IPMA 99 A Time For Change

With a balance of educational sessions and networking, the conference in Minneapolis was a huge success.

As in-plant managers drifted into Minneapolis for IPMA 99, they gradually caught wind of a startling piece of news that seemed sure to affect the entire conference: Larry Aaron, executive director of the International Publishing Management Association, had resigned just a week before.

Despite some early concerns, however, IPMA staff and volunteers worked tirelessly to bring the 40th international conference and exhibit to a successful conclusion—and one that left attendees with a positive outlook for the future of the organization.

Aaron's departure—which was followed by the resignation of his executive assistant, Cheryl Mundorff—came after he had served 15 years with IPMA. West Barton, IPMA international president, informed attendees that Aaron left the association to start his own business, a move he had been planning for some time.

The preparation that he and his staff had done paid off; the conference's 30+ educational seminars and keynotes, as well as the various evening activities, were all well organized—and well attended. The exhibit area was packed with vendors and the awards banquet was a glittering success.

Among the other events:

• IPMA and Unisource formally announced their partnership to sponsor the popular two-day in-plant management workshops, which have hit 36 cities since the fall of 1996.

• In-Plant Graphics presented its Manager of the Year award to Mike Loyd, of Louisiana State University, and its Industry Leader of the Year award to Steve Cronin, of Adobe Systems.

• Attendees met with others in their regions for an informal evening reception that offered many networking opportunities.

The conference got under way with a keynote talk by Mel Kleinman, of Humetrics, who talked about how to recruit, select and retain quality employees. Good employees quit, he said, not because of money, but because they're tired of putting up with bad employees. He said managers have to offer more positive recognition to good employees.

"And we don't even have to spend a lot of money to recognize people," Kleinman said. "Customers are no longer number one. Guess who's number one: Employees."

Despite this pronouncement, customer service is still crucial, and Carrie Griffin, of Peopleware, was on hand to talk about it. A former in-plant manager, Griffin led several sessions. She told attendees that they must exceed their customers' expectations.

"The greatest enemy of excellence is good," she cautioned. Don't settle for good. Think about what you expect as a customer, and then aim to do even better for your clients. Remember, she said, your customer is evaluating you with every interaction.

Since in-plants are businesses within businesses, Griffin said, they should not forget to market their services by meeting with customers and explaining how the in-plant can help them. Make sure customers understand the in-plant's requirements and know what they need to provide. Request customer feedback and evaluate it to continuously improve your operation—and let customers know how you plan to address their concerns.

Griffin went on to describe the six skills of effective leadership:

• Self-mastery: knowing your skills.

• Stewardship: using your resources (including human ones) strategically.

• Visioning: designing a blueprint for your operation.

• Persuasive Communication: getting your employees to move in the direction you want them to.

• Empowerment: understanding, enabling and encouraging employees.

• Service

Charge Back And Save...Yourself

Elsewhere, a panel of managers discussed the importance of chargebacks. For one thing, charging back for printing work stops customers from abusing the in-plant by ordering printing that isn't needed. It also provides data to show where the parent organization's resources are going, as well as how the in-plant is spending its money.

"If you don't know what your actual costs are, there's no way to benchmark yourself against an outside vendor," remarked Joe Parker, of Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D., in Houston. Having such figures handy can also help you tremendously if you're ever faced with an outsourcing challenge.

Mike Renn, of Mellon Bank, in Philadelphia, is on a full chargeback system. He explained how he gathers data on all of his costs, including operating expenses and equipment run rates, then factors in productive hours, and uses this to create his rates.

Renn advised managers to charge back even if their boss tells them not to worry about it. That boss, after all, might not be around next year. Also, Renn said, managers should report their figures to upper management—and not just the number of impressions. Report cost savings, cost recovery and return on investment for new technology.

In-plant Promotion

Mike Renn was also involved in a session on promoting in-plants. Since in-plants don't usually have marketing budgets, they must advertise their services in creative ways. Renn, whose in-plant won the first place IPMA In-House Promotional Excellence Award this year, said that there are several audiences an in-plant needs to address:

• Management

• Current customers

• Prospective customers

• Future customers

To get management excited about your in-plant, he said, send your boss more than just reports. Send sample packages of jobs you are proud of, customer notes or e-mails praising the in-plant, and news of awards the in-plant has won. This all reinforces the idea that the in-plant is doing a good job.

Renn suggested holding an open house in the in-plant to show off its capabilities to current and potential customers. Use this event to highlight and praise in-plant employees who have been with the shop for many years.

At SAS Institute, the in-plant designed an interactive Web site that not only promotes the shop, but lets customers order business cards, notepads and engraved name plates. Customers can provide online feedback too, said Linda LaMonica, manager. A video was also produced to introduce the new capabilities to customers.

PrintComm, the in-plant for the State of Minnesota, has made it easier for customers to drop off jobs by opening a drive-up window. Additionally, said Jane Schmidley, marketing/communications officer, a drop box is being added where customers can get order forms and drop off jobs. Complete with a billboard advertising the in-plant's services, it will be moved around to various customers' locations.

Do High-value Work

At the final keynote address, Don Blohowiak implored attendees to reduce the amount of low-value work that they waste time with, freeing up time for important, high-value work. Concentrate on work that makes you more competitive, efficient and productive. Before spending time on a task, ask yourself: Is this work strategic? Does it fulfill your goals? Is it the best use of your time right now?

If you have piles of papers or magazines that you were intending to read, he said, either scan them and clip appropriate articles or toss them out (unless they are issues of IPG, in which case you should save them indefinitely—Editor's note).

Blohowiak also cautioned against burning yourself out.

"The real value we bring in is our energy," he said. And that energy won't be there, he added, if we work long hours and wear ourselves out.

Finally, he said, after returning from a conference, commit to taking action and using the information that you learned so that the conference was not a waste of time.

by Bob Neubauer