Work in financial operations for a textbook publishing company!
Today’s entry in our continuing series is an interview with Bill Stone, Director of Forecasting and Financial Operations at Pearson Education, the largest textbook publisher in the world.
JF: What is your job title and what does your job entail?
Bill Stone: I am the Director of Forecasting and Financial Operations for Pearson Education, the largest educational publisher in the world. I work in the Inventory Management department for the Elementary and Secondary School division. We manage over 800,000 different titles; about 125,000 are active at any point in time.
Philosophically, my job entails taking “facts” and making them into “truths” so that the business can make wise decisions based on those “truths.” I know I have used words that could be unclear, but I think that they will help in the understanding of what my staff and I do. So to make sure we are on the same page here is my personal definition.
Fact: Smallest unit of data–1 piece of a giant jigsaw puzzle. For example, 1732 was the year George Washington was born.
Truth: The big picture on which we make business decisions–the entire jigsaw puzzle–The life story of George Washington, his life, his decisions, and his actions.
Here is an example of what I deal with daily:
Fact: We have 2564 units of the 5th edition of “Understanding Physics” on shelf G5 in Aisle 72 of our warehouse in Indianapolis.
Truth: This is a very good selling book, so we need to move it closer to the warehouse door, so we can reduce the time it takes to get to the customer.
So my job is to take those facts that we have dug up and make them into a truth story from which we make business decisions.
My typical day involves the four key aspects of my title:
Operations: I make sure the inventory staff have the software tools and accurate data that they need to operate the business. That means I sit in a lot of classes, listen, and take notes…If there are wrong “facts” and we tell a false story, they are going to make bad business decisions.
Financial: Much of what we do and analyze surrounds the cost of manufacturing our product. So we look for ways of reducing those costs. We look at innovative tools to help deliver the best content to our customer at the least expensive cost to us.
Forecasting: We try to guess how much of each product we are going to use on an annual basis. I am wrong 99.9999% of the time. But it is just not a “number thing.” We conduct interviews with the sales force, ask them questions about what is going on in their districts. We try to take those facts and weave them into their historical facts to tell the truth.
Director: I have the best staff in the entire world. My job with them entails helping them succeed further up the success ladder than me. My daily interactions with them involve giving them “workwork” (similar to homework–but I do not expect them to take it home with them most days). I give them projects and encourage them to think “outside the box.” Then my job is to follow-up on those projects and tasks and “workwork” once they hand it in.
JF: What kind of transferable skills can history majors bring to the textbook publishing industry?
Bill Stone: History majors think differently. They dig for “facts,” they take the “facts” that they find and use them to present a “truth” on which to make decisions.
I have three staff with me on this adventure. Two of them are “finance” guys. (1 has his Masters of Administration, and the other is getting his MBA). They are great “fact” finders. If I need to know the details about some data, I give it to them. The third guy is a “history” guy (also going after an MBA). I do not use him for the “fact” missions as much as I use him to tell the “truth” stories. Because he is good at that! As a decision maker, I do not just need to know what the “facts” are, I need someone to tell me how those “facts” relate. I need someone to put all the “facts” together and tell me the “truth.” Who better to do that than a history major!
JF: Have you ever had a chance to hire a history major, and if so, what led to your decision?
Bill Stone: Yes, and I would do it again. Why? I need staff that will be able to discover “facts” and develop them into “truth” so we can make wise business decision. The finance majors do a great job of digging too. I need diggers. But I also need someone who can tell the story.
History majors are unusually good communicators. They have done presentations throughout their college years and they have lead and participated in discussions. They have debated issues. Those are the skills we really need in the business world. I need people who are innovators and who can take the historical facts and make sense out of them for today.
If I was hiring for one of my “finance” positions and I had a “finance” person and “history” person…guess who I am hiring!
JF: Thanks Bill!
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