Publishing & Google & The 10% Imperative
Let’s stop fooling ourselves that all of the men and women in the upper echelons and inner sanctums of publishing are serious about overhauling the industry. They’re not. The fire in the belly that once propelled many of the entrenched old-timers is burning out and the damper is half-shut. They seem to be more concerned with big paychecks, stock options, bonuses, Callaway Golf Clubs, tee times, the Beach Club, the status quo and The State of the Prostate.
But how about those young Turks at Google? Fire in the belly raging 24/7 and forcing change upon the publishing industry. Let’s take the hint about management and innovation from CEO Eric Schmidt. We all know their 70/20/10 approach to business. We do, don’t we? We have read something other than Publishers Weekly and publishing blogs like this one, yes? Seventy-percent time spent on core business, 20% time spent on adjacent business, and 10% time spent on “things that are truly new.”
- How about new, cooperative contracts that allow authors to buy groceries.
- How about new, tough criteria to cut down on dreck used to fill publishing quotas?
- How about new, open-ended time frames to market marketable good books.
- How about new, multitalented people to replace the “it’s-not-my-job,” myopic, uni-talented people.
Of course, we can’t expect all the chairmen, board members, CEOs or presidents to relinquish power. We don’t want that. (Power is everything at the Beach Club.) They’d really get their plus fours in a twist if we tried! And dare I say that we would meet with an unfortunate accident as the wagons circled. In point of fact, they have the legacy knowledge, political savvy, deep pockets, and access to other powerbrokers that are critical to publishing and to change in publishing. But we need ALL of them to embrace change, not be indifferent to it, resist it, or just give lip service to it. And at a less elevated level we need to get past the bitter internecine feuds and territorial imperatives that pervade publishing houses and discourage innovation and derring-do.
And then, of course, there’s the option to call Google’s Help Desk.
A favorite quote: If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.
February 2nd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Love your website, Lynne. I mean it! Excellent information. Insights, reeking of integrity. Sage, very applicable advice. You should be getting beaucoup de “hits.”
February 2nd, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Lynne, great Google blog. In an interesting twist on the 70-20-10 heuristic,
GE fires the bottom 10% of its employees each year when they fail to meet
their personal objectives; it’s mandatory. The top 20% are treated to big
increases and bonuses; the 70% are encouraged in their Management By
Objectives system to move into the top 20%.
Jim
February 10th, 2006 at 9:46 am
[…] At the same time (and boy this lady sounds like she drinks a lot of coffee) and again via GOB, we hear from the publishing contrarian, in an article called, Publishing & Google & The 10% Imperative. Let’s stop fooling ourselves that all of the men and women in the upper echelons and inner sanctums of publishing are serious about overhauling the industry. They’re not. The fire in the belly that once propelled many of the entrenched old-timers is burning out and the damper is half-shut. They seem to be more concerned with big paychecks, stock options, bonuses, Callaway Golf Clubs, tee times, the Beach Club, the status quo and The State of the Prostate. […]
February 10th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Some good insight here for those of us on the outside. (Trapped on the windswept plains of “The Heartland” in my case.)
Regarding contrarian ideas in publishing, I’d be curious if you’d have any comments on the recent essay published in Nature regarding an unrecognized opportunity for publishers with respect to fiction that portrays science in a realistic fashion. See http://www.lablit.com/images/RohnNature_Jan_2006.pdf or the lablit.com site under “Waterstone’s Challenge”.
I look forward to your further explorations of the inner sanctums of publishing.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing: James Aach is the author of the thriller Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power. He is an engineer who knows all about the nuclear power industry. His book is available to read FOR FREE and in its entirety online: http://RadDecision.blogspot.com. The founder of The Whole Earth Catalog recommends this book! Thanks, James, for working your way over to my brand new inside-publishing blog from http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com where The Publishing Contrarian got such a nice recommendation this morning all the way from the UK.
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:01 am
Let’s read and reread this!