Les ditions du Plat Pays : an almost centenarian association The creation of Editions du Plat Pays dates back to 1930. Since its inception, the organization has maintained an associative form. Its main purpose is to produce and distribute regional books and magazines. The publishing activity of Editions du Plat Pays is mainly composed of about fifteen reviews (mainly monthly and quarterly) and about fifty books per year. In addition, the association organizes occasional conferences but this activity has, for the moment, a negligible part in the turnover. The journals generate a recurrent turnover insofar as customer loyalty is very important for this type of publication. The highly specialized nature of these journals contributes greatly to reducing the pressure of possible competition, as the "Flat Country" publications occupy editorial niches that can accommodate only one or two journals. The book publishing business is much more problematic. It is particularly difficult to predict the editorial success of a book. This uncertainty makes the pricing policy particularly delicate. The definition of a price that allows the break-even point to be reached depends on the combination of fixed costs and variable costs, which are highly dependent on the sales volume and the life cycle of the book. Some books have a relatively short life (one to two years) while others, which are often reference works, have an editorial life of more than twenty years. Moreover, this activity is subject to very strong competitive rivalry and pressure from substitute products. This dual activity has had an impact on the structure of Editions du Plat Pays. Originally, the company was structured around different departments: editorial, production, marketing and administration (finance and customer relations). The production activity covers the tasks of design, text composition and printing. The latter two tasks are carried out by subcontractors chosen through a bidding process. This type of organization is quite typical for small publishing houses. Within each department, staff are assigned either to the magazine activity or to the book activity, although some people may be involved in both activities. In each department, the staff reports to their manager, who in turn reports to the management. However, mainly under the influence of the diversity of the book and review environments, and the very strong growth of both the number of reviews during the recent period (doubling in a few years) and the importance of reviews in the turnover (reviews now represent more than half of the turnover), the organizational structure of Editions du Plat Pays is changing. As a result, the magazine activity is totally separated from the book activity. A manager supervises the entire activity and has his own departments: editorial, production, marketing. Only the administrative services remain common to both activities. The different activity managers have budgets, the ability to initiate new projects, decide on purchases and most personnel management decisions. Only the responsibility for publishing new works must be validated by an editorial committee. All employees have written and validated job descriptions, but these descriptions are largely ignored and staff feel free to develop their activity in other directions. The head of the magazine activity is particularly inclined to let his employees develop activities that are far from their job; for example, he lets a magazine editorial manager organize marketing campaigns, given her past experience. This state of affairs is largely facilitated by the weakness of the rules and procedures within Editions du Plat Pays. The activity of Editions du Plat Pays is based on a mastery of the technologies used. However, these are more complex than they appear at first glance, insofar as many exceptions require adaptations, so that it appears that Editions du Plat Pays does custom work. This applies not only to production technology, but also to marketing, which has to be adapted to the market targeted by a particular magazine or book. Editions du Plat Pays employs approximately 40 full-time equivalent employees. Most of these employees have a bachelor's degree and more than 15% have higher qualifications. This situation is frequent in the publishing world, given the technical nature of the tasks and the importance of interactions between people. Mr. Franois: a charismatic leader Mr. Franois, its director, is the oldest, but not the oldest in the association. Passionate about publishing, he has a real gift for discovering new talents on the themes of Editions du Plat Pays' predilection. Everyone in the company recognizes his authority, even if his propensity to delegate is perceived as sometimes too strong. A visionary, he likes to take risks and knows how to make decisions based on global data. His ability to motivate employees is seen by all as an important part of the corporate culture. Although the main decisions remain the prerogative of the general management, the general manager is rarely involved in the preparation of files and in the execution of these decisions, under the pressure of middle management anxious to limit direct relations between operational departments and general management. Indeed, the association tradition leads to limit the number of hierarchical levels. There are only three levels between employees and management, so that it is not uncommon for the director to be directly questioned by an employee in the course of his or her duties. All employees have a high level of trust in both the organization and its management. Conflicts are few and far between, and are generally resented by employees who fear that their work environment is being challenged. At the end of his forty years with Editions du Plat Pays, Mr. Franois often talks about his pride in the work we do together. The "digital shift" project However, the general management believes that changes are necessary. "It's time to improve our competitiveness and be more strategic," Mr. Franois told a reporter. "We need to rethink and reinvent our relationship with our customers to meet their expectations." Recently, Mr. Franois participated in a conference on the new challenges of the environment and performance. One of the themes that particularly interested him was "strategic positioning and change management". Back from the conference, Mr. Franois put some ideas on paper, among which an ambitious project called "digital shift". It would be to promote an evolution compatible with the advent of the "world 2.0 and soon 3.0", an evolution that he believes is vital for the sustainability of the organization. What are the skills required in the new publishing environment? How do they contrast with the traditional skills needed for superior performance? What are the necessary structural changes (creation of functions, recruitment, redefinition of positions, modification of the organization of work, of working hours, modification of management methods, etc.) are his first questions. And of course there is also the thorny question of resources! Convinced that the association does not have the necessary financial resources today to carry out this project and that the prospect of help from the banks is not conceivable in view of the current accounts, Mr. Franois thinks of his recent meeting with the head of a large national publisher. The latter showed interest in the house of the Plat Pays and would even be ready to make a proposal for a partial or total takeover of the activity. With such a takeover, the association would then benefit from the necessary means and perhaps from judicious advice to carry out the digital project...but how would the employees concerned, the union, the customers but also the institutions react? Can I manage this project before I retire? In short, there are many questions on the notepad. The use of consultants Deciding to act, but considering it appropriate to have at least an external viewpoint or even a real accompaniment, Mr. Franois solicits several consultants for a Business Game. The rules of the game will be simple: after recalling the history, the current situation of the company, its mode of operation, he will expose his request, in particular the interest and the questions relating to the project "digital turn" and the possibility of the repurchase then will let the consultants work. The objective: to present a confidential summary (by a written report and/or a Powerpoint) including the formulation of a real problem, a summary of diagnosis and recommendations. The D-day has arrived! As agreed, Mr. Franois welcomed the consultants and specified his request: "At Editions du Plat Pays, we are aware that the publishing world is in the midst of a digital shift and we didn't see it coming. Unfortunately, we are in the process of missing this shift and we will have to strategically reposition ourselves. Faced with this situation we need to invest significant resources that exceed our capabilities. On the other hand, a large national publisher has made me a proposal to buy out our business, which I was very interested in. According to him, it should be done within a year at the most, if we are ready of course. But how do we prepare and manage this necessary change? Your mission You are one of the consultants invited by Mr. Franois for this Business Game and you accept the challenge. In order to respond, you have at your disposal all the information previously exposed. Your summary note, report and/or Powerpoint presentation must answer the following questions: Q2 : Synthesize a first diagnosis of the change (context and specifications of the target organization...)