John duhigg dorling kindersley biography
John Duhigg: Going the distance
John Duhigg faced his first career obstacle at the tender age of he landed his dream job as a salesman for Island Records, but his parents wouldn't let him leave home to take it.
Instead, Duhigg, now m.d. of Penguin's travel division, embarked on the management trainee scheme at W H Smith, where he is proud to have been the youngest ever "DM3"--a manager of one of the chain's flagship stores.
We might pause here and imagine that he worked his way up the ranks, became a books buyer and was eventually head-hunted by a publisher.
John duhigg dorling kindersley biography death Enter your work email address in the Site License Portal. References [ edit ]. Video on Demand Videoland. You may cancel at any time with no questions asked.But Duhigg's route was rather more circuitous. After his parents scuppered his early plans, he continued to harbour "desperate" ambitions to get into the music industry and become a talent-scouting A&R man. So when a job came up at EMI Records, as part of a team of chart reps whose job it was to get records to the top of the charts--often by less than straightforward means--Duhigg was gone.
But his A&R fantasy quickly evaporated once he discovered how facile the music industry could be.
"It was really exciting and I love music but it was all about what the pack was doing," he says.
John duhigg dorling kindersley biography wife: History [ edit ]. DK publishes a range of titles internationally for adults and children. Log In. The Great Winter Book Preview.
"There wasn't a creative atmosphere. It was very commercial, very cut-throat."
He survived music for only five years, and, after a grown-up "gap year" around the birth of his first son (he has two, aged 14 and 17), he took a rather less glamorous role with Polycell, as a travelling salesman of Polyfilla and wallpaper pastes.
Duhigg recalls the era with a grimace. "I didn't leap out of bed every morning and go, 'Woohoo!' I was quite good at selling, but most days I just hated it."
His break came in when he spotted an ad in the Grocer for a job as sales rep at Penguin. He didn't get the role he applied for (it went to Haydn Jones, now sales manager at Constable&Robinson), but former Penguin m.d.
John duhigg dorling kindersley biography In , DK overestimated the market for Star Wars books and was left with millions of unsold copies, resulting in crippling debt. Retrieved 9 January The first order of business is getting the publishing house on the same systems and processes, an effort that will begin with separating the old Penguin from Pearson. Thank you for visiting Publishers Weekly.and family friend Trevor Glover made sure his CV was seen, and he was offered the next similar job that arose.
"Through that little connection I got my foot in the door. If I hadn't, I probably would have topped myself," he jokes. But however much Duhigg loathed his experience at Polycell, it has stood him in good stead.
"I was taught in a very structured way how to sell to people."
Plus there's the obvious fact that it's hard to get emotional about wallpaper paste.
Dorling kindersley photos Enter your work email address in the Site License Portal. Dohle noted that with both RH and Penguin performing well he plans to take his time in implementing the integration of the companies. To subscribe: click here. The first order of business is getting the publishing house on the same systems and processes, an effort that will begin with separating the old Penguin from Pearson.When Duhigg looks back at his arrival at Penguin, he says he stuck out like a sore thumb with a dispassionate, figures-orientated attitude to the books he sold. "I spent my first years being unfashionable by referring to books as products. I wasn't always what the book trade looked to as the way forward."
But the industry has grown to value that number-crunching drive, and, 15 years and nearly as many sales positions on, Duhigg sits atop Dorling Kindersley's travel arm and Rough Guides.
"It's like Hotel California," he grins. "You can check out, but you can never leave." Those years have also seen him marry his former boss, group sales director Genevieve Shore.
Trend setters
Consumer trends affect travel more than most sectors of publishing. New guides take considerable time to plan, research and produce, but rarely visited destinations quickly become mainstream.
Duhigg winces at the thought of one example, Vietnam, which will not have a DK guide until June ; the Rough Guide to the same destination is in its fifth edition, "but the market demographic changes very quickly".
Earlier this year, Rough Guides enhanced its digital presence, which will allow a more rapid response to trends as well as guides to more niche destinations.
It recently launched "PodScrolls", which supply full-colour guide highlights to colour-screen iPods.
The publisher also has ambitions to develop its RG and DK websites into "products that are a mixture of community, commercial and content-based, in roughly equal measures". Is Penguin moving into the online travel agency business?
"I would certainly have ambitions for most of what we talk about in our books to be bookable online," Duhigg says.
John duhigg dorling kindersley biography wikipedia To subscribe: click here. Also appointed with global and U. MusicBrainz label. If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser."Everyone's excited about digital and ultimately we know it's going to change. Our challenge is to work out what to bet on and what not to bet on."
It's a potential money drain, but could also be the deciding factor in the battle for market share--currently a sore point for both Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. According to BookScan data for the 20 weeks to 20th May, RG's market share is down 3% on last year to %, and Lonely Planet has slipped % from % to %.
DK, by contrast, has nearly doubled its share to 9%.
Although the Rough Guides and DK brands are distinct, the skirmish over market share has grown more complex.
DK buyers--once seen as relatively "safe" travellers--are visiting less well-trodden destinations, while the backpacker set has grown up, and is re-emerging at the other side of kids and career.
The upshot is "we're all in the middle. And we're all trying to get that market," Duhigg says. "The thing that motivates me is to get a bigger and bigger share of that."
Katherine Rushton