The Fight for Survival

Courtesy: http://www.west-quay.co.uk

James Daunt (MD, Waterstones) recently made a statement that Waterstones could live with Amazon. While most other publishers are groping in the dark and mulling over how this Amazon could be conquered, Daunt seems to have found the answer.

Dwindling sales made Alexander Mamut (of HMV) bring in Daunt to salvage the company from the trouble it was in.  Daunt revamped the entire book selling process and began to focus on a simple motto that each and every book seller should follow- “What does the customer want”? With this objective in mind each Waterstones book store started focusing on stocking books that were relevant and catered to the customers of the resp. stores. However the icing on the cake as far as Daunt was concerned was partnering with the feared monster- Amazon.

Through this partnership Amazon started selling Kindle and eBooks from Waterstones stores. What attracted me to this post was Daunt’s philosophy behind this move.  Where most publishers have begun dreading the advent of Ebooks, Daunt believes that majority of the population are still print book loyalists… and so do I.

How much ever popular Ebooks might get; the charm and experience a print book has cannot be replaced as far as the reader is concerned. This is a firm belief most book lovers have and continue to stand by.Based on this perspective Daunt introduced Kindle into his book stores and true to his word his sales did not fall.

A bold move no doubt, but Amazon has been leaving no stone unturned to take control over the market. In a market scenario where it is now a question of survival it makes all sense to pull all stops that one can. If Waterstones could claim their stake at survival why cannot the rest?