Cook Partners

India: Key Market for Business Books

David Wan, president of Harvard Business, just opened a subsidiary in India, and spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the opportunities for publishers in that market today:

I see the current slowdown more as an opportunity than a challenge for publishers to change the way they work and adapt to the changing needs of consumers in a rapidly changing business environment.

... There are opportunities in adversity and we are trying to explore every such possibility. To reach out to newer audiences, we are creating learning experiences that can be delivered through the Web, desktop, mobile devices and learning management systems.

A big part of our business is educational products and solutions for MBA programmes, and this segment is growing because ... many people facing company downsizing are taking the opportunity to go back to school. The fastest growing segment in India is the corporate learning business ...

... Times like these offer opportunities to change the way we work and bring along the much needed transformation required for growth. There is a huge premium being placed on leadership development, especially at a time like this. This creates strong prospects for a management practice publisher like HBP as managers look for answers in a tough economic situation.

Employee Evaluations After Layoffs

From the Harvard Business Review, a helpful article for anyone performing staff reviews after a layoff:

The performance appraisal is a great opportunity to emphasize that employees have a stake in reengineering work processes and helping the company stay competitive in tough times.

"It's important in the appraisal process that we let employees know that our dreams for them and for the company aren't being abandoned; rather, they are being postponed until the company finds a way to adapt to the new circumstances it faces," says Dale Furtwengler, author of The 10-Minute Guide to Performance Appraisals (Macmillan, 2000) and president of the St. Louis-based consulting firm Furtwengler & Associates. That way, he says, "we can refocus their talents and energy toward finding solutions."

Read more here.

Taiwan: Former President Recommends Religion

Writer Lydia Ma and reporter Li-Hsin Ren, in Taiwan Church News, note that former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-Hui, who holds an honorary doctorate from Taiwan Theological College and Seminary and is currently enrolled in a theology course there,

... affirmed churches that saw their shortcomings and engaged in spiritual reform, but also hoped that church leaders would continue striving toward upholding justice and increasing  discernment.

Lee published a book in Japanese last year on the requirements for  leadership. The book is currently being translated into Chinese and will be published later this year. In his book, he mentioned that the first  requirement for a leader is to have a religious faith because a leader  must yearn for righteousness. Lee also mentioned that Taiwanese people lack religious awareness and rarely apply their religious beliefs into  their lives, and without religious faith, it is impossible to discern  right from wrong or know the essence of righteousness.

New issue of Cook Partners: Cost-Cutting

In tough times, every publisher wants to find ways to reduce expenses, increase revenue, and maximize profits. This March/April 2009 issue of Cook Partners looks at ways to cut costs in publishing, improve cash flow, and cope with the intangible costs of ministry. Also, read about Christian publishing and ministries in Kenya, Ethiopia, Albania, and Bolivia and enjoy a meditation on Luther's legacy from a writer in the Philippines. You will also find articles on the translator's joy of authorship and on customer service.

Asking for Feedback, Again

Publishers Weekly reported,

Stacks of unsold books and glum publishers stood for three days inside the cavernous Dallas Convention Center this past weekend at the Christian Book Expo, a first-of-its-kind event designed to connect publishers and authors directly with readers in the evangelical Christian market. Only problem was there were few readers to connect with, despite the show’s location in Dallas, the buckle of the Bible Belt and a top market for Christian publishers. The show, sponsored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, attracted 1,500 consumer attendees; it had hoped for 15,000-20,000.

Now Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson CEO and chair of ECPA's executive committee reflects on the event, asking "What do you think it would take to make an event like this a success? Should we move forward?" Read more and comment here.

Asking for Feedback

Michael Miller, executive publisher at NavPress, writes:

Needless to say, those who live and work in the publishing business are facing a time of unprecedented change. A virtual economic tsunami is sweeping across Wall Street and the business world, destroying everything that is not built on solid business and financial support.

Publishers (whether they will admit it or not) all around the world are gathering like NavPress leadership to discuss our options. What is the future of our business? How are our publishing partners doing? Have we found the new solution to our business model? How much cash reserve do we have? Will we have to cut our operating costs? On and on we go. I sit in these meetings myself and unfortunately ask many of these questions to my leadership team. Lots of hand wringing, worries, and fears.

He then asks for feedback from readers. Read the rest of the entry and responses here.

Pricing Strategies for Times of Crisis

What do you do about your book prices when there is an economic downturn? Outlook magazine offers a lengthy article on "How to Price Smarter in Uncertain Times," stating:

There are five key solutions that pricing decision makers can apply to keep profits growing during economic downturns. All are applicable to consumer-facing businesses; some have relevance for B2B companies as well.

What are the five solutions?

1. Understand the changing nature of demand
2. Fine-tune the product mix
3. Narrow the customer focus
4. Invest in value beyond price
5. Maintain pricing discipline and confidence. 

Read the entire article here.

Layoff Strategies

What is the best way for a publisher to handle a layoff? (Not this way.) If the recession is leading you to consider cutting staff, you might be interested in this case study from the Engstrom Institute on "Layoffs With Grace and Hope."

Watching Google

In "A Book Publisher's Manifesto for the 21st Century," a paper published in the summer 2008 issue of Library Trends, Sara Lloyd, head of digital publishing at PanMacmillan and a frequent contributor to its blog, The Digitalist, asks:

Should publishers be joining forces to create multi-publisher platforms, to dominate content networks by developing critical mass across content types and ensuring that content is interlinked in the most valuable and rich ways? If that is the case, then publishers are probably mistaken in handing off this role to Google. In its current form, Google Book Search is already providing the access key to multi-publisher book content. It is, in effect, creating the online book platform ... And Google's quiet announcement that it will invite Internet users to produce 'Knols' (units of knowledge; introductions to topics that will appear when a user searches on that subject) has been widely touted as a direct competitor to Wikipedia, but, more to the point, it firmly signals the search company's intent to move directly into the publishing space.

Lloyd's paper also discusses Google's (now settled) battle with the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers, noting that it is a shame "that it was not publishers who first chose to invest in the digitisation of our print archives and to develop the means to access them."

Yet Google continues with new initiatives that impact publishing. Therefore, we note with interest that  Publishing Executive reports Google has purchased a paper mill ...

 

Thailand: Despite Growth in Sales Outlets, Fierce Competition Endangers Publishers

Despite an increase in book sales outlets, with nearly 600 new bookstores opening in the past two years, Thanong Chotisorayuth, publisher of SE-Education and managing director of its bookstore chain, forecasts trouble for publishers. He spoke to Bangkok's The Nation about how the fierce competition has its downside: 

The return rate for unsold books in Thailand has already reached the critical point, at 30 per cent. This means that publishers, particularly small and medium-sized houses, are increasingly at risk of making a loss.

In Japan, the return rate in 2007 was 39.4 per cent, which caused most Japanese publishers to post losses.

"Even in Japan, where publishing houses launched about 77,000 covers in 2007, compared with 27,213 covers introduced in Thailand, the publishing business outlook is not good. So, we can't evaluate success by market value growth alone," Thanong said.

Read the rest of the article here.