The Government has launched a web site for schools to use when recruiting. Local newspaper editors are already bleating about the damage this may do to their business. But the biggest benficiary of schools recruitment is TES whose business is almost wholly reliant on this revenue stream.
I am sure there is no conspiracy here, but Bernard Gray, the TES CEO is hardly the most popular man with the incumbent Government having written a scathing report on the state of defence procurement.
Emap was brutally damaged when healthcare recruitment was hijacked by the Government several years ago. The TES is about to experience the same horrors.
Showing posts with label Bernard Gray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bernard Gray. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
MOD Spend Waste Covered in Gray Paint
If you hire Bernard Gray, the mercurial CEO of the TES to have a look at your cost efficiencies, don't be surprised that the result is a damning report that shows profligate waste.
Bernard Gray was once an advisor to George Robertson at the MOD (which is why the mod gave him theig) and then went to be head honcho of CMPi via a spell as strategy director for Clive Hollick. If he has a reputation for anything its a brutal approach to cost management. The MOD/Government have now read the report and buried it according to press articles.
If Gordon Brown had asked anyone at TES or UBM what kind of report Gray might write he would have certainly rethought the appointment if what he really wanted was a nice warm cuddly feeling.
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Bernard Gray was once an advisor to George Robertson at the MOD (which is why the mod gave him theig) and then went to be head honcho of CMPi via a spell as strategy director for Clive Hollick. If he has a reputation for anything its a brutal approach to cost management. The MOD/Government have now read the report and buried it according to press articles.
If Gordon Brown had asked anyone at TES or UBM what kind of report Gray might write he would have certainly rethought the appointment if what he really wanted was a nice warm cuddly feeling.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
To Be Sold or Not to Be Sold. In B2B that is the Question
Peter Kirwan thinks Bernard Gray was beeing "cheeky" in postulating that RBI might not get sold. Grays business, TES, is backed by Charterhouse, one of the supposed bidders and therefore Gray is simply talking down the price in the interests of his owners he argues.
Maybe. The piece goes on to expose the opportunities for a buyer which are interesting. He rightly argues that there is plenty of cost to take out. Certainly most PE owners would consider that RBI has too much management rather than too little. But firing the COO would cost at least half a million alone!
The article also points out that the absence of trade shows creates an opportunity for a new owner to launch some. I think this is less compelling. Firstly the trade show market is very crowded and it is not easy to find new niches of any scale. Secondly although Reed Elsevier owns Reed Exhibitions this has ever prevented RBI from lanuching and running shows and conferences. It fact it does run some. It owns Salon International and SED for example.
In many of its core b2b markets REC owns the leading show- Hotelympia in the catering sector for example) so I would presume that Reed would require some kind of restrictive covenant on competing from a new owner of RBI.
As we have said before the problem for Reed is that the magazine business is unattractive and the liabilities on employment contracts and pensions are onerous. Gray may or may not be being disingenous, but he is right to say a deal is by no means certain.
Maybe. The piece goes on to expose the opportunities for a buyer which are interesting. He rightly argues that there is plenty of cost to take out. Certainly most PE owners would consider that RBI has too much management rather than too little. But firing the COO would cost at least half a million alone!
The article also points out that the absence of trade shows creates an opportunity for a new owner to launch some. I think this is less compelling. Firstly the trade show market is very crowded and it is not easy to find new niches of any scale. Secondly although Reed Elsevier owns Reed Exhibitions this has ever prevented RBI from lanuching and running shows and conferences. It fact it does run some. It owns Salon International and SED for example.
In many of its core b2b markets REC owns the leading show- Hotelympia in the catering sector for example) so I would presume that Reed would require some kind of restrictive covenant on competing from a new owner of RBI.
As we have said before the problem for Reed is that the magazine business is unattractive and the liabilities on employment contracts and pensions are onerous. Gray may or may not be being disingenous, but he is right to say a deal is by no means certain.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Business Publishers Admit Its Getting Tough
Business publishers are normally very cautious about talking themselves into a recession so it is interesting to hear the CEOs at the PPA conference acknowledging that things are getting tough. Tim Weller says we have to get our heads out of the sand -it's going to be tough he says. William Reeds Charles Reed is bleating that online recruitment is tough too, which is surprising given their strength in that sector. CMP complained that the building sector was tough and so is recruitment.
David Gilbertson says magazines aren't dead. Just resting perhaps. Magazines may not be dead, but they are not growth businesses and will not drive shareholder value growth says I.
So, in a an uncharacteristic agreement with Weller, there is still time to get the heads out of the sand - but not much. Every day of dithering means that advertisers are losing the habit of doing business with business media houses. Recruitment revenues are being stolen by the job boards and the recruitment and selection agencies.
So, a question for Charles Reed - if recuitment is falling in print, and you are struggling to make it work in online - what are you going to do?
It's too late to mind the shop and hope the customers will come back, we need a new innovative approach to business media. Without it, when Bernard Gray of TES says that the elephant in the room is the sale of RBI, we will soon be saying that the dinosaur on the plain is all the old behemoths of business media.
David Gilbertson says magazines aren't dead. Just resting perhaps. Magazines may not be dead, but they are not growth businesses and will not drive shareholder value growth says I.
So, in a an uncharacteristic agreement with Weller, there is still time to get the heads out of the sand - but not much. Every day of dithering means that advertisers are losing the habit of doing business with business media houses. Recruitment revenues are being stolen by the job boards and the recruitment and selection agencies.
So, a question for Charles Reed - if recuitment is falling in print, and you are struggling to make it work in online - what are you going to do?
It's too late to mind the shop and hope the customers will come back, we need a new innovative approach to business media. Without it, when Bernard Gray of TES says that the elephant in the room is the sale of RBI, we will soon be saying that the dinosaur on the plain is all the old behemoths of business media.
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