There’s no doubt the subscription model will turn your existing model upside down and inside out. What does that mean for your business internally? Publishing giant Wolters Kluwer is on track to transforming their business to 100% digital. CEO of Wolters Kluwer Germany, Dr. Ulrich Hermann, will walk us through their journey transforming from a product organization to a customer organization and the internal process change and perspective shift required to building a cross-functional, Subscription Culture.

1. ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION:
BUILDING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION CULTURE
Ulrich Hermann
CEO, Wolters Kluwer Germany

2. Agenda
Our Mission
What Drove our Transformation
The Organizational Requirements
Building a Subscription Culture
Lessons Learned
Key Takeaways
Q & A

4. “Wolters Kluwer’s mission is to empower
our customers with the information,
technology, and services they need to
confidently make and follow through on
critical decisions. ”

6. OUR TRANSFORMATION
PRINT PUBLISHING
• Legacy Business
• Transitioning to online
ONLINE SOFTWARE +
SERVICES
• Customer workflow
• Tremendous upside
potential
DATA ANALYTICS
• High disruptive potential
• Internal + external value
deliveredvalue
Time
Expert Content
Transaction / usage data

7. In 2014, 80% of Wolters Kluwer global revenue is made up from
digital Solutions & Services.
SLIDE HEADER
100
25
0
50
75
64
23
13
2013
68
20
12
2014
Revenues by
media (%)
Services
Print
Digital
100
25
0
50
75
25
75
2013
24
76
2014
Revenues by
type (%)
Recurring
Cyclical
Source: Wolters Kluwer 2014Annual Report

8. So,
what
happened?

9. 1980’s

10. Business was all about producing and selling a good
product on marginal cost…

11. Marketing & Sales:
Promotion of single products with
direct mail, retail marketing,
advertisement
Sales via retail’s “bookshelf”
Direct marketing & sales of
subscription
Value of a Single Product:
Renowned authors
High quality content
Index + taxonomy
In a product centric
business, we sold
content into the
print-customer’s
shelf…

12. INCREASED PRESSURE ON
CUSTOMER PRODUCTIVITY
flat rates
tenders
access to legal services via the internet
insourcing of legal services to corporate legal departments
global firms enter the market

13. 1. The client does not necessarily go to a lawyer
2. Prices for standard services will erode
MORE PLAYERS
COMPETE FOR
MARKETSHARE
SLIDE HEADERTHE MARKET WILL LIBERALIZE

14. Technology
trends
changed
customer
requirements
.

15. Customers today have new expectations
Personal Real-Time Immediate
fulfillment
On Going
Value
Memorable
Services

16. What did
this mean
for us?

17. 2010’s

18. HEADING
Section break slide
“Our value proposition changed from
‘Content Source’ to ‘User Experience’. ”

19. Controlling content vs
Enabling experiences
Enabling a Unique Experience
• Technology
• Intuitive workflow
• Ecosystem
• Relevance
• Productivity
Controlling Content
• Access to author driven content
• Opinion leadership
• Community membership
• Brand
REQUIREMENT: Radical innovation
REQUIREMENT: Radical innovation

20. At the core
of our
business
model is the
customer
experience.

21. Customer Workflow
Print Media
local
search/understand
domains
media
availability
Product driven
Content:
Competence:
Editorial:
Formats:
Value:
Digital Media
Customer Lifecycle driven
Customer Workflow
Solutions
integrated
serve/solve
tasks
solutions
productivity

22. Old
New
THE OLD VS. NEW WORLD
product
customer
 1 yR subscription
(Jan.-December)
or
 One time purchase
by piece/license
offering
features
Customer hunting across channels
internet search
usage
Free
Register
Voucher
1 – 2 mo trial
 subscription per month
 subscription per quarter
 subscription per year

23. “Building a business model around the
customer experience requires
organizational transformation. It means
building a subscription culture.”

24. guiding customers
through the right
channels…
training and coaching
every employee in
Customer Lifecycle
Management (CLM)
related workflows…
What it takes to
build a subscription
culture…
Aligning marketing, sales
and service around the
customer experience…
streamlining the customer
experience across all
touch points…
enabling ERP to
automate multiple
subscription based
business models…

25. SEO/SEM/SEA/
Social Media
▪ Customer Journeys
▪ Topic related education
centers
▪ Quality content
Ease of Use
Comprehensive
functionality & quality
content
▪ My Document
Library
▪ Quality contents /
newsletters
▪ Reminders in case
of legal changes
etc.

26. AGILE DEVELOPMENT
The underlying principle of our
product development
(re)definition of the problem
we hope to solve
(re)identification of the
customer
testing and iterating on
business assumptions,
positioning, feature
requirements, marketing and
sales tactics
research the market, analyse
customer, interpret usage
reports
Customer Development
measuring product use
elaborate feature, user
experience (main success and
alternative scenarios),
interface design
release new and different
functionality to the customer
as quickly as possible
assuring reasonable product
quality
Product Development

27. AGILE DEVELOPMENT Shifting the focus from product features to an
agile process comes from the top down
based on minimal viable
product (MVP), steering
committees, etc. focus on:
efficiency (management
resources)
and
effectiveness (CPA’s & CLVs)
as they relate to the agile
process
Management Focus
plan
requirements
analysis & design
implementation
test
evaluate
initial
planning
customer feedback
Deployment
Minimum Viable
Product
Source: Steve Blank,Why the lean start up changes everything, Mai 2013, Harvard Business Review

28. The established
global firm can help
create competitive
advantage for a new
venture at every
stage of the
entrepreneurial
lifecycle.

29. CREATING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
IN THE STARTUP PHASE
yield asymmetric market insight
uncover problems and provide critical resources for a solution
capital and business functions as well
access to supply chain, distribution networks & other critical assets
negotiate and leverage market participants

30. IMPROVING RISK MANAGEMENT
being part of a bigger portfolio
pilots, trials and testing with existing customer base

31. EXPANDING THE VENTURE’S
EXIT OPTIONS
recycling the venture into different product / business
spinning-off, licensing, white label
integrating into an existing business unit
carving it out as a new business model

32. Focus
near term performance
large business units
BE AWARE a corporation protects its core business
while applying proven concepts
Minimize
small up front investments
business on standards
Avoid
failure perceived as a career-ending event
incentivize a decision making structure that avoids risk
Protect
support for new ventures coinciding with economic
cycles, management interest and budgeting
Key behaviors to
maximize return on
invested resources

33. Lessons
learned?
Identifying
potential
roadblocks.

34. HEADING
Section break slide
“Transformation is possible only, if top
Management introduces a perspective for a
new business model.“
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK: FINANCE

35. “(Publishing) Business in the future is about
customer value and experience -- not merely
domain knowledge and expertise.“
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK: EXPERTS

36. HEADING
Section break slide
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK: BACK OFFICE IT
“Startups develop business from the
customers’ context, established corporations
develop business from existing core
capabilities.”

37. POTENTIAL ROADBLOCK: THE ESTABLISHED CORPORATION
“The established corporation can be the
enemy of any startup venture.”

38. KEY TAKEAWAY
Work with agile concepts in
marketing and product
development to avoid late
and expensive failures and
constantly pivot the
business model and
solution.

39. KEY TAKEAWAY
Managing a Customer
Lifecycle rather a Product
Lifecycle requires a
different DNA across all
company functions.

40. Q & A