From The Editor Activity In The Ranks
It's encouraging that almost half (48 percent) of the in-plants on this year's IPG Top 50 reported increased sales compared with last year. Much of that revenue came from additional business, a tough find in a time of shrinking budgets.
Some have focused on insourcing and have increased the amount of revenue they brought in from outside sources. Half of the in-plants on the Top 50 are now insourcing, with many of them generating more than $1 million from it. Others have moved into new areas, like fulfillment, scanning, archiving, Web design and wide-format printing.
At first glance, this year's Top 50 may not seem much different from that of previous years, but when you look back at our first Top 50 list, published five years ago, you see quite a bit of change. A number of in-plants on the 1998 Top 50 have dropped off over the years. Though some went out of business, most are still out there. They just no longer participate.
Perhaps they are too busy to fill out the form, or maybe they feel, as one manager told me this year, that there is no value for them in appearing on the Top 50. Sadly, those with this outlook are missing a great marketing opportunity. Telling your customers and your upper management that you have been highly ranked by a national magazine will boost their confidence in your in-plant. Louisiana State University's Mike Loyd never misses a chance to tell customers that his operation is the fifth largest university in-plant in the country, according to our Top 50. This not only impresses customers, but has the added benefit of making Loyd's employees proud—and good morale leads to better service.
Still, some of the country's largest in-plants prefer to sit quietly in the shadows, calling no attention to themselves, focusing only on their internal, day-to-day duties. While they may think shunning the spotlight protects them from facilities management inquiries, in truth you can't hide a large in-plant. (And when the FMs do get to their boss, and they're asked to justify their existence, they won't be able to cite how highly rated they are in the in-plant industry.)
Not only this, by focusing narrowly on internal affairs and not seeing their in-plant as part of a national in-plant community, they shut out the opportunity of interacting with other in-plants and getting ideas from them.
Fortunately, most in-plants on the Top 50 understand the benefits of networking. By my informal count, 31 of the 50 have attended in-plant conferences in recent years, and several others participated in the Top 50 luncheons IPG has sponsored. The information they picked up at these gatherings has almost certainly played a part in placing them among the country's leading in-plants.
So don't rely on silence and seclusion. Market yourself in any way possible, including by promoting your rank on the Top 50.