The German Book Office (GBO) recently organized a training workshop on content and
product development for professionals from the publishing, media and content industry on 2 and 3 December 2016 called the Publishers Training Programme for Young Professionals (PTPYP). An initiative of the Frankfurt Book Fair and Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, the workshop was the third in the series of training events conducted by the GBO as part of its annual Young Professionals Programme (YPP).
Attended by over 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 identifying the problem areas of the customers.
Speaking at the event, Prashasti Rastogi, director, GBO said, “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.” He also pointed out, “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 at 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 R Sriram from India and Katja Splichal from Germany, both of whom are industry specialists and 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 Vikrant Mathur, director, India and Asia Pacific at Nielsen BookScan as well as Anish Chandy, head – business development and sales at Juggernaut Books, a mobile reading app with
over 500 books, tailored for the smartphone. R Sriram emphasized, “While it may not be possible for the participants to come up with ready-tolaunch business models in a two-day time frame, the workshop has planted a seed for them to cultivate creative thinking and execute ideas.”
Participants’ reaction
There was much appreciation from the participants who attended the programme. Shilpa Saxena of Harper-Collins India said, “It has streamlined our thought-process and conditioned the brains to think new systematically.” Payal Malhotra of Scholastic India said, “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.” While, Ananya Bhatia of Oxford University Press India said, “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 and feasible solutions for them. Great job.”
