Pros
Cengage was an amazing, positive place to work for many years. I admired our leaders, felt supported by my team, and genuinely loved coming to work every day. There was always a new challenge on the horizon, the job responsibilities varied from day-to-day, and there was great comradery among collegues. Team members cared about their work and were thoroughly invested in making improvements in educational materials.
Cons
The changing landscape in higher ed and the "book business" made it hard for a large company like CL to transform their centuries-old product development model(s). We wanted to, but lacked the organizational expertise and infrastructure to be able to move forward. The leadership team that took over circa 2013 brought a certain (welcome!) level of candor and new direction that was desperately needed. Unfortunately, the execution of that vision was lacking. We'd set off in one direction, only to find that the plan would change after a short while--before we could even see the fruits of our labor. It was clear that the executive leadership team didn't work well together (the disparity in vision was "felt" in the trenches); the communication received across leaders was "consistently inconsistent." There was also a culture of "fear," instead of collaboration, which drove unprofessional behavior and, worse: unnecessary politicking that didn't lead to superior product results.