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MSC Program Case Study: AlphaGraphics


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Last week, I attended an IABC/Chicago luncheon entitled  “When Market Forces Demand Change: Evolving the **AlphaGraphics Business Model and Brand” at Maggiano’s fabulous Banquet room on Clark street. It was a two hour networking and presentation event that roughly encased an outline of my MSC studies to date. Presented by industry giant, Liz Brohan, CEO and President ** CBD Marketing whose portfolio includes companies like Siemens, Grainger, and Discover Financial Services, the story of her company’s role in the transformation of Alphagraphics from a leading print services company to a creative marketing and communications web 2.0 company- took a page right out of the MSC course outline.

Starting with a core theme of Change Management for 300 locations and over 4000 employees, their Global communications involved building information channels across 4 continents; Managing Information for Innovation transitioned them into a web 2.0 services company with an internal focus on training and development and external process of accessing information networks that included industry professionals as well as research teams from renowned schools like Chicago Booth (not a shout-out to Toby Cortelyou MSC2012 but seriously!).

Management and Ethics was played out on a franchising network where honesty and integrity were key players (individual business owners were offered the option of jumping onboard or jumping ship with AlphaGraphics stepping up by helping them sell their businesses-not their fault the company changed its game plan); Communication Strategy and Competition was represented with a web 2.0 product differentiation strategy; their new services platform and brand new logo took a page out of Topics in Marketing Strategy; Liz Brohan(CBD) and Jesse Himsworth (Director of marketing-AlphaGraphics) were class acts for Public Speaking and AlphaGraphics, a true credit to Organizational Behavior.

The point is, real world communications operates on the same platform as our classroom setting and much as I would prefer a less quantitative and more qualitative approach to some of these courses, I have to grudgingly admit that knowing what I now do about the industry out there, I wouldn’t trade a single course off this outline, including the ones I have not listed (the point was long made).

These courses are exactly what companies out there are applying to their business models in order to succeed in a rapidly growing and evolving marketplace and we as communicators couldn’t be better placed to take advantage of this opportunity. Kudos to the MSC program peeps, on a job truly well done (even though we do not always ‘ci2i’ :) ).

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Categorised as: career counseling, careers, change management, Communication in the Global Workplace, communication strategy and competitive advantage, Competition and Strategy, experiences, Justine Kakembo, Leadership and Decision Making, Leveraging Networks, Managing Global Teams, Managing Information for Innovation, Marketing Strategy, MSC Value, networks, Organizational Behavior, professional development, todays economy

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