Many claim that the publishing industry is currently in the midst of profound change and is causing everyone involved to examine how content is made and consumed. Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, whose company organized the 2007 Tools of Change for Publishing Conference put it this way, "Building the next generation of publishing technology won't be easy, and will require everyone involved to learn new skills to operate the tools for building the future".

As one of the world's leading English-language publishers, HarperCollins Publishers, with over $1 billion in annual revenues, is right in the middle of the challenge to build the future of the publishing industry. Their call to action came in 2004 when they found their company facing little understood but massive change. This massive change was identified in the form of powerful search engine growth, exploding social communities, and rapidly growing online advertising.

In this keynote presentation from the conference, Brian Murray, Group President for HarperCollins Publishers, describes the process his company used to face these changes and prepare HarperCollins for the future. In his educational presentation, Murray provides a textbook strategic analysis of HarperCollins as it embarked on a six step process to meet this new challenge.