Seven Habits of Successful In-plants

Last week's In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference was a rousing rendezvous of in-plant managers from all over the country (and even Australia). Some of the industry's most well known pundits were there to share their wisdom: Frank Romano, Howie Fenton, Barb Pellow, Bob Neubauer (oops, sorry, scratch that last one).

In her compelling keynote address, Barb Pellow, of InfoTrends, gave managers a lot to think about when she examined the seven habits of successful in-plants in a digital world. On her list:

1. Be unreasonably aspirational. She urged managers to set goals in order to get results, and pointed to the winners of the IPMA awards as examples of in-plants that have done this to great effect.
2. Be digital…be big. Pellow noted that process color printing is growing rapidly and that inkjet will account for 58 percent of the industry’s print volume by 2017.
3. Be different. “Beyond print, what services have the most value?” she asked, pointing to new offerings such as fulfillment, mail, email messaging, mobile marketing, website design, cross-media and more.
4. Follow the money. Be efficient. Create value by reducing costs, Pellow said, noting that for every dollar spent on print, $3 is spent on overhead. Add automation to reduce this, she encouraged.
5. Be quick and easy to work with. She stressed that Web-to-print gives customers 24/7 access, and brings many other benefits.
6. Acquire the capabilities to be a full-service provider. Take a long, hard look at the skills your in-plant will need and acquire them by hiring the right people.
7. Be customer-obsessed. You have only one boss, Pellow said, and that is your customer. He can fire everyone by spending his money elsewhere.

Watch for the full conference report in the July issue of In-Plant Graphics.