SUMMARY
The article discusses on the migration of the Encyclopedia Britannica publication from print to digital form and how Jorge Cauz, President, Encyclopedia Britannica, revived the company from a state of regression to a profitable position. This transition sent ripples across the media world as readers were accustomed to the traditional encyclopedia business model, which had been in existence for almost two and a half centuries -244 years-. Despite the shock, this was a much awaited event by the staff at encyclopedia Britannica as the production process of the print set was more cumbersome and generated low revenue to the company. The announcement attracted reports from commentators, various comments and reactions from readers globally, one of which the author reported, cited, “Wikipedia as a disruptive force”. Jorge Cauz refuted that particular report, stating enthusiastically, that “Wikipedia helped in sharpening the company’s business strategy”. The article proceeds furthermore, describing the various and transition phases involved. After the company reached its peak in sales in 1990, sales declined afterwards and eventually collapsed. This was due to the loss of interest by customers in multivolume encyclopedia, sold door-to-door. The regression led to a shift to CD-ROMS. This in turn brought about a huge loss to the company as competitor, MICROSOFT, launched “Encarta”, which was free. Fortunately for Encyclopedia Britannica, the CD-ROM innovation was disrupted by “Online sales method”, of which the company used to re-establish a direct relation to its customers. Although Wikipedia seemed like a disruption initially, encyclopedia Britannica focused on its core competency – editorial quality-, which shot it up to a healthy and competitive state. The article concludes by revealing the tremendous growth on all measures- revenue, margins, content, reach and staff- , of encyclopedia Britannica.

ANALYSIS
Jorge, C. (2013), said “Prescient editors and executives recognized that although digitalization would make updating more efficient for print, it was only a matter of time, before the medium of publication itself would be digital”. And that would represent a threat to the way we do business”. This statement clearly reveals that, the management and marketers of Encyclopedia Britannica were proactive and on the lookout for disruptions in the offing. They developed a marketing strategy, which converted what would have a threat, to an opportunity. I can deduce from the article that the disruption was anticipated by the team and a marketing strategy devised, as the article reveals that it took thirty-five years to develop; thus, the innovation (Wikipedia) did not take the company by surprise. What would have been a supposed threat was converted to an opportunity, due to good planning, foresight and intensive marketing research. Encyclopedia Britannica worked on its core competency, which was its editorial quality. It also eliminated the things that no longer satisfied its customers, of which included its traditional method of selling. There were also several modifications done, which included a drop in price of its products, updating its web-based content in a lesser time as against the week long process it practiced in the past. In Summary, the company changed its marketing strategy and market mix, to suit the change in trend and desire of its target market. This new development shot it up to tremendous growth. It is a clear case of what would have been a disruption, turned out to be uplift due to strategic planning. The company chose to focus on its core competency, rather than being mired by its competitors. In conclusion, I found this article rather very interesting. It shows how a business can convert a threat to an opportunity, by positive thinking, foresight, and good strategic planning. Kudos to positive thinkers like Jorge Cauz.

I found this article rather very interesting. It shows how a business can convert a threat to an opportunity, by positive thinking, foresight, and good strategic planning. Despite all the challenges the incumbent (Encyclopedia Britannica) faced in terms of competition, it chose to focus on its core competency, rather than being mired by its competitor. This positive action shot it, not only from a state of regression to a state of tremendous growth, but has also kept its place in the market. What would have been a disruption turned out to be an uplift.