“If I were the CEO”: follow-up
First, let me start by wishing you an excellent new year. 2018 is, I feel, the year we all realize that the change of millennium wasn’t just yesterday, and we are well and truly in the 21st century. Or maybe it’s just me who took a little longer than others to realize that?
Anyway, I hope you take great leaps forward in all your projects, especially those related to books. May you feel comfortable in your comfort zone, and comfortable leaving it to explore new horizons.
At the end of last year, I told you about our then upcoming team meeting, where our CEO asked us to take a day all together to answer the question “What would I do if I were CEO?” I’m sure you can guess how delighted everyone was to be asked this kind of question. While some of us may have been hesitant to speak up, or feel we wouldn’t have any ideas worth mentioning, it’s still very nice to be asked (and, in my opinion, a sign of a very healthy company). This tribe meeting took place on December 21, and I wanted to give you a bit of a round up of what was said. I won’t list all the wonderful ideas and thoughts we all expressed, I’m sure you’ll hear about them later on. I’ll just give you the main outlines that came out of the day.
Be the change
Change, change, change. For years now, if there is something that hasn’t changed a iota, it’s people talking about change. That’s all very good, but what’s the point of all this fuss? With last year’s meeting in perspective, we now realize that having a vision 15 years ahead probably means we’re just barely ready to face the coming year. Observing change and anticipating it as much as possible is obviously still something we need to do; but it shouldn’t be the main driver of our company. We shouldn’t be witnesses to the change, we need to be the change. Not only embrace it, but be the trendsetters ourselves.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
This is a general remark, and doesn’t apply only to StreetLib. As actors of the publishing landscape, we all can actively shape it for the coming years. What does it mean for StreetLib? It means we will continue believing in books, even when everyone says the game is over. It means we will build whatever needs to be built to support books and the people who care about them. You’ll see in the coming weeks these aren’t just words: there is a lot of innovation coming your way on StreetLib’s side, so stay tuned!
Care
This has always and will always be at the heart of our company. Caring about books is the essence of our existence (I mean StreetLib here, but actually I also kind of mean the existence of all of us: what would be the world without books?). Caring for our StreetLibers is at the core of our everyday work. We don’t work for the numbers or the power trip. Our aim isn’t to beat a so-called competitor, invade a market or destroy the existing industry. If it was, we’d invest in aggressive marketing campaigns and waste our time pointing out publishing companies’ faults. Instead, we invest in our Customer Care team and in our Tech team, the ones that truly can know are our users’ needs, and answer them.
Care is also at the center of our tribe. People working with StreetLib aren’t mere employees, passing by because they were in search of a job. People here care about each other, about what they do, about who they do it for. If you read the series of portraits I’ve been publishing here, you probably saw a pattern in the way people started working for StreetLib. Very rarely did we post a job vacancy, select CVs, have interviews and then offer a position. Our tribe has grown upon the whim of destiny, through meetings, conversations and the passion of those who have fallen in love with our project.
Beyond distribution
Although our core business is book distribution, it’s not where we necessarily want to put all our efforts for the future. Our distribution tools and solutions are good foundations for the complete set of apps and features we offer, and the new ones we will offer very soon.
Streetlib Stores is an amazing opportunity for publishers to sell directly, for any book lovers to become a bookseller and for readers to discover new books. Readers will soon be at the center of our attention with one of the innovations I mentioned earlier.
We are broadening our involvement in the publishing landscape by also taking care not only of authors and publishers, but also of readers and all the book professionals involved in the publishing process.
You’ll know more about all this very soon! This whole tribe meeting was, all in all, a great reminder of why we are all here, and confirmed more than ever our desire to keep doing what we are doing.
