Marys Books Proposal

Key Consulting Firm

Your Current Situation:
Marys Books is an iconic staple in the Oak Park community. A profitable independent
bookstore for over 25 years, you have been an integral part of the Chicago area economy
and community. A site filled with local icons, rich history, and literature that is incomparable.
With strong ties to the local community around, Marys Books diligently supports women
and minorities and pushes for literacy. Marys Books is insistent on keeping a community
driven image and providing materials that are unique and shed light on the historical city of
Oak Park. By hiring local personnel of varying backgrounds, and striving for a community
based feel Marys Books sets itself apart from large bookstore chains and other stores that
lack emphasis on shared community values.
Oak Park is known for its rich heritage, community based values and diverse population, all
of which make Oak Park unique and appealing to many tourists in and around the Chicago
area. From the influential Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ernest Hemingway, to the various
Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes, as well as his own home and studio. Oak Park is an
advocate for originality and free thinkers. A society that promotes an understanding and
appreciation of the history by collecting, preserving, and making available research
materials and by providing outreach services to the community. Oak Park values diversity
and claims that it is the key to Oak Parks strength. In 1973 Oak Parks Village Trustees
enforced a policy statement about Maintaining Diversity in Oak Park, the broad
representation of various occupations, professions, ages and income levels.
Borders, a nationwide brand, including well over 500 stores does not encompass the same
values that are so imperative to Oak Parks community. Borders, unlike Marys Books, bigbox approach has no regard for historical landmarks, lacks values integral to the community
and does not offer the same rewarding opportunities that you bring as a local, independent
retailer. They are more than willing to destroy historically preserved buildings, like
Wiedbolts store, a local Art Moderne landmark, to put in a parking lot. Obviously, portraying
the belief that they have no concern for history.
The current home of Marys Books is the former Marshall Fields building. Built in 1929 the
building is a miniature replica of the Marshall Field and Company building located in the
Chicago Loop and a twin to the Evanston store. Marys Books takes up about 4000 square
feet of this building on the ground floor. The location seems well suited to the store having a
lot of foot and car traffic.
It is clear that you embody the cultural and community values of Oak Park, unlike that of
Borders. Marys Books affiliates with the local college by providing discounts on textbooks
to college students. You provide meeting space for community members to gather, and
employ local people, especially those in women and minority groups who many times do not
have as much access to the job opportunities or benefits that you provide as an employer.
Apart from being a successful, local, retailer and employer, you are involved and have

insight in the community. You are not only involved in United Way, which has to do with
enhancing the community and people in it, you take part as a member of the local
architecture and history organization. Which preserves and enriches the culture that sets
Oak Park apart.
Issues:
After meeting with you on several occasions and analyzing your current situation, we have
come up with three areas of concern in which we will evaluate further and then arrange a
course of action. The following three concerns are as follows:

Is Marys Books in competition with Borders?

What options are available/steps should you take to set Marys Books apart from
Borders stores, in order to stay away from any possible competition?
How can we exploit Marys Books as a local, community-centered organization using
non-invasive resources in a short time-frame?

After considering these main concerns, we will further research and create a plan based off
of your current situation to address your position as a company, and what we can do to help
set you apart as a retailer.
Needs:
Our main focus, at Key Consulting, is your main question of whether and to what degree
Borders is in competition with you. We understand that once that is established a method of
combating that affect can be devised. We also want to assure you that as a professional
consulting team we will keep any results and statistics completely confidential. We realize
that this is very important to you and will proceed with the utmost consideration. We will
stand with you in analyzing this current situation and will help you take any steps that you
see fit in implementing the results of our teamwork. We acknowledge how important
preserving the sense of history and tradition Marys Books embodies and how this cultural
heritage is supported by your location in the historic Marshall Fields Lake Avenue building
in the village of Oak Park.
You will have a valued team member in Key Consulting and its staff and want you to feel
the steadfast assistance we are more than capable of providing you as we move forward as
expeditiously as possible. We will balance your need for accurate information with the
requisite care that gaining that information necessitates. We will do everything in our power
to ensure a prosperous future for Marys Books.
Our Objectives:
A high sense of community and a push for women and minorities will remain a vital factor in
the conclusions drawn for Marys Books. Key Consulting is driven to resolve the question of
whether or not you are in competition with Borders, with goals to help advance Marys
Books in the process. The analysis of employees, customer, and the community will assist

us in understanding your situation, as well as continue to further your drive for local
business and diversity. Our strategy is to:

Relay surveys to the community to utilize public opinion of a diverse population.

Conduct employee focus groups to understand your work climate.
Further your connection with education in the community.
Research the prevalence of history in Oak Park.

Our research will be done in a manner suited to your community. Key Consulting favors
small business and will do everything we can to cater to your needs as a company. Beneath
in further detail we explain our approach to complete the objectives.
Our Methods:
Community Driven Research:
Key Consulting will grasp a higher understanding of the communitys involvement in
Marys Books by conducting comprehensive surveys. These surveys will aid us in
discerning how the community feels about your business and where Marys Books
stands in comparison to Borders. The questionnaire will consist of five simple
questions that all age groups can easily answer, as well as a comment section for
any extra advice or insight into your store. Questions of how often local citizens visit
Marys Books along with why they decide to shop with you. One inquiry towards who
in the community shops with you, in order to help you better understand the
demographics of your market. Another point that we will try to elicit is how your store
compares to other book stores, namely Borders, in the area. The response to this
question will allow us to indicate how Borders has impacted the community and their
thoughts on the chain store. We will also ask the public if there are any actions that
could be taken to make them stop by Marys Books more often. All of this information
will be vital in determining if Borders is in direct competition, and as an added benefit
it will broaden our understanding of the surrounding community.
The surveys will reside in Marys Books and customers will be asked to complete
them. We will also spread these surveys wide by putting a small insert in the local
paper to broaden our outreach. The surveys that are sent out can be turned into to
Marys Books, and as an added benefit to the customers/community they will receive
a coupon off their next purchase at your bookstore. This will entice people to stop by
the shop and give us the much needed information about the communitys thoughts
on your business.
Diversity and Outreach:

Key Consulting will develop a focus group within your employee base made up of
women, single parents and minorities in order to gauge the opportunities and
benefits you have provided as an employer and retailer. You are making and impact,
and by conducting this focus group our growth analyst will be able to determine how
large that impact is, and how it sets you apart as a community member and
employer. Diversity is a common theme within Oak Park, your efforts to capitalize on
that involves you not only in the community, but it sets you apart from Borders.
Through the focus groups we will be able to attain testimonies as well as personal

accounts and feature those stories in order to set your operation apart, and use it as
a marketing tool within the community.
We believe it is in your best interest as an employer and community member to
continue your focus on women and minorities. We want to help you build off of what
youre already doing by hiring more women and minorities and take your
involvement one step further. We would like to develop a book sharing program at
the K-12 schools within the community. This would allow you to be present in the K12 schools, as well as give you the opportunity to hire more employees from diverse
backgrounds. Through extensive research we will get a grasp at the K-12 curriculum
and determine what resources Marys Books can share with the schools. This
program will allow you to hire more within the diverse community, as well as market
Marys Books and Marys Childrens stores to students, teachers and parents.

History and Education within the Community:

History
Key Consulting will research the value that history, established tradition and
community stability plays in the sales of books. We will also research how the
importance and value you place on history and tradition obviously differs from
Borders. We will access archival footage of the surrounding area and look at what
changes have happened in the past and in the recent history in the community
Marys Books. Since you place more value on the books covering the history and
community of Oak Park we will compare how your inventory in this section varies
from Borders. We will determine how that diversification and concentration on local
history books increases and affects your sales.
Education
Key Consulting will interview elementary, high school and college age students
about the importance that books play in their lives and determine ways that a
community bookstore can better service that need. We will interview the parents of
Oak Park students and determine where they feel your bookstore can better help
their children make use of books in the completion of homework and in other areas.
Since, the field of education is using forms of technology to make classroom
education more relevant to our fast moving culture, we will also conduct research
with these students to ascertain how you can better facilitate the advantages of this
technology and usage. We will also research ways to unite with local educators in
bringing your inventory into the classroom in additional ways such as eBook readers
and eBook versions of your textbooks that already are there, which should provide a
competitive advantage to Borders. We will interview students to determine how by
Marys Books increasing your technology inventory will help you increase sales. We
will resolve as to whether having eBook versions of popular titles and textbooks will
provide a technological edge over Borders. We will also look into whether having a
sales inventory of popular tablets and other eBook readers will provide a competitive
edge.
Qualifications:

Key Consultings goals for Marys Book stand strong in our company's deep values set in
our founding. Twenty five years ago two colleagues in the well-known consulting firm,
Chicago Advising, decided some changes could be made to better the organization.
Chicago Advising had the sole ambition of aiding big business to create less competition in
communities. This attitude toward business agitated two newly hired consultants Rachel
Brighton and Nicole Andover. Brighton grew up in a small town filled with small business
that gave her community character. The same local businesses were devastated when a
big name convenience store entered their community and stole the business of three
neighborhood shops. This infuriated Brighton and she vowed to do all that she could in the
future to ensure the success of local companies. Nicole Andover on the other hand grew up
in a suburb of Chicago that, as she describes it, lacked originality and flavor. There were
many small and large businesses, however, each were hurting for a diverse group of
employees. This deficit of culture in her community impacted her to join the National
Diversity Council where she has been a member for over twenty seven years.
The two women started working at Chicago Advising together and realized that their values
were not in line with this company. They began talking and found that they had similar ideas
about business, and particularly consulting. Brighton and Andover collaborated skills and
ideas in order to create a new consulting firm. Founded on the belief that small business
should have unending success, and equal opportunities must be available to all people Key
Consulting was born. These two independent women focused their efforts on advancing
local companies to enrich the community. They hired a diverse group of people from the
Chicago area who pulled expertise from their varying backgrounds to fulfill their goal of allencompassing knowledge. After a twenty five year history, Key Consulting has aided more
than two hundred small companies in furthering their business, and still yearn to improve
this number. We have achieved an understanding of how communities operate and we
continue to grow and gain more intuition as the years go by.
Key Consulting would be privileged to work with Marys Books. We value and appreciate
your advocacy for local business and push for women and minorities. We hope to bring new
insight into your particular case. Below are the biographies of the specialists who would be
honored to work on this project with you if chosen. Each has unique abilities that we believe
are well suited to your situation.
Biographies:
Growth Specialist:
Olivia Scott was born in Evanston, Illinois just north of the Chicago area. As a child she
always had a passion for small business. Her grandparents owned a small candy shop in
town, and she grew up working there and learning the ins and outs of owning a company.
Through this process she knew she wanted to go to into business and continue her
education in a more academic setting. Olivia went on to pursue a business degree at
Columbia College in Chicago where she specialized in business growth. Since then she has
helped over 30 companies improve the growth and expansion of their business, through
local knowledge and expertise in the Chicago area. She became a specialist in the field of
reviewing organizations and their ability of growth continuation or recession. This vast

knowledge and ability to analyze a companys situation has made Olivia a crucial asset to
the Key Consulting team.
Consulting Specialist:
Hailey Askeland grew up in downtown Chicago, Ill. where she still resides with her husband
and 2-year-old daughter. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in both business administration and
management communications. Subsequently obtaining her undergraduate degree, she
joined Key Consulting Firm and has been with the company for 6 years. She is currently in
the process of attaining her graduate degree in consulting, with aspirations to grow in the
industry. She hopes to keep fueling her passion for people by assisting local, community
based companies and helping them thrive. She is involved in her neighborhood book club,
and has a passion for historical books about the community in which she has grown up.
Analyst:
Tim Roesch was born in Eagan, Minnesota a suburb of Minneapolis. Growing up he had a
fascination for numbers and how those numbers can affect the future. His father was an
electrical engineer at Honeywell and instilled in Tim at a young age how important accuracy
and a good work ethic are. His mother was a local High School teacher and taught Tim how
valuable persistence and determination are. Tim has a Bachelors Degree in Accounting
and Finance from the University of Minnesota and a Masters in Public Planning from the
University of Chicago. He lives with his wife and three sons in the Chicago suburb of Cicero,
IL. Tim will use his strong analytical skills, his excellent problem solving proficiency and his
demonstrated ability to understand the complex metrics of financial planning and is a valued
member of the Key Consulting team.
Budget:
Our knowledgeable Key Consulting team will crunch the numbers and arrive at a good,
logical timeline and budget. Please see Appendix X for a complete budget outline.
Benefits:
With our many years of experience and high achievement rate, Key Consulting is the key
that opens opportunities and delivers success by providing detailed, applicable insight into
your current situation. Our consulting firm has been prospering for 25 years and with each
year comes more growth and achievement. If you allow us the privilege of working for you,
we promise to use our past knowledge and experience to better your company, and open
the door to your success.
Through various methods of research, including: focus groups, surveys, interviews as well
as extensive research and analysis we will be able to determine if we think you should
modify the methods and strategies of your business, and ultimately to determine whether or
not we think you are in competition with Borders.

At Key Consulting we value local community based initiatives and the strength of
independent business owners who strive to uphold the needs of the community and the
greater good. Our firm prides itself on the efficiency and timeliness that we ensure on each
project and with every client who hires us. Among our values of timeliness and efficiency,
relationship development is at the forefront of each client interaction, which we make an
effort to continue well after each contract ends.
Furthermore, as a company and companion we are invested and concerned with your
success. Our consulting firm genuinely cares about the history and preservation of the
community and you as a business owner and community member. With similar values in
mind we know that you and your business will thrive should you choose to work with our
zealous and dedicated team members. We will be sure to open the door to your success.