 At the initiative of the Frankfurt Book Fair and Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Book Office (GBO) organized a training workshop on content/product development for professionals from the publishing, media and content industry. The workshop was a third in the series of training events conducted by the GBO as part of its annual Young Professionals Programme (YPP).
The programme was well attended by 30 Professionals from the Editorial, Design, Operations and Sales & Marketing domains of publishing houses such as Scholastic India, Harper Collins India, SAGE India among others.
The focus of workshop this year was on new ways of trade development in the publishing industry, reaching out to the potential buyers, identifying and catering to the needs of the existing customers and creating new needs by identifying the problem areas of the customers. Speaking at the occasion, Ms. Prashasti Rastogi, Director, GBO, remarked that “this is the first time that a workshop on New Product Development has been conceptualized in the Indian publishing sector”. The workshop sought to train the mid-career professionals in skills relevant to the changes in the publishing industry and to fill the huge gap of training and development in the publishing industry in India. Ms Rastogi also pointed out that “GBO’s Young Professionals Programme is the only initiative in the country that addresses the training needs of the professionals engaged in the publishing industry”
The training workshop was based on a hands-on exercise format, whereby the participants worked in cross-functional teams. They engaged with their ideas and worked through the various stages of product development by using the design thinking method, which is relevant for customer-related creative projects,. The exhaustive sessions culminated into a product pitch that took place towards the closure of the programme. Also present, in order to witness the pitch and the outcome of the workshop, were the CEOs from the publishing companies, who – in addition to the audience and mentors– offered constructive critiques and feedback to the participants on their business models.
The two-day training workshop was facilitated by Mr. R Sriram from India and Ms. Katja Splichal from Germany, both of whom are industry specialists, who have been intimately involved in the development of new products and services in the content sector in their respective countries. The workshop also showcased Industry insights from Mr. Vikrant Mathur, Director, India and Asia Pacific at Nielsen BookScan as well as Mr Anish Chandy, Head, Business Development and Sales at Juggernaut Books- a mobile reading app with over 500 books, tailored for the smartphone. R Sriram emphasised that “while it may not be possible for the participants to come up with ready-to-launch business models in a two-day time frame, the workshop has planted a seed for them to cultivate creative thinking and execute ideas.”
The action-packed programme was successful in inculcating an out-of-the-box approach and an entrepreneurial mindset among the participants, who got a chance to reflect on the challenges facing the publishing industry and identify solutions in the form of profitable business ideas. These solutions addressed a wide range of topics including outreach, distribution, book reviews and marketing and books for visually challenged to name a few. The training workshop also played an instrumental role not only in bringing together the Indian and German publishing industry by way of mentorship and idea exchange but also in fostering networking among professionals from the publishing world. The participants remarked that the event was their first experience of a comprehensive boot camp that allowed them an opportunity to innovate outside of their everyday work and devise new strategies for product/service development in the publishing industry.
About German Book Office: GBO promotes promoting German books and the activities of the Frankfurt Book Fair and serves as a contact point between the book industry in South Asia, Germany as well as the international book and media industries. Since the beginning of operations in India in 2008, GBO has initiated various projects related to content, publishing and exchange. GBO works with partners across the board, ranging from individuals to international agencies in the sphere of publishing, media, education and digital.
About the facilitators:
R.Sriram co-founded “Next Practice Retail” in 2006 and is an advisor to Seedfund. He is an Independent Director on the Boards of Kokuyo Camlin Ltd and Kokuyo Camlin Alphakids Ltd. He served as President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Mumbai (2010-12). He serves on the board of advisors of the non-profits Pratham Books, Junoon Theatre and Toybank. He established the Crossword Book Awards (now Vodafone Crossword Book Awards) to annually recognize & reward the best of Indian writers & books, that he continues to oversee. He has curated the Kala Ghoda Literature Festival from 2005 to 2010. He’s a visiting faculty at IIM A & a guest lecturer at IIM L & other business schools. He is particularly interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, business strategy & incubation, purpose & culture, leadership & next practices.
Katja Splichal, is head of online, software and new product development at Stuttgart based publisher Eugen Ulmer since 2013. Since April 2014, she is also heading the online publishing department and is member of the Executive Committee. Her main fields of work include the development of the CMS, the development of digital business models, the implementation of solutions for digital publishing in e-books, apps, e-papers and databases, as well as support for the e-learning business segment. Prior to that, she was the Head of Media Relations & Product Development at PaperC from 2011 to 2013.
 And the participants say…
"It is going on great! It has streamlined our thought-process and conditioned the brains to think new systematically."
-Shilpa Saxena, Harper-Collins India
"YPP is a great platform for people from the publishing industry. All inputs are relevant to one’s day to day work. Keep the good work going!"
-Payal Malhotra, Scholastic India
"The GBO workshop was a great learning experience for me. It was great to learn about business models and how to think around the problems of the industry and further work on ideas & feasible solutions for them.
Great Job!"
-Ananya Bhatia, Oxford University Press India
"YPP helped us to understand why market research, figuring out problems, key customers are important to start a business. It takes us step by step from defining our product or service and identifying our customers to planning how to attract those customers and to get them to buy."
-Monika Negi, Wiley India Pvt.Ltd
"YPP is a melting pot of ideas for the ever-lasting growth of the publishing industry, brewed by the masterminds at GBO!!!"
-Aritra Ganguly, Harper-Collins India
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