From Jesse Wiley on how a 200+ year-old company evolves with the econtent world · · O'Reilly
“Learning to fail is not always an established concept in publishing but in the technology world, innovation is built on doing pilots, testing, learning to fail, expecting to fail and learning from both the successes and the failures.”
On , Jesse Wiley, Non-Executive Chairman at WILEY (JOHN) & SONS -CL A, spoke about innovation during Jesse Wiley on how a 200+ year-old company evolves with the econtent world on O'Reilly.
In a 2011 podcast, Jesse Wiley, a member of the seventh generation of the Wiley family working for the company, discussed how John Wiley & Sons was adapting to the digital transition. Wiley stated that the company was balancing its print success with investment in new digital businesses, emphasizing the importance of timing in deciding when to shift resources. He noted that the company was "continually reorganizing our people and our businesses to adjust to the markets," adding that "things are changing so fast you can't just expect what worked even a year ago to work tomorrow." Wiley also addressed the company's approach to innovation, stating that "learning to fail is not always an established concept in publishing" but that in the technology world, innovation is built on pilots, testing, and learning from both successes and failures. He discussed the value of self-publishing, saying it has given publishers "a way to reestablish our value proposition" through curation and editorial knowledge. On scalability, Wiley noted that the company was thinking about "digital first" and creating content in a different way upfront to publish across multiple formats.