If you’re reading this, cheers to you for working through an entire holiday week. Working late and, indeed, working at all during the holidays deserves a “toast” these days. It seems as though American holidays, like our American waistlines, have become super-sized.
I’m all for a little R&R from time to time, but I do find it peculiar that during a time when many across the world question America’s ability to maintain its global dominance, we’ve become accepting of something less than our founding Protestant work ethic. And in a hyper-competitive industry like printing, is there really time to hit the beach or play a round of golf?
Some claim that their customers are on vacation anyway, so there would be nothing to do if they were in the office. Hogwash! Those are the reactive printers who, in time, will be lost in the industry’s transformation.
For if your phone is not ringing, you are presented with the most incredible and obscure opportunity—the opportunity to think strategically about your business and your relationships, then develop a vision for the road ahead.
This country was built on hard work and dedication. A steady flow of people from across the world have come here for more than two centuries with little more than their hands, their ideas and their determination to fulfill their American dream.
Let’s not forget where we come from and what got us to this point. Let’s be thankful this 4th of July for all our country has given us, and for all of our continuing opportunities. And come Thursday, let’s get back to work with a renewed vigor.
For we certainly don’t wish to follow the path of the PIGS* in Europe.
* Note to readers who are already incensed at my calling Europeans PIGS: I know my blog is called “Against the Grain” and, yes, I sometimes like to stir controversy to prompt the kinds of lively discussions that this blog format enables. But please, save your irate comments about porcine matters. I love Europeans. “Some of my best friends…blah blah.” PIGS is shorthand for “Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain” and thus PIGS are the poster children for where we, as Americans, don’t wish to go.
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A third-generation printer, Dustin LeFebvre delivers his vision for Specialty Print Communications as EVP, Marketing through strategy, planning and new product development. With a rich background ranging from sales and marketing to operations, quality control and procurement, Dustin takes a wide-angle approach to SPC