Mark Wellls out as CEO of GW

[Defenestratus]

[url]http://investor.games-workshop.com/[/url]

And yes, you spell his name with three L's :P

(forgive me, i'm technically blind)

[SotonShades]

While I'm certain he has had an impact on the company, I have no idea what exactly it has been.

I hope this is going to be good news for GW, with a push for further growth and development, rather than appointing a CEO from outside the hobby community who might just squeeze out profits for shareholders. I imagine that would be very unlikely, but I'll wait to see.

[DarkLink]

Without profits, you can't have any growth or development. Why do people find that such a difficult concept?

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Without profits, you can't have any growth or development. Why do people find that such a difficult concept?

it is also important to know that free markets move towards an equilibrium, which is on a much larger scale than the individual. Everyone thinks of this as what their friends and them can afford, but its much larger than that. GW does the pricing that it does because it makes them money, and will cease to do so when it doesn't. The market wants to move to an equilibrium where the price they charge gets them the most profit, and sometimes increasing price too much can counteract this as fewer people can afford it. When and if this happens with games workshop, they will either drop their prices, or they will fail, and that is not in their best interest.

At current prices, much as people complain about it, GW makes a killing. Grant you some can argue that lower prices can do more for the community in the long run, because it brings more people in, we have no way of measuring that whether it is true or false.

tldr; GW is probably not going to change their pricing structure just because their CEO is changing, they might change marketing strategies, but pricing structure is likely to stay the same for a long time.

[SotonShades]

Oh I am certainly not against profits. However, often shareholders forget that profits don't always equate to money in their pockets and thus demand more, which takes away from the company's ability to grow. A strong CEO can control the shareholders, measure their interests and ensure the company grows and invests in development. A lot of CEOs simply submit to shareholders' wishes, or worse yet encourage the greed and wring as much money out of companies as possible, forcing 'profit' that leaves the company worse off in the long run, well after the CEO has taken his/her cut.

More specifically to GW, it is easy to see the product as a luxury item and charge a premium for them, artificially inflating profits (I am not saying GW have been doing this the past few years like many suggest, just that it is possible) without actually growing the business. We want and need a CEO who understands why we buy the product; not simply because it is a shiny thing we like to display and show off (like having the latest iProduct) but something we emotionally invest in. To that end we need the investment in the creative side of the company with models, rules, background story and artwork, giving us new reasons to want to spend our money with them. Technology too, such as the implementation of the CAD sculpting and CNC/CAM manufacturing techniques GW has worked on over the last decade.

It'd be all too easy for a CEO who isn't part of or at least very aware of the wargaming community to milk GW for profit is a purely model making company. It would ruin what GW has worked so hard to build up over the last four decades or so. I have no doubt that the board of directors and shareholders wouldn't let that happen, but it wouldn't be the first time such a dreaded thing has. Fingers crossed for the new guy. I'd give it a go, but I doubt my time as President of a University Paintball club would be impressive enough to run a multi-million pound company :P

[Emerald Rose Widow]

More specifically to GW, it is easy to see the product as a luxury item and charge a premium for them, artificially inflating profits (I am not saying GW have been doing this the past few years like many suggest, just that it is possible) without actually growing the business. We want and need a CEO who understands why we buy the product; not simply because it is a shiny thing we like to display and show off (like having the latest iProduct) but something we emotionally invest in. To that end we need the investment in the creative side of the company with models, rules, background story and artwork, giving us new reasons to want to spend our money with them. Technology too, such as the implementation of the CAD sculpting and CNC/CAM manufacturing techniques GW has worked on over the last decade.

See things such as these are the things I would like to see, more focus on that and improvement of white dwarf. I am not sure what the new CEO would want to do with the company, but still would be cool. They can still invest in the community without putting tons of money into it.

The new techs in modelling over the past years have been amazing, leading to new sculpts. My tervigon for example, the joints where two pieces meet were nigh seemless. I had very little liquid greenstuffing to do, the seams were just that good.

[JxKxR]

I'd like to see less price hikes and more marketing in hopes of upping profits. There are A TON of people out there that would love to get into table top war gaming they just don't know it yet. Everyone that I introduce to 40K really loves it, even chicks.

The only thing people don't like are-

1. The rules lawyers! It's a game people.

2. The UBER nerds. The poorly dressed, horrible hygiene, generally creepy guy with bad social skills. Sometimes this guy is the one in charge of the store. GW are the leaders of the table top community and they should be the ones that update the image of the community to the public.

3. The price.

And you know if I was C.E.O. I would totally do whatever I had to to get my hands on the Star Wars brand. Now that Disney will be making new movies just think of what kind of traffic it would bring into the stores. Like Lord of the Ring did and how they wanted the Hobbit to.
Personally if they aren't working on that right now they are idiots over there.

[Mr Mystery]

You make less money on a licensed brand than an owned one. Risk is Star Wars would annihilate 40k and Fantasy. When that bubble pops, company struggles to match profit, investment drops, company can eventually fold.

As for advertising, done once, and it has to be repeated to again continually show an increase in profits.

[JxKxR]

I just firmly believe the benefits outweigh the risk.

Yes it has to be continually repeated to increase profit and it should.

[rtmaitreya]

You make less money on a licensed brand than an owned one. Risk is Star Wars would annihilate 40k and Fantasy. s.

This is absolutely true. Star Wars would overwhelm GW. Go with a storyline that already has an entrenched fan base, but that needs to grow. My advice would be Robotech. Half of your player base is familiar with it, and the other half is at the right age group to embrace it. Partner up with Jerry Macguire to make sculpts that match the movie, and go for it. Would take three years, and you'd have SERIOUS cash cow you could milk for a decade or two.

RTM