I love baseball. I used to have a coach that always said, “Keep it Simple\nSilly!” The same can be said in business.\n\nWhile on a project in London for Discovery Channel, we found that\nDiscovery’s shows are pretty popular in Europe/Middle East/Africa. This\nmeans a lot of money is spent translating them into numerous languages.\nEvery time a show was translated into a different language, a regional\nLanguage House (in the target country) was hired to give the show an\nauthentic sound and feel. Not only did London have to ship the show on a\nnew physical tape to the Language House, but the Language House had to\nship back a new physical tape with the translation as well. After close\nexamination, we found that there was a potential $3MM per year savings if\nwe just cut out shipping physical tapes.\n\nBriefly, here are the numbers.\n. (SHIPPING COST X 2) + (Tape Cost X 2) = Equals Cost per Episode\n. 15 Episodes Per Season on Average\n. 20 Different Shows Per Single Network on Average\n. 6 Different Networks (Animal Planet, Science Channel, Etc)\n. 28 Different Languages\n. $20 SHIPPING COST\n. $10 TAPE COST\n\nOur team recommended a video file transfer solution that would cost around\n$500K to implement. No more tapes, no more shipping. We saved the\ncompany 8.5 Million Dollars over a 3 year span, including the one-time\n$500K technology investment.\n\nIn my 15 years as a consultant, I have found that sometimes the answer to\nbeing more profitable is within your own walls. I liken it to the trade\ndeadline in baseball every July, where teams are scrambling to make a big\ntrade, but sometimes the answer is within their own organization.\n\nFor my project with Discovery Channel, the difference maker was within our\nvery own walls. As you can imagine, we hit a homerun…
