A Festive Bird

Feature

The December edition of The Bird is by tradition a festive affair and this year's is no exception. DK, which has become something of a legend in quiz circles due to its hugely successful DK Quiz site, has furnished a series of brain-teasers on almost every subject under the sun. Do give them a go.

For me December is always a month for looking back at what we got right (and not so right) over the course of the year, and for establishing some priorities for the year ahead. But it's also a month in which to reflect on the skills and values of the people with whom we are privileged to work every year. Sometimes those skills and values receive public recognition, as they did this month when David Shanks was named Person of the Year by Publishers Weekly. No-one who has had the good fortune to work with David would question that judgement for a moment. He is as worthy a winner as there could be.

But very often the exceptional achievements of colleagues around the world do not receive any formal recognition, which is why some years ago I commissioned the jeweller Theo Fennell to design a silver Penguin bookmark. Every year I dispatch about a dozen of them around the world to individuals who have, in the eyes of their colleagues, contributed something really special to the company.

The worthy winners of 2011 are Mary Balestiere, Uma Bhattacharya, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Anna Billson, Ian Blenkinsop, Louise Brown, Allison Colpoys, Claire Croxford, Alison Davies, James Evans, Adam Hall, Louise Hughes, Rachel Kempster, Sarah Minnich, K.V Rajan, Linda Rosenberg, Kristin Spang and Kelly Ullger. So I would ask each of this year's Penguin Heroes to stand up and take a bow wherever they happen to be sitting when they see this. Each of you has, through your attitude and your commitment, strengthened the company in a distinctive way.

Nothing will make you prouder of your colleagues all around the world of DK and Penguin than Lorna Broomfield's piece in this month's edition about the charitable activities of the people of Penguin. We all know about the Penguin Walk, which goes from strength to strength and benefited local charities by $50,000 (or £30,000) this year. Not bad, and there's nothing like it elsewhere in the industry. But, as Lorna's article illustrates, even more impressive is the extraordinary range of valuable and imaginative initiatives to which colleagues give so generously of their time and money every single year. This past week, for example, Jessica Ferguson, who works at Penguin in New York, and Rachel Mann, who works for Penguin in London, were each given Pearson Community Awards. Jessica was awarded for her work with a young student at The Door, an organisation that helps children from exceptionally difficult and disadvantaged backgrounds, and Rachel, for founding the Saltpond Education Project in Ghana — a school-building and literacy project for underprivileged children in the Saltpond community.

So December is a month in which I always feel exceptionally proud to be part of Penguin, and I hope you do too. This month we are also welcoming to the company 136 new colleagues from our Brazilian partner Companhia das Letras. Companhia will be run as an independent company by Luiz Schwarcz and his colleagues, but I know Luiz shares my hope that Companhia, and everyone who works there, will feel part of the Penguin family. I am of course absolutely delighted about the company's achievements this year. While there are still a few trading days to go, the sales figures suggest that this will be another exceptional year for the company. That is a tribute to the skill, experience and creativity of a remarkable group of 4,000 people around the world. But it is also attributable to an attitude that, wherever I look, is generous, warm and encouraging. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone around the company for their contribution to this year's performance, but also for helping to make this a special place to come to work.

Happy holidays to all.

John