Like other publishing company leaders, Cengage Learning chief executive Michael Hansen has to shepherd his organization through a time of immense change, shifting from a primarily print distribution model to one that is more focused on digital. And like most of his peers, that transition hasn’t always been easy. He joined the privately owned textbook publisher in September 2012 and led it through a bankruptcy, emerging in 2014. Hansen said his Boston-based company has found its footing through the establishment of MindTap, an interactive platform that can help professors and other teachers better structure their class assignments around Cengage course materials. Hansen spoke with reporter Jon Chesto about the shift and what it’s like doing business in Boston.

1About half of the company’s $1.6 billion in annual revenue now comes from sales, but Hansen says physical books won’t completely go away in his business any time soon.

“I think there is still a place for the traditional textbook in certain disciplines. . . . We have a very strong franchise in beauty and hair styling [for example]. These are typically private schools that train cosmetologists and hair stylists. They’ve been doing it for decades based on print books. They like that you can open the book and see certain photography. Does [that] add a ton of value there? Questionable. [But] ‘Introduction to Chemistry,’ should that ever be taught with a textbook anymore in this day and age? Probably not.’’

2Hansen previously was a top executive at trade publisher Elsevier and came to Cengage after having conversations over time with a friend at one of the firms that had invested in Cengage. He urged his friend to push Cengage toward a transformation. Eventually, Hansen says, he talked himself into the chief executive job, just as the company was about to head into bankruptcy.

“It was very dark days for the company in 2012. I think that is something that really energized us. . . . If you get a team like that, as a CEO, that bonding experience that comes through a major crisis, that’s very rare. . . . To really go through those dark days, I think, bonds the team together in a unique way. When we’re now solving problems, I think we’re benefiting from that.’’

3During the bankruptcy and the shift that took place afterward, Hansen found it to be effective to be open and honest with employees, even if what he had to say was painful.

“The biggest thing to me is transparency and honesty. . . . Don’t give them the management lingo talk. . . . If you can’t explain the financials of an organization, you’ve got the wrong job. You should be able to explain, in very simple terms, what’s going on. What’s the revenue? What’s the cost? Why do we do certain things? . . . We’ve said we’re in a transformation. . . . So if you came to this industry thinking you had a job for life, probably you’ve got to rethink that. I think people, by and large, appreciate the candor.’’

4The nation’s No. 2 publisher of higher-ed textbooks employs about 550 people at its Fort Point headquarters in Boston, and roughly 5,000 worldwide. The company, known as Thomson Learning in 2007, moved its headquarters from Stamford, Conn., to Boston in 2014, in part to take advantage of the talent here. But being in the center of a high-tech cluster has its downsides.

“The talent war is intense, and Boston is absolutely a mega-spot for that. There’s a lot of competing companies out there of every stripe and ilk. The type of people we’re hiring are not all publishing people. We’re hiring software engineers. . . . There’s a lot of demand [for them]. It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, there’s a lot of talent here. But on the other hand, the competition for that talent is very intense.’’

5Hansen decided to stay in New York after taking the Cengage job, in part to avoid disrupting life for his three school-aged sons. Aside from coming to Boston once or twice a week, on average, he is frequently on the road, visiting college campuses and other Cengage locations. Spending his limited free time with his sons becomes more of a priority with all the travel.

“I spend a lot of time with them. They’ve been great. I told them from the beginning, we’re going to stay in New York City but the reality is, I’m going to be on the road a lot. Every once in a while, I get to play a round of golf. And I do yoga. That’s the only thing that keeps me relatively sane and balanced. Yes, I travel a lot. We all work hard. But you’ve got to have a bit of balance in your life.’’

Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonchesto.