Since ending grad school nearly two years ago I’ve been gripped with a most disconcerting case of ennui. Most of my higher education has had my time strictly allocated between work and study leaving precious little for me to have to find ways to entertain myself. So this recent hiatus has been ramping up in terms of boredom and restlessness particularly since I have not been able to find any real world application for my MBA. Luckily, there might be some hope for me.

A friend of mine launched a self-started magazine aimed at discussing the intersection of art and politics. The goal was to produce a slick, glossy, two-color cover product on a quarterly basis with the freshest content being mirrored on the magazines website. However, the magazine has had a rocky start in meeting the quarterly release schedule, only managing to release two issues in a little over a year. This is not unheard of in the industry in that most magazine ventures fail within their first year of operation largely due to the incredible costs associated with production and distribution coupled with a highly competitive advertizing marketspace and diminishing readership.

So how does a new venture survive in that environment? For me, it is a puzzling question and one that truly draws me in. My MBA concentrated on technical project management, building bridges between technical staff and requirements and business needs and processes. With only a handful of marketing classes and no publishing experience to speak of I’m inclined to take two steps back and look at the magazine more as a cottage industry product than a publishing venture with the goal being to find a stable release schedule and, at a minimum, break-even profitability.

The first challenge, and probably one of the most important tasks at hand, is developing an executive strategy for the magazine. At the moment, the venture is running much like a zine and that is to be expected since it is a self-starter and is manned by largely creative people. Organizing their vision into a cohesive and actionable plan is necessity as it will guide their future actions and provide a framework for the business to be built around. While an executive strategy is largely a macro-level document it can guide the firm in drafting more detailed documentation for the business plan and later marketing strategies and operational processes.

Seven topics to get started (borrowed from QuickMBA):

• Business Concept - What do we plan to do?
• Company - How will we do it?
• Market Potential - What is our target? What does that target offer?
• Management Team - What is the leadership of the venture? Who is accountable and for what?
• Distinct Competencies - What are the strengths of the firm? What makes us unique?
• Required Funding and its Use - How much do we need in order to deliver a product? How will it be allocated?
• Exit Strategy - How will we land if we fail?

It will be interesting to see how this process turns out and I’m excited both for the magazine and the opportunity to put some of my education to work.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 at 9:09 am and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.