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Are You Asking the Right Questions?
In preparing for recovery, first of all, we need to pay as much attention to maximizing productivity and minimizing costs as we did during the recession. We can’t view recovery as creating some leeway. It won’t. The key questions we need to ask do not pertain to the strength of the economy or the level of print sales, but rather:
- What are we doing today than we did six months ago?
- What will we be doing better in six months than we are today?
- How are we becoming more valuable to our clients?
Asking these and similar questions is a good first step. But remember, without implementation and execution, that’s all it is—a first step.
All proposals and initiatives should be viewed within the context of market redistribution, and thus growing at someone else’s expense. Don’t count on growing with the market, or growing by simply adding services in so-called hot markets such as variable-content digital, Web-to-print, and 1:1 marketing. Participants to the NAPL State of the Industry Critical issues Survey: November 2009 cited these services most frequently when asked which they expected to grow fastest. For more detail and analysis on these and other results from the survey see the upcoming NAPL Strategic Perspective: 2010 to be released early this spring.
The aim should be to create a value proposition that makes clients more successful for doing business with us. And to make sure clients recognize our contributions to their success. In essence, integrating services into programs that help clients communicate more effectively with their clients. Remember, market share is being redistributed from companies that print to companies that put print to work for their clients. Regardless of how 2010 shapes up, it’s definitely time to move past a wait-and-see mindset.
The overall business environment for graphic communications companies will remain challenging, not only this year, but beyond. Not necessarily because of the business cycle, but because of the ongoing need to move away from the commoditized aspects of our industry. Despite the challenges, there will be opportunities. Are you putting yourself in position to be able to seize them?
Joseph V. Vincenzino is the senior economist at NAPL—Printing Economic Research Center (PERC).
