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I see they're even applying the "attitude is more important than skills" approach to the CEO's position. Therefore I expect the next in the job will essentially be a Kirby clone. Maybe in a few years they could make one with a 3D printer!
I'm not sure he does "know of what he speaks" when it comes to 3D printing. One moment he's saying they have been "at the forefront of the technology for many years," the next he&s dismissing them as inconsequential. Has he confused 3D printing with CAD?
The whole section about 3D printers seems like a smokescreen. Maybe he would be better off spending less time pretending to be an ostrich and more time thinking about real problems such as a shrinking customer base, complaints about pricing, the growth of competitors, failure to use social media (or do any kind of marketing of the core games or promotion of licenced products), etc...
Driven away from WH40K by rules bloat and the expense of keeping up, now interested in smaller model count games and anything with nifty mechanics.
kronk wrote: From that pre-amble, I'm expecting a drop in revenue from 2013. Significant, perhaps.
I think the preamble doesn't predict that. It does predict a lot of large one-time costs that may make the financials less than spectacular though.
Exactly, but said differently. He's laying out all of the expenses (mostly one-offs) for the year now, because the profits aren't going to be spectacular. Either trying to soften the blow that is coming, or just make excuses for it.
This would be the third straight reporting period with decreased profits if that were the case. Not quite a causation of one-off expenditures. It's excuses, plain and simple, with perhaps a little creative accounting thrown in to make the "one-off" expenditures seem to be more detrimental than they were. Almost $7 million for THAT website....indeed!
The telling data will be the sales numbers. They just had two subsequent periods of decreased sales figures. If the third period also shows a decrease in sales, they are in big trouble. You have to remember they rolled out a bunch of new product including a core rulebook that every player needed in order to keep up with the game as well as all new codices from the most popular armies out there. A decrease in sales after all of there roll outs is truly catastrophic.
The 2013-14 annual report is up on the investor relations section of the GW website. But, no content is available right now. Did they remove the preamble? Seems odd to have a link to nothing.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 18:46:02
The 2013-14 annual report is up on the investor relations section of the GW website. But, no content is available right now. Did they remove the preamble? Seems odd to have a link to nothing.
They didn't bother to block the downloads folder of the website so if you direct address it, you can reach it.
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do
mattyrm wrote: I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?
I know nothing about web design and the costs involved, so someone please explain why is this bad?
Because they paid an obscene amount of money to make a website that is worse than the one the already had. Yeah, I'm sure it costs money to deal with the security and bug fixing required to run a business website with that much money going through it, but the design aspect is just embarrassingly bad. They completely removed all the content (blog posts, painting guides, etc) that might get people to visit the website regularly and be in a position to impulse buy something, and replaced it with an adequate online store that nobody will ever visit unless they are buying a product. And aesthetically it's a mess, way too much empty space, too much scrolling to see all of the information, etc. Granted, some of this is due to the "modern" tablet-friendly style that is (sadly) popular right now, but GW's version of it is just badly executed.
In short, if I didn't know how much GW paid for it I would have assumed that it was designed by someone's friend for as cheaply as possible. The fact that someone actually paid millions of dollars for this is just unbelievable.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
There are people in the world who make those sorts of sites for pocket change in about a month.
How GW manages to fail this badly, I cannot fathom.
Simple.
Here's a transcript from GW's home office.
Kirby - So, apparently we need a new webzone.
Aid - Web site.
Kirby - Whatever
Programmer - How much do you know of web design?
Kirby - As little as possible. It's just a fad these fangled youngsters are going through. The world will wise up to the one man store principle any day now.
Programmer - I see.... How's your Facebook page going?
Kirby - Don't need one.
Programmer - Excellent. Okay, what if I gave you the figure of...say....four million pounds?
Kirby - I don't like it. That sounds like too much.
Programmer - No, actually its a bargain! I'll finish it in a month, which is twice as fast as anyone else will offer you. Trust me, it's a steal.
Kirby - Excellent!
(Programmer goes off and finds an old "web store" program from the late '90's he still had lying around and laughs menacingly to the camera.)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 18:46:17
Also, check out my history blog: Minimum Wage Historian, a fun place to check out history that often falls between the couch cushions.
The 2013-14 annual report is up on the investor relations section of the GW website. But, no content is available right now. Did they remove the preamble? Seems odd to have a link to nothing.
They didn't bother to block the downloads folder of the website so if you direct address it, you can reach it.
That is very telling. How does one do such a thing?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 18:48:25
...... Its products may come from a fantasy world of orcs and elves, but Games Workshop’s results are firmly grounded in reality and disarmingly honest.
Posting preliminary figures today, chairman and acting chief executive Tom Kirby uses his introduction to inform the market of his aim to “continue to make the best fantasy miniatures in the world and sell them at a profit”.
And how does he plan to do this? “We run a tight ship, and do our damnedest to get more sales,” he says. “Everything else is just whistling Dixie.”
Games Workshop (LSE: GAW.L - news) , which makes and sells fantasy games such as Warhammer and Lord of the Rings and model figures with which to play them, posted pre-tax profits of £19.5m for the 53 weeks to June 3 2012. But royalty income from licences sold to computer games companies fell £2.5m to £1.0m.
“We expected a significant decline,” says Mr Kirby, who says the traditional computer games industry has been “changed utterly and permanently” by the arrival of smartphones and iPads.
“We switched as fast as we could,” he confesses. “But [we] were limited by the constraints of the deals we already had in place.”
Games Workshop may have adapted but Mr Kirby hasn't quite kept up, referring to one new product as "Warhammer Quest for iOS (Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) stuff). Buy it now! Good fun."
He also goes back to basics as runs through the company's performance. "Sales," Mr Kirby explains, "is all the money we take in and we quantify by counting it."
Such ideas are not "mysterious", he admits.
On the subject of overheads, he is equally pithy: "With overheads we try to have them not grow at all. Easy to say. Hard to do."
Mr Kirby also tells investors in the London-listed business to take next year’s capital investment numbers “with a pinch of salt”.
“We think it many be £9.3m,” he says, before referencing the 19th century German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke. “But remember that, as von Moltke said, ‘No plan survives contact with the enemy’.”
However, he says the biggest threat to the company is internal its own staff. This is why Mr Kirby will only hire employees who understand that Games Workshop’s business ethic is modelled on inventor Thomas Edison’s methodology.
Mr Kirby explains the modus operandi: “After 10,000 attempts to make an incandescent lightbulb, [Edison (Milan: EDNR.MI - news) ] was asked about the 9,999 failures. ‘They weren’t failures, he said. I now know 9,999 ways it won’t work’.”
But if Games Workshop’s factory burns down, the company is “well insured”. In fact, says Mr Kirby, it could be back into full-scale production “within 12 months”.
Mr Kirby has a policy of never giving interviews or speaking to the press, leaving his “CEO’s Commentary” to do the talking for him.
He is part of a tradition of plain-speaking business leaders that includes Andrew Perloff, the outspoken chairman of Panther Securities (LSE: PNS.L - news) , whose bi-annual “ramblings” have become more of a media event than the financial performance of his property investment company.
Although, of course, that may be the intention.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/29 01:58:54
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do
I do remember talking to someone I know who is into the whole corporate website / webstore design universe.
I do believe he said that GW looks like they are using the Top Of The Range, the dogs b****cks , most expensive, backup of your backupped backups webstore and the price he quoted was in the £4 million region.
Needless to say, I wasn't convinced but then again... Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone didn't get value for money out of an IT project.
Da Boss wrote: I remember reading that before Agnosto- it's from a while ago, yeah?
Yeah, I should have mentioned that. It's just interesting in how some of the comments still apply:
Mr Kirby also tells investors in the London-listed business to take next year’s capital investment numbers “with a pinch of salt”.
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do
The more that I read it the more astounded I am that someone that tone deaf was conducting this orchestra.
His comments on litigation were bizarre. Truly bizarre. So much was wrong with his stated views that it requires too much time and effort to even address them.
The same can be said of his view of technology, but I'll give it a short summation.
He states that affordable 3-D won't be able to produce high quality products quickly. This in and of itself is short sighted to the point of blindness and merely repeats the sentiments of a buggy whip manufacturer's opinion of the automobile. Which he strangely follows up with a commitment to produce 3-D printers when they do surpass his pronouncements.
Need to get my kickstarter approved for airfare to Nottingham for my interview as CEO. Everyone that backs gets a free sprue of the best GW product. No components will be on the sprue though , is that attitude enough for Kirby, o do I need to go in and sit on their side of the table during the interview?
LOL, Theo your mind is an amazing place, never change.-camkierhi 9/19/13
I cant believe theo is right.. damn. -comradepanda 9/26/13
None of the strange ideas we had about you involved your sexual orientation..........-Monkeytroll 12/10/13
I'd put you on ignore for that comment, if I could...Alpharius 2/11/14
I don't know how tax codes work in the UK but I used to work for a company that had a similar one-off insane outlay of cash, but it didn't hurt the company's stock price in the long run.
Essentially the company I worked for had a product fail and it cost them over $100M to fix the issues and win back consumer confidence. In this case it looks like Kirby is using investor speak to allay fears.
If I had to wager what we'll see I think it will be an increase in sales, lower operating costs but an overall loss due to the reshuffling and website cost.
Kirby is right that there's always going to be people who don't want to print their own miniatures. What he fails to mention is that this means GW will be catering to a diminishing customer base in an increasingly competitive market.
Already 3D printing technology has made it possible for new miniatures companies to spring up overnight. It is also already getting to the point where small companies can afford to buy their own high quality 3D printer.
We are a ways off from consumers printing their own miniatures on a regular basis, but the technology has advanced to the point of opening up the market, which is where a big chunk of GW's revenue has arguably gone.
Kirasu: Have we fallen so far that we are excited that GW is giving us the opportunity to spend 58$ for JUST the rules? Surprised it's not "Dataslate: Assault Phase"
AlexHolker: "The power loader is a forklift. The public doesn't complain about a forklift not having frontal armour protecting the crew compartment because the only enemy it is designed to face is the OHSA violation."
AlexHolker: "Allow me to put it this way: Paramount is Skynet, reboots are termination attempts, and your childhood is John Connor."
Auswin wrote: I don't know how tax codes work in the UK but I used to work for a company that had a similar one-off insane outlay of cash, but it didn't hurt the company's stock price in the long run.
Essentially the company I worked for had a product fail and it cost them over $100M to fix the issues and win back consumer confidence. In this case it looks like Kirby is using investor speak to allay fears.
If I had to wager what we'll see I think it will be an increase in sales, lower operating costs but an overall loss due to the reshuffling and website cost.
You've got it. It's the sales that will be the key metric. Especially since they have cut operating expenses down to the bone, streamlined their distribution down to a single line and created a website that will be utilized for years.
Sigvatr wrote: GW have cornered themselves. The only cut they can still make is closing down the retail stores completely.
And that won't work for them either because they pissed off all of the independent retailers. They basically have their back to a river after having burned all of their boats or for a more known saying, they've crossed the Rubicon.
They're past the point of no return.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/07/28 19:27:53
-it's stupid piece of writing. Of course it is, Kirby's a corporate guy. Corporate propaganda pieces are always stupid and trying to spin everything in best possible light and often end up sounding hilarious. No exceptions. Did you see the letter with which Elop fired thousands of people from Microsoft? Kirby has NOTHING on Elop when it comes to stupid corporate language.
-Kirby's stepping down as CEO. Totally expected, AIUI Kirby doing the double chairs thing was always going to be somewhat temporary. Of course there is a caveat that he hints that he will continue if no suitable candidate is found, AND he will still continue as Chairman of the Board. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
-Steve Jobs comparison was surprisingly (though maybe unintentionally) adept in that Apple was and is extremely militant in using legal challenges to hunt down any actors, no matter how small, which it saw as a threat, including Apple fan sites and blogs. Hmm, sound familiar?
-GW website costed £4 million is somehow "OMG". I fail to see why. Sure it's not particularly GREAT site but exorbitant amount of money spent to seemingly crappy result is common enough in the world of corporate websites. Finnish State Railroads spent three years and 15 million euros for this site. It crashed within 3 hours of its induction...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 19:28:36
mattyrm wrote: I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?
I know nothing about web design and the costs involved, so someone please explain why is this bad?
A good mate of mine does web design and search optimization and gak for a living, hes Google certified and all that bollocks.
Anyways, he said he makes a cheap gakky website for like 500 bucks, and a fully designed, all singing all dancing, original art and sounds and buttons and videos and all of that gak website for between 5 and 8 grand.
Now, I know that for a big company like GW, with a massive inventory and all kind of complex gak it is obviously going to be much higher, as require much more effort, but do you see what I'm saying? If one bloke who does it really well and professionally for say, 8 grand, you would presume it would cost some sort of derivative of that amount.
So, lets be generous and say it would take not just one bloke, but twenty, surely you are still talking under a million bucks right?
If I had been asked for a best guess before reading that, seriously Id have basically times my mates figure by twenty or something, so Id have said like.. between 200-300 grand. I certainly wouldn't have got near a million, and feth me, 4 baffles me completely, because surely you could hire twenty pros to work on it full time for 6 months, and still not get anywhere near that figure.
That's for the webpage that you see...
What we don't see, is the "supply chain" side of the business. Essentially the IT infrastructure to support the inventory / accounting side of the business. Maybe that got updated along with the new website?
-it's stupid piece of writing. Of course it is, Kirby's a corporate guy. Corporate propaganda pieces are always stupid and trying to spin everything in best possible light and often end up sounding hilarious. No exceptions. Did you see the letter with which Elop fired thousands of people from Microsoft? Kirby has NOTHING on Elop when it comes to stupid corporate language.
-Kirby's stepping down as CEO. Totally expected, AIUI Kirby doing the double chairs thing was always going to be somewhat temporary. Of course there is a caveat that he hints that he will continue if no suitable candidate is found, AND he will still continue as Chairman of the Board. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
-Steve Jobs comparison was surprisingly (though maybe unintentionally) adept in that Apple was and is extremely militant in using legal challenges to hunt down any actors, no matter how small, which it saw as a threat, including Apple fan sites and blogs. Hmm, sound familiar?
-GW website costed £4 million is somehow "OMG". I fail to see why. Sure it's not particularly GREAT site but exorbitant amount of money spent to seemingly crappy result is common enough in the world of corporate websites. Finnish State Railroads spent three years and 15 million euros for this site. It crashed within 3 hours of its induction...
The big deal is that this points to troubles being bigger than anticipated. Taken individually, sure, no big deal. Added together and it starts to paint a hazy, but unpleasant picture.
Also, check out my history blog: Minimum Wage Historian, a fun place to check out history that often falls between the couch cushions.
weeble1000 wrote: Kirby is right that there's always going to be people who don't want to print their own miniatures. What he fails to mention is that this means GW will be catering to a diminishing customer base in an increasingly competitive market.
Already 3D printing technology has made it possible for new miniatures companies to spring up overnight. It is also already getting to the point where small companies can afford to buy their own high quality 3D printer.
We are a ways off from consumers printing their own miniatures on a regular basis, but the technology has advanced to the point of opening up the market, which is where a big chunk of GW's revenue has arguably gone.
He also didn't mention the true brilliance of a 3-D printer. The manufacture of templates.
An individual or company can utilize a 3-D printer to make the original as a whole or in it's constituent parts on a sprue for casting purposes. Then these small companies or individuals can make an immeasurable amount of silicon molds that have a great deal of detail .
The superior product (detail) of GW argument is only true for a small slice of their customer base. As the majority of the people that I see buying the lions share of their product don't utilize the superior quality very well at all. Unpainted models, unbased models, 3 colors of paint only, mold lines everywhere, poorly glued.
It's great that they're claiming Rolex quality demands a Rolex price...too bad that their main customers are mechanics and just need a Fossil.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 19:35:50
-it's stupid piece of writing. Of course it is, Kirby's a corporate guy. Corporate propaganda pieces are always stupid and trying to spin everything in best possible light and often end up sounding hilarious. No exceptions. Did you see the letter with which Elop fired thousands of people from Microsoft? Kirby has NOTHING on Elop when it comes to stupid corporate language.
-Kirby's stepping down as CEO. Totally expected, AIUI Kirby doing the double chairs thing was always going to be somewhat temporary. Of course there is a caveat that he hints that he will continue if no suitable candidate is found, AND he will still continue as Chairman of the Board. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
-Steve Jobs comparison was surprisingly (though maybe unintentionally) adept in that Apple was and is extremely militant in using legal challenges to hunt down any actors, no matter how small, which it saw as a threat, including Apple fan sites and blogs. Hmm, sound familiar?
-GW website costed £4 million is somehow "OMG". I fail to see why. Sure it's not particularly GREAT site but exorbitant amount of money spent to seemingly crappy result is common enough in the world of corporate websites. Finnish State Railroads spent three years and 15 million euros for this site. It crashed within 3 hours of its induction...
And the cavalry has arrived!
It's bad because reading between the lines it seems to hint that the report is going to be very bad and Kirby is spouting corporate propaganda to assuage the stockholders that it's nothing to panic over. It doesn't come across as a confident CEO talking about growth, it seems more like "That wasn't a UFO, it was just a weather balloon! Nothing to see here!" BS so you don't have people rioting.
Read what he's not saying, not what he is saying: There's no tone of confidence there to me; it reads more like someone grasping at straws so they don't get torn to shreds.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/07/28 19:37:19
-Steve Jobs comparison was surprisingly (though maybe unintentionally) adept in that Apple was and is extremely militant in using legal challenges to hunt down any actors, no matter how small, which it saw as a threat, including Apple fan sites and blogs. Hmm, sound familiar?
What I took away from the Steve Jobs portion was "We're not going to pursue litigation anymore, unless it's an innovator in the field."
It's bad because reading between the lines it seems to hint that the report is going to be very bad and Kirby is spouting corporate propaganda to assuage the stockholders that it's nothing to panic over. It doesn't come across as a confident CEO talking about growth, it seems more like "That wasn't a UFO, it was just a weather balloon! Nothing to see here!" BS so you don't have people rioting.
That's what I said, didn't I?
The point is that pretty much every CEO in the world will attempt to spin negative performances with lingo like this. Kirby did exact same thing last year.
What I took away from the Steve Jobs portion was "We're not going to pursue litigation anymore, unless it's an innovator in the field."
I've always thought that Kirby sees Jobs as some sort of paragon to be followed, and sure enough, there are many similarities between Apple's and GW's strategies.
Which is not necessarily a good thing.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/28 19:37:29
Has this been authenticated yet? I doubt its real, but in the off chance that it is, wow. If this guy is representative of GW's leadership as a whole, then this company is most certainly doomed. From the content to the attitude and delivery - it reeks of willful ignorance and downright terrible management. If your business starts losing money, or net declines - you figure out why. You don't decide why.
That being said, no way this is real. It would be a death rattle, the start of agonal breaths. Broadcast for anyone to see.
, is that attitude enough for Kirby, o do I need to go in and sit on their side of the table during the interview?
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