Some years ago now, as a fledgling coursebook writer, I attended a pre-conference dinner with Pearson ELT authors, editorial staff and senior salespeople at a rather swank restaurant. One of the authors (a rather brilliant person with an outstanding sense of humour, whom I shan't name here) happened to have his laptop with him at the restaurant, and told us he had a cool gimmicky thing to show us from the first slide of the presentation he was going to give the next day.
He pulled up the slide, showing the enormous Pearson logo (which, as it happened, had just been announced as the compulsory first slide on any author's presentation). He touched his keyboard, and the elegant, upside-down arc beneath the word "Pearson" quivered, flexed and then bent itself the other way, ending up in a smile.
"Thought I'd make it look a bit more cheerful," chortled the author, and most of us laughed appreciatively. It was a neat little piece of animation. But through initial grins, a few of the full-time senior staff oohed in nervous tones. "Not so sure the company wants to see that..." said one, still smiling, but not all that convincingly.
It wasn't the idea of the company logo featuring a smile that worried the employee, of course. It was the idea of the company logo being messed with, potentially on his watch. Even I, the "new kid on the block" (as the same author called me), feeling humbled, chuffed, and in awe of being allowed to eat alongside such well-known coursebook writers, picked up on that.
Brand.
You can have a laugh. But be careful about messing with the brand.
Now, several years later, I find it very interesting to look at what Pearson has been doing with ELT in particular and where it appears to be going. Depending on your perspective, watching the Pearson behemoth in action can inspire awe or -- dare I say it -- a certain amount of trepidation.
The company has always been big and powerful, but in ELT it has always had some feisty and well credentialed competitors. In fact, in most areas of ELT Pearson was traditionally in catch-up mode, and still hasn't shaken publishers like OUP and CUP in terms of their hold on some of the world's most spectactularly-selling coursebooks, nor for that matter the reputation and influence those publishers have in the fields of research and methodology books.
But take a look at what Pearson has been up to in the past 5 years or so, particularly in the area of ELT...
- Purchased their own (and I believe the largest) social network oriented around language exchange (Live Mocha)
- Opened their own chain of "Pearson Schools" in Shanghai (how long now until the Pearson franchises get going?)
- Designed and implemented their own formal tests of English (and somehow, they're managing to get universities to recognise it!)
- Started their own teacher training qualification scheme
- Launched a forum-based network for teachers (with loads of bells and whistles, and with some regular visits from some well-known ELT names)
- Introduced their own tablet device for digital content in conjunction with a new coursebook series, which also features exclusive access to BBC video content
If you're an English language learner, now with Pearson you can go to a Pearson school, join a Pearson-owned social network, study using digitial coursework on a Pearson tablet device, and take the Pearson test that will qualify you to study at universities in English-speaking countries.
And if you're a teacher, well you can take the Pearson teacher training course and qualification, get a job in a Pearson school, join the Pearson social network for teachers (and I suppose, learn how to help learners use their Pearson tablets and prepare them for the Pearson tests of English).
Some readers out there will be quick to accuse me of being a bit slow on the uptake, but I do believe Pearson is starting to show its hand. And it is a very large hand that is growing rapidly on the end of a very long arm.
In some ways, you really have to admire them. Instead of battling away in the traditional areas (where they were behind), they've tended to avoid the red seas approach and work on a blue ocean strategy. As a corporate entity, the progress has been stunningly well coordinated and delivered (even if the various initiatives are still pretty much in stages of relative infancy). If you were a Pearson shareholder, how could you not smile, seeing all of these groundshaking developments and investments, while the company still manages to pull in record profits, even in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis?
I'm still trying to work out whether they're (trying to be) the Google of ELT, or perhaps the Facebook of ELT, or the Apple of ELT, or the Walmart/McDonalds of ELT, or a bit of all of them.
But in other ways, as teachers and trainers and writers, I do believe we need to be cautious and a little watchful. Competition has always been a key ingredient for innovation and progress, and I can't see how one corporation holding all of the ELT cards in all of its sectors can be a good thing (it was bad enough when different companies/organisations were the sole holders of the most important card in each sector, if you get my drift). Others may disagree.
In any case, I think it's beyond doubt now that Pearson is moving, aggressively so, towards becoming the Global Superpower of ELT (and perhaps for education in general).
Do you get the same impression? If so, how do you feel about it?
=D
