Beth Ford

Imagine being able to tell your grandkids that you worked on the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album, or on “Star Wars”—playing an important role in the creation of a cultural phenomenon that anyone would be proud to claim as the capstone of their career. Francine Colaneri, the book industry’s 2008 Publishing Executive Hall of Fame inductee, is just that lucky. As vice president of manufacturing and supply chain at global children’s education and media company Scholastic Inc. (New York), she was instrumental in coordinating the manufacture and distribution of all seven books in the “Harry Potter” series published in the United States. “We

With its new Web site, HBG has established an infrastructure for digital development, says COO Beth Ford. With close to one year on the job, Hachette Book Group (HBG) Chief Operating Officer Beth Ford continues to work toward increasing efficiencies—and profits—for owner Hachette Livre, who purchased the publishing company from Time Warner in March 2006. Ford, who joined HBG last September after serving seven years as Scholastic’s senior vice president of global operations and information technology, dove right in by reviewing the publisher’s processes and identifying “gaps” that needed to be filled. It’s a full plate of responsibilities—one Ford relishes, she says.

The world's largest children's book publisher has decided to slice the fat out of its computer systems. Leading the charge is Reg Maton, who signed on as senior VP and CIO of Scholastic Inc. in December. Topping Maton's agenda: a complete evaluation of Scholastic's information systems, to look for overlaps. Redundant systems will be eliminated, allowing Scholastic to trim expenses and boost productivity. "They're looking to use technology to enable the business to reduce costs, [and to] consolidate certain processes, where you get productivity improvement by going to common processes," Maton says. "There's opportunity to eliminate redundancy, to consolidate, to rationalize where we