From the Editor Redefine Yourself
Get out of the printing business...
...And into the communications business, where you belong.
This was essentially the message delivered by the National Association for Printing Leadership in its latest State of the Industry Report. To paraphrase: The biggest threat to printers is forgetting that you are in the communications business, not the ink-on-paper business.
What's more, the report notes: "How people communicate is being redefined. Print's role in supporting that communication is being redefined." It's an opportunity for those who are prepared—and a threat for those who aren't.
What this boils down to is diversification: Adding new services, like design and CD replication. Printers polled by NAPL see opportunity in making customers' lives easier by providing fulfillment, mailing, database management, archiving and Internet services, among others.
As the manager of a communications department, you should always be a step ahead of your customers. Don't just understand their ever-changing communication needs, try to predict how else they might handle the jobs you now print for them. Focus outside the walls of your in-plant. Look at trends. Be ready when your main customer decides to use the Internet or a CD instead of your presses.
But adding new services isn't something you simply jump into, the NAPL report notes. What about the cost of hardware, software and training? Do you even have floor space for the new services?
Then you have to change the mind-sets of your employees, and get them to believe your in-plant is more than just a print shop. Customers, too, have to be convinced that you can do more than print. And then comes the biggest job: Persuading them to pay you for these new services.
It all takes a lot of planning. And now is the time to start. NAPL expects print sales to grow this year, after declining for two consecutive years. Put your in-plant in a position to capitalize on this growth by preparing now.
As the NAPL report states, "If our competition diversifies and we don't, we're in big trouble." In the in-plant world, commercial printers are your competition. And they are planning to diversify. Are you?