DC Books: From publishing to the ABC... of management

M Sarita Varma in Thiruvananthapuram

DC Books, publishing major with the largest bookstore chain in India, is set to don the robes of a hitech management guru soon. Close on the heels of its foray into tourism, the company has plans to set up a school for management and technology in Vagamon, a hill station in central Kerala. This, however, is no money-spinner project, Mr Ravi DC, head, DC Books and vice-president, Indian Federation of Publishers told The Financial Express. The proposed school for management was envisaged as a venture of the altruistic wing of the firm in honour of the late founder Padmabhooshan DC Kizhakkemuri, he added. The company is already associated with management education in the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in Kochi through a retailing experiment facility.

“What we have in mind is a residential school imparting quality management education. Although we call the proposed project ‘The School for Management and Technology’, the technology education part will come only in the second phase. The school is located on a scenic hill station on the Western Ghats,” said Mr Ravi, a management graduate from Massachusetts.

He denied burning his fingers in the recent hospitality venture. “In fact, DC Gitanjali in Kottayam — the bread-and-breakfast inn opened last year— has also helped marketing of tourism books to overnight travellers through effective display,” he added.

The foray into lessons in management and tourism does not signal any dilution of the book business, which is the mainstay of the company. With more than 4,000 titles in print, a bookstore chain comprising 28 retail outlets and 50 agencies, Rs 12-crore DC Books is among the top five publishing houses in the country in terms of titles, outlets and authors.

The publishing firm had roughed its way up the corporate ladder in times decidedly difficult for the book business through aggressive retailing. When 60-year old DC Kizhakkemuri set up DC Books in 1974 with a capital outlay of Rs 7,500, his pot of luck was buried in the mail-order business of an English-English-Malayalam dictionary.
Without a single retail foothold, he sold 8,000 copies of the three-volume dictionary. Realising that having the full hold of retailing reins was the quintessence of publishing, DC Books in 1977 took over six retail-shops of Current Books. Kizhakkemuri’s trademark move was the pre-publication offers.

Readers who are willing to pay in advance for books being published will be given an attractive discount on their cover price. In 61 editions, the dictionary has sold 6,22,000 copies, second only to the Oxford English Dictionary’s sale in India.

When Mr Ravi, born with a bookmark in his mouth, came home after the Massachussets management stint nine years ago, his eyes were planted firmly not on the retailing-end, but the production end of publishing. “Quality in layout and cover design are very important to me,” said Mr Ravi. When DC Books published O V Vijayan’s novel Thalamurakal (Generations), the first 2,000 copies had 2,000 different hand-painted covers. Similarly, the first 2,000 copies of M Mukundan’s novel Kesavante Vilapangal (Kesavan’s Lamentations), based on EMS, had an embossed copper impression of the late Marxist leader.

Stepping up production volumes have not taken a backseat. “From 25 titles a month last year, we have moved to 40 titles per month. The number of non-fiction titles in subjects like cookery and health among other things has also gone up,” he said. DC Books is now the only ISO 9002 certified publishing company in India.

According to Mr Ravi, the recent rush in Kerala for grabbing government permits for setting up private engineering colleges, dental colleges and medical colleges opens up a glaring vacuum in quality management education. “I’m only exploring this niche. The trick is just to stay away from what everybody is out for”, he said.
The glory in being different also marks Mr Ravi DC’s emergence from the shadow of the Dominic Chacko Kizhakkemuri legend in India’s language publishing lore. When last year, as part of the company’s silver jubilee celebrations, Mr Ravi initiated the publishing unit’s entry into the multimedia business by launching the first CD-ROM encyclopedia in Indian language, Dr Ayyappa Panikkar, noted Malayalam poet and Kendra Sahitya Academy award winner had quipped, “What next....After DC, it can only be CD.” Perhaps the wise bard would add a refrain that there was the management ABCs too to reckon with.