Macmillan runs a graduate recruitment scheme and has done for more than thirty years. We are the only publisher in Britain (and maybe in the world) to have consistently and systematically tried to bring into the industry high-calibre people without a specific job vacancy. It has been a great success within Macmillan (five of our current crop of managing directors are from the scheme and 25 are not - it is not the sole qualification) and within the industry (two of the top six British publishers are run by ex-Macmillan graduate recruits and they occupy many other top slots).

I have just interviewed six of this year's applicants and I'm confident that the traditon of excellence will continue. The industry continues to be attractive for the best and the brightest but we need to maintain that by being and being seen to be innovative and relevant. Sometimes that is a bit of a challenge.

The new head of the HMV Group (which owns Waterstone's), Simon Fox, has had to open his tenure with a profits warning and announcement of a significant number of store closures as described here. I'm sure that there are cost savings to be made in the book supply chain and we are going to work with the new team to find and implement them. Right now a book is handled around twenty times between printer and purchaser and every handling costs money and introduces the chance of error. While we're doing that (which inevitably involves introspection) it's vital that Waterstone's (along with all other retailers) don't forget to look outwards at their customer base and its expectations. I do hope 'more emphasis on novels, cookery and children's books and less on "academic and humanities" areas' doesn't mean what I think it means - further homogenisation of the bookshop experience. Mind you, if it does, then independent booksellers should be able to benefit from filling the gap.