Manager Profile Ken Baker
Ken Baker started Office Services as a one-man act. In his 37 years there, he has built it into an award-winning 19-employee operation.
by BOB NEUBAUER
You wouldn't know it by his accent, but Ken Baker was born in London, England.
"I was a war baby," says Baker. "My mother came over on the Queen Mary, and I came with her."
For one who came from so far away, though, Baker is perhaps most well known in Colorado Springs for how long he has stayed in one place. For the past 37 years, he has served as manager of Office Services for the city. What's more, he has built that department up from a one-man show to a 19-employee operation that has been rated number one in customer service in the city for three years running.
The secret to his success?
"I like what I'm doing, and I like to keep up with the changes that are taking place in technology," says Baker.
In a way, he owes it all to his father. A military man, his dad met his mother in England and eventually brought her and their son across the ocean. The family moved around a lot before ending up in Colorado Springs in 1958, when Baker was 14. Soon after that, Baker was introduced to the career that would take him into the 21st century.
"My father used to be a service person for Addressograph-Multigraph," recalls Baker, "and he said to me, 'You want to earn some extra money? I have a job for you.' "
That job was printing bus schedules for the Colorado Springs Transit Company. The company had a press; it needed an operator. After some instruction from his father on the basics of platemaking and press operation, Baker took the job.
"I just did that because I wanted to make some extra money," Baker says. The job ended up carrying him through high school.
In 1964 Baker learned that the city clerk, Bob Parker, needed someone to help take care of the city records program. This included running an old Addressograph machine. Baker took the job. Before long, a Xerox 914 copier was added. Then the city clerk asked Baker to start picking up mail. Thus Office Services was born.
Baker carried on for years as a one-man act, working so hard that more and more responsibilities were given to him.
"It got to the point where one person couldn't handle it," he says. So in the early 1970s, he was able to hire an assistant. As the years went on, the responsibilities continued to mount and more employees were added. Baker says it was never a problem to increase his staff.
"It's just a matter of asking for the position," he says, and then justifying it.
With a budget of about $2 million, Office Services handles reprographics, incoming and outgoing mail (with 160 mail stops) and records management, which involves managing a service contract with a commercial records center for the storage and retrieval of inactive and semiactive records for the city. Office Services' mail operation was named Mail Center of the Year by the International Publishing Management Association in 1999.
One of Office Services' biggest jobs is inserting, metering and dispatching utility bills—about 200,000 pieces a month. Ironically, Office Services also prints the bus schedules, bringing Baker full circle back to his roots.
Almost Four Decades Of Change
Baker has seen a lot of changes in the industry in his 37 years with the city, and he has tried to keep pace. When he attended Xplor in 1995 he caught sight of a Xerox DocuTech.
"I saw that and said, 'We've got to have that,' " he says. The shop now has two.
The in-plant also added a two-color Hamada press to meet the demand for color. Now, Baker says, about 40 percent of the in-plant's offset work is four-color.
Over the years, Baker has tried to bolster his on-the-job knowledge by taking community college courses. He's very interested in keeping Office Services' technology up to date.
For example, a few years ago the in-plant added a Micro Ink (now Prism) computer management system to track jobs. Also, his staff has become proficient at turning customers' Word files into PDFs for the DocuTech. Baker also helped establish a "bookstore" where citizens can purchase various city publications, which are electronically stored and reproduced as needed.
In the near future, Baker hopes to establish a Web-based application for ordering business cards. He also wants to extend the in-plant's services to other communities.
Outside of the office, Baker has lately been busy adding an addition to his home. When he finds the time he enjoys hunting, fishing and woodworking. Married now for 40 years, he has two children and six grandchildren.
