Borders Group Appoints New CEO from Outside Bookseller Industry. George L. Jones Will Not Copycat Chief Rival Barnes & Noble to Gain Market Share. What Is It Going to Take to Drive Customers Past B&N and into Borders?
The hiring of George L. Jones amazes me. What a smart move to bring in someone with such an action-packed, diverse background. Unless he’s been blowing his entire paycheck on clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue every Saturday, I know he didn’t take the job just for the money. (According to Salary.com, his total package last year alone from Saks Department Store Group was, gasp, $2,286,695!) So he’s accepted the challenge of trying to turn Borders Group around. Is it possible he is not afraid of new ideas that involve the pain of doing things d.i.f.f.e.r.e.n.t.l.y? I’m thinking he might just be riding into Borders and Walden Books on a white horse, six-guns holstered right now, but capable of making a lot of people “start dancin’.”
He’s from Arkansas, which for a girl from Connecticut, is impossible to find on the map (yet another state somewhere on the other side of the Delaware), but he has made his friends and enemies as President of Worldwide Licensing and Retail for Warner Bros. and by overseeing Warner Bros. Worldwide Publishing, Kids WB Music, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, WB Sports and Warner Bros. Studio Stores. He was also Executive VP-Store Operations and Sr. VP-Merchandising at Target.
Look out Leonard Riggio and Steve Riggio, book retailers extraordinaire. Here comes George L. Jones! Could he perhaps know the secret formula for wresting market share from Barnes & Noble?
Think of the people he can call! Are the Warner Bros. and Target executives who made Jones look good waiting by the phone right now? I hope the air-conditioning was on in the Borders’ headquarters in Ann Arbor and in their executive offices in New York City over the weekend, because despite Jones’s attempt to reassure the 35,000 who work for Borders with his statement in The New York Times on July 19th, I’d say for the next few months people should hold their breath when they boot up in the morning. A change in leadership means a changing of the guard. Think “Access Denied” and that long, humiliating, frog-march to the building entrance, now known as “The Exit.” I always tell people if you think your job is in jeopardy, it probably is. It’s time to send all those free books to family and friends and pack on 10lbs with the expense account at lunch so you can cover your Christmas list early and ride out the long, lean winter ahead.
What kind of changes does George L. Jones have in mind? He doesn’t know. He’s just begun to sniff around, marking his territory. I suggest asking him when the honeymoon period is over. It will take time to distinguish between the sycophants and the producers. He did, however, tell The New York Times that he didn’t intend to copycat B&N to success. I wonder how that squares with retiring CEO Greg Josefowicz’s strategy to put Seattle’s Best Coffee shops and Borders Group’s newly purchased Paperchase stationery outlets into its stores.
Here are some of my harebrained (innovative?) ideas thrown on the table about how to drive more traffic into Borders, how to maintain better margins on product sold, and how to generate buzz for Borders. Not that I’ve been asked!
- Make exclusive arrangements with publishers to sell specific books at Borders and Borders only. (Time to change the vendor contracts!)
- Create a “new format” book that is sold exclusively at Borders. (Top secret, sorry!)
- Co-publish books with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and medium- and small-sized publishers. Give preferential shelf placement in lieu of a cash investment.
- Have a prestigious VIP cash register and pass out discount coupons to the big spenders, say, at the $150 purchase level.
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Rope off a special VIP room for people who buy books in quantity and make these readers feel important because they are!Offer a Return-A-Used-Book Program to exchange for a credit on another purchase for the next book and outfox the “used” book market on the Internet. Resell the “like new,” used book in a special section and keep the change.Have “For Authors Only Socials” where local authors meet local authors in Borders to socialize over a glass of wine or something significantly stronger.Offer to rent computer space in Borders to struggling writers.Have reserved parking for the Top Readers of the Year based on purchase of the equivalent of one book a week for 52 weeks.Offer an author mentoring program and shelf space to self-publishing authors of merit.Have a library outreach program and work together on Borders-sponsored local in-library events.Designate a POPS – Personal On-Premise Shopper, by appointment only, for corporate gift buying services with a minimum of, say, $500 per gift basket. The POPS would put together beautifully presented baskets of items from Borders, wrap them and ship around the world.Bust readers out of their favorite genres by having an in-store-only reward program in which readers may reach inside a grab bag containing extraordinary books representing a cross-section of genres and “Take One.”If Borders were to become the preferred destination for book buyers, people would walk or drive the extra distance and pass right by a Barnes & Noble.Jones already gets the message that too much time is spent by walk-ins and loungers who spend too little money at the cash registers. He’d like to remedy that. So would I. I loathe tripping over those parked baby buggies (install meters!) and having to deal with kids whose moms use Barnes & Noble as a place to kill a few hours on the cheap. PT Barnum faced the same problem until he hung a sign that said: This Way to the Egress! I like the idea of a sign that reads: First you pay, then you read.
I’m looking forward to some judicious firing!
- Fire senior level people who are complacently taking a big paycheck and clinging to the status quo. (You know who you are!)
- Fire executives who agree with everything you say and then keep their heads down. (You know who you are!)
I’m looking forward to some smart hiring!
- Hire people with great ideas, spine and derring-do. They’re out there, but they don’t fit easily into the corporate culture or respond well to the glacial pace of the corporate world. They need to be encouraged to participate, not swatted when they do.
- Hire experienced entrepreneurs who know what it is like to start a job and finish it, successfully, even if they had to ram a camel through the eye of a needle to get it done.
You’ve got a big, unwieldy job ahead of you, Mr. Jones. I suspect, however, with your retail experience and some guts, you will be the brave and resourceful caballero Borders needs to get people rethinking the current business model. Let’s see you herd market share away from Barnes & Noble and drive it through the doors of Borders and up to the cash register.
Note from theWicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Still sending that same old query letter out to literary agents and publishing companies? Still getting those rejection slips? Click on the Wicked Witch logo on the right-hand sidebar and find out what you are doing wrong.
July 24th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Borders already has a “loyalty card” program called “Borders Rewards” for regular buyers. Also they have a fairly active email program that sends out discount coupons regularly. However, I must say that in the last 6 -9 months the offers have become more meager and the discounts much less generous. I used to get discount offers of up to 40% off the list price of any book. Lately, the offers have been limited to such “deals” as buy 1 book at full price and get another at 25% off.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Who pays full price for a book these days? Maybe someone from another planet. Didn’t discount shoe stores pioneer that type of offer?
July 25th, 2006 at 7:02 am
Perhaps a tad off-subject, but in the same vein-I’d love to see more support of the independent bookstores *sigh* - however, how could they ever compete with the Big Boys?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Good comment. I’d like to know what it takes to keep people returning to a local bookstore, rather than head for the Big Boys. Price seems to be the great motivator. I was speaking to a friend of mine yesterday about this subject. He buys a lot of books, but mostly over the Internet. What he also does is go to the local bookstore, Bookhampton, to thumb through a book he is interested in buying. Then he goes back to the Internet, mostly Amazon, for his purchase: lower price, no tax, free shipping.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:53 am
If, like the Wicked Witch of Publishing, Mr. Jones can think outside the box, I believe he will succeed in attracting business away from B & N.
I especially like Lynne’s suggestions about co-publishing, authors-only socials and renting computer space to struggling authors. Expanding on those ideas, why not host book clubs that feature drop-ins by local authors (or authors on tour?) And why not include Kinkos-style services in addition to renting computer space? There is nothing more harried than a writer with a real day job.
I also love the idea of author-only socials (in an area set aside for such functions.) I bet the attendance would skyrocket if Borders snagged a literary agent or two, or a publisher or an up-and-coming author as guests of honor. I’m guessing that the successful writers’ conferences currently on offer throughout the country featuring agents/publishers/writers are real money-makers. Borders could, of course, parlay a mini-conference into some meaningful in-store sales while increasing brand loyalty.
I would drive the extra distance for some of these services. I wouldn’t for a cup of coffee or an annoying person with a guitar.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:42 am
It seems to me that a lot of “local” bookstores have hooked up with Amazon.com, because I don’t recognize the names of the stores I’ve ordered from in the past several months.
However, Borders could take a note from A.c and do book profiles of customers, then send them notification of new books on the market that have the same flavor of the books previously purchased by them… oh, but, that sounds too much like the local bookstore doesn’t it, you know, the store that really cares about its customers.
This is why customers are not loyal anymore. Big business has no room in its britches for customer concern because there are thousands more where that one came from.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Gina is a grant writer in Newellton, Louisiana. She’s just finished writing the first three chapters of her book, Running from Shadows. (Thanks for dropping by, Gina!)
July 25th, 2006 at 10:46 am
I really think you missed the mark. If Mr. Jones wishes to boost business for Borders, he needs to do the following:
1. Hire computer virus writers to attempt to destroy the Internet.
2. Buy up all major TV studio and cable networks and sell them off to El-Jazeera at cost.
3. Hire a hitman to take out Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, which will free up 95% of all media outlets to cover books.
4. Buy Sony and make them stop selling DVD players and other video players.
5. Tell Mr. Jones to invest a significant sum of his earnings in encouraging schools to encourage reading in lieu of computers, TV and video games. Oh, and speaking of video games…
6. Back to Sony, Microsoft, et al. Encourage the government to pass a law (hey, they can try for flag burning, why not…) to prohibit the sale and use of all videogames in the United States.
Just a few suggestions.
Best,
Mark Terry
http://www.mark-terry.com
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Yikes! A panicky dash over to Mark’s Web site reveals he is a free-lance writer and novelist living in Detroit. By his own admission, his mind is often filled with “murder and mayhem.” (No kidding!) His book, The Devil’s Pitchfork, is scheduled for release in October 2006. His blog is very funny!
July 25th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Jones already gets the message that too much time is spent by walk-ins and loungers who spend too little money at the cash registers. He’d like to remedy that, so would I. I loath tripping over those parked baby buggies (install meters!) and having to deal with kids whose moms use Barnes & Noble as a place to kill a few hours on the cheap. PT Barnum faced the same problem until he hung a sign that said: This Way to the Egress! I like the idea of a sign that reads: First you pay, then you read.
Wrong. I go to B&N because I can sit down and look at the books I might want to buy, and I buy books. If such a sign appears at Borders or at B&N, I won’t have any reason to prefer either store.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Good for you. I’m glad you don’t sit in Barnes & Noble and read an entire book and then reshelf it or leave it by the chair you sat in all day. Feel free to sit down and thumb through a few books, but remember, you are not in the local library and it is not okay to read the entire book for free or to do your research by pulling books off B&N’s shelf. It may be okay with B&N, but you can bet it is not okay with the author. Shame on those people who do that. And shame on B&N for letting them. I know Barnes & Noble is in the business of making money anyway it can. The executives and store managers figure if you stay in the store long enough, you’ll buy something, and if it is not a book, so be it. Cash is cash. Next time you are in Saks Fifth Avenue, put on one of their dresses and wear it around the store all day. See if they’ll let you get away with that. No, they’ll want you to make a decision: buy or back to the rack…pronto.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Just like to add in a more serious vein, that when I buy books it’s usually from Borders or from Amazon. However, I’m a book reviewer for The Oakland Press (Michigan), so I have significantly more books actually sent to me than I can possibly read, let alone review. Still, when I do buy books, it’s either at Borders (there IS NO local indie any more nearby) or via Amazon. On the other hand, I buy my kids a lot of books and they buy a fair amount, and since Borders is significantly closer (10 miles) than the nearest B&N (probably about 18 miles), Borders it is.
And no, I wouldn’t suggest to Mr. Jones that they build more Borders stores. Since Borders started in Michigan in Ann Arbor, maybe 90 miles from where I live, I can safely say we have a lot more Borders stores than we might possibly need, with a similar number of B&N nearby. What we don’t have are indies, most of them having been driven out of business by the big box stores, at least in my area.
July 25th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Your post made me realize that I haven’t visited a Borders since the last time the Detroit Tigers were any good, and they are very good. I haven’t been to Barnes & Noble either, not since the KC Royals were good which was before you were born. I’m not boycotting the stores. I like coffee and I read a lot of books and I’m very glad Borders hired a guy from Saks even if the last time I was there was to escape a blizzard although it was pretty cold inside the store as I recall. As an aspiring author I can think of several things that would bring me into Borders or Saks, hourly if need be: money, food, maybe a little room set aside where writers are showered with money and you have ten minutes to run around stuffing bills into your pockets. Do it Mr. Jones. I’m there.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
“Make exclusive arrangements with publishers to sell specific books at Borders and Borders only.”
Great idea.
I’m afraid that Jones probably won’t do anything different, just some chair shuffling and cosmetic changes around the edges. That’s usually what CEOs who talk in visionary terms actually do. That and mergers. Their favorite thing is mergers.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): The publishing companies have enormous clout, particularly the big ones, but they don’t use it. They could say “NO!” about book returns and/or about bulk discounts, but they are so fearful that a retail chain will then thumb its nose and retaliate by not taking any books from the protesting company that no one will take the chance. (Yet, you can bet B&N and Borders want first crack at all newly published books! There’s the leverage, guys!) There needs to be a real showdown between booksellers and publishers, and publishers CANNOT blink first. Where are the associations in all this?
July 25th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Socials. I HATE socials. Comforting for those that attend but otherwise a lot of nattering nothings and competions to look casually literary (and pretending it doesn’t matter).
Frankly, Borders shouldn’t change a darn thing, and I’m sure as heck glad they are not going to mimic the arrogant atmosphere of Bahhhnes and Nohhh-bul. I enjoy going to Borders because I can look for books without tripping over some guy on the floor playing his sitar. My experience has been that the managers actually know something about books. In BN, they know how to “look up” books.
Also (I shall mention the unmentionable) Borders is open-minded about self-published books through their “BINC” system, which takes approval and several months, but it says something to me. Bahhhnes and No-bells turns up an arrogan nose.
No, Borders has a fine forumula right now, but the rich always want to be stinking rich, and I fear for them as a result.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:27 am
Great suggestions, Lynne, for Mr Jones. Still, we haven’t quite figured why Mr Jones (with his track record) took the job. Is it just possible, that he loves books and reading? This is not all that uncommon. The corporate world can really get to you at times. Remember the Vodafone boss? Thereby hangs a clue. Mr Jones should staff Borders with people who love books, with handsellers who are knowledgeable, yet unobtrusive. The executives themselves will come with a host of ideas to gain market share.
Speaking to the CEO of CUP the other day, I gathered that amazon is their largest customer. if amazon is not to go on an “engulf and devour” rampage, the stores like Borders will have to do something urgently and fast to get and retain customers. While nobody pays full price for a book anymore, ever since the collapse of the NBA in the UK, still, the chains ought not to follow the grocery approach, ” 6 for the price for 5″. You are selling books, and not soap.
Sorry about the toddlers in the prams. These days, getting customers into bookshops is so difficult that we welcome everyone, family, friends, babies, neighbours and even the neighbour’s dog. Can we also recommend, day care, child care and even kennel care to all prospective buyers?
Sridhar Balan
July 26th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Click on over here for some comments about my post!
Brandy Wine Books
And Lorra Laven, author of Secrets of an All-Boys’ Prep School, let me know that the day after I posted about Borders, so did Publishers Weekly in their “Talk Back Tuesday” column:
July 27th, 2006 at 10:27 am
The curmudgeon buys well over $1000.00 worth of books most years. 75% of these are bought through Amazon.com for new books, Amazon Marketplace or Bookfinder.com for used and hard to find books, and special prepublication offers or speciality sites for certain speciality books. The reason is simple- PRICE! Price, lack of sales tax, and low or no shipping costs are my basic reason.
There is no reason for me to go to Borders or B&N or the local independent other than those rare occasions when I want to look at a book before I buy it. Other reasons to go would be for gift certificates, last minute gifts and browsing for sales on coffee table items
Even with discounts on some items, they are no match for Internet buying. I buy mostly paperbacks for space reasons.
The several hundred dollars I save each year make it worth shopping on-line. In addition, I have an Amazon.com credit card which gives me over $100.00/year in gift certificates that I can apply to my purchases.
If I were younger and on the prowl, I would certainly hang out in one of the big chains to meet women who are able to speak.
July 28th, 2006 at 6:39 am
There must be tremendous pressure on Amazon from investors to lose the free shipping as they seem to be hemorrhaging money (even for Amazon).
I work for an independent. So if Jeff Bezos becomes a grocery store magnate, I’ll shed no tears for him. It may level the playing field and frankly, given that Amazon gave most of their PAC money to Bush last November, that should seal the deal for an engaged citizen.
August 2nd, 2006 at 7:14 am
Would someone please think LIBRARY!
In the Wednesday, August 2, 2006 edition of The New York Times, columnist Samuel G. Freedman lauded a woman named Alison Link, the Director of Leisure Education for Tully House, a half-way house in Newark, New Jersey, for introducing convicts to a local Barnes & Noble. “The idea of going to a bookstore first came up nearly three years ago during a discussion of leisure. Someone…said he wanted to do research. Ms. Link thought of the Barnes & Noble bookstore 15 minutes west of Tully House.”
For the entire column see On Education/Samuel G. Freeman, “Tasting Freedom’s Simple Joys in Barnes & Noble,” Metro Section, page B7.
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
I am appalled by the dirty, slovenly people hanging out in Barnes & Noble: sleeping, snoring, using pages of books and magazines as tissues. IB&N has become like a bus stop, though bus stops are cleaner. I’ve seen horrible things. I don’t feel safe. Indigents use the public rest rooms. I don’t feel anything I am buying is sterile. I’m paying prices for a book that tattered and earmarked…used. Every book should be sold as “used.” I wait on line forever and the cashiers try and up-sell me when I finally get to the register. I am always walking over kids and their play toys. To me the whole experience of thumbing through a book in order to decide whether I want to purchase it, has fallen by the wayside.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:14 am
I concur.
I believe customers such as myself originally migrated from the library to the book stores because:
On that last note, we don’t want to smell noxious fumes, we don’t want to overhear beligerent mumblings, and god forbid we need a public restroom, we don’t want to get TB. I think it’s wonderfully charitable to get the homeless out of the cold; that is just as much of the community spirit that a book store ought to have. I just find it interesting, however, that the reasons why you won’t find me inspired at the local library, are now issues which the retailers now have to address.
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Always the same answer: more books, many more books and a lovely place to come to; the competition is Abe and Amazon- who don’t have a place you can go, sit and keep warm. That’s what Borders can do better.
You can tell Mr Jones all those things for nothing. Improving bookstores has always been the same job. Tim
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding Borders…but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong
August 8th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I’ve worked at Borders Group Corporate office and it amazes me the turnover in CEOs this company has had. Is it really that hard to run this company? When I was there, it was a cluster of VPs reporting to VPs and Presidents reporting to Presidents. I’ve never seen so many layers of management reporting to peers. Lately, it seems you can’t get good customer service in Borders. I’d much rather give $ to independents who can actually service me.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 am
[...] Lynne Scanlon is a person who has worked at a high-level in the book trade, and her views on developments at the US bookseller chain Borders are therefore better informed than most. And there are quite a few other ideas in the comments section. [...]