"I think we can get another year or two out of the space we have," Turco said. "We are going to begin looking immediately."
Right now, The Wrap, BankBoston and the Tennis and Squash Shop occupy space on HSA's first floor, but expanding the company's offices into that space would sacrifice significant revenue that the stores and the bank pay in rent.
Agencies discovered in-house opportunities "driven by the need for internal technology services," Turco said, but the building demands that HSA managers think more about the whole when considering their individual ventures.
Rather than pursuing risky entrepreneurial ventures, HSA managers may want to make conservative investments in traditional, service agencies like HSA Cleaners and Harvard Distribution, Herschbach says.
Sibling Rivalry
Let's Go Publications made 49.8 percent of HSA's revenue in fiscal year 1998. More than 22 percent of HSA's student employees work for Let's Go and they are paid 39.14 percent of the total wages.
The agency--which started out by publishing a photocopied brochure of travel tips for student travelers in Europe--has now expanded to six continents and adds a new guide every year. During the past six years Let's Go has published new guides for Thailand, India and Nepal and China.
Right now, Let's Go is in the midst of renegotiating its contract with St. Martin's Press.
"You look at what potential Let's Go has, and any observer would say they aren't able to fully develop right now," Herschbach says. "The Let's Go arm brings in a major part of their income."
Other agencies are less focussed on profit, placing job opportunities for students above the bottom line.
Let's Go's expansion finally got to be too much for its publisher. Last summer then-publisher Anna C. Portnoy '99 redesigned the agency's management, splitting the top job between a publishing director and an editor-in-chief.
"The organization has changed but the ongoing structure is perhaps not right for the future," Herschbach said.
Role Playing
Hansen says this is an opportune time for HSA to reconsider its corporate staff. Of eight full-time professionals, two are now on leave.
"What I'm interested in is more tightly defining their roles so they can have a clear definition of duty," Hansen says, speaking specifically of the position of general manager which lacks a clear job description.
"A lot of things have happened to those positions over a long period of time," Hansen adds.
Turco has already made changes based on the consultant's report, consolidating Harvard Catering and Harvard Student Resources. And Let's Go Travel shifted its focus to selling weekend getaways, rather than selling flights.
"I used the tools that I learned from watching the consultants...to do it on a micro level," she says.