I was looking for some inspiration in this New Year; a way to look differently at the world of process improvement that I live in. I especially wanted to make it relate better to those that are often the most difficult to convince of the desirability, even “good-ness” of processes, those in the “front end” of a business: customer service, purchasing, IT, project managers, estimators, salespeople, designers, marketers, etc.

I use some great tools and a great methodology for business process improvement, and the reason that I like them is that they are simple. It does not mean that they don’t take some time and effort to use effectively and gain the maximum benefit. Everything worthwhile takes a certain amount of commitment.

I grabbed a book off my shelf that I had not looked at in a while. It is an old book, in business book terms, but it has not aged. It is called “Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage in a World of More, Better, Faster”, by Bill Jensen. I randomly opened to one of the many pages with a corner I’d folded over and came across this:

“WHAT DESIGN CHANGED THE HISTORY OF PARIS?

Guess again. Think practical . . . think sewers. Thanks to the Seine, the Romans called Paris Lutetia: City of Mud. French novelist Victor Hugo devoted 15 pages in Les Miserables to Paris’ sewers. Why? More growth, more waste. And at some point, waste removal had as much impact as social, cultural, and political forces.

“. . . At some point, content becomes waste. So content design has to include waste removal. Have you designed a sewer system? Is the process for getting rid of content as easy as flushing a corporate-wide e-toilet? . . . Without hassle-free procedures and tools, you are forcing knowledge workers to swim in their own waste.”

Well, that paints quite a picture for me. In process improvement, efficient elimination, (no pun intended), of the superfluous, outdated, and difficult is as important as the improved process itself. Every day, when they see barriers, people use workarounds to get things done in their jobs. Sometimes these workarounds, shortcuts, and “stealth” actions have become, in fact, the best ways to accomplish certain tasks. It’s up to those of us who facilitate process improvement to recognize and coax these informal improvements out of the shadows in the corners, be happy that improvements are happening around us, and rapidly flush the old processes down the corporate e-toilet.

Processes, done well, simplify.

We all need a jump-start now and then. What are some sources of inspiration for you in driving out waste or improving processes in your area of your company?

Becky Graninger, a professional colleague with whom I’ve worked for years and whom I admire a great deal, recently went to work at Barton-Cotton. With a website tagline that says “momentum makes it happen,” Barton-Cotton is busy executing its “reversal of fortune.” To that end, Becky is part of a group of seasoned direct marketers who are coming on board to keep the momentum flowing. Becky’s title at Barton-Cotton is “strategist.”

First of all, I think “strategist” is a great position — one that deserves a spot in any contemporary marketing department. The title implies researching, noodling, and innovating — in short, “thinking.” In this era of direct marketing confusion, the ability to think isn’t a luxury. As it turns out, somebody has written an ebook on this very topic.

In October, I downloaded a pdf from square2marketing.com. Titled Strategy Before Tactics, this guide for agencies explores “how a killer marketing strategy dramatically improves the performance of inbound marketing.”

The first page of the eBook says, “Recent studies have shown that U.S. consumers are exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day. We are so numb to this constant bombardment that the old outbound marketing model is no longer effective. This is especially for smaller firms who don’t have the advertising budgets of McDonald’s or Apple. There has to be a better way, right? There is.”

Key points from the report:

1. Buyer behavior has changed. Most people don’t want to deal with a traditional salesperson. The most important emotion for marketers to target is safety. Marketers accomplish that by helping customers get to know, like, and trust products and services.

2. The old marketing model (advertising = sales) is broken. Today, advertising, PR, and referrals are used to provide free resources, which in turn build the marketing machine database .. which, in turn, = sales.

3. An effective marketing campaign requires careful planing, research, and a step-by-step approach. In other words, a strategy. “The point is: There are a lot of questions that need to be asked, answered, and discussed before you start any tactical marketing campaign.” Moreover, each solution needs to be “remarkable” [see below].

4. Every marketing strategy must be goal-oriented, quantifiable, able to deliver return on marketing investment, and be unique (remarkable) enough to blow the competition out of the running.

5. Being remarkable translates into interesting stories. “Features, benefits and specifications are complicated and easy to forget. Our brains don’t retain complex details nearly as well as they do a good story. This is the new marketing.”

I couldn’t agree more. I’m pretty sure Becky Graninger and other marketing strategists are looking, right now, for more ways to tell their story. Write on!

p.s. Download the ebook here.

Two things I read last week hit me with a one-two punch: first I read about Warren Buffet’s investment in IBM, and then I read information from a Gartner report on leveraging customer loyalty.

The AP article on Buffet’s investment says: Warren Buffett said Monday that his company has spent $10.7 billion to buy more than 5 percent of IBM’s stock this year, a surprising move by the billionaire investor who has long shied away from investing in high technology companies.”

Why the change is a kicker!
“Buffett has long refused to invest in high-tech companies because he has said it’s too difficult to predict which technology businesses will prosper in the long run.
“But he said he recently realized his view of IBM was wrong based on what he read in the company’s annual reports and what he learned by talking to information-technology departments at Berkshire subsidiaries. He said he should have realized years sooner that hardware is no longer the heart of IBM’s business.
“”Now they’re very much a services company, and they’re very intertwined with their customers,” Buffett said. And he said IBM’s customers are reluctant to change once they start working with IBM.”

Now for the Gartner quote on loyalty and customer experience:
“”I don’t think it’s ever too late,” said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst with Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. “Long-term loyalty initiatives depend on building trust and affinity. The more relevant you are to the customer, the more likely they will be loyal to you.””

So what does this mean to us in the world of Print, or Print and Mail? What can we learn from these two seemingly unrelated pieces of information?

For some time now, everywhere we turn we see studies, reports, and market recommendations about how moving from a Print Service provider to a Marketing Services provider is the way to expand and grow our business. However, it is certainly a complex transition to make, and maybe even too costly. It is hard to figure out where to begin and even if to begin.

What I take away from the Gartner information is that for our industry, and for us as companies or individuals, to compete and succeed we must stay relevant to our customers. Communication channels and technology are changing fast, and some say Print, and Print and Mail are becoming irrelevant. We need to adopt a customer-centric view and prioritize discovering what our customers need, and change our organizations to meet those needs. We are experiencing changes, but so are our customers. There are new regulations and changing demographics impacting how our customers communicate to their customers. We cannot afford to take a product or technology only view, and ignore the changes impacting our customers. We must stay relevant to them.

My take away from the Buffet article relating to our business and our industry is that some very smart investors have stayed away from high tech companies because of the difficulty in picking a product or technology with long lasting impact. They are instead placing their bets on companies that are service providers because a good service provider becomes very involved with their customers and it becomes difficult for the customer to change. The technologies and the tools supporting our industry in producing communications have never been more widely varied and in flux. However, if we focus on the needs of the clients and their communication requirements with an outside-in view instead of inside-out, we, like the giant IBM, can change how we are perceived and increase our value, longevity, and profitability.

So in the end what does it mean? Listen carefully to the clients, learn and understand their needs and even what is driving those needs, and then no matter what you call it, offer service solutions that meet those needs.

Are you interested in learning how some printing companies have accomplished just this? Visit OceWow to watch best practice videos. Watch as we highlight what makes print operations like i3Logix, Yurchak Printing Inc., and Ideal Printers Inc. successful.

 A New World for Real-Time Metrics

In today’s market, the tools are available to measure, manage, and monitor campaigns in real time. Technology from a number of sources, ranging from Pageflex to MindFireInc., enables marketers to see how people are interacting with campaigns in real-time and allows them to make immediate changes. The service provider can equip marketing professionals with a visual presentation of campaign results with real-time granular detail. The presence of immediate analytics and reports puts service providers and marketing executives in full control. With real-time data, the appropriate adjustments can be made to creative elements, offers, or calls-to-action. The marketing executive can then use the data insight to formulate follow-up campaigns. This leads to higher consumer engagement, more successful campaigns, and improvement in overall ROI.

Service Providers Are Stepping Up to the Plate

Document service providers must position themselves as business partners that can help the marketing department deal with the real-time accountability challenge. Today’s service providers are stepping up to the plate to ensure effective real-time campaign execution. In July 2011, InfoTrends completed a study entitled

Service providers of all types are beginning to take advantage of technological advancements so they can provide marketers with instant gratification on campaign effectiveness. The real-time marketing industry continues to evolve in response to a recent wave of new software technologies and the increasing accessibility of technology, data, analytics, and advanced marketing techniques. The rapid evolution of technology is paving the way for innovative print service providers and data service bureaus to help marketers understand campaign effectiveness and make the appropriate adjustments. Today’s service providers can help marketing executives meet the need for accountability… in real-time!

Visit www.OceWowFactor.com to download the InfoTrends White Paper Cross-Media Takes Hold: Learning From the Leaders.

A New Accountability

Back when the economy tanked, an old word crept back into our lexicon: accountability. Marketers already had plenty of metrics in place, particularly at larger organizations that were well-schooled in tracking sales leads, market share, and CPM. Nevertheless, these pockets of performance measurements didn’t provide the big picture that senior managers are now seeking. What was lacking was a way to measure effectiveness of a campaign real-time and communicate the overall impact of the marketing organization.

So as bottom lines were scrutinized and budgets were slashed, marketing became an easy target because it was the least accountable. Today, there’s a new accountability in marketing that wasn’t there in the past. Companies are beginning to realize that it’s important their marketing strategies be aligned with their business strategies. Businesses must develop a real-time understanding of how well any marketing initiative is working.

In a multi-client research study entitled The Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends surveyed more than 500 marketing executives. According to our research, over 50% of marketing executives do not measure marketing campaign performance while executing a campaign. This means that the marketing campaign is completed and the budget is spent, even if it proves ineffective.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of this article!

Several years ago, Rob Carter, CIO of FedEx, looked out at the web of mind-numbingly complex systems around the company, and knew they were not sustainable. Some came from mergers and acquisitions, some were developed internally, and all were “necessary” to various business silos around the company. He knew it would be a tough job to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem, gain the support of business executives, and create urgency. In a “Mastermind” interview at last week’s Gartner Symposium ITxpo, Mr. Carter spoke about the transformation of IT at FedEx.

The difficult challenge he faced captured my attention, especially his comment that “I’m a big fan of ugly pictures”, to explain complex problems. From experience, I am a big proponent of mapping processes, (which generally results in a pretty ugly picture), as a basis for identifying and prioritizing opportunities for business improvement, as well as being a catalyst for generating creative solutions and high-level support for resources. Would the “ugly pictures” help Mr. Carter to show all the business executives at this very large organization the ramifications and future consequences of continuing down their silo’d paths?

The “ugly pictures” he created were maps of the spaghetti bowl of the entire FedEx IT infrastructure, including the total counts of all the applications, platforms, databases, HR systems, interfaces, tracking entities . . . you get the idea. He used the attention-getting ugly pictures and compelling stories behind them to get agreement and support from the top that a lot of time and money were necessary investments to avoid the time bomb lurking in the increasing system complexity.

FedEx proceeded to create a completely new IT strategy by “. . . decomposing the business into foundational services. Who is a customer? What is an address?” All the businesses had their ideas of an “address”, and had their own address databases, so instead of “knocking heads” trying to choose which of the existing systems is best, the company started over. They identified and solved for 22 core services, such as label services, address services, and location services, that really matter to the “simple” business of “picking them up and putting them down”, as Mr. Carter described their transportation business. Over time, interfaces fell away, some apps were no longer necessary, and a simpler, services-focused IT infrastructure resulted.

Have you or someone in your company created your own “ugly pictures” to help to re-focus, and simplify systems or processes? What did you focus on? What were the results?

Back in August, I published an article on the main WhatTheyThink site that highlighted my top five software trends to watch at Graph Expo. In general, this year’s show was an indication that solutions are just as (if not more) important as speeds and feeds, and software is top-of-mind for print businesses looking to succeed in the face of still-challenging times. Now that Graph Expo is over and I’ve had some time to reflect, I’d like to revisit the trends I outlined and see how they matched up with what was at the show.

1. Integration, Automation for Print and Beyond

As Cary Sherburne reported in her Graph Expo retrospective, production automation is a critical technology that will help drive efficiency and scalability in print businesses. Collaboration among different vendors to help their customers meet their goals is happening at a greater rate than in the past, as evidenced by many of the larger OEM vendors showcasing partner solutions and integrations at their booths. Hybrid Software, which specializes in providing software technology that integrates disparate information and production systems, had a consistently packed booth. Enfocus also generated a lot of interest with the new release of its Switch automation tool. Regarding the “beyond” part of this trend, the inaugural marketing pavilion that featured a variety of marketing-related solution vendors exhibiting also generated a significant amount of traffic despite its somewhat undesirable location toward the back of the show floor.

2. The Next Wave of Web Enablement

There were a number of developments and even some new entrants at Graph Expo related to the Web services space. As I mentioned in my original post, I was anticipating the launch of a new print eCommerce solution from Keen Systems. I was able to grab a pre-show briefing/demo, and the solution definitely has some potential; it also won a “Worth-a-look” award, which is great for a first-time exhibitor. Another company that has been around for a few years but just started exhibiting again was PrintNow, which offers three easy-to-understand software packages that service providers can leverage. Aleyant Systems, creators of the Pressero system, debuted their updated online interactive design tool, which was rebuilt on HTML5 instead of Adobe Flex/Flash for broader device support. EFI also previewed the latest version of its Digital StoreFront product, which included a revamped interface and ordering workflow. All in all, the future of Web enablement is shaping up quite nicely, and was on display at Graph Expo 2011.

3. Taking a Fresh Look at Print MIS

While production automation was one of the critical technologies outlined in Cary’s piece, MIS was the top critical technology, and there was plenty of activity related to MIS at Graph Expo this year. While EFI’s dominance in this space was certainly apparent, there were plenty of developments from other players. Heidelberg highlighted its Prinect Business Manager based on its CERM acquisition; the company plans to begin initial implementations of the solution in October or November. Technique received a great deal of attention at the show because of its new mobile application (iTechnique), which provides sales reps and managers with access to information such as customer profiles, active jobs, and the ability to submit new proposals. Avanti Systems highlighted its recent integration with Ultimate Impostrip, as well as its Customer Relationship Management capabilities. Finally, the very recent merger of vendors printLEADER and PrintPoint resulted in shared booth space and a showcase of how their products work together. With a renewed focus on operational optimization, MIS continues to be a key enabler, and printers are taking note.

4. Harnessing the Cloud

As I mentioned in my last post, utilizing the cloud results in easier implementations, reduction in software costs, and provides scalability as needs change. For print businesses to be more agile and make changes or shift directions as the market requires, flexibility and scalability are key factors. Many vendors were offering different flavors of cloud computing at Graph Expo. We already mentioned Keen, which is a true multi-tenant, cloud-based service. Many other vendors are taking the approach of leveraging virtualization, enabling customers to deploy software with less hardware footprint and greater efficiency. Kodak mentioned that it enabled virtualization with its Prinergy workflow suite earlier this year, and many customers have taken the opportunity to optimize their deployments.

5. Getting Serious About Mobile

While this trend was listed as number five on my list, I really think that mobile made a huge splash at Graph Expo and the issue of mobility will become a focal point for both vendors and service providers in the near future. I counted at least a dozen different mobile-related product announcements and features at Graph Expo, and I fully expect more to take shape between now and drupa. Some of these developments are around mobile marketing, including the ability to make print more interactive. Other developments are around the concept of mobile production management. My colleague, Barb Pellow, went into many of these announcements in further detail in one of her recent articles. It will be interesting to see how these applications are adopted by service providers and what benefits they provide.

Overall, Graph Expo was pretty great this year, and I think many of the software trends I highlighted were fairly prominent themes at the show. These are just my own views, though. What did you see at Graph Expo that really stood out to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Note: This is Part 9 of a 9-Part series based on the book “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry”

Since I first started writing the book Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry, things sure have changed a bit in the worlds of marketing, communications, and technology.

For one thing, social networks such as Google+ have come into play and quickly added tens of millions of users. Apps such as Instagram and Postagram have arisen and are given new life to photos taken with mobile phones and to postcards, accordingly. Also, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the amount of people that are carrying around smartphones and tablets.

No matter what your role in business might be — as an owner, sales rep, marketer, IT personnel, consultant, etc. — shifts in communications and technology can be intimidating. But if you are in the printing or marketing industries, these shifts should also be seen as something else: as opportunities.

Service providers have opportunities to help businesses maximize their presence on new channels. Many companies today face the same challenges: how to get more people to their website; how to build up their following on social networks; how to measure what’s working. Service providers can help their clients to identify solutions to those problems. But along with simply providing the consulting services, many print, mail, and fulfillment service providers are in the position to do more than that! Many have the resources to actually build, manage, execute, and measure the marketing initiatives that their clients need. This may include print, email, landing pages, mobile, and more. Yes, many now have the opportunity to truly offer full marketing services.

But as the worlds of communications and technology continue to change, how can you keep up? Here are a few suggestions:

• Be a Practitioner: The easiest way to learn how a marketing channel or tool could help one of your clients is to use it yourself. The same applies to keeping an eye on new trends. If you are committed to doing whatever you can to promote your business, then you will take steps to devote time and energy to find out what’s next. The only way that we can keep up is to make it a priority. And when we have a stake in keeping up for ourselves, it will be a lot easier to do so.
• Invest in Technology:  As a printer, we may certainly become frustrated if a potential prospect turns down our solutions to go with an online-only solution (i.e. rather than print the book, they tell you that they’re simply going to offer a version for eReaders) . However, rather than simply become frustrated at those moments, we should find ways to put ourselves in their shoes.

One way to do that is to invest in the same technology that they may be using. If you don’t have a smartphone, you need one! If possible, acquire a tablet as well. Take the time to experience what it is like to browse, search, find, and consume information on those devices. For one, you may start to realize some of the benefits those devices provide. But it may also help you to identify possible solutions that you can offer to your clients the merge the online and offline worlds together! For example, perhaps you can encourage a client to use QR Codes to make their brochure interactive. By adding QR Codes, the client may be pleased that they get to incorporate their online content “into” their printed materials. Also, this may give you as the service provider the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of the items that they do continue to print.

Of course, there are other ways that we can stay on top of emerging trends. We can subscribe to the right eNewsletters. We can join Groups in LinkedIn that have forward-thinkers. We can start following people and brands in the worlds of marketing and technology that are freely sharing information on social networks. And of course, we can attend offline events, conferences, and meetings that are covering topics that we want to learn more about.

No matter what our preferred method might be, the bottom line is that we will need to be committed to keeping up! Yes, some of these trends may fizzle out before they have the chance to mature. But if we are willing to invest the time to see how new technologies and trends can help our business, we will find ways to grow faster than some of our competitors.

Moving Forward

This is the final installment of my summary series regarding my book, Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry. I hope that you enjoyed it and found the information helpful!

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the book, please visit http://NewPathToProfit.com.

The Business Communication Industry and print in particular, continue to face challenges from many fronts. The demands and requirements placed on business communications by the end consumer have changed. People want to be able to get their information where they want and when they want it. The technologies utilized in communication are changing at a very rapid pace.

Print itself has gone from mass production and distribution of the same information to all, to communication targeted to a market segment sharing a specific characteristic, to highly personalized one-to-one communications. Production has gone from high speed web litho print with lots of offline finishing, to digital print and inline finishing, and “onserts”, (even our language is changing).

New channels for communication have emerged and are being adopted at very high rates, from e-presentment of documents to social media and mobile applications.

Competition has increased among the providers of communication services with consolidations and companies going out of business, and yet still there is a lot of underused capacity.

How are companies in the industry going to survive and even thrive?

One possible answer comes in the form of an old and proven education technique, “Cycles of Learning.” Jack Welch used the cycles of learning principle in building GE. Jack Welch and GE went through three cycles of learning for the improvement of the business. In the first cycle, he focused on the elimination of variety in GE’s portfolio of businesses by reducing the non-performing business units. During a subsequent learning cycle Welch focused the company on simplifying and eliminating non-value-added activities. The third phase of discovery focused on the elimination of variation. This business approach would be valuable for today’s print businesses.

I also think a more tactical day-to-day approach and process can provide results and accelerate business improvements. At the core of this approach is to begin every project or quality improvement with the idea that you are going to teach others about your experience and results at the end. Educational research has proven that performing a task or learning experience knowing that you will need to teach it will improve your understanding and memory of key principles.

Cycles of learning means being able to apply what was learned from one activity or project to the next or similar ones. The progression is depicted in the following graphic.

Looking for new information and ways to learn about Production Printing for your business?

Note: This is Part 8 of a 9-Part series based on the book “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry”

Social networking is certainly one of my favorite passions. I truly believe that it can help print, mail, fulfillment, and marketing services providers in many different areas — including marketing, sales, customer support, and HR. However, many companies still primarily view channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as ways to simply distribute press releases.

While there certainly is a place for using social networking channels for distributing news, they can absolutely help companies in other areas.

Here are 3 ways that your company may be able to find success through social networks:

• To Provide Customer Support:We have probably all done it by now. Maybe it was to an airline or a restaurant. Perhaps it was to a manufacturer or retail store. For one reason or another, the company treated us in a way that we didn’t appreciate. Thus, we turned to social networks such as Facebook or Twitter to express our complaint to others. While it might simply feel good to let out some steam, don’t we feel much better if the company does something to react to our public grievance?The same thing could be happening to your business right now. Someone could be displeased with a print job, the time it takes to get a call back from a sales rep, or the lack of information on your website. If those folks complain on social networks, you certainly may cringe. But at least you’ll have the opportunity to know about the complaint and then address it!

  How can you know if someone’s complaining about your business online? There are absolutely tools and services that can help you.  For example, you could use Google Alerts to set up notifications for your company name. You could use Twitter’s search feature. Or you could partner with a 3^rd-party.

  No matter what the case, social networks give you the ability to listen to what people are saying and then quickly take action to provide some sort of customer support to them.

  Of course, social networks also allow you to proactively provide customer support. Through your social networking accounts, you could provide links to how-to-guides that provide suggestions and best practices for ordering a print job. You could provide links to other resources and case studies that may inspire a customer or prospect to do more business with you.

  If your customers are on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, then you should absolutely be there to provide support when they need it.

• For Finding Leads:This one may sound obvious, but I do not believe that companies are using social networks enough to actively find and connect with leads.One way that this can be done is to search Twitter for terms and phrases that may indicate that someone needs help with a print job. While you certainly could search for variations of the word “print”, you also could look at companies that are exhibiting at upcoming trade shows or hosting seminars. No doubt, they may have printing needs. Social networks may allow you to quickly connect with them.

  Also, LinkedIn offers plenty of opportunities for sales reps to engage with potential prospects across the verticals that they may sell to. If you take the initiative to join and contribute to the Groups that your target audience participates in, you may increase the chances that they’ll turn to you when they need your services.

• For Finding & Recruiting New Employees: When a printer is transforming their business to offer additional marketing services, they may recognize the need to find and invest in employees that may have slightly different skill-sets than they’ve looked for in the past. You may need someone that has website design skills, that can write prolifically, or that has a passion for social networking! One way to find these people is via social networks.It’s fairly easy to search for students or recent graduates from schools that traditionally produce people that are interested in the graphic arts and printing communities. Once you find them, you may be able to find out what other passions or talents they may have, and then you’ll have the opportunity to engage them in possible employment discussions.

These are just a few of the ways that companies could use social networking to improve their business. If you’ve had any success with these, I’d love to hear about it!

To learn more about my book, “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry”, visit  my book’s website.

There has been a lot of reflection and praise all across the Web over the past week following the announcement on August 24 that Steve Jobs, Apple’s iconic CEO, resigned from his top spot at the company, likely due to his worsening health condition from a long bout with pancreatic cancer. Commentary has ranged from high praise to personal experiences with Jobs to some people saying “it’s just not that big of a deal.”

Much is being made of Jobs’ influence on Apple’s highly successful products: the original Macintosh computer, along with the seminal line of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices. Additionally, there is a lot of talk about Jobs’ influence on Apple’s advertising and marketing efforts, of which many memorable ads have come. One area that hasn’t gotten as much light shed on it during this time of reflection is Jobs’ influence on our own industry of graphic communications. Whatever your feeling about Steve Jobs and Apple, there is no denying that the Macintosh helped spur the desktop publishing revolution and catalyzed a transformation across the media production landscape, including print, video, and now interactive applications.

Much of this revolution can be pointed back directly to Steve Jobs’ influence on the first Macintosh PC and its successors. Jobs once noted during his graduation speech at Stanford University that when he dropped out of Reed College, he still snuck into a number of classes (even though he wasn’t enrolled), and one of those classes was calligraphy. He learned not only about calligraphy but of typography and what comprises good design aesthetic. Good design and typography were, therefore, major factors that influenced the design of software for the Macintosh, as well as the form factors that are prominent in today’s popular Apple products.

The first Macintosh PC had a variety of fonts to choose from, as well as pre-loaded software for word processing and layout. Soon after the Mac’s initial release, LaserWriter printers could be connected to the Mac, and third-party applications like Aldus PageMaker, Adobe Photoshop, and QuarkXPress were developed and initially touted Mac-only support. With creative software primarily available on the Mac platform throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Apple held a dominant presence in the graphic communications industries.

While Windows-based PCs have made inroads in these industries, especially from a pure business administration perspective, recent InfoTrends research indicates that the Mac platform is still holding strong throughout the graphic communications industries. Apple’s market share in terms of operating systems is comparatively larger in our industry than in other industries, and companies are generally very good about upgrading to the latest operating system releases. With Apple still on stable footing and creatives still attracted to Apple and Mac, it’s hard to fathom this will change anytime soon, even with Jobs’ sudden departure.

All told, Steve Jobs had a tremendous influence on the creation of the Macintosh, which in turn had a significant impact on the core creative processes and workflows we’re all now accustomed to today. You could say that he’s doing it all over again with the rise in popularity of mobile devices, with Apple at the center of that transformation. While it may be disconcerting to those thinking about from the perspective of the future of Apple, Jobs has created an innovative culture that is instilled through every aspect of the business, from product development through its retail stores. It’s definitely hard to imagine Apple without Jobs at the helm, especially considering the downward spiral it went into after he left the first time. This time, however, he has built up a strong team that he can confidently pass the torch to for at least another generation.

Vice President, Mountain States Printing Education Foundation

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics had promised it was finally going to post many of our industry’s real production-related job titles/occupations on July 15th after almost a decade of work, initiated by Mountain States Printing Education Foundation. They are now saying that the “16.0 Database will come out the end of July/beginning of August. New O*NET online with 16.0 database will be released in September.” This continues to be one of the most frustrating endeavors that those of us who have been working on it have ever encountered.

In 2001 we (Mountain States Printing Education Foundation and Printing & Imaging Association Mountain States) were approached by the City & County of Denver to begin a funded training program for our industry, which they considered one of their largest and most important industries. The impetus changed after the tragedy of 9/11, but the following year we began working with them again.

What came to light at the time was a major discrepancy with what we and the City knew to be true and what the Department of Labor (DOL)/Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) had to say about our industry. We learned that all of the Federal industry data was completely incorrect and most of the information that they were reporting about the industry was 30-50 years old, although there were a few current job titles/occupations listed. We were extremely fortunate that our information prevailed at the time and we began training programs for current and potential industry employees. The funding underwrote training for 36 employees, one of which is now a member of Mountain States Printing Education Foundation – Melissa Rogers.

Prior to starting the classroom training, we assembled a number of Colorado printing related firms to review the job descriptions/occ upations that were posted on the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Once that was accomplished (changes made to existing job information, very outdated jobs listed for removal and new jobs added) we hired an intern to gather and prepare a list of all current industry-related jobs and submitted them to our first contact person at the Department of Labor. That process took until early 2004. At the same time, a gentleman who had been hired as a consultant by DOL’s Employment & Training Administration (ETA) contacted Ben Cooper, former VP of Government Affairs at Printing Industries of America, to get his approval of the printing industry information posted on O*NET. By then, Cooper was aware of what the Foundation had discovered and sent the gentleman to work with us. With the approval of all the PIA Affiliates around the U.S., the Foundation took on the task of being the voice of the industry to “fix” the misinformation that was being purported about the industry.

Part of the “fixing” process was to have our intern, Nelson Alfred who was attending Platt College at the time, collect a list and short job description of every job in the industry and prepare a brochure which was sent to BLS noting every job that “Requires Industry Related Education or Formal on-the-Job Training”. That information was basically rejected by BLS since it was industry generated. We then partnered with the Colorado Department of Labor to generate a survey (in government manner and lingo) which confirmed our information, forwarded it to BLS and again the information was disregarded. At the same time Jim Kyger and Ron Davis from Printing Industries of America sent their surveys of job information (wages, job titles and The Print Market Atlas) to their contacts at the DOL – same result.

There were many theories about why the government information was wrong, one of which was that because there were no current apprenticeship programs, it was suggested that by writing new, modern apprenticeships – the information would be updated. We worked with the Colorado representatives from DOL’s Bureau of Apprenticeship & Training (BAT) to write the needed programs which were approved by DOL and the Union only to have them listed under classifications that no longer exist in the industry. At that point we pulled the apprenticeships until changes were made to the “job titles/occupations”.

Throughout the process former PIAMS president and Foundation secretary/treasurer Kathy Lauerman had ongoing dialog with various BLS/ETA/BAT representatives. One of the BLS representatives was also on an international SOC Code group (Standard Occupational Classification codes) that adopted our updated titles on an international level – but not in the U.S. This gentleman also took it upon himself to informally confirm our information in the Washington DC area, and of course it was confirmed.

Requests for approval and input continued from the BLS and at that time Carol Hurlburt of NPES and Kathy Lauerman of PIAMS, who have both since retired, were both heavily involved in the dialog. Promises were made over the years from various DOL departments to update the information but none came to fruition. In 2007 the Education Summit Group for Graphic Communications, a group sponsored by the Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) adopted the cause as one of their action items. By then many Graphic Communications programs around the country were being closed – Most of which because of the misinformation being purported by the BLS about our industry. In addition the number of industry employees generated by the Department of Labor was also underreported because they only count production related numbers not full industry employment numbers.

The Education Summit Group active sub-committee members who continued the effort under the chairmanship of Mark Nuzzaco of NPES included Pat Klarecki from Ferris State University and Kathy Lauerman with tremendous support from Jim Kyger at Printing Industries of America, who ultimately took the reins to continue pestering BLS (and still does) to get correct industry information posted.

There are so many people to give credit to for helping with this decade long project and the list is far too long to cover – but you all know who you are. Thank you for your input and persistence. We would be remiss though in not thanking the woman who first came to us from the City & County of Denver who believes strongly in our industry and is a great proponent of what we do – Priscilla Bohl, not your typical bureaucrat. And, an additional “thank you” to Alexandra Hall and Joe Winter of the Colorado Department of Labor, who we can’t wait to eventually send a note to when the Feds finally update our information. Having correct job title/occupation information will also help them collect proper statistics on a state level.

Now all we can do is sit, wait, and continue to pester the DOL to get what has been approved and posted in the O*NET/SOC taxonomy placed on the actual O*NET website that is used by schools, economists, and all government agencies.

One of the major challenges faced by a printer that wants to offer marketing services involves changing their sales strategies and tactics.  There really is a big transition from commodity-based sales to solution sales. In my book Business Tranformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry, you will not find a how-to-guide on how to sell. Rather, you will find a chapter that focuses on the changes that you may need to make to your sales process.

Identifying Other Opportunities

One of the biggest changes will involve taking the time to investigate what other sales opportunities may be available. Let’s think of the the example of a seminar.

A seminar requires promotional planning, production, and follow-up. Registering attendees, mail and email notifications, collection of registration fees via e-commerce, creating informational items, and much more, are all a part of putting on an event of this sort. In the past, your business may have only received a small portion of the work involved in those items; perhaps you were printing the postcards that invited people to the seminar. But as a marketing services provider, you will absolutely want to find ways to get more of that business.

How can you go about doing this? One thing that may help is to simply ask more questions. Find out how the company plans to promote their seminar besides the printed piece that you are doing. Also, share tips and advice with them to position yourself as a partner. Suggest that they can improve the success of their registration efforts with personalized URLs or QR Codes. Share statistics that demonstrate the lift some campaigns get by including emails and social networks in their promotions. Then, find ways to demonstrate how you can help them with those items too.

Formalize Your Sales Process

If your company has had the same sales reps for many years, there may be some folks that are used to doing the majority of their work on their own. However, the transformation into a marketing services provider requires a team approach.

To get everyone on board, you may need to put forth efforts to standardize your sales process, to hold weekly meetings to share ideas, problems, concerns, and successes, and to develop that tools that will help people forecast sales opportunities.

Find Ways to Automate!

Next, let’s look at sales force automation. SFA records all of the stages in a sales process. It also allows you to track all of your contacts. SFA systems are also capable of sales lead tracking systems, sales forecasting, order management and product knowledge. This creates a streamlined, productive environment for your sales reps.

This is not limited to your sales reps, however. Your marketing department will also benefit from SFA. As your customer database grows, your marketing department can do a few things with this. For example, they may be able to identify who your most profitable customers are. There are obvious benefits to this. This will enable them create a market of similar companies to target.

Also, SFA will help in understanding the competition. Any lost sales opportunities should be documented in the system. Marketers can examine trends and cycles among sales reps and help develop a stronger competitive strategy. Also, this helps marketers and sales reps work in tandem. If you are conducting a self-promotional campaign, that information should be included in the SFA system, including who was contacted and what their responses were.

There is also marketing automation. This allows you to send out consistent and relevant messages efficiently. Marketing automation enables you to automate marketing functions, including campaign creation, market segmentation, and response analysis. Simply the gathering of data that can be used to target your audience in a valued way.

Technology is your friend. Use it to make your sales and marketing processes more efficient and effective. You will see results.

Next week, we will look at social media, and where it fits in with your new business.

To learn more about my book, “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry”, visit  my book’s website.

Consider the following desirable equation:
New projects ≤ Projects completed

 Do you find that for yourself and your organization the number of projects added is at a rate disproportionate to the number of projects completed? Why is that?

Organizations place a high value on project management skills, which are critical for successful project completion on time and on budget. There are numerous classes and certifications in project management and major software programs dedicated to providing discipline and consistency to the project management process. The importance of managing project resources and scheduling the project timing is well understood. Time and effort is devoted to identifying the tasks and understanding the inputs and outputs of each task for completing the project. The tasks are sequenced and dependencies and end points of each element of the project are identified.

So, why is it that so many projects fall short of their goals?

I submit that the main reason is that we don’t apply the same effort and discipline to compiling and managing the list of projects itself. A few companies have created Project Management Offices, but their scope is often limited to projects in one department or function such as IT. Every company and department has a project list that seems to continually grow. Is the list complete? Does it include projects or activities which are required to keep the business going, such as audits? Is there a way to track all of the efforts underway in our organizations and what resources are assigned? To manage the project activity going on in our organizations, we need a disciplined approach.

Projects should support the corporate or department Strategic and Business Plans. The objectives supporting these plans should represent “filters” that each proposed project should be evaluated against before it is started. Does the new proposed project help us meet a defined strategic or business objective? All too often a project is conceived and started without ever considering the overall impact it will have on other efforts underway. Once filters are applied and priorities are established, resource requirements can be addressed.

Understanding resource requirements and availability is critical before proceeding to launch projects. What staff or other resources are needed for a project? Simply adding projects to resources that already have full plates will guarantee that current projects as well as the new ones will experience delays. Projects with overburdened resources will suffer starts and stops while resources bounce from one hot project to another. This causes inefficiencies and increases the risk of errors in critical project steps.

Another part of the project management process that should be applied to managing the project queue is determining the sequence for project implementation. An assessment of the organization’s project list could reveal that completing one project first will make other projects simpler and easier to complete. Consideration should also be given to breaking major projects into smaller ones, allowing a quicker return on the efforts and creating a sense of accomplishment. With the reductions in the workforce over the last several years, a growing sense of frustration exists as to having too much to do and never accomplishing anything.

The overall process of managing the organization’s activities and projects is really simple:
• Apply filters to the list and set priorities
• Assure necessary resources are available and have adequate band width before starting
• Avoid the mega project that goes on and on from inception by breaking it into shorter term achievable efforts

The process to manage the project efforts for maximum efficiency and results is easy, but implementing it is hard and must be supported at the top. With many pressures in all companies today, management generally tends to continue to distribute new important projects, unknowingly creating unsupportable goals. Limited resources cannot complete an ever-increasing project list. The final challenge in controlling projects comes in creating a culture that allows the people involved in a project to push back and seek some relief when the number and complexity of their projects gets to the point that nothing is getting completed. Without that culture, neither the company nor the employee wins.

So, what kind of company or department is yours?
New projects ≤ Projects completed, or
New projects ≥ Projects completed

Check out webinars that could help you along the way!