Message from the President - 2007
We are the F.A. Davis Company. What makes us tick? What values do we embody? What is important to us?
Who really knows who we are? You would think after 128 years, the last dozen or so catalog messages, and a
long history as a market leader, that the world in which we publish would know us better. We have an
expanding sales staff spreading the F.A. Davis word. We’ve been headquartered on the same property since
1894. Our Web site gets about 200,000 hits a day. We have been breaking sales records consistently. We
change presidents roughly every time the world population doubles. So why are we so hard to figure out?
Perhaps I should assemble a class for those who think they know who we are, but apparently need further
training. Let’s call it "Davis for Dummies". The class shall be located in our most hallowed space, the Green Room,
where meetings here go to die... er...di-agram company business. I hope we have enough space....not necessarily
for the attendees, but for their stretch limousines in the under-endowed parking lot behind our building.
In the seats closest to the Clarence Taber portrait, I’d like all competitive publishers that have decided their
textbooks can’t sell unless they are packaged with a Davis publication. This is not what they mean when they
talk about content aggregation. This is more like an R. R. Bowker version of a shotgun wedding. As parent
and guardian of the venerable Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, I hate to see my baby mixing with the
wrong crowd. So for all competitors that have been clever enough to find Taber’s at a decent discount but
careless enough to boast as if it is their own, there will be a complimentary mirror inside their coursepack.
That way, while they are trying to figure out who we are, they can make a few observations about themselves.
Going down the long four part table, we find the portrait of George Piersol, MD, longtime editor of the revered
Cyclopedia of Medicine, Surgery, Specialties. Here we will position competitors with particularly large ears (see
Dr. Piersol) to go along with their vivid imaginations. These competitors have spread the word that "F.A. Davis
was just sold" so many times it has adversely affected their credit rating. In their coursepack this group will
get special shoes so they might jump to more accurate conclusions. If Taber’s for instance, has been packaged with a competitor’s medical terminology text by the
competitor, directional advice will be rendered. There will be plenty of room to 1) confirm Taber’s pre-eminence in the health science community; even competitors
want to sell it. 2) assume their medical terminology texts have the equivalent sales appeal of a 20th century drug guide 3) compliment the match making publisher on
its exquisite taste. This is however, not, I repeat, not enough evidence to tell the world F.A. Davis has been sold.
A special pilgrimage will be scheduled for this group to go to the top floor (aka the 2nd floor) to the Chairman’s office where hangs a magnificent portrait of Aunt Irene (Craven Davis) who ran the company for 43 years. From one knee attendees will humbly gaze into her self contented eyes while chanting..."one flight of stairs, so tall a mountain...one flight of stairs, so tall a mountain"... Extra credit will come to those who wait for her to stop them.
On the other side of the table under the noble visage of F.A. Davis, founder and entrepreneur extraordinaire, we’ll position representatives from relevant publishing associations that make it their business to distribute awards of distinction. Particular attention will be given to scheduling. When Bob Craven, Chairman of the Board, was named to receive the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Medical Publishers Association we were all very proud. The traditional March association dinner, however, was moved to early February to coincide with a larger meeting. The conversation with an association representative a few months prior went something like this:
AMPA: "Do you know how I can reach your father? He’s been named for the Lifetime award this year."
Me: "That’s great, he’ll be thrilled. When’s the dinner?"
AMPA: "February 5."
Me: "Is that a Sunday?"
AMPA: "Yes, cocktails start at 6pm."
Me: "Isn’t that the night of the Super Bowl?"
AMPA: (long pause)
Me: "Isn’t kickoff just after 6pm?"
AMPA: "I’m a football fan. I can’t believe I missed this...but hey, it’s not like the Eagles are going to be in it."
After it was learned that there was no reasonable flexibility in the schedule, my father responded: "I’m flattered that you think I can draw a crowd during the Super Bowl, but I must take a pass."
The dinner, of course, was cancelled but Bob Craven’s lifetime achievement endures. Those in attendance will learn that Bob Craven’s greatest award is the F.A. Davis Company he left to posterity. It commands a legacy of independence...of perseverance...of publishing excellence and most importantly a legacy of continuation. In a sympathy letter sent to Bob Craven upon Aunt Irene’s death in 1964, Chick Speakman of Chicago Medical Books wrote: "I know that she meant a great deal to you, and her memory certainly will carry on for many years to come as a stimulus to those of the Davis Company".
......one flight of stairs, so tall a mountain....
The remaining seats will no doubt be filled in by merger brokers traveling in cognito as legitimate invitees. These crashers, a kind of paparazzi without cameras, have been trying to get on the inside for years. In deference to their persistence, a 3 hour elective will be added to teach them how to take "No" for an answer.
Now all we need is a date. Let’s see, the Green Room is currently being renovated to abide by the presidential scheduling plan...i.e. new iteration every 37 years. So
once that’s done, giving some margin for construction delays and monthly meeting weeks, how about the last Thursday in November? Oh, that’s Thanksgiving?......Hey, it’s not like the Eagles are playing.
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Robert H. Craven, Jr.
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