Go to an industry seminar, a trade show, or read a trendy business book, and you’ll undoubtedly hear something like “you have to embrace change to be successful.” How trite. How simple. How misguided. How lucrative, if you’re on the speaking circuit. Its corollary is “change or die.” The advice does little to improve businesses or improve businesspeople. We will die whether we change or innovate or not. We’re sorry to break the news to you this way, but it was the only free newsletter we were sending you at the time. When you choose to embrace something, it also means that you can
Although the capabilities of complex silicon chips increase at a rapid pace, there is little or no reduction in cost of the simplest silicon chips. These have stuck at about five cents for decades. The cost of a chip factory and the cost of research to improve chip production is rising exponentially so there is no reason to believe that the simplest chips will get significantly cheaper in future. An added concern is that these chips are the ones that make little profit so they are the first to be rationed and suffer price hikes when there is a chip famine i.e. when demand
Many companies, small and large, are investing in inkjet technology R&D to develop systems for graphic arts, packaging, and other markets. To gauge the upside potential of this technology, PRIMIR commissioned I.T. Strategies of Hanover, MA, to produce a study focusing on Trends in Inkjet Technologies 2006-2011. The study, which has been released exclusively to the members of PRIMIR, targeted five key markets including Display Signage, Graphic Arts, Packaging, Decorative/Textiles, and Manufacturing/Deposition. According to I.T. Strategies, there is no doubt that inkjet technology will play a major role in these markets, driven by the process advantages it will offer, and its ability
When it comes to gift purchases these days, more and more people are paying with plastic – and not just the credit card variety. The National Retail Federation reports that consumers bought some $25 billion worth of gift cards over the recent holiday season. Printers have been taking notice of this growing opportunity in the marketplace. At OnTime Mailings in Chelsea, MA, a specialist in card embossing, President Richard Connolly says, “In the year 2000, we did fewer than 10 million cards, but for 2006 we’ll do approximately 100 million.” By any measure, gift cards are a booming business, one that could attract printers’
SO YOU’VE trimmed your staff to the essential team and you’ve streamlined your workflow to be überefficient, but your profitability still leaves something to be desired. Next step: get rid of some customers. You heard me. As scary as that may seem, deep down you know it’s the right thing to do. All customers are not equal and chances are that over the years you’ve accumulated some clients that, well, just are not good for your business…like the advertising agency, which pays 90 days after you invoice, whose rush jobs scream through the plant when they come in sporadically, bumping steady customers…and like the
AS GRAPHIC arts establishments transition into full-service communication solutions providers, an interesting marketing dilemma has emerged. Now that most graphic arts companies offer more than just printing services, some have felt a name change is necessary to better portray the full power of the newly offered capabilities. Steven Schnoll, managing director of Schnoll Media Consulting in New Providence, NJ, feels it is a tremendous challenge for a company with the word ‘print,’ ‘graphics,’ or ‘litho’ in its name to remain successful in today’s business climate. “It is simply guilt by name association,” Schnoll observes. “If you call yourself a ‘printer’ you will be
THE MAJORITY of us have faced challenges finding good salespeople. In my darkest days, I once found myself letting my entire sales staff of seven go because not a single one was covering their draw. Fortunately, we were later able to attract, develop and retain a staff of multi-million dollar producers. The underlying difference was that we replaced “transactional” salespeople (who sold strictly on price) with “solutions” salespeople. Solution selling is a mindset, not an ability. Solution sales and solutions salespeople can be created. The essence of solution selling is helping your clients and prospects execute their strategic vision. What is a strategic vision? In its
SOMETIMES, seemingly unrelated elements combine as brush strokes to paint a bigger picture. That certainly seemed the case as we finalized this issue before going to press. Although filled with a range of diverse articles and columns, together they serve as a microcosm of current industry realities and trends. For example, take this month’s cover story profile of Bindery 1, a flourishing trade bindery based in Des Moines, IA, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Founded by Polish immigrants, the company reins have been passed to the second generation—led by daughters Gigi and Renatta and their spouses. A true family affair, Gigi came
ONE OF the things many printers pride themselves on is their knowledge and understanding of color. After all, we spend a lot of time and effort on managing and matching color to meet critical customer expectations. That color expertise can be a great marketing tool as you work to build better and deeper relationships with existing clients and to acquire new ones. Of course, your ability to produce the colors a customer is expecting—accurately and consistently—is the primary way we think about applying our color expertise. But as we transition into this new world we find ourselves in, with competition from all sorts of traditional
THINK A printer in Delhi, India, has different worries than a printer in Dallas? Think again! Although Dallas and Delhi may have different cultures, printers in Delhi have many of the same concerns as their counterparts in Dallas. Interestingly, eagerness to learn varies, not necessarily between Dallas and Delhi, but even within cities in the United States. How do I know this? After more than 30 years as a printer, suffering all of the deadlines, panic and craziness common to this business, I became a consultant. Now I am having fun writing and speaking at seminars all over the U.S. and around the world. The
