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 Peregrine wrote:
The bigger question is why would anyone want this job? You're taking over leadership of a company that is hopelessly screwed and shows no desire that they're even aware of their problems, which means any CEO who does offer realistic solutions will probably be ignored. So you'll probably end up with a black mark on your record when you're fired in a desperate attempt to appease the shareholders after the inevitable drop in profit. And if you're someone who has any hope of a management career elsewhere I can't imagine why you'd want to take that risk. So really, GW probably is showing some desperation with this, and I wouldn't be surprised if they end up hiring someone who any sane company would consider laughably unqualified.

Yeah, I'll suck it up and take a millions of dollars in pay. You twisted my arm.

 Necros wrote:
So, how many fanboys-that-think-they-are-khornes-gift-to-gw will also be there on Nov 7th for an interview? I get the idea it's gonna be more like an audition

Hopefully none, because GW at least has the sense to ignore all the random fanboys who send in joke applications. If even a single fanboy gets an interview offer it's a safe bet that GW will be bankrupt in the very near future. Of course if GW is somehow stupid enough to send me an interview offer I'm booking plane tickets to the UK...

Well, I am the president of my class at dental school. Maybe I could switch to this

joking of course

We wrote:
Yeah, I'll suck it up and take a millions of dollars in pay. You twisted my arm.

Sure, it's a great offer if you're not qualified for the job and have no long-term career potential to worry about. But if you've got the qualifications you're probably better off looking for a job elsewhere. And I suspect this is part of why GW is accepting applications at all instead of recruiting internally or through networking between other wealthy CEOs, they probably went through all of the candidates they had in mind and none of them wanted the job.

 Peregrine wrote:

We wrote:
Yeah, I'll suck it up and take a millions of dollars in pay. You twisted my arm.

Sure, it's a great offer if you're not qualified for the job and have no long-term career potential to worry about. But if you've got the qualifications you're probably better off looking for a job elsewhere. And I suspect this is part of why GW is accepting applications at all instead of recruiting internally or through networking between other wealthy CEOs, they probably went through all of the candidates they had in mind and none of them wanted the job.

Y'know, that is a pretty bleak scenario. I wonder if some number of candidate rejection letters would be enough to make the board realize how close GW is to going away.

Hell, I'd think I'd be qualified to run this place. As a store manager, I already do the following:

-Balance Profit and Loss balances on a month by month basis, tabulating a far reaching projection of where my store's net gains will end up.

-Provide decisive leadership. I'm the go to person for my store and frequently the one others go to for district level information.

-Customer oriented. This is a big one. I've gotten my store to a 96% satisfaction rating with customer feedback, top ten in the company. It's not only that, but I also know my business, getting the product my company produces to the consumer and getting more of it when they ask for it.

-Dedicated. Twice Employee of the Month for a retail division of 1000+ employees. You want to drive home the point of how good I am, almost no one else in the company cares more about its success than me.

Bottom line, they need someone with a mix of everything from customer reorientation along with dedication not to their wallet, but to making GW greater than what they aspire to be.

Of course, it also boils down to what the investors really want.

@WarOne.
I think you are missing a couple of 'necessary skills'.

Being able to bull$h!t , and use management speak.

If I was british I'd sure apply. . . its not like they even look at resumes after all. They just need to get the right "feel" during the interview.

 Peregrine wrote:
The bigger question is why would anyone want this job? You're taking over leadership of a company that is hopelessly screwed and shows no desire that they're even aware of their problems, which means any CEO who does offer realistic solutions will probably be ignored. So you'll probably end up with a black mark on your record when you're fired in a desperate attempt to appease the shareholders after the inevitable drop in profit. And if you're someone who has any hope of a management career elsewhere I can't imagine why you'd want to take that risk. So really, GW probably is showing some desperation with this, and I wouldn't be surprised if they end up hiring someone who any sane company would consider laughably unqualified.

A description which would be equally apt of (say) Apple before Steve Jobs returned.

I think the chance to turn around a troubled, yet still beloved and iconic, company would appeal to a lot of people--especially if you have a lot of affection for the hobby and the industry.

I'm sure many of the higher-ups at PP, FFG, Warlord, Mantic, et al have at least THOUGHT about what they'd do if they were CEO of GW, especially since a good chunk of them used to work at GW.

Except Apple seemed to just be missing direction/personality, and GW seems to be actively ignorant to run the company, with those responsible still there (Kirby is going to remain on the board, after all).

So you'd get to come into a failing company to turn it around whilst being largely powerless to actually change anything. It's still a pretty tempting years salary for being a scapegoat though, if only I could do it without giving up the day job.

Why is everyone assuming that GW (read Kirby) wants someone that is going to come in and change the course of the ship?

From the listing it looks like they are trying to fill the opening with an employee not a CEO. Keep in mind most places when a CEO is hired in it's also with an expectation that they buy a certain amount of company stock so that they have skin in the game. Would you want to step up and bet your own money you could turn it around without the full support (or at least a majority of the board behind you?). My god, it would be like pulling teeth with no anesthetic day in and day out.

Maybe it's related to the stock buyback order, and they are hoping the new CEO will take some/all of Kirby's 7% of the stock before skips away into the sunset.

I should send in my resume.

About two lines of text and then just glossy photos of me photoshopped into the war torn Warhammer universes in a sad mimicry of White Dwarf.

 darefsky wrote:
Why is everyone assuming that GW (read Kirby) wants someone that is going to come in and change the course of the ship?

You must be reading a different "everyone" to what I'm reading, because that doesn't seem to be what people are assuming at all

It'll be a sounding board for what they can do better, I reckon.

Get in some sensible, grown up hobbyists who love the company, ask "What would *you* do that's different to imprve GW and our profits?" take all that free info away, hire internally and then either learn and grow or batten the hatches for another few years.

IMFO.

 monders wrote:
It'll be a sounding board for what they can do better, I reckon.

Get in some sensible, grown up hobbyists who love the company, ask "What would *you* do that's different to imprve GW and our profits?" take all that free info away, hire internally and then either learn and grow or batten the hatches for another few years.

IMFO.

I think that would be too close to market research. They'll probably get someone to read them then execute that person to ensure no outside information corrupts the glory that is GW corporate.

I might but:

"My first act will be to declare a 75% off sale, followed by resetting all prices at 50% of current"

may not go down well, not at all.

 argonak wrote:
If I was british I'd sure apply. . . its not like they even look at resumes after all. They just need to get the right "feel" during the interview.

Based on what I have heard, you'd probably be best of walking into the interview room screaming "Waaarrrrrrggghhh!!" with some bags of Chapterhouse and Maxmini bits to throw on to the floor and smash to bits under your feet. Then, you'd also need to lead a sheep into the room behind you and <censored> just so they know exactly how you would treat the fans. Think you'd be practically guaranteed the job.

 master of ordinance wrote:
I might but:

"My first act will be to declare a 75% off sale, followed by resetting all prices at 50% of current"

may not go down well, not at all.

Slightly off topic, but I'm deeply of the opinion that if GW had a company-wide Megasale, like they used to for store openings, instead of launching 7th Edition 40k. The financials would've gone crazy. It's pretty fair to say that there's lots of models out there that people want to buy, if only they were cheaper. A weekend long sale, with 3-for-2 on everything (cheapest free) would've gained them all the shiny shiny geekcoin they could ever want.

Without going into much detail, I will say I know of a GW manager who gave his regulars his employee discount on his last day. The store did $3,500 of sales in one day when their sales target to be profitable is only $2,800 for the week. If they did sales once in awhile, they could capitalize on the same type of impulse buys that move their limited edition products so quickly. People would buy things they normally wouldn't, or buy things they had been debating about. I have considered getting into WMH since 7th was released. When I saw mini market had a 40% off sale, I couldn't resist. If they did the sale only once or twice a year, it would prevent people from just waiting for the sale to buy anything as most people don't have that kind of patience when it comes to plastic crack. It would also get people to drop $300-400 at once on a new army that they wouldn't have started otherwise. I would apply for the position but they would just laugh me out of there when I made a suggestion like this.

Toofast wrote:
The store did $3,500 of sales in one day when their sales target to be profitable is only $2,800 for the week.

But the important question here is how much did they make next week? If they made a huge amount of money all at once at the cost of emptying everyone's hobby budget and having a month of slow sales then they didn't really gain anything. All the would have done in that situation is compress a whole month of sales into a single day. In fact, if you assume that a lot of customers have a fairly constant hobby budget to spend they lost a lot of money since they had to give out more product for the same amount of money.

If they did the sale only once or twice a year, it would prevent people from just waiting for the sale to buy anything as most people don't have that kind of patience when it comes to plastic crack.

It would prevent people from waiting 100% of the time (as they would in a world of frequent sales, just ask Borders bookstores), but people would still wait. You might not be willing to wait six months for the next sale, but would you wait a month? Most people probably would, especially with major purchases like a whole army. So you'd get a spike in sales for a short time, but only at the cost of a period of slow sales before and after each spike.

I dunno, if they did sales I would certainly get stuff more often.

The impression of 'gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra' would be dispelled to an extent by such a move - would go some way to restoring some of the good will that GW has been steadily bleeding to death over the past decade.

Also I remember those sales they used to occasionally ran in the store, 3 for the price of 2 was great for box sets and rule books and the like!

 Pacific wrote:
I dunno, if they did sales I would certainly get stuff more often.

But would you buy enough additional stuff to offset the loss in per-unit revenue and give GW a net profit? Remember that a 10% discount means a much larger than 10% drop in profit so GW would need to get a lot more than 10% more sales to make up for it.

The impression of 'gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra' would be dispelled to an extent by such a move - would go some way to restoring some of the good will that GW has been steadily bleeding to death over the past decade.

You realize that "gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra" describes pretty much every company, right? If they're giving away stuff for "free" it isn't because they want to be nice to you, they're doing it because they feel that the marketing effect of doing so will give them enough extra sales to produce a net profit. So I don't understand why anyone cares about GW's "greed". I sure don't, all I care about is whether product X is worth price $Y to me, the company's motivations for choosing $Y are irrelevant to me.

Also I remember those sales they used to occasionally ran in the store, 3 for the price of 2 was great for box sets and rule books and the like!

Sure, they were great for you as a customer, but were they great for GW's profits?

 Peregrine wrote:

You realize that "gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra" describes pretty much every company, right?

Not any company that wants to be around long term. Sure there are companies that give stuff away or give discounts for selfish reasons (clearing stock or generating good will), but those reasons are good for everyone, but there are also companies run by enthusiasts that want stuff to be a genuinely good deal (or at least not selling stuff for more than they'd want to pay for it).

Regardless of motive, having customers feel like you are gouging them only has one outcome and it's not a good one.

 Peregrine wrote:

Also I remember those sales they used to occasionally ran in the store, 3 for the price of 2 was great for box sets and rule books and the like!

Sure, they were great for you as a customer, but were they great for GW's profits?

Short term? possibly. It might generate sales that wouldn't have happened anyway.

Medium term? possibly. It might have moved some sales forward, but it might have also triggered new army builds and follow-up spending.

Long term? Definitely. It'll have boosted the companies good will, got people into stores, talking about them, starting new armies, or even just keeping people in the game.


If you work with the GW delusion that the customers are price insensitive and will buy stuff anyway, sales make no sense because why sell it for 30% off if they'd but at full price?

The only time sales tend to lose money is if they are often enough and predictable enough to have people wait for them; take sofas, if your local sofa warehouse has a store wide sale on 51 weeks a year you're not going to buy in the full price week. If you vary the offers about, people may not wait because they don't know if the next deal will suit them (i.e. One month it's 3-for-2 on tanks, the next it's 5-for-4 on infantry, or free dice cube with battalion boxes).

It used to be they'd run massive sales on shop launches (3-for-2 across the board) to get people into the shop and set up a customer base, or they'd do something else on Anniversaries. As a returning gamer I went to the local GW on the 25th Anniversary of 40K expecting to spend hundreds on a new guard army after some kind of deal, but all they did was free posters and stuff for sale at full RRP. In the end I bought the LE mini and spent my money elsewhere.

 Peregrine wrote:

The impression of 'gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra' would be dispelled to an extent by such a move - would go some way to restoring some of the good will that GW has been steadily bleeding to death over the past decade.

You realize that "gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra" describes pretty much every company, right? If they're giving away stuff for "free" it isn't because they want to be nice to you, they're doing it because they feel that the marketing effect of doing so will give them enough extra sales to produce a net profit. So I don't understand why anyone cares about GW's "greed". I sure don't, all I care about is whether product X is worth price $Y to me, the company's motivations for choosing $Y are irrelevant to me.

It seems what Pacific was talking about was the IMPRESSION of gouge the customer. Every company wants to make money, I have no problem with that, but I'm much more inclined to throw money at a company that wants to make its money by making me happy instead of the company that wants to make its money by fething me over.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
Also I remember those sales they used to occasionally ran in the store, 3 for the price of 2 was great for box sets and rule books and the like!

Sure, they were great for you as a customer, but were they great for GW's profits?

We'll never really know for sure, but I tend to think they were, but we'd just be guessing. GW stores having sales goes back to a time when GW was a different company.

It was noted at the time of the "Grand Open Day" 3 for 2 sales that sales in neighbouring towns and counties actually saw a decline in sales in the weeks leading up to them. I remember people driving the length of the country for the sales, all of which affected the local stores. Which would imply that it did affect the sales but in the long term especially when you consider people would buy an entire army in one go, sometimes more.

Yes, every company is out for profit, that's a good thing. But when you alienate your customer base to get more money, it's counter productive and ends up losing the customers. If GW really wanted to do more business, they'd act like they at least cared.

 Flippa wrote:
It was noted at the time of the "Grand Open Day" 3 for 2 sales that sales in neighbouring towns and counties actually saw a decline in sales in the weeks leading up to them. I remember people driving the length of the country for the sales, all of which affected the local stores. Which would imply that it did affect the sales but in the long term especially when you consider people would buy an entire army in one go, sometimes more.

I tend to think sales would boost profits overall, based purely on anecdotal evidence though. Most people I know buy their armies piecemeal, and frankly a lot of people have quit before they even get a sizeable force because after a couple of boxes they discover how painfully time consuming it is to assemble and paint them and how much money it will cost them to get a decent sized force.

When there were sales, I'd see people buying entire armies outright in one hit. One sale I bought a bunch of Lizardmen models to complete my army which I never would have bought otherwise, another sale I bought a decent sized Tyranid army which I didn't even finish painting until about 10 years later

Peregrine wrote:
You realize that "gouge the customer for every penny they own, give away absolutely nothing extra" describes pretty much every company, right? If they're giving away stuff for "free" it isn't because they want to be nice to you, they're doing it because they feel that the marketing effect of doing so will give them enough extra sales to produce a net profit. So I don't understand why anyone cares about GW's "greed". I sure don't, all I care about is whether product X is worth price $Y to me, the company's motivations for choosing $Y are irrelevant to me.

I don't think it describes every company in this industry though, which is rather small and has always seemed to have been quite personable. What was that saying about giving the customer the best possible product for the best possible price? The cutting of unit boxes in half, Finecast etc. have made it quite clear that this is a mindset that GW does not adhere to - what they do give the impression of is as some kind of closed economy, where the trapped customers are forced to buy whatever low quality goods you spoon-feed them or else go without.

I can put up with mis-moulds from Mantic because I've received a body-weights worth of miniatures for them for a ridiculous price, and you feel a very small, staff-stretched company is genuinely trying to improve its standards. But, GW knew they were releasing a low quality product in Finecast, thought it was acceptable to do so, and continued to charge a premium price for it while at the same time insisting it was something magical. I think that put the final nail in the coffin with regards to GW's priorities for a lot of their long-term fans, coming as it did as part of the 'summer of terror'.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
Also I remember those sales they used to occasionally ran in the store, 3 for the price of 2 was great for box sets and rule books and the like!

Sure, they were great for you as a customer, but were they great for GW's profits?

We'll never really know for sure, but I tend to think they were, but we'd just be guessing. GW stores having sales goes back to a time when GW was a different company.

Very true - the company is similar to the one that used to exist in name only. Completely understand some of GW's recent policies that have proved unpopular from a completely independent financial perspective, but it sure is ugly when compared to so many of the other companies out there, and GW themselves in the not-too distant past.

Well if this was serious, and not just a joke, then GW management is circling the drain and the company won't last more than two years.