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09/11/09
St. Anthony’s Messenger Press: The Power of Change
In today’s turbulent economic climate, change has become a necessary experience for even the most established of companies – and Xavier Leadership Center has been there to help. Recently called on to work with the leadership of St. Anthony Messenger Press, Xavier Leadership Center has brought direction and guidance to an organization in the midst of challenging but purposeful change.
“St. Anthony Messenger Press has been one of the most inspiring partnerships I’ve experienced since beginning my work with Xavier Leadership Center,” said XLC Director Len Brzozowksi. “Both CEO Father Dan Kroger and COO Tom Shumate have exemplified the remarkable spirit of the organization in their every action, and have been dedicated to finding a solution that was not only true to the company’s long-standing vision, but also allowed the company to survive and thrive in a rapidly-changing market.”
St. Anthony Messenger Press (SAMP) has certainly seen its share of market volatility. A Roman Catholic ministry of the Franciscan friars (O.F.M.) St. John the Baptist Province, based in Cincinnati Ohio, the organization enjoys a rich tradition that spans more than 100 years, beginning with the publication of the St. Anthony Messenger magazine in 1893. Today, this award-winning publication has a readership of nearly 300,000. Over the years, this mission based non-profit organization expanded its offerings to include many other religious education materials including books, newsletters, greeting cards, audio books CD’s, DVD’s and Videos. It expanded its evangelization in 1995 with its AmericanCatholic.org web site, and on-air Franciscan radio broadcasting.
However, St. Anthony Messenger Press now faces a clear calling to respond to the change that’s reshaping its readership, according to Fr. Dan Kroger. “With changes in religious affiliation and commitment among American Catholics, changes in the way Catholic Church professionals use St. Anthony Messenger Press publications, and in light of the current economic crisis and its effect on our audience’s buying habits, we know we a new strategy to succeed,” he explains. The intent of this newly emerging direction is to make St. Anthony Messenger Press a more sharply-focused and market-driven provider of inspirational products, and to strengthen its existing online evangelization and e-commerce efforts.
This strategy was the result of a now nine-month association between SAMP and XLC. Together with Fr. Kroger and Tom Shumate, Len Brzozowski provided facilitation services to help the SAMP team determine how its markets and distribution channels were changing, what new readership markets SAMP should consider, and what profitability and efficiency measures should be adopted. Ultimately, the team was charged with the development of a vision-based strategy that was sensitive to SAMP’s current audience base, while still drawing in new readers.
The intent was to provide a structured way for the leadership team to answer the questions above, by providing some organized classes to teach some basic concepts, and enlist them to conduct research and analysis, and to engage in constructive debate on key points. XLC’s role was to teach certain concepts related to strategy, marketing, marketing research, and strategy implementation and then to help facilitate discussions and guide some of the research and analysis.
“The SAMP team was thoroughly engaged, and our work together resulted in discerning and heartfelt conversations that truly got to the core of the organization,” Brzozowski explains. “This core helped inform and guide the strategy for new market exploration, as well as the establishment of inter-departmental work processes. It was not easy – change never is – but the hard work has already paid off in a richer internal environment and recognition of where the company needs to go from here.”
Together, SAMP and XLC have navigated through a difficult cost-cutting process and a step-by-step creation of an organizational structure for the company. The updated structure will allow the diverse and highly independent departments within SAMP to work together more effectively and embrace the new direction of the company. And now, with a new beginning on the horizon and key personnel in place, St. Anthony Messenger Press can truly move forward with their work to fulfill their vision “To Evangelize, Inspire and Inform.”