HSA 65th Anniversary Book

fy
11
FEBRUARY 1, 2010 –
JANUARY 31, 2011
PRESIDENT
Meagan
Hill
OFFICES
67 Mt. Auburn St.
17 Holyoke St.
52 JFK St.
Holyoke Center Arcade
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
The Great Recession takes its toll
on revenues and employment
In the grip of the recession, HSA aimed
simply to break even. A push to banish
inefficiencies helped to hold down net
losses, but revenues ($2.8 million) and the
number of student employees (371) hit
their lowest levels in decades. The Board
of Directors dove into the effort to secure
HSA’s future with five strategic-planning
committees that encouraged continuity in
a time of tumult.
The agency laboratory popped and sizzled
as HSA’s chemists of commerce raced
to discover a winning formula. A twomonth
internal innovation challenge was
conducted to identify the best new agency
ideas from the current managers. HSA
showered more attention on the impish
tykes of Harvard Summer School with an
expanded Summer Leadership Program
and their own Unofficial Guide. Rover had
to hire seven new developers to handle
an outpouring of outside projects: three
apps for Moon travel guides and 10 for
Rick Steves. HSR added private tutoring
to its stable of temp jobs to complement
the SAT SOS Course. HSA Cleaners
expanded to Tufts, Boston College, and
Manager Ethan Waxman ’12 heads up the
HSA Cleaners tent at freshman move-in.
Boston University under the name Campus Cleaners. A literal talent agency (yet another i3 winner) was
formed to promote those Harvard musicians shrewd enough to retain HSA’s services. HSA Market Day
was upsized but quickly discontinued, plagued by a number of problems, including a U-Haul accident. And
the most dramatic change was the elimination of HSA Dorm Store, which had been marred by inefficient
inventory practices and difficult delivery logistics. The agency’s more profitable sectors, such as box sales and
water coolers, were incorporated into Cleaners, while HSA struck a new outside partnership with Student
Logistic Services to take over the furniture racket.
Finally, a rebranding initiative literally made HSA the
company we recognize today. HSA worked with graphic
designers to create fresh new agency and corporate logos, and
a new style guide and design templates ensured that HSA’s
diverse projects would always be unified by a common look.
Before long, the 17 Holyoke St. storefront and the HSA
website were both redesigned in quintessential HSA style.
In The Harvard Shop’s first full year of partnership
with Unofficial Tours, the arrangement brought almost
19,000 tourists into the stores. The number of managers
doubled to handle the floods of traffic. The team began
designing their own products, working closely with Quality
Graphics, and storing some of those products off-site. The
commencement, summer-school, and move-in tents logged
record revenues thanks to an inventory tracker developed
by Rover. What a 12 months it was — the first year that the
store broke the $1 million revenue marker.
Assistant Manager Colleen Glenn ’11 and Manager Elizabeth Shuman ’12
tent for The Harvard Shop at prefrosh weekend.
The insides of Let’s Go were completely reinvented, with a more modern graphic design, more user-friendly listings, a more
intuitive organization, and — praise Hermes — photos. The squad also threw the previous manuscripts out the window and
wrote every word from scratch to maximize wit and irreverence. Despite initial staffing hurdles, 23 office staffers and 30 RWs
eventually stitched together 16 books, including five new titles, between sloshball games and psychotic hostel guests. Campus
cartographers wept as Let’s Go shipped its map-making services out of house, but the 2011 tomes were the first to be published
as e-books under a new deal signed with Avalon specifically for the creation, promotion, and distribution of e-books. Using
Let’s Go editing prowess, HSA also published Inside Harvard, the Crimson
Key Society’s Harvard history book, which was a smash hit at college events and
bookstores around the Square.
LET’S GO TITLES
• Europe
• Great Britain
• France
• Italy
• Spain, Portugal & Morocco
• New York City
• Germany
AGENCIES
• ParisBoston
• Berlin, Prague & Budapest
• London, Oxford, Cambridge
& Edinburgh
• Amsterdam & Brussels
• European Riviera
• Istanbul, Athens
& the Greek Islands
• Madrid & Barcelona
• Rome, Venice & Florence
OTHER TITLES
• The Unofficial Guide to Life
at Harvard
• The Unofficial Guide to
Prefrosh Weekend
• The Unofficial Guide to Student
Life in Boston
• The Unofficial Guide to Summer
at Harvard
• The Unofficial Guide for Parents
• Inside Harvard
• HSA Cleaners
• Let’s Go Publications
• Harvard Student Resources
• Harvard Distribution
Services
• HSA Publications
• Cronin Center
for Enterprise
• The Harvard Shop
• Rover
• HSA Talent
94 HSA 65th Anniversary History Book 95