Here's what your fellow professionals from our LinkedIn group had to say in August.
Imagine your business is about to fail. What is the ethical way to handle creditors and staff?
If you have sucked the business dry, then put some cash back to meet the obligations to the honest people you are about to hurt. Sell your house so you will be in the same position as your employees. Don't go on holidays. Be up front, open your books. Explain how you didn't see the warning signs if you can mount a credible defence. For most that might be a bit hard to do. Tell the story about what your accountant told you last year. And relate how that was obviously wrong – we all know accountants don't know how to actually run a business. Then go and find something else to do. There are some circumstances where re-establishing is acceptable, but if you fell over through your own poor management it might be a sign that you don't have the skills or expertise to continue in the same industry. [Click here to comment]
Kieran May, director, Printing Industries Association of Australia
Do you think a failed company can really get back on track?
Yes, I do. The biggest thing is to work out why the business went broke – bad management, too much debt, lack of work or the flow-on effect of customers going broke and taking them with them. If it's bad management, that's an easy fix. I have seen some good companies go because someone in management changed and the new people just didn't get it. I've also seen people who, having money in the bank, proceed to spend it and then realise that it wasn't their money. Oops, now we don't have the money to pay our bills! Well, most people rely on their suppliers to support them – that is, to finance their business. Isn't that what we do? The one you really can't do much about is when a customer goes broke owing you money. [Click here to comment]
Alf Puglia, manager, Precision Forme Cutting
What stops you from tendering for government contracts?
I gave up on this ages ago. Too much paperwork, too many prerequisites, too many vested interests – in short too many barriers to entry. The tipping point was a tender for the rates notices of a regional NSW council. A requirement of the tender was that any applicants had to have been currently supplying the same service to at least five other councils. Not something I would go back to until I could afford full-time tender staff. [Click here to comment]
Baden Kirgan, managing director, Jeffries Printing Services
Is it ever practical to fire a customer?
Absolutely! Have done before and will do again. Best to get the customers that best fit your business. [Click here to comment]
Peter Arman, managing director, Central Imaging Technologies
Finish this sentence. The future of offset is…
… in a great place – for some. A few years ago, 'shorter runs' and 'print-on-demand' were common discussions and changes in the industry were clearly evident. Fast forward to today and while these remain discussion points, certain workflows within printing will now start to see benefits. A2/A3 offset and digital workflows – guess where we are. Where does that leave the big A1s? [Click here to comment]
Damien Burchell, chief executive, Bowden Group
What can the Printing Industries Association of Australia do to help printers?
More than most people realise. It is fair to say that association membership is a bit like insurance. It is hard to quantify the value proposition. But we all take out insurance even though most of us will never need to make a claim. One point of difference, though, is that your association is out there every day arguing your case. They don't win every argument, and sometimes the result is less than you would want, but imagine what might happen if the industry position wasn't defended. Look as well at the cost of your HR processes and policies and employee disputes. Who do you currently pay for that work? And how much does that cost? Your membership would entitle you to most of that at no extra cost. And what about industry-specific and wider training? In tough times, we all want more for less. I could find you plenty of ways to manage your costs before I would recommend not being a member of PIAA. [Click here to comment]
Kieran May, director, Printing Industries Association of Australia
Will digital mailboxes kill off or co-exist with printed post?
The reality is that there is now real momentum in terms of the decline of physical mail. What we are seeing in the New Zealand market is some growth in DM and some growth in population growth, which generates new delivery points and thus mail. But outweighing this is an accelerating substitution to electronic delivery – most of this being driven by 'push-based' email, rather than 'pull-based' biller direct (come to my portal) activity. The substitution is being driven by a strong carrot approach as the stick-based activity simply didn't work. But traditionally there has been a threshhold of somewhere between 30-40% (electronic) that has been difficult to grow beyond. What we are now seeing is gradual penetration past this mark as the senders relentlessly drive a change in receiver behaviour. In the past it has tended to be one-off campaigns, whereas now it's just part of the way companies now want to do business. [Click here to comment]
David Allen, head of enterprise solutions, New Zealand Post
Who cares more about quality – printers or customers?
In my humble opinion – printers! Why? Because when a file is received it is assessed, reviewed, interrogated by some means of pre-flighting software, given a good once over well ahead of proofing. When proofed, the entire process of review and assessment commences yet again – this time addressing the printed image and tweaking it to looking its best. Why do we do this? Because as a printer we are expected to be a skilled professional, qualified tradesperson, the service provider to whom the client has outsourced their print to, because the expectation is the printer knows best! One point needs mentioning – quality is subjective. What one may perceive as great quality, yet another may deem as not. As a printer, as any trade or service provider, we strive to produce the best or at least the optimum quality per order, per job. If we as the printer didn't care about the quality, well, then we wouldn't be a printer because we wouldn't be in business for lack thereof. [Click here to comment]
Art Tchetchenian, managing director, Kopystop Digital Print Solutions
Does your company donate to charity?
PMA Solutions has a long history of being extremely charitable, donating to, and being sponsors of, a number of worthwhile charities throughout each year. We are also a proud supplier to a number of charity organisations, ensuring they are delivered the most efficient service to ensure their money is spent where it is going to get the results they are after. Each year, in lieu of client and staff gifts, PMA selects a worthwhile charity, and donates the cost of gifts instead. This has been extremely well received by both staff and clients who would rather a worthwhile charity receive thousands instead of taking a Christmas hamper home. [Click here to comment]
Natasha Ankus, national business services manager, PMA Solutions
Does the industry suffer from being overly pessimistic?
Unfortunately the printing industry is being constantly bombarded by an overly negative media preaching doom and gloom for the future. However, a successful future in print is all about transitioning the mindset away from being focused solely on survival. The print company of the future satisfies the escalating demands of the customer while delivering a return on investment. These are not new problems, they’re simply new market demands, which present the savvy operator with a range of opportunities. The speed of change is crucial, so it’s all about how you react. If you work on making your customers fans of your company, the way forward is obvious. [Click here to comment]
Mick Rowan, director, IQ Australia
Was Rupert Murdoch right to say newspapers will be all but dead in 20 years?
It won't take 20 years for print media to die. We can't justify cutting down trees in an ecologically challenged world to then turn them into pulp and scrap when digital information is more relevant, up-to-date and entertaining. Try following the cricket in the print media. Journalism will be reduced to highly specialised investigative reporting and analysis, and the rest – the bulk of the news we consume – will be spewed out by PR companies and reported uncritically for entertainment. [Click here to comment]
Grant Müller, director, Impact Corporate Communications
Business is tough – where do you draw the ethical line?
When my reputation is put to risk. [Click here to comment]
Daz Quinn, sales rep, Precision Forme Cutting
What type of articles do you prefer in ProPrint?
It would be good to see about print from the past and the future development trends of printing. Also some more articles on the small printer, as some may be small but are smart operators and more profitable that some big ones working on volume. [Being bigger] doesn't mean they are the best at what they do. [Click here to comment]
George Feakes, owner, Impressive Inkreations
[Related: What your fellow professionals said in July]
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