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An Interview with Peter Jovanovich, Visionary Leader and Industry SageThis is the last in a series of Q&A interviews with this year's Educational Publishing Hall of Fame Inductees. The son of a 20th century book and magazine publishing giant, Peter Jovanovich was reared in the publishing industry. His father William, president and CEO of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich from 1954-1989, instilled in him a deep knowledge and understanding of its history, lessons Peter utilized in every facet of his career. Unlike his father, who spent his entire career at one company, Peter worked for four of the largest publishers in America. He began in the sales ranks of Macmillan, calling on college professors in upstate New York. Over the next five years, he held various editorial and marketing positions in Macmillan's College and Trade Divisions, until, in 1977, he was named a Vice President of Macmillan Publishing and head of its Trade Division. Peter then joined Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1980 and held a series of positions including President of HBJ's Trade Division, Managing Director of HBJ, Ltd. (London), and President of Academic Press. In 1989 he was named President and CEO of HBJ, succeeding his father. In 1992 Peter was recruited from HBJ by McGraw-Hill to be become CEO of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing and subsequently became President of McGraw-Hill's Educational and Professional Group. During his tenure, McGraw-Hill grew to be the largest educational publisher in the world. In August 1997 Peter was asked to assume the position of Chairman and CEO of Addison Wesley Longman (AWL), a worldwide educational publishing division of Pearson plc. After Pearson purchased Simon & Schuster's educational and professional businesses in December 1998, Peter was put in charge of merging them with AWL. The company was renamed Pearson Education and is now the world's largest education company. Peter remained CEO at Pearson until his retirement in 2005. In a recent email interview, Peter discussed his beginnings in the field, lessons learned, and the unchanging role of educational materials in the classroom. Q: Your accomplishments at the helm of HBJ, McGraw-Hill, and Pearson have been well documented, but can you tell me about your beginnings in the industry? Once you started, what kept you going? It was my father that guided me into college publishing, since college shares characteristics with scholarly, trade and school publishing. As it turned out, I spent many years in trade, scientific, medical and educational publishing. It was a great beginning. Q: You got your start as a college sales rep. for Macmillan in 1972. What was the most important thing you took away from that experience? If you were to offer advice to someone starting in a similar position today, what would it be? The book, or the software program, or the website, is a tool for teachers. It’s not the course, itself. Most publications fail when they try to do too much. Q: You’ve worked in both the trade sector and the education sector, but seemed to gravitate toward education later in your career. What did you like least/most about each different area? In trade publishing, I loved working with great authors like Alice Walker and Umberto Eco; I hated arguing with agents all the time. In educational publishing, I loved the greater role that the publisher has in designing and creating the works; I hated the ever-greater demands for giveaways. In scientific and medical publishing, I loved dealing with great scientists, some Nobel laureates; I hated dealing with the monumental egos of some scientists. Q: Throughout your career, you held a number of positions at various publishing houses. How important is this breadth of experience to someone in a management position? What else makes a successful manager in the ed. publishing field? The only virtue of moving around the industry is to remind you that your competition is just as talented as you think your company is. The only thing I learned about management is that in each succeeding decade I held fewer and fewer meetings. Early in my career, my father gave me this advice: "Don’t attend meetings. If you must, make sure it’s your meeting." And, over time, I spent more time making books and seeing customers and less time discussing strategy. Strategy is what you publish. Q: At Fordham University's School Change Awards a few years ago, you warned attendees to be skeptical of educational fads. Do you see any trends in education today that you would label as fads? How can publishers avoid these and other fads? I’ll take a pass on naming fads. One customer’s fad is another’s revelation. You can temper the influence of fads by asking yourself this question: "Is this new approach going to work with the average teacher and the average student?" Q: Technology is changing the way the world does business at a harrowing rate and education is no stranger to this. Will laptops, e-books, or online curriculum ever completely replace traditional textbooks in the classroom? You know, I don’t really care. I love - indeed cherish - books. But, if textbooks are succeeded by other media, that’s fine as long as these new media truly help children learn to read and write well, to understand mathematics and science, and to appreciate literature and history. For more information on Peter's induction into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame, please visit http://www.aepweb.org/fame.
Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
Click here to read more on Peter, or for more information on the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame. |
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