Continuous Improvement will revolutionize Landmark

Continuous Improvement seminar, July 1991

This meeting is the first step in a process that I am confident will revolutionize the way we manage Landmark. Why do we need to create a revolution in Landmark?

I don't intend to be overly dramatic, but the answer is survival. During much of the working lives of people in this room, our newspapers and TV stations were near-monopolies.

Someone recently reminded me of something I said in 1977. He had asked me why we were selling our TV station in Greensboro rather than the newspaper. I replied: "The TV station is already sold out. We can't add any more time for commercials. But the newspaper can add an unlimited number of pages as the advertising keeps growing."

That pretty well expressed the state of this business then. TV stations were largely sold out, and newspapers were adding more and more advertising pages. Our costs were continually rising, and we just passed along our costs to customers.

How those comfortable times have changed! The media business is undergoing a sea change. Revolutionary changes in retailing have made mass-market advertisers less plentiful, more cost-conscious and less influenced by local media. Newspapers are fighting to hold readers. And they are facing tough price competition from other media at a time when many of our customers are unwilling or unable to pay for our costs. Network TV stations are losing audience and advertising share to independent stations and cable channels. The Weather Channel and other programmers face a hostile political climate toward cable TV. This will surely lead to price restraints and more competition.

The media business finds itself in a situation similar to what American automakers and electronics companies faced some years ago when Japan invaded. Some American companies confronted the competition, restructured, improved quality and made themselves more efficient and more responsive to customers. Companies that did not respond have fallen into deep troubles - with discontinued businesses and mass layoffs.

We can succeed and maintain a strong business if we face the music and undertake major changes in the way we manage.

We will have to learn how to deliver better quality and service without price increases. We will have to cut some prices and are already cutting some advertising rates. That means lower costs and a continuous striving to become more productive. It requires continuous improvement in the way we do everything.

Other companies have learned how to do this. We will learn how to do it in Landmark.

So this meeting is a beginning first step in a long-term process to make Landmark more competitive and more valuable to our customers.

Copyright 1991 Frank Batten