After receiving a call from his supervisor, Osborne, who had already walked to the underground parking lot after get off work, immediately decided to return to the company.
He didn't come to the back office department alone, and met the company's President Hill on the way.
President Hill is the top person in charge of the European region.
Osborne is considered to be half a superior, but he is basically in charge of different businesses. There will still be a certain degree of competition in the future competition for the head of the entire tens of billions group of Scholastic.
Director Charlie is Hill's direct favorite.
Not surprisingly, both of them should be here for the investigation of the Internal Affairs Department.
When they met, they simply said hello without smiling, and then walked into the office area of the Internal Affairs Department side by side with their respective secretaries and assistants like two distinct armies.
"The detective cat is very good at drawing. Are your words worthy of your conscience?"
As soon as they reached the door, they heard Charlie's taunting voice.
"Mr. Charlie, Detective Cat's sample has passed the review of your art department. What are you talking about now?" Osborne opened the door and said with a smile.
"Bullshit! I didn't review it." Charlie said angrily.
"Why, Deputy Director Schubert is not a member of the art department? Or, the group's art department has become your boss, Charlie. Only you can review manuscripts? What kind of rule is this?"
The smile on Osborne's face disappeared and his tone was sharp.
"Okay, okay, Director Charlie also cares about the quality of illustrators for major projects for the sake of better market sales. It is the art director's job in itself, and it is understandable." President Hill smoothed things over for his subordinates.
"In terms of artistic quality, Vice President Schubert has already made a professional judgment. In terms of rules and regulations, have you found out that Assistant Cole has violated any discipline?"
Osborne turned to the person in charge of the Internal Affairs Department.
The person in charge took the intercom phone on the table and said a few words.
From the moment the fat assistant was brought to the back office, his work computer had already been taken away.
The group's technical department will check the downloaded work information such as emails and emails related to the "Little Prince" project and Detective Cat's agent.
At present, it seems that apart from the fact that there is only a few seconds of time difference between the assistant submitting the sample to the art department and someone from the art department picking up the file, it looks like there is collusion.
No other findings were found.
"Technical staff are still checking more in-depth content, and we will notify you if there are any follow-up findings."
The person in charge glanced at the fat assistant's face, which was still stained with sweat, and said, "It looks OK now."
Based on his intuition, the person in charge still thinks there is something wrong with this matter.
However, if someone is selling trade secrets to a rival company, the people responsible may take it seriously. He didn't bother to delve deeper into this kind of fairy-tale fight that was obviously high-level office politics.
"In that case, the investigation is over. Assistant Cole and Deputy Director Schubert, you can leave." Osborne snapped his fingers to cut through the mess.
"Stop, stop, they can't leave. This matter is not over yet. Who said there is no problem with artistic standards!"
Charlie yelled.
Isn't it funny that this matter can end so easily?
"I think Deputy Director Schubert made a wrong judgment due to personal negligence, and his judgment about Detective Cat cannot be regarded as a correct evaluation."
"What are you going to do? The contract has been signed, but you can still re-review the prototype." Osborne frowned.
"If it is reviewed by a third-party art appraisal agency, I actually have no problem with it." Schubert stared into Charlie's eyes.
He didn't feel guilty at all when discussing the quality of Detective Cat's draft painting alone.
"Third-party audit? No... there is a better way." Charlie chewed his cigar with a cunning expression.
He also didn't want to do any art appraisal.
Not only is there no precedent for this, but artistry is inherently fictitious. Even if the detective cat is found to be unqualified, what will happen?
Osborne and Schubert also had discernible excuses.
Charlie hopes to use a more simple, crude and convincing statement to nail these hateful guys to the pillar of shame together with the detective cat.
He wants to completely destroy the reputation of this online illustrator.
"Since you are optimistic about Detective Cat, how about asking her to submit a cover draft, and asking the Wehrlein Studio originally scheduled to submit a cover draft, and binding them on a blank book cover respectively to conduct a simulated market survey?"
Charlie said confidently: "For illustrators, what better way to prove their artistic level than the market? Customers are the best judges."
Simulated market research.
After the turn of the millennium, it is no longer a new concept for large business groups and has formed a very mature model.
A simpler simulated market survey is to distribute some questionnaires on the street.
Many of the polls people conduct on Twitter and Weibo and the questionnaires filled out in their circle of friends fall into this category.
Large enterprises, on the other hand, are more serious about preliminary market research and are more professional.
Many large-scale projects will cost a lot of money to hire professional business consulting companies, which specialize in hiring customers of different ages, different races, and different social classes to conduct professional market analysis.
Movies have preview screenings, and AAA game masterpieces have A-test, B-test, and C-test.
Publishing companies also have their own methods of market research.
Small publishing houses may at most hold trial reading sessions or contact a few book reviewers to see how the manuscript is received.
A business empire like Scholastic needs to be much richer.
In the European headquarters building on London's Financial Street where they are now, there is a [bookstore].
From the decoration to the furnishings, from the design of the windows, the chandeliers on the ceiling to the patterns on the oak floors.
Everything is modeled after the decoration specifications of Waterstones, the largest and most visited bookstore chain in the UK.
This [bookstore] is not open to the public and is not a bookstore.
Everything about it looks like a bookstore, but its real function is a 1:1 model testing ground built by the marketing department.
[Bookstore] can meet almost any survey needs related to the physical book market.
Its main design purpose is to provide group channel dealers to evaluate the sales operations of physical bookstores.
Western bookstores, like coffee shops, are a type of social occasion.
Whether it is the temperature and taste of the freshly ground coffee sold at the store bar, or the impact of different placements of special bookcases on sales for customers of different ages, or whether it is necessary to add children’s activity areas in physical bookstores, as well as male and female couples The ambient music you’d expect to hear on a bookstore date…
The marketing department can invite volunteers to design different market research plans based on the different needs of the group.
There is basically no difficulty in deciding whose work is more popular between two illustrators.
Simply print out a few sets of illustration covers from different illustrators, bind them on a blank book model, and place them on your bookshelf.
Then ask a hundred volunteers to visit the bookstore and count their selection intentions, and that's it.
The principle is not complicated, and the investigation is not difficult. It only takes one afternoon.
"I don't agree. Since the contract has been given out, how can it be easily replaced?" Osborne frowned. "There is no reason for this. It is simply humiliating others."
"The level of the work in Wehrlein's studio is justifiable."
Charlie frowned, without looking at Osborne, and turned his attention to President Hill.
"I think... this idea is feasible. Osborne, I know that if you want to promote Detective Cat, you still have to put the interests of the group first. The expected sales target of 300,000 copies a year set by the board of directors is very stressful. This Not the ideal occasion to gild the newlyweds, change the book.”
What President Hill said seems to be fair.
You don't have to be a fool to hear the bias in his words. Not only did Hill believe that market research was imperative, but he also believed that Detective Cat had no chance of success.
Not just President Hill.
Including the onlookers from the back office staff as well as the assistants and secretaries accompanying the two presidents. After they heard this proposal, most of them had similar feelings.
It’s not that they don’t like Detective Cat.
But the standard of Wehrlein Studio is far beyond the standard of ordinary illustrators.
People are afraid of comparison.
If the passing mark for an average illustrator is 30 points, then someone with a score of 60 is considered an excellent illustrator.
The Wehrlein painter may be able to get 85 points and 90 points.
The difference between 90 points and 60 points is as obvious as the difference between 60 points and 30 points. They are both instant kills.
When ordinary excellent painters encounter the Wehrlein Studio, they will appear to be poor and cheap painters who cannot even meet the passing standards.
This gap will be directly reflected in sales volume.
If you are lucky, the difference may be only a few percentage points. If you are unlucky, the difference in sales may be 50% or even double. It is not impossible.
There simply aren’t too many book products, especially children’s books, that are ruined by junk illustrations.
Similar situations like the bad "poisonous" illustrations in Dongxia textbooks aroused widespread social criticism. This is also not uncommon in the European and American book markets where child protection regulations are more stringent.
If a few educational magazines criticize you, parents will not dare to buy it for their children.
Charlie looked confident that he had a chance to win, so he didn't notice that Deputy Director Schubert next to him looked a little strange at this time.
Schubert lowered his head and thought about the sample illustrations submitted by Detective Cat, and then recalled the works of Wehrlein Studio that he had seen...
His back straightened slightly.
You can do it!
As long as Detective Cat can continue to maintain this level, Schubert does not think that the standard of Wehrlein Studio will be higher than Detective Cat at all.
He has great confidence in Detective Cat's artistic standards.
Charlie wanted to rely on market research and use the punch of Wehrlein Studio in his hand to severely destroy the group's confidence in Detective Cat.
in turn.
Isn't this a good opportunity for the detective cat and Schubert?
Not to mention how much fame it would bring to Detective Cat by defeating this old-school studio. Schubert could also gain a foothold in the art department with this.
Schubert's heart skipped a beat. He found that President Osborne was looking at him secretly, and he immediately nodded quietly and calmly.
Osborne was convinced in his heart, but he did not let go.
"I don't agree. Director Charlie's proposal is against the rules. It's normal for a studio as powerful as Wehrlein to paint better than Detective Cat. There is no precedent for replacing the painter for this reason. The contract has been signed, Detective Cat's agent No one will agree to conduct any more market research."
"You can give Detective Cat more compensation. You can give her a long-term contract, add some bonuses, or give her one or two extra points or something." Hill said lightly, "If she can beat Wehrlein Studio, give her more It doesn’t hurt to sweeten the deal. If it doesn’t work, the worst possible outcome is to pay liquidated damages and cancel the contract… If you don’t have the ability, you can’t blame others.”
The president doesn't care much about paying contract penalty or giving one or two points more profit sharing.
To put it bluntly, this is all small money.
The group has at least a billion dollars in revenue every year. Counting IP adaptations, it would be amazing if a super best-seller could account for 5% of that.
Monsters like "Harry Potter" may not be encountered once in decades.
The original version of "The Little Prince" can be considered a monster of this kind, but today, with hundreds of millions of copies sold, its halo has faded a lot.
One or two percentage points of a million copies sold is certainly a huge benefit to the individual illustrator, but to the group, it is just a drop in the bucket.
Not to mention the share of hundreds of thousands to one million US dollars, even if the total sales of "The Little Prince" are expected to be tens of millions of euros during the sales cycle, it may not be a big deal for Scholastic.
What really made President Hill and Osborne so serious.
It’s the huge reputation that a super bestseller can bring.
For example, works produced by Scholastic can top the New York Times bestseller list for many weeks in a row in the North American market.
And whether the new version of "The Little Prince" can be selected into the recommended extracurricular books of various education committees or private schools.
Or even simply a literature class textbook.
Not only can it bring a large amount of stable income every year, but the benefits from hidden channels and cooperation bridges are also very important to Scholastic.
Selling textbooks is a very big business in Europe and the United States.
It is normal for a student to spend thousands of dollars on textbooks a semester. If he buys all new books, he might be able to buy a second-hand Mustang sports car after finishing his middle school textbooks.
At the same time, from a personal perspective, being able to create a super best-seller is also an opportunity to show your ability to the board of directors.
"Well, my colleagues in the marketing department discussed whether to release a collector's edition book gift box for "The Little Prince."
President Hill waved his hand and finalized the matter. "Whether Detective Cat or Wehrlein Studio, whoever leads the market survey will be given a set of Little Prince illustration postcard peripherals specially for their works as a reward."
Postcard peripherals for books refer to when some children's or cartoon books are published, a set of special peripheral postcards or illustrations are produced based on the illustrations in the books.
Disney's works, or light and anime such as "Sword Art Online" and "Attack on Titan", all have such peripherals for sale.
A single volume of "Sword Art Online" may sell for more than ten dollars in North America, and a collector's edition commemorative gift box containing Asuna's illustrated book may sell for $60 or even hundreds of dollars.
This kind of peripherals can not only be placed in book gift boxes, but can also be sold individually.
If the book itself is popular, the sales volume is generally not bad, the profit margin is also very high, and it is completely built around illustrators.
This reward is indeed very exciting.
(End of chapter)
