Staying On Top, Down Under

Australian in-plant managers joined with quick printers for the first conference of its kind in Australia.

Some things are the same everywhere. One can travel halfway around the world, for example, and still hear about the importance of good service and good communication in a printing operation.

Those two themes popped up repeatedly at Pacific Print Congress 98, held recently in Melbourne, Australia. Speakers, both American and Australian, stressed that, in a sea of competition, customers are looking for vendors they can trust; vendors who will go that extra step for them.

"Become consultants to these people, not just order takers," advised the kickoff speaker Richard Cooke, director and general manager of New Litho, an Australian printing firm.

I had the pleasure of recently attending—and speaking at—PPC 98, a conference geared toward both in-plants and quick printers. The four-day event drew more than 100 attendees from Australia and New Zealand. It presented a great opportunity for me to meet Australian in-plant managers and learn about their concerns—which weren't much different than those of U.S. shops.

Like on this side of the world, the fear of being outsourced by their parent organizations is strong. Digital information management and the emergence of the Internet are impacting in-plants' traditional duties there, too. The in-plants I visited had DocuTechs as well as older, one-color Heidelbergs and Hamadas. And just as our in-plant managers know the value of conferences like ACUP and IPMA, so did the managers at PPC 98—many of them from universities—feel it was important to network and listen to presentations on technology (though some of them did go golfing—again, some things are the same everywhere).

The decision to bring in-plants and quick printers together for this conference stemmed from the relatively small sizes of the two industries. Australia's in-plants number only in the hundreds compared to the 29,000 U.S. in-plants that receive IPG. Rather than behaving as competitors, though, attendees recognized the importance of learning from one another.

The sold-out exhibition floor featured equipment from IBM Australia, Danka, Hewlett-Packard, Canon Australia, Fuji Xerox, Colorstar, Océ Australia, Riso and more.

In-plant Ideas

I gave two presentations, entitled simply "In-plant Ideas." They focused on the various responsibilities of in-plant managers, including:

• Customer service: Managers should meet with customers personally, discuss their current and future jobs and give advice. Don't hide on the other end of a phone. If a customer has a problem with a job, visit that customer personally, sit down and listen to him or her and then offer a discount on the next job.

• Saving money: It's up to the manager to compile hard evidence of how much the in-plant is saving for the organization. Collect work orders, price jobs outside, annualize the total, add sales tax, add in the cost of personnel needed to outsource this work and subtract the in-plant's cost from this total. Then report this figure to upper management. Show management that you are in control.

• Become the print expert: Make sure your organization consults you on all printing matters. When facilities management representatives come calling, get yourself in on the meeting. Learn their tactics and be ready to point out flaws in their plans.

• Look beyond printing: Find opportunities to provide other services, like CD-ROM production, Web page design or intranet dispersal of data. In short, become your organization's communications consultant.

• Sell yourself: Print a colorful brochure touting your services, have an open house, offer seminars to customers, create an in-plant Web site, target non-customers. Make sure people know about your in-plant.

• Work effectively with commercial printers: Invite them to visit your shop, go to lunch with their CEO, make them understand that you are a printer, not a novice. When you send them jobs, submit them in the right format, and give them plenty of time to print. Discuss an overflow plan with a commercial printer so you're covered in case of an emergency.

Other speakers stressed teamwork and communication. Cooke noted that having good talent and great teamwork will allow an operation to achieve more than if it has great talent and average teamwork.

Keynote speaker Marcia Griffin, general manager of Pola Cosmetics Australia, spoke of her efforts to build Pola into a multi-million dollar firm. Successful businesspeople, she said, must have clear goals and be able to communicate them to their employees.

"The clearer you are about where you're going...the more you empower other people," she said. Your employees must be empowered with the same vision that you have. She stressed the value of being consistent in your service, which will build your reputation, and of creating a learning culture so you can profit from new ideas.

Martin Booth, general manager of College Printing and Graphic Design at Box Hill Institute in Melbourne, discussed how to get the best results out of the meetings you attend. He pointed out that most people go into meetings with a position in mind and then they try to defend it, using their power and control to push their point of view. This does not usually result in the best solution. Instead of meetings, participants should hold dialogs to discuss all options objectively.

More Customers Than You Realize

Debra Thompson, president of TG & Associates, a Tucson, Ariz.-based consulting and training firm, noted that each person in an organization has internal customers; basically anyone who receives anything from you is your customer. Employees should each take on the responsibility of pleasing each of their customers.

She went on to say that companies that consistently take the pulse of customers become market leaders. If your customers don't say they love your product, you must ask them why.

A highlight of Thompson's presentation was when she handed out personal profile analyses designed to tell participants which of the four main personality categories they fell into. Such an analysis, she said, can be a useful way to learn about your employees' personalities. This is important, because when you have this information you then know why a person acts as he or she does, and you can deal with this person more intelligently.

Don't Go Digital

Certainly the most arresting title of any presentation at PPC 98 was "Don't Go Digital," by Bill Farquharson, president of Print Tec Network, in Duxbury, Mass. Digital printing, he cautioned, is not the best solution for everyone—and it will not sell itself.

"You must have a plan to market digital printing," he stressed.

Don't go digital, he said, unless you do your own market research. Don't just accept research done by vendors or associations. Find out if your customers want digital printing. There is no pent-up demand for digital printing, he insisted; you should not buy a digital device and assume customers will come flocking.

Unsuccessful digital printers, he said, will use sales reps who can't "talk digital" and don't know how to sell digital printing. They will have no plan of attack and they won't bother to educate their customers.

Successful digital printers, on the other hand, have focused, committed managers, superior technical expertise, technically competent customers, digital business waiting, and a "digital assault team" ready to go into action and sell.

Don't try to sell digital printing to customers by telling them it's cheaper and faster, Farquharson said. Tell them, "We can help you market your product. We can help you communicate better." After all, customers don't care about the features of your equipment; they only care about what their job will look like on your equipment. So get a disk of their job and print it for them.

Farquharson warned that the ramp-up time is longer and the payback time farther away than vendors tell you. Digital printing requires you to learn a whole new set of skills, too. Your customers aren't screaming for digital solutions, either. In fact, he said, non-digital business (paper masters) will continue even after you've gone digital, and it will take your customers a long time to convert. Before you do it, he said, you must be committed to the long haul.

by Bob Neubauer