"There is an assumption that every 40- to 50-year-old company must be a dying company," observes SAGE Publications president and CEO Blaise Simqu. Given the changing face of the publishing industry, his sentiment of "gallows realism" is understandable. However, in the case of the Thousand Oaks-based academic publisher, adaptation is not only sustaining the business, it has resulted in the four most profitable years (2008-2011) in the company's 46-year history.
Blaise Simqu
President and CEO,
SAGE Publications
Residence Westlake Village, CA
Family Married, two children
education Loyola Marymount University; UCLA
Last Book Read "Boomerang" by Michael Lewis
Favorite Food and Lodging "On any given night of the week, you can find SAGE publishers and editors at Farfalla, The Grill, Mastro's, and Bellini Osteria. Most of our people we put up at the Westlake Village Inn and Four Seasons."
"People assume a company like SAGE lacks innovation or will soon be acquired," Simqu adds, summarily refuting both misconceptions by enumerating the ways in which the global producer of journals, books, and reference materials has shifted its business plan, given the advent and subsequent saturation of the market of electronic delivery of content. Today, SAGE is the No. 1 publisher in the world of social and behavioral methods.
To preserve the company's legacy in higher learning, founder, publisher, and board chair Sara Miller McCune created an estate plan that transfers SAGE Publications into a charitable trust after her death. "We have created, legally, an environment that allows the company to continue in perpetuity," Simqu states. "Our responsibility is that we make decisions today that are right for the next generation of SAGE and the next generation beyond that. The decisions that I make, that the management team makes at SAGE, are entirely different … [because] we don't have to focus on short-term results," points out Simqu. "We can focus on long-term results and long-term profitability, long-term strategic decisions. You can't always do that in a public company, because a CEO is frequently on the phone with analysts trying to explain why the 4th quarter forecast or 3rd quarter forecast fell short. I never have to do that at SAGE.... At the same time, I don't want the [distinction] of having made the decision that led to the demise of SAGE and Sara's vision for the long term."
Simqu is a charismatic and engaging communicator, energized by the fact that his industry is in the midst of a pivotal transition. Having grown up "in a house full of bookshelves," the native Californian relishes the aesthetic appeal of the typeset word on printed paper, yet he is looking forward to the day when SAGE goes completely digital in its content. (That day, he concedes, remains a few years off.) He still gets the LA Times and New York Times delivered to his home, as he appreciates the therapeutic solitude that starting his day with a cup of coffee and leafing through the day's news provides. He still buys books, but for the sake of convenience, most of his reading purchases are via his iPad.
"The question I'm going to get asked most over the holidays?" he predicts. "'Is the Kindle or the iPad going to put you out of business?' What's overlooked in that question is the Kindle and the iPad must have content. Kindle, Apple, Amazon, they are absolutely changing the financial terms of the publishing business."
For instance, SAGE created an entire department for the primary purpose of managing digital content. Yet, the company cannot cease its printing, shipping, and inventory operations, because the market still demands the print option. "There is nothing we would love more than to stop printing," he offers with a stark lack of sentimentality. That said, he acknowledges that the company's print reference material, while available online, still sells "phenomenally well."
Originally joining SAGE in 1986, Simqu left in 1990 for another career opportunity, returning in 1996; he was appointed CEO in 2004. "Higher education is here to stay," he says sagely. "It survives plagues, world wars, every conceivable type of regional, civil conflict, every possible economic collapse -- universities survive all of that. That's the business we are in; providing content for higher education." That said, it's clear SAGE has positioned itself for a durable, long-standing arrangement.