Print Trends   

As part of IPMA's annual conference held in Rochester, NY, Xerox hosted a breakfast before their tour. It was a surprisingly chilly morning and I found myself huddled next to one of the heaters as the panel titled "Key Attributes to a Successful In-plant Operation" began. Panel members included Peter Muir, president, Bizucate and John Meyer, director of HUB print and postal services at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Panelists discussed techniques and strategies to help in-plants thrive during these difficult economic times.

"The panel spoke to the tremendous value in-plants provide to their companies and institutions," said Debbie Pa...Read More

Comments (0)

One thing I did not mention in my last blog about the IPMA show was that I got to visit the George Eastman House. George Eastman was the founder of Kodak. His house is a historic landmark and is filled with trivia about his life and the history behind photography, motion pictures and Kodak. It was interesting, strange and controversial.

During the introduction of the tour George Eastman was called the "Father of Rochester." He believed Rochester should be the best city in which to work and raise a family and, as a result, he heavily funded healthcare, education, and the arts. Many attribute his efforts at helping to attract other large companies such as...Read More

Comments (1)

After a number of in-plant shows were cancelled this year, I was happy to get the chance to attend and present at the IPMA (In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association) show a few weeks ago. The show was a success with more than 100 in-plant managers meeting in the beautiful Woodcliff Hotel in Rochester, NY. The weather was perfect for the class trips to the nearby facilities of both Xerox and Kodak. All told it was a great show filled with four days of business dialogs and fun.

Many speakers talked about how in-plants must be more proactive and create more value through new business opportunities. Barb Pellow, of InfoTrends, encouraged in-plants to become "e-enabled," star...Read More

Comments (0)

We have been talking about fallen leaders – companies that lead for a decade but emerged from the last recession weaker – and the possible lessons learned that we could apply to our current recession. We suggested a relationship between investments, new products, leader status and then a decline related to excessive debt. As a result, we are starting to look for the common denominators that make up “sustainable leaders” and those that result in “fallen leaders.”

Impacting this fallen or short-lived leader status may be a combination of changes in the economy such as the impact of a recession and debt. John Hyde, NAPL Vice President and Senior Consultant sees this problem often in his merger and acquisition work. John works with client...Read More

Comments (1)

In the last few postings we have been talking about how a significant number of the companies considered leaders during the 1990’s became companies that were just hanging on after 2001. We suggested some relationship to a growth strategy, which was investing in new equipment or technology and offering new services, which created a bump in sales and profitability, which could have made these companies appear as leaders.

However, this is where the challenges start to become clearer. These bumps in sales and profits could be short lived over time because your competition sees what you’re doing and invests i...Read More

Comments (0)

Last blog we discussed how 50% of the companies considered leaders during the 1990’s became companies that were just hanging on or treading water after 2001. At this point, we don’t know exactly why this occurred, but we all have some theories and are looking more closely at this. Here is my theory, which is just that – a theory. It contains anecdotal data only and no real evidence.

In the simplest of terms it could be called what happens when you overleveraged and your sales drops. In the simplest of terms overleveraged means using borrowed funds, or debt, so as to attempt to increase the returns to equity.

The theory is based on some facts. During the late 1990 and early 2000 time frame, companies were battling declining sales and profitab...Read More

Comments (0)

In April I asked if companies thought they would emerge stronger or weaker after the recession. As always those that responded felt they were responding well and would emerge stronger. In May we started to talk about companies who were leaders for years – who most likely thought they would emerge from the recession stronger – but who would more likely emerge weaker.

...Read More

Comments (0)

In recent blogs we talked about the latest good news and bad news about the economy and the effect on our industry. Here are a couple more bullet points as we prepare to publish our mid-year economic review called the Strategic Perspective update.

• More than twice as many NAPL Printing Business Panel members reported seeing some encouraging signs now—no matter how minor—than they did in March and reports of such positive signs have increased significantly in every geographic region. 
• Improvement is not across the board—pre-tax profitability fell in April for 70.7% of the panel—just below t

Comments (0)

Recently we discussed the latest NAPL Printing Business Conditions news showing that industry is down 14.2%, and factory payroll hours and productivity are lower. On a more optimistic note, we are seeing signs that the recession may finally be reaching its lowest point or bottom.

However, commercial printing sales ARE continuing to experience a deep slide—the steepest, in fact, for any three months in the more than 20 years NAPL has tracked the industry—and offers little hope for a meaningful industry rebound in 2009, predicting a decline in industry sales of a record 8%-12% this year. 

“What started over a year ago as a moderate contraction has turned into an unprecedented plunge that has cast a wide net: more than 9 in 10 NAPL Printin...Read More

Comments (0)

My friend and NAPL colleague Andy Paparozzi is again helping us understand the impact of the latest events in our industry. The latest economic research has both good news and bad news, but it is important news. In a recent post at the NAPL Biz Trends blog, Andy says that according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, total production hours in the commercial printing industry were down 14.2% in the first quarter of this year from a year ago. Over 80% of our NAPL Printing Business Panel reported in April that their factory payroll hours were lower than a year ago, with only 4% reporting that hours increased. Despite the drop in hours, 41.5% of the panel report that productivity is lower&mdash...Read More

Comments (1)

Recently we discussed the What and Who questions of a company’s Social Media Policy; now we tackle the Where and When questions. Many people are using social media as a customer service and marketing tool. Large companies are finding both staff and management are talking about themselves and their companies. As a result, companies are wondering if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Here are two more questions and answers from an article originally written by Sharlyn Lauby on Mashable.

WHERE should you let employees know about this policy?

When you give all of your employees the ability to interact with the whole world…well, then you have to provide them with some training on how to use it properly and effectively. A great example is Zappos. They ...Read More

Comments (0)

More and more people are expressing their views online in blogs or social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook. As a result, companies are considering if they should have a social media policy. A social media policy outlines for employees the corporate guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world. If you’re thinking about this, here are the first two questions and answers to consider, which are summarized from an article written by Sharlyn Lauby on Mashable.

WHAT can social media do for my organization?

Social media can strengthen your ‘brand’ not only as an employer but as a company. Social media can serve a marketing role or a customer service role. Some of the people I follow are well known such as Jef...Read More

Comments (0)