Journal of Applied Case Research
Sponsored by the Southwest Case Research Association
Going for Growth at Gecko Press
Mark J. Ahn Victoria University of Wellington Rebecca Bednarek Victoria University of Wellington
Journal of Applied Case Research Accepted: May 2009
Corresponding author: Mark J. Ahn, Professor and Chair, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship at Victoria University of Wellington. Victoria University of Wellington, Rutherford House, RH 928, 23 Lambton Key, Wellington, New Zealand 6140. Email: mark@pukanapartners.com.
Journal of Applied Case Research, Vol. 8, No. 1
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Going for Growth at Gecko Press+
INTRODUCTION The warm interior of the bookstore was a welcomed reprieve from the wild and windy winter weather bombarding the central city business and shopping area of Lambton Key. The Borders bookstore was a relatively new edition to the retail options in Wellington - New Zealand's capital city. As Julia Marshall, the founder and managing director of Gecko Press, surveyed the vast expanse of the multinational bookseller's publications and merchandise, she thought again about how easy it was for the products of a small local children's book publisher to get lost in it all. Even though New Zealand's market was small, it was dominated by imports with a wide array of differentiation and pricing. However, global book distributors such as Borders also represented an exciting opportunity to significantly expand the reach of Gecko Press, a children's book publishing company she founded three years ago. During Gecko Press' three years of operation Marshall created a distinctive highquality brand with clearly defined and communicated values. Gecko Press' sales and number of new publications had increased each year, and each product reaffirmed Marshall's focus on 'curiously good books' for children based on translated versions of outstanding non-English children's titles. The issue now was how to achieve transformational business growth in a slow growth industry. As she walked past Border's large table of 'half-price' books she reflected: "What was the best way to leverage the niche, values and brand we've created to turn Gecko Press into a high- growth business " THE GLOBAL BOOK PUBLISHING INDUSTRY The invention of the printing press by German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg in 1439 at the dawn of the Renaissance was a breakthrough technology that arguably had a greater impact than the Internet in terms of social, political and economic change. Today, book publishing is a slow growth industry within the ever widening and increasingly fragmented media industry. In a saturated market full

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