CEO's review 2014
CEO's review on video:
The year 2013 was characterized by an increasingly rapid transformation of the communications industry – or chaos, as one of our customers chose to call it.
As consumers, we increasingly operate in the virtual world, which puts the focus of development in communications squarely on the online realm. The ability to provide a good online service experience has become an important competitive advantage for our customers.
Creating a unique service experience requires
content that meets the customer’s needs in a well-designed online service that is easy to find. This also summarizes our mission as a communications group. We boost our customers’ businesses by helping them communicate successfully with their stakeholders.
Success requires diverse competence and quick reactions. We keep our ear to the ground to sense significant near-future trends and opportunities as well as changes in our customers’ needs.
Our offices specializing in communications and
marketing have easily found their own roles in the jungle of the digital operating environment. For print media, the transformation in communications has meant a tremendous change. Nevertheless, even print media is discovering its new role – for example, targeted and personalized direct marketing has become an effective and ecological communication method that strengthens and complements online customer service.
While constant change is challenging in the short term, in the long term it has made the Nordic Morning Group stronger. We have successfully responded to the challenges posed by the transformation in communications. This is evidenced by our second consecutive year of growth as well as our cash at the end of the year remaining at a good level. These achievements are the result of hard work and a long-term effort.
Overall growth in the demand for communications services was modest despite the rapid rate of change – and also because of it – in both of our home markets, Finland and Sweden. The general economic uncertainty curbed companies’ investments in communication and marketing, which was reflected, for example, in decreased media advertising. Compared to 2012, media advertising decreased by approximately 8 percent in Finland and 2 percent in Sweden in 2013. However, as in recent years, advertising in online media increased.
Activity in the Swedish market picked up late in the year, which seems to suggest higher growth in the demand for communications services in 2014.
The share of entirely digital services of the Group’s
net revenue grew by 40 percent and amounted to slightly over one-third of net revenue. The magnitude of the transformation in communications is illustrated by the fact that just seven years ago, the combined share of our net revenue represented by digital and multichannel communications was under 10 percent.
The Group companies’ business operations and results developed according to plan. Growth was fastest in Klikki AB, Klikkicom Oy and Citat Oy, all of which provide almost exclusively digital communications services. The share of digital services also increased in other Group companies. JG Communication strengthened its position as a content strategy specialist in Sweden.
The active development of the service portfolio plays a key role in the Group’s strategy. In 2013, we merged our Swedish printing businesses into one company, Edita Bobergs AB. This strengthened our position in the Swedish market, in which Edita Bobergs is a leading provider of targeted direct marketing production services.
Competent and committed professionals are our
most important success factor. Our goal is to be among the most attractive workplaces in the Nordic communications industry.
We invest in the continuous development of our employees as well as their job satisfaction. In 2013, we launched several competence development projects in our Group companies and provided training for our management. We also launched the first Nordic Bond 001 program for future managers to give our young professionals the opportunity to learn about the business and participate in the development of the Group’s strategy.
Values and ethics are particularly important at a time
when business is changing rapidly. In 2013, we engaged in extensive communication and discussion on the Group’s Code of Conduct in order to better understand the impacts of our operations and promote ethical conduct in our work communities and customer relationships.
We take responsibility for the environmental awareness of our employees and customers. We spread information on the environmental impact of different communications solutions. In our print products, we offer the option of a description of the product’s environmental impacts, which allows the information to also reach our customers’ customers.
We have systematically reduced the environmental impact of our operations since the start of the 1990s. The results are best reflected in our printing facilities that are forerunners in environmental responsibility. Nearly all of the offices of our Group companies are Green Office certified. One of the most significant achievements in 2013 was the inclusion of the new Group companies Educode and Klikki in the Group’s carbon footprint calculation.
Our goal is for our employees and customers to perceive Nordic Morning as a pioneer in corporate responsibility in the communication industry by 2015. In our employee survey, 90 percent of respondents indicated they consider it important for the Nordic Morning Group to be a model of corporate responsibility (2012: 74 percent).
A major development was the change of the Group’s name to Nordic Morning. As Nordic Morning, we have been even more effective than before at strengthening our image as a responsible parent group and developer of communication companies, as well as a versatile Nordic communications partner.
Timo Lepistö
CEO
Nordic Morning Plc