The innovation challenge that unlocked Hachette Livre’s hidden creative power
By engaging teams worldwide, Hachette Livre uncovered bold concepts with the potential to transform the book industry.
By engaging teams worldwide, Hachette Livre uncovered bold concepts with the potential to transform the book industry.
As the world’s third-largest book publisher, Hachette Livre faced mounting pressure to reinvent its role in a rapidly evolving industry. Digital transformation, new consumption habits, and emerging competitors demanded bold action.
To move beyond isolated initiatives and ensure every idea could be captured, evaluated, and scaled, Hachette Livre sought a structured, digital idea management platform.
Hachette Livre partnered with Yumana to launch the Hachette Innovation Challenge. The program’s goals were to:
Yumana provided end-to-end support: idea management software, employee engagement methodology, training, and coaching, all tailored to Hachette’s cultural and organizational context.
The first edition delivered strong participation and measurable impact:
across four geographies.
reflecting a wide range of innovation themes.
selected for long-term business value.
Several projects are now being deployed across publishing houses, creating new sources of recurring revenue.
By turning thousands of employees into contributors, Hachette Livre not only generated actionable business projects but also strengthened its innovation culture worldwide.
Nicolas Docao - Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer
“We have benefited greatly from the intelligence and dedication of the Yumana team. The simplicity of the implementation and the flexibility of the platform helped to make our innovation challenge a success.
One thing that was particularly appreciated by our teams was the ability to see and comment on what their colleagues around the world were proposing. The workshops and pitch sessions were fully customized for our needs and highly effective.
I would recommend the Yumana team without reservation.”
Maja Thomas
Chief Innovation Officer
The challenge was designed as a 4-phase process to ensure inclusivity and transparency:
Ideation Phase
All employees submitted ideas on Yumana’s multilingual idea management platform.Selection Phase
- Pre-selection: Organizing teams evaluated ideas based on strategic fit, business model (short-term revenue, recurring revenue, cost optimization), and scalability.Maturation Phase
A bootcamp, led by Yumana coaches prepared 10 finalist teams to sharpen their pitches and business cases.Final Selection
The 10 finalists pitched their ideas to the Executive Committee, which selected 4 winning projects for incubation and deployment.Hachette Livre leveraged Yumana’s idea management platform and expertise to maximize adoption and impact:
Ensured inclusivity across all international branches.
Drove ownership, transparency, and excitement.
Smooth and secure participation for 7,500 employees.
Professional training sessions built strong business cases.
Clear evaluation criteria ensured alignment with business goals and real-time dashboards offered management clear visibility on challenge status and performance.
The success of the Hachette Innovation Challenge was rooted in a combination of strong leadership, rigorous governance, and active local engagement across all countries:
Backed by top management, the Development & Innovation Department set the pace. Branch CEOs amplified the momentum, mobilizing their teams through direct communication and personal video messages.
From the outset, the challenge followed a clear ROI logic, using measurable criteria to select ideas with real business impact and scalability potential.
A structured process and shared performance indicators ensured fairness, visibility, and progress tracking at every stage of the challenge.
Each branch appointed a dedicated project lead to coordinate locally, boost participation, and adapt the challenge to cultural contexts.
Yumana coaches and Hachette’s innovation managers guided teams through ideation, selection, and bootcamps, helping finalists deliver mature, high-impact projects.
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