Ministry of Sound Case Study

Maxime Barbier November 2014

(French student)

14110415

Case Study : Ministry of Sound

1) What were the most important issues in the Ministry's environment that shaped the company's development both in the early years of the copany's growth and in the latest period ? List the major opportunities and threats in 2004.

The Ministry of Sound was created in 1991 by James Palumbo. He invested £225,000 of his own capital for his new dance club located in an old South London bus depot. His investment allowed The Ministry of Sound to have the necessary equipment and the technologies for a nightclub wich aspired to become one of the major dance culture place in London. James Palumbo was a former merchant banker, graduated of Oxford University and was educated in Eton College (The UK's most elitist private school) so he probably had a broad social network, which is interesting when you start a business.

But the Ministry of Sound's start had been difficult. The music style that was played was new and especially associated with recreational drugs. By the early 1990s, drug-dealing in UK had become part of the dance culture. That's one of the big issues in the Ministry's environment that shaped the company's development because James Palumbo refused its nightclub to be involved with drugs and drug-dealing, and he persisted in making The Ministry of Sound a clean and safer place of the London nightlife, despite threats from the local gangs.

James Palumbo campaigned against the use of drugs in youth places. Ministry of sound participated in the transformation of club culture from underground culture to mainstream youth market activity. This allowed the Ministry of Sound to maintain their image in the market and also to promote the venue to the young people who are the market target in the business of nightclub.

In 2003 Mark Rodol, the new chief executive after James Palumbo quit this job, extensively reorganised the company. The Ministry of Sound became a brand with...