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Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group
Client Warner Music Group
Region USA
Sector Media, Entertainment and Technology
Offering Strategy
Buzzwords
As-is future forecast Revenue and cost model Strategic roadmap Strategic scenarios Strategy development

The Challenge

Warner Music were looking to devise a new strategy to help them thrive in an ever-changing market landscape where technology intermediaries like Spotify and Apple Music were becoming more powerful. The strategy needed to be based on a thorough understanding of their data, their people and the revenue and cost drivers and how those factors could change in the future. They needed to understand just how various strategic initiatives could impact their bottom line over the next few years, prioritise options accordingly and to present the new strategy to the Board of Directors for investment.

Our Approach

  • Using all current financial and people data, we built a rigorous and flexible revenue & cost model to underpin all decisions that would be made. The model provided a forecast view of the “as-is” future if no major new initiatives were undertaken. We also built in the flexibility to run a series of strategic scenarios to test the impact of potential initiatives on the forecast future.
  • We defined key strategic opportunities for Warner over the next few years – providing details of how each opportunity could look, the steps required for delivery and the investment requirements for each.
  • By using the model to test strategic initiatives, we were able to demonstrate the potential impact of each against the “do nothing scenario”. For each initiative, we were able to outline: what it was, what it required (people and financial investment), the potential impact over the next 3-5 years and our recommendation.
  • We built each scenario in close communication with the CEO and Chief Transformation Officer, and evaluated each for opportunities and potential impacts in order to prioritise the options and build the overall investment ask and case for the Board of Directors. 

Key Outcomes

  • Each scenario was modelled over the next 3-5 years to fully understand the impacts/size of the prize.
  • We were able to prioritise the core strategic initiatives for Warner, what these would look like and how they would be delivered, and the investment requirement for each.
  • A final pack was created to take to the Board of Directors to request investment for the strategic roadmap.
  • A fully utilisable and flexible cost model provided to the client to allow them to continue to build and flex opportunities and truly understand the impact this would have on current cost & revenue base.
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