Chartered Management Institute: In My Opinion

Twenty years ago, people thought 'creative industry' was a contradiction in terms. Industry was about profit, creativity about inspiration. Nowadays, creative businesses are central to our economy. As traditional industries have bowed out, they have powered ahead. Managing creativity is now a mainstream necessity, not a peripheral skill - but balancing creativity and profitability is not easy. There is no right way to do it, and even trying to define it involves contradiction and paradox.

The first paradox is in being big and small at the same time. Random House is the UK's largest trade publisher, but our business - producing books that sell - depends entirely on the efforts of a chain of individuals.

This begins with our authors. Some of them are household names; many are unknown.