There needs to be a constant drive to seek out value-added opportunities to your business, but it needs to be coupled with the awareness that the race to the bottom of a pricing war is a plague on modern business practices. Could the past couple of decades have offered any lessons worth taking note?
The dot-com bubble may be a lesson. Most printers at the time could see the idea of ordering print online remarkably appealing, but to be avoided; printers were well aware the technology at that stage was not really up to the task, so most took up a wait-and-see position. The few hardy adventurists who bought the vision created a bonfire of considerable proportions. In effect, we were witnessing a contributing factor to the financial crash of 2008-09; then, it was a rapacious desire to make a quick buck, using easily available capital to diversify or take over competitors. The idea was to strip out the head count and other overheads in the belief that a new level of profitability would ensue. Of course it didn’t happen, and there are lessons to be learnt from those past experiences.
The production of print, packaging and marketing services are now well equipped with a re-markable range of production and management tools, the industry is well informed by maga-zines such as the ME Printer – nicely tuned to bring attention trends and business ideas. In other words, producers at the coalface are well placed to make decisions on whether to diversify, invest in a trend or just stay put and continue to run the business possibly using the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or pursue continuous improvement following the latest trends and patterns of investment.
Any printer today knows that he must keep abreast of business trends and new opportunities that technology presents: textile printing, banner production and photo books are good examples. An offset printer, with a quite modest outlay could open the door not only for his own customer base but widen his business to capture a fresh catchment of customers. The technologies are new and there is considerable cross-over support; for example, laser die-cutting, digital folding enabling bespoke solutions to be created on the fly. A printing business is as well placed as any to attack these opportunities. There is little doubt modern digital printing technologies and the range and strata of facilities on offer makes investing significantly less risky, particularly from a financial standpoint. Thanks to wiser financial structures and options, it is far easier these days to dip your toe in the water compared to a decade or so ago. The fear that any new technology could be superseded before it is paid for has largely faded.
Life sounds great, nirvana is at last to hand, but of course there is a sting in the tail, a viper in the undergrowth that lies in wait to spoil a business man’s day. Standing still is never an op-tion and success or failure depends on the corporate DNA of a business. The real question to ask is this: does your business have a history of innovation – seeking out new opportunities woven into the way it is run?
The size of a business is not the issue; Google was conceived literally in a bedroom, and yet we are now seeing the demise of Yahoo by this upstart. He who dares wins! Now go and commit.
