A Southwest Success

Bob Mesch has never been one to shirk a challenge. Now director of the State of New Mexico’s Printing & Graphic Services operation, Mesch has been breaking new ground and inspiring transformation throughout his career. His drive to advance and enhance the organizations he has served is now reshaping the state’s in-plant as well, turning it from a black-and-white letterhead printer into a full-color, full-service graphics operation.

Born in Chicago, where he took an early interest in architecture and drafting, Mesch’s life changed when his parents moved to New Mexico after his high school graduation.

“I helped them with the move, and I visited New Mexico and liked it, so I decided to stay,” he explains. He quickly grew to love the Southwest, with its cultural diversity, warm weather and beautiful scenery.

He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, eventually switching from drafting to business courses, before taking his first full-time job at Holman’s, a distributor of drafting supplies, computers and surveying equipment. He was the firm’s first full-time outside salesman, covering the entire state.

After five successful years there, Mesch was recruited by Teledyne in 1983 to work in Phoenix as an account manager for a four-state region. When his boss acquired a dealership in New Mexico called Reliable Reproductions, he brought Mesch on in 1986 as vice president of sales. There, Mesch helped open a subsidiary called Compu-Media.

In 1989, Mesch left to become vice president of Dataco, a commercial printing and mailing company in Albuquerque.

“That was my launch into the printing business,” he says.

Hired to help the financially strapped company recover, he developed a marketing plan that eventually brought solvency to Dataco’s four subsidiaries. When the owner sold them off, Mesch and two partners bought the commercial printing wing in 1992. With clients like Intel, the company flourished. After a few years, though, a partnership dispute compelled Mesch to leave and become a business consultant.

In 1997, he was hired by Verizon Wireless as a district sales manager. He traveled the country, training management, developing sales and integrating technology into retail stores. After eight years, though, the intense travel requirements began to wear on him.

“Being gone three weeks out of the month is not an ideal position to have when you have young kids,” he points out.

South to Santa Fe

To stay more rooted in New Mexico, Mesch took on the role of directing the state’s 28,000-square-foot Printing & Graphic Services operation in 2005. He quickly saw he had his work cut out for him.

“There were no prepress capabilities at that time,” he recounts. “There was very little automation. Basically, we were a business card, letterhead, stationery shop.”

What really got under his skin, though, was the fact that a majority of the state’s color printing (about $5 million worth) was being subcontracted to out-of-state printers.

“That was an issue for me,” he says. “It was not helping the local New Mexico taxpayers at all.”

In addition, he saw that there were 10 other small in-plants serving state agencies, each with low utilization rates. He knew that consolidating these into his operation would bring greater efficiency and save money for the state.

Mesch tackled these problems one by one. First, he upgraded the shop’s technology, adding new Macs and networking them, then incorporating Kodak’s Prinergy workflow and installing a Kodak Magnus 400 II Quantum computer-to-plate (CTP) system. He also added three designers to his staff.

Mesch then upgraded the facility’s digital color capabilities, moving from a Xerox DocuColor 40 to a 6060 and then to a 5000. The in-plant now runs two 5000s, in addition to a Nuvera 120, two Xerox 4100s and five multi-color Heidelberg offset presses. The bindery was enhanced with a new Standard Horizon BQ270 perfect binder. Then the in-plant’s Web site was updated to reflect its new capabilities.

Once he had improved the shop’s capabilities, Mesch set about marketing the in-plant as a full-service, high-quality operation that can serve as a consultant for agencies. Under his direction, the in-plant launched a branding campaign with the slogan “Make the Switch. Support New Mexico. Print in New Mexico.” He recently hired a customer service manager, which will free up more of his time to visit agencies and spread the word about the in-plant’s advantages.

To address the issues of subcontracting work to out-of-state printers and consolidating other state in-plants, Mesch developed a five-year marketing plan. It has been endorsed by the cabinet secretary of his General Services department. Mesch is hopeful that executive branch approval will soon follow, giving the in-plant the right of first refusal for all state printing. This will enable him to ensure that print is procured through in-state printers.

“We’re trying to infuse business in the state of New Mexico to support the New Mexico printing economy,” he says.

His five-year plan also lays out a strategy for consolidation of the state’s other in-plants—as well as its various mail operations—into a strong, central operation.

“There’s a huge potential in the state of New Mexico for a very large potential savings through consolidation,” he proclaims.

Mesch is currently researching digital storefront capabilities, and is keeping a close eye on production inkjet technology, which he is confident will replace his 15-employee operation’s offset presses in the next few years.

“It will definitely have a fit,” he says.

A strong advocate for his adoptive state, Mesch sees it as his mission to maximize taxpayer dollars.

“My goal...is to make this an effective resource for the state,” he reveals. “We can save the state considerable amounts of money through efficiency and through effectively using consultation in the design end to better produce print in coordination with Web media.”

Outside of the office, when he’s not skiing, golfing or playing tennis, Mesch is busy making long-range plans to launch a business development and motivational training business. Recently remarried, Mesch calls his wife Wynelle “a perfect fit for me.”