Robert Livingstone Consulting

INNOVATIVE AND MULTI-TALENTED EXECUTIVE
offers a rich mixture of experience, including start-up
and turnaround success in diverse businesses

For over two years prior to that, he was the publisher of Canadian Business Magazine at Rogers Publishing as well as vice president of the News & Business Group.

From September 1985 to February 1988, he was engaged by The Crosby Vandenburgh Group in Boston, Mass., as division president of Cable Publications Inc., a national cable guide publisher with a monthly circulation of 4.6 million.

He spent most of the 1990s outside the communications industry as co-owner and CEO of a wholesale bakery business operating throughout New England. After the sale of the business in 1998, he relocated to California as a consultant to an Internet portal start-up.

He returned to Canada in September 1999 to join Rogers Publishing as publisher of Canadian Business, the Fortune/Forbes of Canada. His CIPA appointment was effective in December 2001.

ACCOMPLISHMENT HIGHLIGHTS 

• Responsible for turning around a company that had lost key accounts and was operating in the red • Introduced a new product line and within a year made it number one in sales in its category in New England. • Took a major business magazine from number three in ad sales to number one in less than two years. • Launched four successful start-ups.

CAREER SUMMARY

HISTORY

Management Consultant, Club Candy Castle, Toronto, Ontario
(Jan. 2005 to Dec. 2006)

Used the experience gained in launching and running KidsWorks Inc. to help start The Lollipop Club, a similar business but located geographically and structured conceptually not to be in competition with either KidsWorks or Fantasy Castle. Consulted on the critical needs of the business in its early stages with particular emphasis on marketing and developing marketable entertainment concepts.

Business: Children’s indoor playground and party center.

Challenge: An agreement with the client to create compelling appeals without infringing on the business of KidsWorks and Fantasy Castle (owned by Livingstone, see below).

Management Consultant, The Gumball Club, Toronto, Ontario
(March. 2008 to Feb. 2009)

Repeated the process (see above) for the same client with a different location and with a broader range of entertainment concepts to encompass three different venues (appealing to three different age groups) in one location.

President, KidsWorks Inc., Toronto, Ontario
(Jan. 2003 to July 2009)

Lured into the business by his wife with her concept for a unique children’s indoor playground, Livingstone utilized his experience and skills to create a business that grossed in excess of $250,000 in its first year and lends itself to expansion. With the acquisition of Fantasy Castle in June 2004, combined revenues exceed $500,000.

Business: Children’s indoor playground and party center.

Challenges: An entrepreneurial start-up in a competitive marketplace. Critical that concept be distinctive, unique.

Actions/Results: • Developed innovative concept that includes 50 tons of sand indoors. • Brought information technology to a low-tech business. • Implemented online birthday party booking. Integrated web site with data bases and marketing processes. • Capitalized on KidsWorks’ success to attract funding to acquire Fantasy Castle in June 2004, also a start-up (Jan. 2004). • High margin businesses gross in excess of $500,000 annually.

Closed the business in July 2009 because of the recession and its impact on discretionary spending.

President & CEO, Canadian Information Productivity Awards,
Toronto, Ontario (Dec. 2001 to Dec. 2002);
Vice President, News & Business Group, Rogers Publishing

Appointed president and CEO after serving on the CIPA board for two years. Introduced new programs—including the CIPA Institute; Information Strategist, a bi-weekly electronic newsletter; an expanded magazine, Information Strategy; new high-profile corporate sponsors and a strategic plan to monetize best practices content accumulated over 10 years.

Business: the organization that manages Canada’s largest information technology awards program and serves as a national institute for information management. Owned at the time 50/50 by Rogers Communications Inc. and  CapGemini. RCI sold its interest to its partner in December 2002, triggering a severance agreement in employment contract.

Challenges: (i) Reversing the fortunes of CIPA by renewing and attracting corporate sponsors at a time when technology companies were retrenching; (ii) adding new revenue-generating programs to offset losses in sponsorship revenue; (iii) strategically streamlining operations and reducing expenses.

Actions/ Results: • Used senior level contacts from previous position to open doors; signed up major new sponsors. • Within six months, increased revenue resulted in dramatic reduction in forecasted loss. • Developed initiatives to establish revenue-generating electronic newsletter; later took it in-house to cut costs by more than half. • Took magazine design and production and web site design and management in-house and trained junior staff. • Worked aggressively with annual show management to reduce production expenses by 33%.

Additional: Simultaneously vice president of the News & Business Group at Rogers Publishing; attended all senior management meetings; contributed to ongoing publishing and web-related operations.

Publisher, Canadian Business Magazine, and Vice President, News & Business Group,
Rogers Publishing, Toronto, Ontario
(Sept. 1999 to Dec. 2001)

Business: Canada’s leading business magazine, the Fortune/Forbes of Canada. Published bi-weekly. Parent: Rogers Communications Inc.

Challenges: (i) Following through on previous publisher’s commitment to change frequency and redesign and reposition the magazine; (ii) improving magazine’s ad sales ranking of No. 3 in its category; (iii) assessing and addressing staff strengths and weaknesses on the sales side; (iv) making web site profitable.

Actions/Results: • Appointed new ad sales director; introduced sales training; refocused the sales team; took magazine from No. 3 in ad pages in category to No. 1. • Achieved record profits in first full year as publisher. • Appointed new editor; redesigned, re-launched and repositioned the magazine. Increased newsstand sales. • Hired new tech person for web site; redesigned site; introduced idea of sponsor-financed micro-sites; developed new Flash-based interactive web ads (see example); made site profitable.

Additional: Simultaneously vice president of the News & Business Group at Rogers Publishing; attended all senior management meetings; contributed to ongoing publishing and web-related operations.

President & COO, IdeaSeeker, Inc., Newport Beach, California
(Oct. 1998 to July 1999)

Lived in California for one year, from mid 1998 to mid 1999; consulted on portal web site development with information products company; functioned as COO; ultimately recommended against portal move.

CEO, Easy Bake Foods, Inc., Old Saybrook, Connecticut
(50% Owner - 1990 to 1998)

Business: Bakery products vendor to the in-store bakeries of major supermarket chains.

Challenges: (i) Taking small wholesale bakery through transition to high-volume vendor to in-store bakeries of supermarket chains; (ii) establishing and managing food broker network; (iii) out-sourcing  production; (iv) establishing new product research and development and launching new products.

Actions/Results: • Personally sold key buyers and took business from zero to $1.8 million in first year. • Negotiated contract with co-packer to increase production volume while maintaining margins; added two more co-packers; got sales up to $3.5 million. • Sales increase due in part to introduction of new products: innovative mini muffin line made company leader in category in New England, displacing Pillsbury. • Established the company as a unique, highly visible new player.

President, Cable Publications, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
(1985 to 1988)

Business: Publisher of comprehensive television guides throughout the U.S. Parent: Crosby Vandenburgh Group.

Challenges: (i) Turning around company that had lost key accounts (cable operators) and gone into the red; (ii) addressing high printing costs; (iii) improving margins.

Actions/Results: • Appointed new director of sales; led sales mission to sign up new cable operators. • Published over 4.6 million comprehensive television guides monthly for 160 cable systems nationally. • Launched innovative magazine-style, subscriber-funded cable guides, generating new revenue for cable operators and increased profitability for CPI. • Cut production costs by 28% through restructuring of printing relationships. • Increased annual net profit by 250% in two years through combination of increased revenue and reduced costs.

Additional: Starting in early 1988 worked as a consultant with an associate of the parent company to launch Sports Publications, Inc., based in Boston, to create a network of regional/city sports magazines in the top ten markets (Boston Sports, New York Sports, etc). Slowdown in the economy and the resulting recession made it impossible to raise the initial $3.5 million required. Gave it a year-and-a-half before focusing on Easy Bake Foods start-up in 1990.

EDUCATION: Achieved equivalent of MBA, attested to by former Member of Faculty and Administration, Harvard Business School. Documentation available.

BOARDS: Former board member of CIPA Ltd. and the National Quality Institute (NQI).

SKILLS SUMMARY: extensive management experience; strategic vision; people skills; well-honed personal sales skills; persuasive verbal communicator and presenter; excellent writing skills and editorial management skills; impressive financial skills for non-financial manager; proficient with a broad range of computer applications. ADDITIONAL: U.S. patents pending on a revolutionary notebook computer and electronic reader.

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