Graff Keynote Details Sins of Our Past

All too often, conference keynoters end up being non-industry, motivational speakers who attempt to rev up the audience with feel-good, but fleeting, platitudes that lack much in the way of substance. That was not the case in Monday’s keynote address to the approximately 360 Printing Industries of America 2011 Offset & Beyond and Binding Industries Association annual conference attendees assembled in Orlando. Michael Graff, president and CEO of Clifton, NJ-based Sandy Alexander, pulled no punches in portraying what he believes has contributed to several challenges facing our industry.

In an address entitled “Creating New Opportunities for Growth-Explore, Evolve, Execute,” the more than 30-year industry veteran recounted some of the unsustainable business practices that printers and their suppliers brought upon themselves for several years leading up to the Great Recession. Graff cited our industry’s equipment overcapacity fueled by no interest/no payment loans and the easy credit terms established by many paper suppliers. Printers were also slow to adapt to technology changes, he said, using his own organization as an example by recounting how revenues from Sandy Alexander’s prep business seemingly shrunk overnight.