John Sarantakos

It has been slightly over 21 months since I retired. You would think that over that time period most of my work-related convictions would have changed. It took a bit to beat those feelings down and yet I still have moments that irk me.

A pretty catchy headline, don't you think? I chose it for many reasons—some you might not have considered. First, I firmly believe that printing, particularly in-plant printing, is viable and capable of amazing things. Second, if we are not open-minded with our planning, we will surely head down a road to closure.

I have spent the last four-plus years as part of the leadership team for the IPMA, the last two as president. During this time IPMA has achieved remarkable growth and overall success. I am not here to take credit for this. Much of what has happened is the direct result of the hard work of my predecessors. To them I owe a large thank you. My job was much easier because of their efforts.

THIS IS going to be a little weird, but I am going to have an argument with myself over the future of offset printing. I must caution the weak of heart to be prepared for violence and possible rough language.

I BELIEVE that all in-plant conferences should be cancelled, except one. How's that for a conversation starter?

As in-plants, we all have bosses, and those bosses have much more to worry about than our operations. So the question is, what and how much should we share regarding our operations?

I am a son of a printer. My father spent his entire working life in the industry. Born in 1933, John "J.T." Sarantakos was a depression era child who never forgot the difficult lessons he learned growing up. I guess you could classify him as street smart and street tough.

What's that you say? Your customer service program has been in place for years and everything is great. Glad to hear it. You keep up the good work. There is no need for you worry about anything. Don't you sometimes wonder what those FM (facility management) groups think about your established and unchanging customer service philosophies? Well, they love them!