Interview: ‘We’ll make India our global R&D powerhouse’, says Peter Booth Wiley and Matthew Kissner

John Wiley & Sons, also referred to as Wiley, is a $1.7-billion global publishing company with over 5,000 employees serving scientific research, information and higher education markets. It develops content for students, instructors, booksellers, institutions, among others, and also provides e-book solutions. In addition, it is a leader in strategic higher education consulting.

Recently, Wiley celebrated its 210th year completion worldwide. Peter Booth Wiley, the Chairman Emeritus, was in India and was felicitated by the Federation of Indian Publishers for his lifetime contribution to publishing during the 32nd International Publishers Congress in New Delhi. He represents the sixth generation of the Wiley family to play a leadership role at the company.

Accompanying Mr Wiley was Matthew Kissner, the Chairman.

FE’s Vikram Chaudhary met them during their India visit, and they noted the company is bullish on India, its third largest market in Asia, and will continue to invest in research and learning here. Excerpts:
How important is India for Wiley?

We are committed to collaborations and investments in India to build skills that provide world-class job readiness. We consider India as the preferred destination in applied research and emerging technologies like data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). The Indian education market is expected to almost double to $180 billion by 2020, buoyed by the rapid expansion of digital learning and the world’s largest youth population in the age bracket of 18-35 years. We are betting big on India and want to make it our global R&D powerhouse.

What all steps have you taken towards achieving this goal?

We’ve launched the Wiley Innovation Advisory Council (WIAC) for AI, analytics and emerging technologies. This is an initiative to create a core forum of seasoned analytics and AI thought leaders, industry experts, academicians and influencers to work together on smart content. Towards that, we hosted a round table in Bangalore attended by 45 top leaders in emerging technologies to discuss the future landscape of learning and work skills in these areas, and discussed working cohesively with industry and academia to build the future workforce as well as the education curriculum.

Are you positioning yourself much more than simply a publishing company…

We have over 210 years of experience. We are a learning and development company. We realised digital disruption quite early, and we bring to the table blended models of learning, catering to adaptive and interactive learning for higher education. In fact, of our three business verticals, research is the largest division that contributes to 60% of the total revenue share, while the rest of the business comprises of products in knowledge and learning. Going forward, along with test preparation, we will offer a range of newer products localised to suit the Indian market in the areas of finance and technology as well as emerging technologies.
We foresee India as the hub of innovation where new learning and content will be developed for other parts of the world.

How is Wiley India contributing towards the Skill India Mission?

Wiley India has collaborated with NSDC and SSCs including IT SSC, telecom SSC, power SSC and mining SSC for developing National Occupational Standards (NOS) aligned vocational content for NSQF levels 3 to 5 for the Skill India Mission. We are looking forward to work with other SSCs. Additionally, Wiley India has collaborated with an NGO to set up a skill development centre at a place called Kali Basti, Uttam Nagar in West Delhi, as part of our CSR initiative. Named Swayam, the CSR project aims at imparting practical education and empowering the youth, women and children belonging to the area by primarily focusing on skill development.