Still Relevant After All These Years

In the fall of 2018 at Oregon State University Printing and Mailing Services (P&M), we were tasked with developing a business plan for the upcoming fiscal year. We thought it would be helpful if we did something different from previous years — something with a fresher look.

In knocking around ideas in the lunchroom one day, the idea was hatched to contact some of the in-plant’s previous directors and employees to ask if they would be willing to come to a lunch meeting. We thought they would be great sources of information and wanted to hear their opinions on what they did in the past, what they would have done differently and any ideas for the future.

We emailed past P&M directors Cheryl Lyons and Jean-Luc Devis as well as Mark Dixon, who worked in production at P&M for 16 years before becoming director of the University of Oregon’s in-plant. A few weeks later the retired OSU employees were having lunch with us. Here is a summary of their feedback.

What recommendations do you have for the P&M team as they create their business plan?

Mark Dixon: Maintain internal interaction — communication, communication, communication. As always, team building is central to productivity. An old quote that has always been stuck in my head, “Don’t communicate with coworkers so that they understand; communicate with them so they cannot misunderstand.”

Aggressively reach out to the community. Let them know what you can do for them. Make it a point to talk with your customers (especially the top 20). Have the discussion on how you can be more relevant to their needs.

Market the new technology (UV, large-format etc). Strategize ways to utilize the satellite shop to help achieve this.

Get the students involved. Diversify your offerings by providing services that the students need and want. Get student feedback.

Always take the time to toot your horn. Upper administration every so often needs to be reminded that your existence is important to university success.

Jean-Luc Devis: Customer connections and marketing are key aspects to keep your business sustainable into the future. Identify your top 20 customers and arrange regular visits. Annual customer surveys and a SWOT analysis should be conducted.

Know both your costs and profitability by product line, and track the sales trends in those product lines. The financial section of your business plan should include this information. If your growth area is not breaking even look into rectifying that. What long-term success is there if you are not recovering costs on the growth areas of your business?

Cheryl Lyons: Make a concerted effort to reestablish working relationships with municipalities and local non-profit organizations.

Any surprises from the meeting we had?

Dixon: I was surprised that the satellite shop isn’t cost effective.

Devis: I was surprised that there were lots of marketing and outreach events that have fallen off of the radar, mostly due to being located off campus.

Lyons: I was pleasantly surprised about some of the new equipment.

What were you most proud of while working at P&M?

Devis: I felt a strong sense of satisfaction of bringing in $750,000 of new revenue that first year, reversing a trend of annual losses that occurred over the previous seven years. Other memorable times were the open house events we had and winning print quality awards at industry conferences, which had not occurred previously.

Lyons: I was proud of our working relationship with many of the university departments and schools.

What one thing were you impressed with during the plant tour?

Dixon: How up to date OSU is on new technologies. The plant was very organized.

Devis: I was happy to see large-format technology finally come in-house after so many years of outsourcing. Most important is that I was delighted to see how upbeat and positive the P&M Services team was. It wasn’t always like that and I was so pleased to see them all working together so well.

Lyons: The new equipment and associated utilization.

Anything else to share?

Dixon: It can be difficult to achieve because everyone wears so many hats, but it is very important for the team to get out and meet the university. Being located off campus doesn’t help.

Devis: I came back as the Interim Director in 2016 during a difficult period. Coming back to this awesome team was such a pleasure. I was especially surprised at all the customers that remembered me from 10 years ago. That reconnection with university customers and P&M employees was such a highlight.

Lyons: I was very proud of expansion of the copier program and the advisory council and their participation in our continued growth and improved service.

Great Insight

Meeting with these former directors had a strong impact on the current staff and managers at P&M.

“Hearing of their successes, from the printing press era to the digital age, as well as how they overcame their struggles, brought a great insight as to how a university printing and mailing department has run over the years,” remarked Mike Varner, operations manager. “I truly hope this opportunity will continue as I value the wisdom and mentoring they have to offer.”

“All that printing experience in one room was amazing,” enthused Client Relations Coordinator Terri Traver. “I walked out of the meeting with so many new ideas that we can utilize. Listening to printing directors talk about outreach ideas, employee morale, their experiences with fun projects and rush jobs was a print nerd’s dream.”

Jeff Todd, associate director, client relations, pointed out that listening to these former directors made him realize the essential elements of success for in-plants have not changed much over the years.

“Even though the printing industry has gone through so many changes in equipment and technology, the roots of this industry and what makes an in-plant successful remain the same: good staff, great quality and effective outreach,” he said. “Being able to hear the methods and ideas that these past directors were successful with was amazing. We are part of several professional organizations that we are able to network with, but who better than the people who have already had success in our shoes?”

It was very satisfying to get to share with these directors all the growth in the department. Some of the things we have accomplished over the past two years were set into motion by them, so they got to see how the groundwork they laid paid off.

I think former staff and especially leadership has a unique perspective on any operation. While you are involved in an operation every day, you tend to get so focused on the tasks in front of you that when you have the opportunity to look back, you see things you could have done differently and appreciate the effectiveness of other things. Having the chance to listen to past leadership and get that perspective now that they aren’t involved every day was interesting. To hear them tell stories of what worked well for them, what brought them success and what didn’t work, inspired all of us and I think gave a new perspective on our operation.

This was a great opportunity to hear from the leaders I have worked with during my time here at OSU. To get their insights and opinions on our progress since their time here was beneficial to me. Showing them what we have accomplished, against some of the odds we faced in recent years, made me feel very proud of our team.

I was reminded of past customers that may benefit from the new services we provide, like wide-format. We got some great ideas for customer meetings, art contests, finding our “real” profit areas, periodic surveys and the importance of attending industry conferences. The biggest takeaway for me was self promotion. Just listening to Jean-Luc Devis gives you a multitude of ideas to get your name out to the campus community. The key is to get involved in as much as possible with the goings on around the campus. Likewise, we need to get the campus involved with us. We would love to do this again.