCED, I'M BALANCED!".

He publicly apologized for the Chaos Codex---but that was the direction the studio had at the time.

That was the direction that Alessio wanted. And people think Jervis is ridiculous.

He didn't write the Dark Angel Codex. Your anger is misplaced.

I'm aware he didn't "write the Dark Angel Codex".
However, the ideas that were put into it were his.

Just so we're clear---you're not going to give him credit for writing the main rules of 5th---when the book (And their lead designer) credits him for the main rules----yet you're going to blame him for a codex that was written (and credited) to different writers (and his name does not appear in)?

Can't argue with that logic.

/Unsubscribe

I'd have a few things for them.

1. Remove this capitalism on a monopoly. In australia, we get screwed over because GW can charge whatever the feth they like.

This doesn't mean they charge exponentially much, it's just a little too much for an average persons budget. [and, I'm a higher middle class kid, I have the money. it doesn't mean I want to spend it all.]

I'd say limit it a little more, based on sprue amounts, and make prices of older kits cheaper due to poor quality.

I'd arrange a model, like this
P= (S*5)+(M*5)+10 - (A*10) > 40$ [minimum is $40.]
Where
P = Price
S = the number of sprue
M = The number of models it makes
A = years old the kit is.
> = equal or greater. I can't do a real EOG symbol
So, a 5 Y/O Kit that makes 10 guys @ 4 sprue'd be

P= (20)+(50)+10-(50)>40
P= 30>40
P=40

A half-year old kit with 4 sprue and 10 men would be
P= (20)+(50)+10-(25)>40
P= 55$>40
P= 55$

I'd make WD a hobby magazine.

The only other thing is I'd move out of metal and into plastic or resin.

I would sack whoever decided to increase the price of the new Tomb Kings battalion from £50 to £70 for a few extra skeletons :/

Get the starter sets AOBR,IOB,etc in toy stores advertise in places outside of WD. bundle a mini into the video games to drum up intrest in the wargame. Cut back on multi stores per city. #1 thing GW should do is advertise more seems all the advertisements are geared towards people who are already in the wargaming hobby.

Kilkrazy wrote:I would be looking at:

1. Selling more than just WH and LoTR. In other words, I would be looking to sell boxed and board games based on the company IP.

2. Investigate the possibility of converting all metal models to plastic by optimising sprue frame layouts and cutting the frames to package the models as required. For example, a frame might be made containing the Space Marines Chapter Master and the Tyranid Hive Guard. Then it would be cut into two separate packages.

3. More love for veterans. They can be unpaid flagbearers for the whole company if they are kept enthusiastic and motivated.

4. Slow down the rate of publishing new editions to something like once every eight years. Increase the rate of publishing army books so that all the books were updated within two years of a new edition. Refresh armies and model ranges with mini codex releases during the other six years. These will also contain the

5. Re-organise the books to present the core rules with a bit of fluff and modelling as the basic book. A supplement will contain loads of fluff and modelling advice.

6. Re-organise the rules into several levels of game: skirmish, standard 40K/WHFB, Apoc, and special supplements like Cities of Death.

7. I think prices have reached the point of resistance. I would hold prices for a year or two.

8. Rulebooks and supplements to be presented as ringbinders for convenience of use. Sell army themed binders.

9. Stop hating indy shops. They can make just as much profit for GW as our own outlets do.

this sounds the most logical thing that gw could do really raise their game.3 and 6 would be my main priority.

aerethan wrote:What changes would you make if any? You are the man(or woman) in charge now, and can reform the company as you see fit since you are the majority share holder.

I would do the following:

Fire whoever decided to repackage Orc Boys in a box of 10 for $29.

Redesign White Dwarf to become a hobby magazine instead of a giant GW advert. I'd open advertising to other model companies and paint suppliers. I'd also get actual players to write for it with useful information instead of people who just push the flavor of the month.

Start an actual advertising campaign to attract new players instead of relying on word of mouth.

Show veterans some love by making them the focus of sales. Our job isn't done until everyone has every model!

Lower prices by about 20-30%. If this means shutting down stores that are close to 3rd party retailers then so be it. It's my company dammit.

Release confirmed information about release schedules, upcoming models etc. No more 2 weeks notice on new stuff.

Maintain an open suggestions forum for constructive criticism and new ideas.

Allow better use of IP for things like movies and video games. IMO GW has been too stingy with this.

Bring back the Bitz service.

Establish a referral reward system. Bring a new player to the game, get a free battalion or something along those lines.

Allow open beta playtesting of upcoming army books.

Put army book writers on strict deadlines for rules, release a new book every 2 months.

Release models for every unit entry in a book. No more guessing as to what the hell a mangler squig looks like.

Update every army before a new edition of the core rules are released. 6th edition wood elves you say? NEVER

So what would you change?

umm...How about the big important objective of making sure you turn a profit so that the company continues? Or is that not part of this wish list.)

Some of your stuff is in opposition to other wishes. You can't do proper play testing, and tell the writers to knock a new one out every two months. You won't be able to even start a lot of miniatures until playtesting and rules are done, and rushing miniatures is a bad thing.
Bitz service lost GW a ton of money.

And how the hell do you announce what your doing ahead of time, do the playtesting you need, finish the rules, get the models done, and then keep to a two month schedule?

Yelling 'Make it so Number One' only works in Star Trek.

But back up a bit, lets make it "If you hit the lotter for 800 million, and used half the money to buy out GW....". I'm a lot happier being able to make all those changes, and then if the company gets run into the ground, I don't have to worry about it so much.)

Kilkrazy wrote:I would be looking at:
2. Investigate the possibility of converting all metal models to plastic by optimising sprue frame layouts and cutting the frames to package the models as required. For example, a frame might be made containing the Space Marines Chapter Master and the Tyranid Hive Guard. Then it would be cut into two separate packages.

3. More love for veterans. They can be unpaid flagbearers for the whole company if they are kept enthusiastic and motivated.

4. Slow down the rate of publishing new editions to something like once every eight years. Increase the rate of publishing army books so that all the books were updated within two years of a new edition. Refresh armies and model ranges with mini codex releases during the other six years. These will also contain the

5. Re-organise the books to present the core rules with a bit of fluff and modelling as the basic book. A supplement will contain loads of fluff and modelling advice.

6. Re-organise the rules into several levels of game: skirmish, standard 40K/WHFB, Apoc, and special supplements like Cities of Death.

8. Rulebooks and supplements to be presented as ringbinders for convenience of use. Sell army themed binders.

I'm will KK on all of his points, especially the ring-binder approach to the rules; this is something I've long thought made sense. The ability to release add on units, new list variations and new chapters/cabals/klans/regiments/craftworlds/whatever becomes stupidly easy in this format as they can be inserts in WD and offer some value back to the readers. The binder approach also allows the standardisation of rules for vehicles/equipment/weapons as the same page could be used again and again, or just not included in new Chapter packs, so we don't get different armies using the same equipment with different effects (Storm shields and drop pods spring to mind here).

Rather than trying to directly recreate the special characters in plastic, I'd look at creating bitz sprues in plastic that allow the creation of special characters from the normal plastic ranges as well as offering new and exciting bits for the veterans to convert their own characters/units. Things like chapter pads can be handed over to FW to churn out in resin without any real issues. If they become popular enough, fine. Create a chapter sprue in plastic with any special character bits for that chapter.

Resorting the sprues to be more efficient would also be up there for me. Why include marine body backs on every sprue when you can have a generic sprue that can be added into every box without any problems? Move all guard weapons to a general weapon/equipment sprue etc. etc. You get the drift. That way you can, to some degree, bring back the Bitz service by selling a Guard weapon sprue or a Marine heavy weapon sprue.

I'd also stop the split between FW and GW, other than as the manufacturers of more elite/experimental models and things like chapter pads. The writing, testing, sculpting and design would benefit both sides if they created a best-of-both set of guidelines. FW produces nicer models (imo), but lacks some of the finer points of game balance.

Make Alan Bligh a key part of the Codex team as, imo, IA9/10 are the best books GW has produced in ages; also try and get the FFG writing teams more involved in the production of the official fluff as they are so much better at it than the current GW writers...

AgeOfEgos wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:
Alessio was lead----Jervis has stated as much---and Alessio wrote the main rules. The design studio always pitches in ideas/scenarios (Ever since 40k was around)---but 5th was his baby---and the best edition of 40k imo yet.

Writing main rules, when supervised, he might be okay at.
But he should never, ever, ever be put in charge of game balance. He wouldn't know balance if it bashed him upside the head with a claw hammer screaming "I'M BALANCED, I'M BALANCED!".

He publicly apologized for the Chaos Codex---but that was the direction the studio had at the time.

That was the direction that Alessio wanted. And people think Jervis is ridiculous.

He didn't write the Dark Angel Codex. Your anger is misplaced.

I'm aware he didn't "write the Dark Angel Codex".
However, the ideas that were put into it were his.

Just so we're clear---you're not going to give him credit for writing the main rules of 5th---when the book (And their lead designer) credits him for the main rules

Did I say that? No. I pretty clearly said that "Writing main rules,when supervised, he might be okay at. But he should never, ever, ever be put in charge of game balance."
He does not understand the concept of game balance. He might be able to make a decent set of rules for the balance to be based around, but he cannot balance a book to save his freaking life.

yet you're going to blame him for a codex that was written (and credited) to different writers (and his name does not appear in)?

Considering he said at a Games Day that the "development of the Dark Angels Codex, with no input from the writer working on the Space Marine book at the same time, no fact checking between the two, etc" was his idea--yes, the majority of the problems were his fault. Alessio was, at that time, in charge of the studio.

Dark Angels was however, for all intents and purposes, the 'Prototype of a Prototype' Codex. It was the first(and only Codex as far as I remember) Codex that lists just two authors.
It was the first attempt to 'streamline' the army selection with Special Characters, etc etc.

The fact that he made such an absurdly stupid idea as "don't talk to each other" become commonplace as it's become is why I do not like Alessio and am glad that he is gone.

Can't argue with that logic.

It doesn't keep people from blaming Matt Ward for 'ruining the background of 40k singlehandedly' when there's been weird little bits of fluff since before he was writing for GW.

endtransmission wrote:Resorting the sprues to be more efficient would also be up there for me. Why include marine body backs on every sprue when you can have a generic sprue that can be added into every box without any problems? Move all guard weapons to a general weapon/equipment sprue etc. etc. You get the drift. That way you can, to some degree, bring back the Bitz service by selling a Guard weapon sprue or a Marine heavy weapon sprue.

To play devil's advocate, that means the employees doing assembly have to think more. instead of just packing the contents of a mold, they have to pack something from Bin A and something from Bin B. Slower packing, higher production costs.

To remind people, this is if you win the lotto and can just buy out GW on a whim, with no worry of it making money.

I'll retract the 2 month book deadline as people have pointed out it's rather far fetched.

Balance wrote:

endtransmission wrote:Resorting the sprues to be more efficient would also be up there for me. Why include marine body backs on every sprue when you can have a generic sprue that can be added into every box without any problems? Move all guard weapons to a general weapon/equipment sprue etc. etc. You get the drift. That way you can, to some degree, bring back the Bitz service by selling a Guard weapon sprue or a Marine heavy weapon sprue.

To play devil's advocate, that means the employees doing assembly have to think more. instead of just packing the contents of a mold, they have to pack something from Bin A and something from Bin B. Slower packing, higher production costs.

They already have to do this anyway for things like the battalion boxes and anything that comes with transfers or bases, so I wouldn't say it's too far fetched. It's not like I'm asking for everything to be cut off the sprues or anything

aerethan wrote:To remind people, this is if you win the lotto and can just buy out GW on a whim, with no worry of it making money.

I'll retract the 2 month book deadline as people have pointed out it's rather far fetched.

You'll need a lot more money then.) A company like GW could hemorage money very quickly.

But frankly, I'd rather spend far less than one million on a large hall with 30 gaming tables, a bar, and a sculptor, figure painter, and scenery maker who work for me full time.)
Oh, and a bar in the back, big screen TV, pastry chef, trained monkey to roll my dice....

Balance wrote:

endtransmission wrote:Resorting the sprues to be more efficient would also be up there for me. Why include marine body backs on every sprue when you can have a generic sprue that can be added into every box without any problems? Move all guard weapons to a general weapon/equipment sprue etc. etc. You get the drift. That way you can, to some degree, bring back the Bitz service by selling a Guard weapon sprue or a Marine heavy weapon sprue.

To play devil's advocate, that means the employees doing assembly have to think more. instead of just packing the contents of a mold, they have to pack something from Bin A and something from Bin B. Slower packing, higher production costs.

The sorting and packing could be done electronically. A sensible company will do it the most efficient way, which might be by hand or by machine.

GW's margin is already 76% and growing as they phase out metal. We can afford to increase packing costs a bit if needed to achieve efficiency in the moulding setups.

If I somehow came to control GW I would get a mountain of market research before much major restructuring but I know I would cancel any rules documents less than 50% complete and start work on new rules editions. the plastic makes money but the money promotes sales. I would focus on clarity of the rules, good scaling from low to high points for better entry level, and balance.
If the research supported it, I would close most north american retail stores and re-institute the outrider program there. I would also open up online shopping cart sales a bit.
I would try to make a more open report between the company and the consumers, maybe re-open some forums and just have mods suspend or ban chronic whiners. I would definitely give some sneak peaks of upcoming releases but maybe only by about 3-6 weeks more than we have now.
Cleaning up white dwarf would be a huge project and it might have to wait until more important changes got made, as bad as it is now it seems to sell well enough to turn some profit.

things i would NOT do: make anything cheaper unless it's a rare case to bring price ranges in line, put any harsh deadlines on books, alllow anyone that has ever worked on a previous rules document for gw to even touch the new ones, or bring out any new space marine models before other armies caught up some [unless I was certain it would be good for the company in the long term].

Maybe this is crazy but...

Open Game Licence.

I know that the OGL for D&D 3.5 caused a lot of really ridiculous, broken stuff to be produced. Furthermore, I admit that it may have resulted in the financial ruin of the company. But hear me out.

GW's main revenue comes from miniature sales, not rule book sales. I'm stating that as fact, but I'm willing to concede I may be wrong on it. If supplements were being released by third-parties, if will lead to increased purchasing of GW miniatures to build new, third-party armies. Also, rehashed versions of the core game system could be released, appeasing those who might rage-quit based on rules they dislike.

Sure, there'll be broken as heck armies. Sure, there'll be a lot of mud in the water. But it would be simple enough to choose which books were used in your local gaming club of FLGS, especially for tournament play.

I don't know, maybe it's a terrible idea. I do, however, think that it would be a positive move on GW's part. I can't say as I'm too in favour of the way they treat other companies right now.