Cover Story: What's So Hot About Hachette?
Pride in Product ... and Parties
Effective communication, Young and Weinzimer say, does more than just instill confidence. It also makes a real difference in how people feel about the products they produce. This is especially important with large numbers of employees working away from New York—at a large distribution center in Lebanon, Ind., as well as in Nashville and Boston. The company prides itself on its ability to balance autonomy with a unity of focus among its various divisions.
"As an organization ... I think the whole company knows what we are trying to achieve," Young stresses. "We don't do anything in isolation, we go out and communicate the ‘why' of what we are doing, and I think people appreciate that, even if they are not working on [a given project]."
Staff across the board, Young says, "are interested in the business of book publishing, whether they are directly working in editorial sales or not."
Twice a year, employees are given free, hand-picked books from the company's catalog; when the fourth installment of author Stephenie Meyers' "Twilight Series" for young adults was released this year, every employee got a copy of the book. The company also encourages its authors to do book signings for employees and promotes tie-in activities connected to book releases.
%0D%0ATeamwork%3A%20To%20Young%20and%20others%20at%20Hachette,%20it's%20much%20more%20than%20just%20a%20vague%20notion.%20It's%20a%20guiding%20philosophy,%20a%20strategy%20cultivated%20during%20difficult,%20transitional%20times,%20and%20one%20that%20has%20helped%20the%20company%20grow.%20It's%20also%20one%20of%20the%20main%20reasons%20Hachette%20has%20been%20selected%20as%20this%20year's%20"Best%20Book%20Publishing%20Company%20to%20Work%20For."%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.bookbusinessmag.com%2Farticle%2Fhachette-book-group-s-team-approach-helped-make-best-book-publishing-company-work-for-and-maybe-it-s-little-parties-too-400629%2F" target="_blank" class="email" data-post-id="3457" type="icon_link"> Email Email 0 Comments Comments