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Ok here you go if you where the ceo of Games workshop what would your changes be

Do you mean CEO?

well eather way  what would you do to im prove it  i go back to metal figures down size the co.
hire young tallent with the guidence of a couple of old pros

Probably start with targeted customer marketing. I would do this to start finding ALL of my potential gamers young and old.

Make the process more transparent to the customer. GW isn't Apple, why the need so much secrecy? Does it generate a buzz? Are people camping out their local GW store waiting for an army to be released? I'd have to say no.

Stop the yearly price gouging. Stop punishing the current customers for GWs failure to grow the hobby.

Make White Dwarf something other then a glorfied catalog. Make it useful again.

Consider bringing it back to private. Going public means that GW is so concerned with results that other areas have suffered.

Return to the days of many games in the product line and support them all.

Reduce the price of everything by one to two pounds each. EVERYTHING. Except maybe WD, which would be reduced by 50p-£1. Make WD decent again. Pay attention to the gamers that do play as well as attempting to bring in the new customers. Can't think what else as it's late...

I would temporarily dissolve WD, go private again and take a pause from releasing new stuff and new ranges and try to refine what I already have on my hand. Additionally I'd try to retarget and reconnect with my customer base...

I'd stop increasing the prices of everything for a start, maybe phasing in a 10-20% price reduction over the range over 2 years or so (to see how effective it was).  They then judge how effective this is before looking to the future.

I'd have a 20% off sale of one race for each system every year.  I.e. In July all BoC and Necrons are reduced by 20% for one month.  They could focus on those armies that are selling badly.

A major flaw in GW is customer service.  They offer no incentives like points for how much you buy, rarely updated FAQ etc.  

I agree on the secrecy issue.  GW problem is that they think if they were to release COPYRIGHTED concept art, or pics of greens, that their competitors would produce similar models so quickly nobody would want to buy theirs!?!!?

They seem to think that they need to release everything for a new army at once, let all the secrets be known etc.  I think this is a bad approach, they could hype up the release of certain models/ art for 5+ months in advance if they were clever.  People would know that the chances of them replacing lots of stuff are very slim, so I doubt sales overall would drop too much.

They managed to keep their prices relatively low when they were rapidly expanding sales, now they are struggling and they pass the cost straight onto us.  I would look to expand sales into other toy sellers, Toys R Us for instance.  I'd also try and advertise/ sell them in general hobby magazines.  I remember when they used to sell the big boxed sets (like 5th ed WH) in Argos.

They are doing well to expand sales through computer games, that's a good way to raise money.

Well, first I would drop the prices a little, say 5/10 percent% and fix those prices entierly, so it won't jump again next year. This is so all of my current customers are more content, and it dosen't seem so expencive to those little kids GW tries to advertise too (I mean seriously, there advertising mainly at 12 year olds, how many 12 year olds do you know with £18 to spend on a box, no wonder there sales are plummeting)

Next I would expand customer service, updathe the FAQs, maybe a loyalty service. I would also spread around the sales places and news, selling the box in a major order shop (like the aforemntioned argos) which everyone looks in, to try and boost sales. I would also chane the advertising focus to people whjo would stick with the hobby, and can afford to buy stuff off me, not the little kids who get one thing ever month.

third I would change white dwarf, make it a usefull hoby magazine, it's started on this road a little (the last one was awesome, almost usefull) Including proper tactics( not the crap ones we have in it usualy) painting guides, ways to convert stuff (it all seems more attractive to buy something when you're told how to make it look awesome) and proper battle reoprts, glorifying the products (not just advertising) so more people want to buy them.

thats it for the main...what, it's still cash foccused, just better, hey you said CEO of a company, not friendly store manager.

commit ritual suicide?

seriously, I´d get rid of LotR, sell Video games licenses and lower prices for miniatures

I'd change White Dwarf back into what it used to be. Card supplements in the middle, the occassional free minitature and a section for Mail Order at the back. I found that last one incredibly useful.
I'd bring the Specialist Games back into the spotlight, giving them some coverage in WD as well as their magazines and funding back.
I'd at least try to draw on the community of players for each race when redesigning, as its them I'd be trying to please.
I'd certainly order a change in the sculpting (seen the latest Von Cartsteins?).

To be honest, I think if GW is going to stay public (would be very expensive to reprivatise I think) an ideal situation would be for there to be a Games Workshop Customer Association (or some such thing) and for that to buy up the shares from donations from regular hobbyists. Then it could take the profit GW makes and put it back into the company and the hobby. It would make interaction between the company and the community one of the core aspects of the hobby. Still, very expensive to do (exactly how much do GW shares go for, and how many are there? Does anyone know?)

Probably run it in to bankruptcy. I would be to concerned about the hobby part and not the business part (profit). Plus I don't have the required skill set to run a big company.

ummmm, guys, if half of you where in charge, the whole company would have crumbled in a year, specaily the rules on boxes, would you like to carry you're unit boxe with you, and how can you plan if you need to buy stuff first

imagine buying a box of black gaurd, there expencive for a full unit, then you find you wasted every penny you spent

Where is the link to the annual report Sojourn?

I don't know about others, but I don't buy Warhammer at the moment because it isn't really exciting. I used to get genuinely enthused about GW, and when I finished an army it wasn't "That'll make my wallet happy for a while" but rather "I wonder whether I should try Necromunda, or Warmaster". The company now is too slick and prescriptive (I think WD mirrors its decline, personally).

or you can wait till another bankrup co. Buy you out and form one big co. Then you fire the worker ! Move the job over sea !Take all the employies  retirement,  have a 5 million dollar party for you wife/ girlfriend
and don't go to jail .that the way they make a co. profitable here in the U. S.

Thanks for link.

I gave it a quick glance and some of the nuggets from CEO Kirby are priceless (I'll get to them later) but this is the one thing that stuck out in my mind: sales have essentially been flat since 2002. Remove the boom years of 2004 and 2005 and it is very noticable.

Quickly glancing over this I'm tempted to say its not that GW has declining sales, its more that sales weren't all that torrid to begin with.

Its an interesting perspective you have sojourn

I would have said sales were dropping BECAUSE of the high prices, not that the prices are rising because of low sales.

GW used to rely on people buying more than one army.  If they are indeed reaching saturation point with customers they need to lower prices to encourage this spending behaviour again.

I don't see people buying whole new armies now half as much as they did 5 years ago, and its because of the cost.

They seemed to take a management decision to focus mainly on those starting the hobby and buying a few things (make quick money whilst they had their attention).  With an expanding market and/or customer base this strategy would work, and would justify their pricing.  As it is they have the wrong strategy for the market conditions.

I haven't looked at the annual report (low battery and very tired), but in response to Sojourn mentioning total revenue dropping after price increase, it's because of the elasticity of demand. I don' think it needs to be huge (although it could be), but I am sure that if they reduced prices a little, they would find sales go up exponentially more than the price dropped. Overall, they would get more revenue. Extra revenue at no extra production cost means a higher gross profit. Obviously, it is a fine balance as if they drop the prices too much, they may be selling more, but it won't be enough profit per unit sold to be worthwhile.

One other thing I'd do, assuming it didn't make a loss (as in, if it broke even or made the tiniest profit [better yet, GIANT profit]), I'd try to bring back parts sales.

Some good points. Simply reinforces my contention that chasing after the 9-year old gamer (what ever that is) is going to absolutely kill them in the long run. Sure kids make up the majority of the game, No one will dispute that. However with record energy prices their contention that they are "isolated to economic instability" is going to rear its ugly head and bite them in the ass.

People can claim all they want that its a kids game... sure, with adult pricing.

GW is going to be feeling the breaking point soon, when families have to make decisions. Buy food and/or gas or buy little Johnny that $50 dollar box of toy space marines.

Willmark, that is too right. In England at least. It certainly is becoming a case of scrape money together. England has the highest fuel prices in Europe (they'd be the lowest if tax was ignored across the board...), an increase in alcohol taxation, stealth taxes everywhere, a high rate of inflation, high housing costs, expensive bills etc... Buying luxuries like WH won't be an option to most people soon...