Sprinting To Stay In Place

Debbie Claybaker shared IPG's 1992 Manager of the Year award after only a year and a half as manager of printing and graphic services for Sprint Corp. She had caused sinking employee morale to do a swift upswing, and her departments had increased their combined volume by nearly 50 percent over the previous year. In addition:

• She developed internal marketing to promote in-house facilities.

• She established facilities tours for clients and potential clients.

• She created a non-corporate client contact program to solicit outside printing business during slow periods.

To top it all off, Claybaker and her staff of 21 received 26 Kansas City Litho Craftsmen awards—all of which makes the subsequent alterations at Sprint more surprising.

"There have been a lot of changes in the past four years," says Claybaker. "We had to decide whether we were going to keep up with industry standards, and it was clear that Sprint wasn't interested in doing that any longer. So we decided to outsource everything."

The company split the functions between two suppliers, but problems with the graphics and print brought some responsibilities back under Claybaker's control.

"I have four people on staff who secure services for prepress, creative, print and post press," says Claybaker. "It's really project management."

Will Sprint ever bring the in-plant back?

"Everyone's concerned about [the deal with Worldcom] and how they will be affected," she says. "Beyond that, I don't think anybody knows."