Arnoldo Mondadori Analysis

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Contents

PROJECT INTRODUCTION        

MONDADORI - AN OVERVIEW        

MONDADORI ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE        

BOOKS REATIL INDUSTRY        

INDUSTRY SEGMENTATION ANALYSIS        

PORTER’S 5 FORCES ANALYSIS        

COMPETITORS (HIGH)        

THREAT OF ENTRY (MEDIUM)        

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES (MEDIUM-HIGH)        

COMPLEMENTS (LOW-MEDIUM)        

BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS (LOW-MEDIUM)        

BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS (HIGH)        

MONDADORI RETAIL ANALYSIS        

INDUSTRY PROFITABILITY        

RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES        

RESOURCES        

FROM RESOURCES TO CAPABILITIES        

CORE COMPETENCES        

VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS and VERTICAL INTEGRATION        

VERTICAL INTEGRATION        

CONCLUSIONS and FUTURE STRATEGIES        

PROJECT INTRODUCTION

Over the last decades, the digital revolution has influenced many industries. Many companies have thrived, many others have failed. Even a book, nowadays, has been reinterpreted in a digital concept. While many are still asking themselves if it is possible to define a book as something which is not physical, not made of paper and printed words, companies have to keep up with the evolution of the environment, from new customer requirements, to new commerce platforms.

Mondadori has been operating as a company for more than a century. How is it managing to respond to the challenges this new digital environment has brought? How has it tried to exploit the resources it had built during the last century or so? What could be Mondadori future paths to explore? How should it evolve? The objective of this report is to answer these questions, by understanding, first, how exactly has the environment evolved, second, what Mondadori’s core business really is.

MONDADORI - AN OVERVIEW

Founded in 1907 as a publishing company, Mondadori had published, by the year 1915, both its first book (Aia Madama, in 1912) and its first magazines (La Tradotta and La Ghirba, starting in 1915).

The Mondadori brand, in just a few decades, has become more and more valuable, also thanks to the several book and magazine series that it launched.

It reached the point that, in 1935, it was Mondadori the publishing company with which Walt Disney agreed to publish its creations in the Italian segment.

World War II has represented a serious threat to the business, since, in 1943, the Fascist government forced the Mondadori family to abandon Italy and seek repair in Switzerland. It was only in 1945 that Arnoldo Mondadori was able to take back the ownership of the company and reconstruct it from where he left.

Almost a decade later, in 1954, after having established its advantage in the publishing industry, Mondadori launched its first book chain, Mondadori per voi.

From 60s to 90s, the firm has not faced many changes in its structure, except from some variations both in the headquarters and at the top management level. During these decades, the firm has built its success by launching magazines and books which would have then become widely known to the vast majority of the Italian population (Panorama, La Repubblica, just to mention some).

However, in 1997, it has been necessary to reorganize the company, dividing it in 6 business areas and 4 corporate functions, in order to face what would have been the future strategic moves of the firm. The next years, in fact, have seen Mondadori entering the franchising market (1998), dealing with several acquisitions (Monnier, in 1999, Piemme, in 2003, etc.) and opening new internally-owned stores (Florence, Padua and Milan, in 2000).

Just a decade ago, the decision to enter in the radio market, with the acquisition of Radio 101 (2005), in the attempt to play a less marginal role in the Media sector, like it tried to do back in 1981, by launching the Retequattro channel.