Jim Johnson October 2014 - April 2015
Reorganization of an Internal Creative Services Department
The following content was prepared as a project for the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. It chronicles my participation in the restructuring of an internal creative services department at McGraw-Hill Education from October, 2014 through April, 2015. The purpose is to demonstrate my approach to creative leadership and organizational practice. Many changes have occurred with restructuring since this was written and it does not reflect current strategies or departmental responsibilities. Content of this report must be kept confidential and not be made available to third parties unless permission is provided by the author.
Reorganization of an Internal Creative Services Department October 2014 - April 2015
1. Introduction
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1.1 Project planning methods
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1.2 Project supervision methods
1
1.3 Department organization methods
1
1.4 Project implementation methods
2
1.5 Background
2
1.6 Restructuring 2011 - 2014
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2. Project planning for the department
4
2.1 Assessment of projects requested from the department
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2.2 Assessment of skills within the team
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2.3 Assessment of team capabilities through campaign development
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2.4 Survey to evaluate expectations and satisfaction levels of clients
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2.5 Assessment of procedures and project management
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2.6 Assessment of in-house creative service trends
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2.7 Discussions with industry leaders and peers
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3. Project supervision methods
10
3.1 Assessment of outside marketing services
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3.2 Working with agencies
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4. Project and departmental organization methods
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4.1 Company reorganization, November 2014
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4.2 Business rationale for reorganization
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4.3 Marketing Creative department reorganization
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4.4 Creative Lead position
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4.5 Production Manager position
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4.6 Agile project management
5. Project implementation methods
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15
5.1 Team consensus on departmental goals, barriers and roles
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5.2 Establishing metrics for decision-making
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5.3 Speed
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5.4 Quality
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5.5 Cost
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6. Conclusions
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6.1 Successes
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6.2 Challenges and observations
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6.3 An analogy
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Table of Contents
1.
Introduction
This report reflects circumstances relating to the transitioning and organizing of an internal creative department for marketing print-based textbooks to a department designed for marketing digital platforms and learning experiences. This transformation was impacted by specific technology and process needs related to digital educational material as well as those associated with marketing and communication. Both aspects reflect a new corporate mission triggered by the divestiture of McGraw-Hill Education from McGraw-Hill Financial and its subsequent acquisition by Apollo Group Management in March 2013. My involvement in the transition began in September 2014. In this report, I will address management methods used in the following areas: project planning, project supervision, department organization, and project implementation. I will also identify when these methods proved successful, when they were not successful, and upon reflection, what I would have done differently. Many of the tools and approaches i used were sourced from my participation in the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. Finally, I will make observations on the dynamics driving the decisions made and comparisons to similar project management environments.
1.1 Project planning methods You will find several methods were instituted to improve the planning within the creative department. These included: 30-day plans aligned with my supervisor, team goal-setting, and departmental strategic workshops. Planning with flexible outcomes was necessary due to the leadership fluctuations within McGraw-Hill Education. Long-term issues were more important than short-term goals. Managing change within change became the biggest challenge.
1.2 Project supervision methods Multiple project supervision methods were in place at the beginning of my involvement, and most of them were ineffective. In this report, you will find the implementation of new systems designed to increase teamwork and measurable results in key performance indicators.
1.3 Department organization methods The department I supervised was relatively new and the projects we were assigned became increasingly digital. Existing project management methods were no longer relevant and creating a new department with new skills required external research into best practices and trends. During the six-months, new methods were developed using: online research, peer interviews, weekly staff meetings, daily standups, team brainstorming, one-on-one mentoring, and experimentation with agile project management. 1
1.4 Project implementation methods The implementation of methods was greatly influenced and hindered by the continuous reorganization of McGraw-Hill Education and the resulting change in roles and responsibilities. In many cases, the implementation became a balancing act between proactive problem-solving and reactive adjustments to organizational changes.
1.5 Background McGraw-Hill Education is one of the largest providers of educational material in the world with over 6,000 employees in over 44 countries. It was founded in 1888 by James H. McGraw, a schoolteacher in Upstate New York and owner of The McGraw Publishing Company, along with John A. Hill, owner of The Hill Publishing Company. In 1917, the McGraw and Hill companies merged to form McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc. Subsequent expansion into book publishing and educational textbooks took place from the 1950s to the 1970s. The acquisition of the school and college division of Random House, Inc., Open University, Times Mirror Education, and the Economy Company solidified their position as a leader in the educational textbook publishing industry. With the acquisition by Apollo Group Management in 2013, new management was brought in to lead the transition to digital platforms and interactive educational assessment. David Levin, former chief executive of Symbian Software and former CEO of Psion consumer technology, was brought in as president and CEO. The company also invested in adaptive learning companies, ALEKS and Area9 to assist in the acquisition of new technology. SVP, Marketing
The transition from a print-based publisher to a digitally focused content creator with responsive and adaptive platforms required continuous reorganization and corporate restructuring. Go-to-market strategies were modified to include subscription based models and one-to-one student/ teacher solutions.
1.6 Restructuring 2011 - 2014
Exec. Admin. Coord
Admin Coord
Strategy / Analytics
Product Marketing PreK-5
Product Marketing 6-12
Product Marketing Specialized
Brand/Channel/Content
Market Research
Consumer
Design Research & Support
Digital Operations
Market Insights & Analytics
Strategic Projects
Social Media
Pricing & Specialists
Events
The merger of McGraw-Hill with its subdivision, Glencoe Math, initiated multiple organizational changes within the K-12 home office in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to the merger, product development and marketing was a combined department, with the marketing responsibility going to the product editorial team. Approximately 20 employees from the New York office were relocated to Columbus in 2010 to help create a small marketing creative-services department for the creation of sales flyers, catalogs, and miscellaneous print materials. The department consisted mostly of catalog production designers and print procurement
Relationship Marketing
Relationship Marketing Mix
VP Creative,
PreK-5 Specialized Solutions
6-12, Adult
Reading/Music
Advertising
State Adoption
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Organization (2014)
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specialists. A larger creative services department, Core Creative, was responsible for the design and production of educational materials. Due to the increasing need for sophisticated marketing approaches, a Chief Marketing Officer was hired in 2012 and a new department, Relationship Marketing, was established to supervise all external marketing. The Marketing Creative (also referred to as Advertising Creative) department merged with the Core Creative department and reported up to the VP of Creative resulting in a cohesive shared creative service for both product development and relationship marketing. This was the structure of the organization when I joined the company. The departmental structure for my department, Advertising Creative, was set up in a classic organizational pyramid. Each of the three teams was assigned two product portfolios. The Production Manager reported up to the Creative Director with support from a Catalog VP, Creative Coordinator. Sr. Admin Assistant (Chicago)
Creative Dir., Reading/ Music
Creative Mgr., Reading/ Music
Creative Dir., PreK-5, Intv, Custom, AE, AP
Creative Mgr., Elementary
Creative Dir., 6-12, PD
Admin Assistant (Columbus)
Creative Mgr. Advertising
Production Mgr.
Creative Mgr., 6--8 STEM
Designers:
Designers:
Designers:
Production Spec
Catalog Coordinator
Designers:
Creative Mgr., 9-12 STEM
Image Designers:
Image Designer: Designers: Creative Mgr., Elementary
Creative Mgr., Humanities Designers: Designers:
Image Designer: Image Supervisor Creative Mgr., Custom, AE, AP Image Designers: Designers:
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Organization (2014)
3
Copywriters
DigitalProduction Superv.
Digital Designers
The creative team was divided into designers and copywriters, each reporting directly to my role as the Creative Director. As you will see, changes in the McGraw-Hill organization is fluid and dynamic. The structure changed drastically over the past three years and will change even more over the next three. Planning for change while managing uncertainty is the order of the day and the lesson learned.
I was hired by the Senior Vice President of Creative as Creative Director in September 2014 to oversee the Advertising Creative department. The SVP Creative was in charge all creative departments throughout the K-12 portfolio. Her expertise was in product development and she had limited exposure to the advertising industry. I was brought on staff because of my extensive background in advertising, expertise with big brands, and experience in higher education. The 30-day plan I presented to her for the department consisted of the following: 1. Assessment of projects requested from the department. 2. Assessment of individual skills within the department. 3. Survey of internal clients to evaluate expectations and satisfaction levels. 4. Assessment of procedures 5. Team consensus on departmental goals, barriers and roles.
2.
Project planning for the department
2.1 Assessment of projects requested from the department. Reviewing past work and projections from the survey revealed six levels of creative requirements. The lower tiers required very little creativity and the higher tiers required complex messaging and a high level of messaging expertise. PROJECT TIERS Tier 1 = Creating a new campaign with multiple tactics Tier 2 = Creating new messaging for a single tactic Tier 3 = Creating a new tactic from an existing campaign Tier 4 = Merging multiple sources of material to create a single item Tier 5 = Refreshing existing material with new imagery, branding, or basic copy Tier 6 = Reformatting and resizing of existing material A comparison could be made to different levels of medical needs for health concerns. Levels five and six are minor cuts, bruises, sore throats, or the flu. They are treated with over the counter medications or advice from a pharmacist. Tiers three and four require a trip to a doctor and perhaps a prescription medication. Tiers one and two require a specialist and a visit to the hospital. Each level has an associated cost, time, and skill set. Most of the work coming through the department consisted of levels four through six. Tiers two and three happened on occasion. Tier one was allocated to outside agencies. Reviewing the departmental reports from the previous two years revealed the types of projects coming through the department, as well as the activity during various months of the year. It became evident that the different tiers of work required different processes and structures. Identifying the role of the department in relation to the different tiers of materials produced was an ongoing challenge and a key influence on many of the decisions needed for improvement.
Source: Marketing Creative Year End Report (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
In addition to the different tiers of work, the amount of work coming into the department fluctuated greatly during the year as indicated by the Year End Reports. This fluctuation was influenced by the prevalence of conferences in the second quarter and the sales meeting held every January. Another dynamic impacting the department was the division of labor between the Core Creative department and the Marketing Creative department. The recent and frequent
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company reorganization required an ongoing consensus on project responsibilities for each department. It was agreed the Core Creative department would produce all materials enabling a market launch and Marketing (Advertising) Creative would produce all subsequent marketing materials.
2.2 Assessment of team skills After one-on-one interviews with team members, it was evident that the Advertising Creative department assembled over the past year was with an assortment of contract writers, textbook designers, production designers, and procurement specialist. Very few members of the team had adequate experience in an advertising agency or marketing firm. A vision for the role of the department within the larger marketing organization would enable accurate evaluation of skills needed for the department. Several of the employees had a history of poor performance and were participating in performance improvement plans due to difficulties with former supervisors. The responsibilities of two staff members related to the annual creation of print catalogs. The print catalogs were being phased out and the design outsourced to a firm in India, so their responsibilities would be unnecessary in 2015. In addition, none of the team members had accurate job descriptions identifying the marketing skills required for the department. Most of the material created by the department at the time consisted of basic sales materials and the re-purposing of content for product brochures. Very little material would be considered original in thought or of a high quality.
2.3 Assessment of team capabilities through campaign development Source: Marketing Project Roles Report (2014)
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Late in November, a new project was brought to the team that provided an opportunity to assess our role within the marketing department as well as the capabilities of our Advertising Creative team. In the United States, the authorization of acquiring new educational material is under state jurisdiction. The larger states, Texas, California, and Florida manage the adoption of new materials at a state level. The smaller states allow for the adoption of educational material at the district level. California had announced it would begin the process of instituting the adoption of new educational material beginning in 2015. The potential gross sales resulting from California could account for up to 25% of McGraw-Hill’s annual revenue. I was approached by a member of the Relationship Marketing team, to develop the early stages of campaign messaging for the California adoption process within the internal Advertising Creative team. This type of assignment was normally outsourced to an external agency, however, with the recent reorganization and an ongoing review of agency resources, the project was given to my team to initiate messaging development. A communications brief was provided, and we were asked to develop
marketing campaigns for approval by the California sales team by mid-December. The California sales team’s reputation was of being demanding and opinionated, so I was aware the approval process might be difficult. The first step towards developing the campaign was to conduct a creative workshop with the entire department in order to ensure three things: 1. I had the collective team’s best efforts. 2. I had control over the development of the messaging. 3. I would be able to evaluate the creative skill level of everyone involved. Group brainstorming requires preparation and structure, so I divided the half-day session into three parts. The first part of the session consisted of briefing the team on the assignment and answering questions. As a group, we discussed the qualities of a good campaign and the issues facing sales representatives with adoptions. The communication brief contained three strategic pillars that unified all of the products being developed for the California adoption. For the second part, I divided the group into three teams and wrote out the pillars onto large sheets of paper placed in different areas within the meeting room. Each team was given 45 minutes to develop as many campaign messages as possible for each pillar and identify specific media tactics for each campaign. After 45 minutes, each team presented their work while I captured the thoughts onto a large white board. The results were presented, and the teams rotated, so all three stations were visited by all three teams. At the end of the session, there was a total of 12 to 14 campaign directions identified. For the final part, we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each and combined ideas, ending up with a total of 9 directions. During the session, it became apparent who was skilled developing compelling messaging and could lead a team. Those demonstrating difficulty were willing to follow the lead of others. This was beneficial in developing a plan for assigning tasks for the initial presentation. Each of the original teams were assigned three unique campaign directions for further development along with instructions on the presentation format. The first presentation was scheduled immediately after the Thanksgiving holidays, and there were many times leading up to the presentation when not all of the team members were present due employees extending their time off. Due to the inexperience of my department in developing campaign messaging, I had to be deeply involved in the work and provide specific directions. This indicated that if we were to continue to take on the more complex jobs with conceptual development, I would need additional support in staffing or allocate sufficient amount of my time to ensure success.
2.4 Survey to evaluate expectations and satisfaction levels of clients Our main internal client was the Relationship Marketing department which was divided into six main portfolios: 1. Kindergarten through Fifth grade /Literature and Music
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2. Kindergarten through Fifth grade / Math and Science 3. Grades Six through 12, including Advanced Placement 4. District Digital Conversion 5. Brand/Channel/Content 6. Specialized Solutions A survey was sent to the head of the department and the Relationship Marketing Managers of each portfolio to assess the type of work needed from our department, the level of satisfaction with services, and areas for our improvement.
Source: Relationship Marketing Survey (2014)
As seen in the survey results, client satisfaction ranged from 4 to 7 with 1 being poor and 10 being excellent. When asked for recommendations on how to improve the Advertising Creative department, surprisingly, most clients desired a higher degree of creativity from the internal team and contributions that were similar to those provided by an outside agency. Below are sample responses: • "More Product knowledge (depth of knowledge), more creative brainstorming (beyond creative brief delivered), more focus on benefits and how to highlight them.” • "Consistent formatting of Basecamp and flow of approval (consistent assigning tasks to people and dates). Any new versions or edits to a design are posted in the appropriate Basecamp job and not emailed. Projects that I need help in designing (and by designing I mean, not using a template or something that has existed before) I would really like the creative team to take the lead. I feel like we have to "mock-up" a design in Power Point to have a starting point.” • "Function like a professional agency, make things much more efficient so we can respond quickly to market needs and initiatives that are thrust on us last-minute. Streamline and enhance the processes that are not well defined and frequently changing. Reduce the requirement for kickoff meetings for less complex projects, reduce overall number of meetings. Little sense of urgency for most projects.” • "I would love to see more collaboration. I don't want to bring ideas to the table and have them executed; I would like the creative team to be partners, not a production house. This also means sitting in a room together, marking up a piece, to ultimately create the best version possible.” • "Writers and designers need to have a better understanding of the end customer. They need to see presentations, how our creative resources are being presented in the marketplace. We do our best explaining what we sometimes know...but it's best to witness in person. Creative resources need to demonstrate their knowledge around current trends in marketing communications. If this area is lacking...training is a must! Keep in mind...if external agencies want to compete for business...they need to make sure their resources (people) are sharp. We need to do the same with internal resources at MHES.” •
2.5 Assessment of procedures and project management
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Multiple project management tools were being used to manage and track the high volume of work coming through the department. The tools implemented were inefficient and randomly applied due to the department being relatively new and without leadership.
Three different tools were used: • Smartsheets – Smartsheets is project management software often used in the development of digital products. Its appearance is similar to Excel and allows the user to create columns with different data points. It’s used mostly for project tracking and has a Gantt chart feature to see how work spreads out over time. The creative team members were responsible for entering their project information into Smartsheets and using it to track and prioritize their projects. Smartsheets was also used by clients to request projects through a link to an online form. Requested projects were distributed to their respective departments and assigned to designers and copywriters. • Basecamp – Basecamp is widely used project management software that focuses on user-friendly features and fosters collaboration with clients. Basecamp was brought into use the previous year and was credited with improving the work flow. Many of the advanced features of Basecamp, such as calendar tracking, were not used. • Filemaker Pro – Filemaker Pro is a data tracking software that was in use by the project managers for many years. This database tracked all projects coming through McGraw-Hill Education and was legacy software whose sole purpose was to keep documentation of projects for procurement. Projects were entered into the database by the project manager. Information for each of the systems had to be entered separately by different owners. None of the systems were integrated, and as a result, redundancies and inaccuracies often occurred. The high volume of work required rapid turnaround and made this system highly ineffective and inefficient. A task force was established to formulate a plan to institute a database eliminating redundancies while increasing data sharing and project tracking.
2.6 Assessment of in-house creative service trends We conducted research into companies relying on internal creative resources to better understand industry issues and trends. The Association of National Advertisers released a report “The Rise of the In-House Agency” (Duggan, 2013), which drew the attention of industry press due to its potential impact on the traditional agency network model In the report, 58 percent of the respondents use in-house agencies. This is a 16 percent increase from the previous survey in 2008. In addition, there was also a reported increase in full-time employees within existing in-house agencies,. Similar to previous surveys, the need for cost reduction was cited as the main reason for these increases, however, industry knowledge and dedicated services grew in impact. In the survey, a majority of respondents reported: •Their in-house agency is handling business that used to be assigned to an external agency. •Their in-house agency took on newer functions, like digital/social/mobile, rather than an external agency. The report indicated that the services handled by in-house agencies were varied. Needs for collateral and promotional material was the most commonly handled service by virtually all those surveyed. The need for this type of marketing was closely followed by email, trade show materials, and direct mail. In addition, half of all in-house agencies
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handle some level of media planning and/or buying. Social media, online display advertising, and search engine marketing ranked high on the list of growing media services handled in-house. Institutional knowledge and having a dedicated team grew in importance since 2008. Factors indicate in-house agencies are increasingly more sophisticated and strategic, not just “fast and cheap.” The 2013 edition of the ”In-House Creative Services Industry Report” (The BOSS Group, Cella Consulting, InSource, 2013), provided updated information on previous category data and significant year-over-year differences. The survey was conducted in January 2013 and more than 425 leaders from in-house creative departments responded. These departments represented Fortune 1000 companies, as well as middle market and not-forprofit organizations across multiple industries, including retail, government, financial services, pharmaceuticals, higher education, and consumer packaged goods. The key findings were: • Importance of a company mandate for use of an “in-house” agency. • The importance of reporting up to a strategic, value-adding department such as Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Brand or a combination of those divisions. • The importance of ensuring the department is appropriately staffed. • The importance of having a flexible staffing model, including freelancers, contractors and temporary employees. • The value of having consistent time tracking mechanisms to provide valuable insights into utilization and quality control. • The value of one central location to track project name, project start and end date, project type, client name and business unit, and project tier. • The value of Digital Asset Management to create greater efficiency on the part of the creative teams to find files and share assets. • The value of a method for billing or accounting for the expense of the department services.
2.7 Discussions with industry leaders and peers To complete my knowledge of in-house creative services, I conducted interviews with colleagues having similar managerial positions. They included: • Ron Kellow - AVP/Creative Communication Manager / Chase • Jen Dally - Program Manager at Ross Products Division / Abbott • Paolo Mercado - SVP Communication & Marketing Services / Nestle • Shani Sandy - Creative Director / S&P Capital IQ The results of the interviews verified findings from reports and online research. The main findings were: • Work should be divided up into tiers according to the difficulty of production. The lowest tier, Tier One, was often described as “derivative” work, which means the messaging and basic content had already been developed. The production cost of this tier averaged $50 to $55 per hour. Tier Two, which required modest amount of original design or copy, averaged $65 to $70 per hour. The highest tier, Tier Three, required a moderate amount of original content and collaboration with those requesting the project. Tier Three costs range from $80 to $85 per hour. • Project management software and systems are critical in helping departments run efficiently and productively. • Use of temporary workers is necessary for adjustments to variable workloads. 9
3.1 Assessment of outside marketing services Companies need to supplement their internal creative-services departments with the use of external vendors. At the time I joined McGraw-Hill Education, the Relationship Marketing department’s use of external agencies was unregulated and unstructured. Marketing Managers were permitted to use outside vendors of their choice with their own, individualized marketing approaches. The same held true for the Product Marketing Managers, who used a variety of external resources to develop and educational programs and related sales materials. In early November, prior to the realignment of the Creativeservices department, I was put on a small committee given the task of determining a list of preferred marketing and advertising agencies.
3.
Project supervision methods
The external vendors were chosen based on their ability to supplement the capabilities of marketing creative services. A determination of the circumstances under which marketing materials were to be outsourced was established in August of 2014.
3.2 Working with agencies The principles for external agency engagement was drafted on 8/20/14 by several key stakeholders who work with external vendors and are as follows: Why do we use agencies? • To deal with peeks of work • To bring in functional expertise, we don’t have in-house • To deal with unplanned emergency projects (need will decrease as planning improves What can we use agencies for? Full-service: • Branding/positioning/creative direction • marketing planning/execution Project based: • Branding a Core Brand • Marketing plan ideation – including all aspects of the marketing mix and media plan • Marketing plan execution • Cover creation What do we never give to agencies? • Execution of campaigns - We need to use Marketo, so the Channel team remains responsible for back-end execution - Agency can provide content for emails, webinars. • Microsite - An agency could provide input on strategic direction/creative) • Social Media Execution - An agency could provide input on the strategic direction/creative) When will we be very mindful of using agencies? • Anytime the agency work is about MHE rather than the individual products How do we work with agencies? • At this point – only project based (not agency on retainer) • Project sponsor will write scope of work
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• Marketing leadership to review & approve need for agency • Upon approval of scope, project sponsor sends RFP to agencies • List of preferred agencies Who manages the agencies? The project sponsor is responsible for managing the agency’s performance, and for liaising with all internal stakeholders. On-boarding for the agency will always include (but not limited to): • Product strategy • Branding guidelines • Technical guide • Access to digital sample In addition to the principles regarding rules of engagement, a specific process and work-flow was outlined in a chart supplied to all vendors. The process required assessment of internal creative resources prior to contracting with an outside vendor. McGraw-Hill Education is moving from a print-based publisher to become a leader in creating learning experiences through purposeful technology. The marketing landscape is now digitally dependent and requires flexibility, new processes, and skill sets. The Marketing Creative department will be needed for the creation of various digital promotional material including ebrochures, email, social media, thought leadership articles, microsites, event displays, and videos.
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Outside Vendor Process (January, 2014),
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4.
Project and departmental organization methods
4.1 Company reorganization, November 2014 In mid-November, 2014, the Chief Marketing Officer was terminated, and the creativeservices departments were realigned with a different reporting structure. The Core Creative department now reported up to the Product Development Department and Chief Academic Design Officer. Office space for product development and Core Creative were redesigned into an open floor plan to facilitate collaboration between the two departments. Chief Academic Design, Officer As seen in Image 5, the Advertising Creative department no longer reported up to the VP of Creative, but to the VP, Brand and Channel Marketing. This change aligned the department closer to the department which managed social media, Marketo automated marketing, and corporate messaging.
VP, Academic Design, Reading
Reading Lead Reading Lead Reading Lead
The Advertising Creative department was relocated to the third floor to be closer to Field Marketing and the marketing staff. The reorganization required reassessment of the previously agreed upon departmental goals.
VP, Academic Design, STEM
Director, Everyday Math
VP, Academic Design, Technology
VP, Academic Design, ELL/ELD
Academic Design, Specialized Solutions
Director, Content Strategy
Lead
Director, PreK-5 Math
Lead
Director, 6-8 Math
Lead Translations
Director, 9-12 Math
Lead
Director, PreK-5 Science
VP, Academic Design, Humanities
Director Math
Lead 6-8 SS
Director DI & Flex
Lead 9-12 SS
Director OCR
Lead Music
Director Adult Education
Lead, World Language
VP, Creative
Creative Director Reading/Music Creative Director PreK-5, Intrv., Custom, AE, AE
Creative Director 6-12, PD
Production Manager
Director, 6-8 Science
Director, 9-12 Science
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Reorganization (November, 2014)
4.2 Rationale for reorganization Technology-driven marketing requires high volume production, organizational agility, and bottom-up responsibility. Flexibility and responsiveness become the benchmarks for success. In order to adjust to new BRAND / CHANNEL VP Brand, Content, Consumer, marketing dynamics, the department Channel, Adv. Creative needs to be a team-based structure with ownership of daily tasks ensuring EVENTS project success and client satisfaction. SOCIAL/SEO MARKETO/EMAIL CONSUMER Events Mgr.
Resources should be reallocated to digital and new media skill sets instead of staffing for catalog production. Funds allocated for the use of contract workers could provide flexibility for circumstances when the work-flow fluctuates.
Events Coordinator
Social Media/SEO Mgr.
Content/Social Media Assoc.
Content/Social Media (intern) Events Coordinator Content/Social Media (intern)
Sr. Mktg. Mgr.
Executive Assistant Admin Coordinator
BRAND
Digital Dir. Consumer
Brand Content Mgr.
ADV. CREATIVE Creative Dir. Advertising and Brand
Production Manager Marketing Analytics Assoc.
\
Designers
Marketing Automation Mgr.
Email Specialist
Copywriters
Email Specialist
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Reorganization (November, 2014)
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4.3 Marketing Creative department reorganization With these strategies and requirements established, the Advertising Creative department was restructured with new roles and responsibilities and flexible resource management to create efficiencies and a stronger creative culture. Ownership of portfolio success and agile project management are at the core of the new organizational structure. Teams are given direct access to internal customers and required to anticipate marketing problems. The teams are allowed to self-organize in accordance to principles of agile project management and use interns or contract workers with new media skills. Not shown in the organizational chart, is the position of Creative Lead for the supervision and management of each team.
4.4 Creative Lead position
Rela/onship Marke/ng Specialized K-5 LIT Product Core Crea/ve
Design
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Marketing Creative Restructure (January, 2015)
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The Creative Lead position was established to transfer project and portfolio management from the Creative Director to the portfolio team level. The responsibilities of the Creative Lead are as follows: • Be the main point of contact for portfolio managers, core creative, internal clients and creative director. • Assess and report anticipated work-flow. Work with outside vendors when needed. Evaluate team needs and potential solutions. • Able to work under pressure in a deadline driven environment with responsibility for project status, performance metrics, timeliness, and budgets. • Develop effective campaign and Rela/onship Marke/ng content creation Design Design across a wide variety of marketing touch Product Brand points as it relates Copy Core Crea/ve Copy K-5 STEM to design and art direction. Produc@on Crea@ve Intern Intern • Elevate the craft Manager Director and quality of work while adhering to established design Design Rela/onship standards. Marke/ng • Provide strategic Contract focus and marketing 6-12 Copy Resources DDC perspective to a Product Core Crea/ve diverse source of Intern information • Ensure direct reports are performing to maximum capacity while fostering teamwork and departmental success with co-workers and clients
4.5 Production Manager position
Employee
Current
Proposed
Crea%ve Lead 61,800
67,000
operations and fiscal responsibility. The previous responsibilities pertained to catalog production and print procurement. The new responsibilities are as follows: • Support Creative Director with job assignments and deliverables from internal and external resources - to successful completion. • Responsible for identifying the best vendors, managing bids, contracts, permissions and timely payments. • Run status meetings. Ensure creative leads meet deadlines and deliverables while influencing other stakeholders to support successful outcomes. • Accountable for improving Creative workflow, streamlining process for faster turnaround, at less cost, without error, at the highest quality output. • Responsible for generating reports for job tracking, utilization, departmental cost analysis in order to measure and improve so productivity. • Evaluate all operational aspects of department systems including creative hardware/software, making sound recommendations to Creative Director to improve the process.
Crea%ve Lead 67,000
67,000
Crea%ve Lead 60,000
67,000
Jr. Designer
43,964
0
Jr. Designer
30,000
40,000
Intern
13,500
13,500
Sr. Copy
61,800
61,800
Sr. Copy
54,800
60,000
Sr. Copy
70,000
70,000
Produc%on Mgr.
93,745
93,745
Catalog Coordinator
52,070
0
Intern
0
13,500
Intern
0
13,500
4.6 Agile project management
Contract Resources
0
41,634
608,679
608,679
The Production Manager job description was changed to focus on
As McGraw-Hill transitioned to digital platforms, there was an TOTAL increase in the use of agile project management, specifically with the implementation of SCRUM for product development. The Agile philosophy and culture was expanded to other departments and use of the terminology associated with agile is becoming more prominent. The restructuring of the marketing creative-services department into self-organizing teams allowed for the use of Agile collaboration between product development, core creative, relationship marketing, and the media department. Experimentation with SCRUM will be initiated in April 2015.
Source: Marketing Creative Proposed Budget Adjustments (2015)
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5.
Project implementation methods
5.1 Team consensus on departmental goals, barriers and roles A departmental meeting was held to discuss the role of the department, the current work situation, areas for improvement, and obstacles. In order to increase the value created by the department, the following goals were identified: 1. Define and refine our role – Specialize, organize, and integrate our services into the MHE marketing organization to provide maximum value. 2. Creative improvement – Lead the improvement of creative executions and marketing effectiveness through ownership of best practices… specifically: consistency of brand expression, simplicity/ease of communication, reflecting the needs of customer. 3. More time for thinking and doing – Improve the process so that more thought, planning, and brainstorming/creativity can be applied to projects. Focus on creativity providing the greatest return on investment. 4. Validation and direction through data – Institute metrics and rely on measurement to improve our value creation for MHE. 5. Long term digital vision – Explore, learn, and develop digital skills as they apply to effectively marketing the MHE brand.
SPEED
time required
5.2 Establishing metrics for decision-making The increased use of data-driven decisionmaking was instituted by Peter Cohen, president of McGraw-Hill Education and adopted across all departments.
COST
QUALITY
effectiveness &
associated expense
For the marketing creative-services department, our key performance indicators focused on the three areas represented,
Source: Creative Reorganization (January, 2015)
5.3 Speed The metrics associated with speed would be based on hourly time tracking per project per team member. In the past, tracking hours and the software allowing tracking of hours did not exist within the department. In order to establish a baseline, the team members estimated the amount of copy and design hours for various projects. These estimates helped identify the workload for individuals and indicate when the department is working at capacity. Copywriters and designers are required to enter estimates prior to beginning the project and gauge their accuracy as the project develops. This information will influence ROI metrics and provide a benchmark for future improvements in the speed of delivery.
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Another process implemented to improve speed was the transparent and public release of a step-by-step guide to the production procedures associated with a project lifespan. The guide provides detailed information regarding the performance of tasks and the person responsible for completion. This guide was published on the company intranet for easy access.
5.4 Quality The metrics for quality focused on customer satisfaction and a subjective grading of work quality. Quality associated with the effectiveness of marketing materials is difficult to demonstrate due to the variable influence of sales personnel and media placements. To provide a seamless and enjoyable customer experience, we focused on project management and proactive problem-solving. Basecamp continued to be used as our project management tool with clients. Creative teams are given administrative duties to manage, organize, and update Basecamp projects as needed. Periodic surveys measuring customer satisfaction would be one of the key performance indicators for each of the teams. In order to provide a reliable and uniform branding experience, design templates were created utilizing a standardized grid system. A professional publication designer was enlisted to generate templates for the most frequently requested materials. These designs will be made available to clients in a menu format according to the objective of the project. Clients can select their preferred design and provide the indicated amount of content fitting the template. Source: Marketing Creative Survey (2014)
To address the subjective nature of an aesthetic assessment, we will introduce the grading system for evaluating creativity provided by Michael Conrad at The Berlin School of Creative Leadership (Conrad, 2014). In this exercise, marketing material is graded from 1 to 10 according to the following established criteria: 10. Most Inspiring in The World 9. New Standard in Communication 8. New Standard in Category 7. Excellence in Craft 6. Fresh Idea (s) 5. Innovative Strategy 4. ClichĂŠ 3. Non-Competitive 2. Destructive 1. Appalling The grading system is used to generate dialog on what defines excellent creative and how it is assessed. We will modify the criteria according to our industry requirements and schedule workshops with key stakeholders to gain alignment on where our work ranks within the ratings. Source: Marketing Creative Project Process Document (February, 2015)
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Source: McGraw-Hill Education Template Project (January, 2015)
In order to measure the accuracy of estimates and monitor costs associated with utilization, team members are required to track their time on a daily basis. The number of projects completed per month and the hours associated with projects within portfolios are included in a monthly report sent to upper management. In the future, we will be using this information to identify the associated internal costs and apply them to quarterly budgeting.
120000
100000
80000
Another analysis of costs focused on employee compensation. The “2015 Salary Survey“ (The Creative Group, 2015) indicated our current staff compensation is at the low end of market averages and finding replacements would be difficult.
60000
40000
20000
0
Copy
Design
Average Sta Compensa1on
Copy
Design
Industry Averages for Compensa1on
Source: 2015 Salary Survey from The Creative Group (February, 2015)
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5.5 Cost
One way to increase production hours while keeping salary averages under control is with the use of college interns. Intern compensation is $15 per hour and they are grateful for the experience. The use of interns will provide the ability to adjust skill sets to the changing needs of the marketing department and the exposure of regular staff to management training. The challenge will be to provide sufficient work stations, rapid on-boarding, and appropriate supervision. Plans are now in place to formalize the intern program and allocate resources to fund their expense. 6.1 Reflection
6.1 Successes Did the implementation of these methods in the various stages of the project prove successful? If not, upon reflection, what could have been done differently? Overall, the formation of a creative resources department designed for efficiency and quality demonstrated significant success over the past six months. This was accomplished despite ongoing organizational disruptions and changes to roles and responsibilities. The establishment of goals and objectives were particularly valuable and provided a longterm vision for the team and the internal customers. They unified the team and define the purpose of the department, and as a result, a culture of ownership and pride can be sensed. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of applicants to positions within the department and its reputation has gained stature within the company. The quality of the projects being given to the department has increased, perhaps due to the accolades given the California adoption campaign.
6.
Conclusions
The implementation of new processes demonstrated benefits over the past three months. Team members have voiced favorable opinions regarding the way procedures have been clarified and simplified. Improvements in this area have allowed the team to focus more on the quality of the work than the management of the project.
6.2 Challenges and observations As mentioned earlier, the main challenge became implementing change within a company undergoing reorganization. The VP of Creative and the Director of Relationship marketing were released from their duties in March. As a result, improvement projects were put on hold or not fully completed in a proper time period. Keeping momentum within a changing environment was difficult and reassuring the team change was for the better created periods of stress and uncertainty for everyone. Timing of implementation is an area where I would have altered my approach. In retrospect, I may have had earlier success if I had made changes in process and metrics a main priority. The most difficult challenge came in changing deeply ingrained mindsets and habits. Analyzing the problem and crafting the solution is easier than having others recognize the problem and embrace the solution. I found that change management requires continuous attention, repetition and reinforcement.
6.3 An analogy Classrooms of the future will no longer be places where students are imparted information through textbooks and lectures. Rather, they will be about access and collaboration. Teaching and learning are going to be social and adaptive, adjusting to changing and unpredictable dynamics. Similarly, organizations creating the technology and content used for these learning experiences will need to embrace those same agile and adaptive practices. Similar to a classroom, they will need to establish long term objectives, collaborative learning environments, production tools, and metrics to inform and direct daily decisions.
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Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have further questions, I can be reached via email or phone. Jim Johnson jamesejohnson@mac.com 914-309-4522