This has to stop. The “Print is not Dead” campaign (sponsored by groups from the printing industry), makes printers sound like a bunch of old folks who are on their death beds, but want to convince themselves that they still have a pulse. It sounds like we are talking to ourselves, not the people who purchase printing & communications. Remember Monte Python “I’m not Dead“?

First off, an observation about printing and smaller print shops today. When I started in this business, printing was considered a craft. You know, picture the old printer looking over the printed sheet to make sure it was just right, and if it was not, we knew secrets to fix it. Then at the beginning of the digital revolution, digital technologies started to replace a lot of our old processes with software that basically took the “mystery” out of what we did. Eventually, print buyers were somewhat justified in seeing a “sameness” in a lot of shops. I feel like print is turning into a craft again,  not in the way we produce it, but the way we apply it. You can get the simple no-brainer stuff at an internet printer, but it’s our job to be creative in our ideas how to apply it, creative ways to use print and ways to make the simple stand out.

There is a very dynamic communications marketplace unfolding in new ways (we never dreamed of) every day. Printing companies must find compelling ways to offer new sets of benefits to their customers. Because response rates for all media have been declining, communicators must deal with sending the same message through more channels. The message sometimes has to be interactive as well as being printed, and it may need to be forwarded to others by the recipient. It’s an amazing challenge, and printers who choose to be can be right in the middle of this mix, as some of the more forward thinking ones are now.

Oregon Printing is fortunately is in a great place. We’ve got the equipment and systems in place to handle our traditional “Print work” as well as the new demands of Variable Data Printing and beyond. And, we are financially strong and ready to go some new places. What makes the most sense to me is to talk to our customers and find out where they want us to go. How do you want to communicate and what services could we offer that will make your life easier. I’ll be calling and talking to a lot of our customer base and I welcome any suggestions and comments.

It’s the task of Print companies like us, and the sales and marketing structures we employee, to create enticing applications for print that are appropriate and forward-looking, solve problems for our clients as well as create opportunities for them. It’s up to us to steer our businesses into offering a new, higher level craft that is very much alive. So the “Print is not dead” crowd can go to the back of the room now, as the rest of us are busy and excited about the future.

Note. Thanks to Dr. Joe Web from the What-They-Think Economics and Research Center for addressing this subject in greater detail in their June 2010 Executive Briefing.

The whole group last Christmas. Pretty diverse, but they work great as a team.

Do you own a small business? And if you do, how often does that small business test you? Well, I love small businesses and have become quite a student of the workings of small businesses; I read about them, develop strategies and plans for my business, and over all find the whole subject very stimulating (it helps that I love printing, graphics and visual stuff in general). So what happens when you loose a key employee for 4 to 6 weeks? If you have read the blog post before this one, you know that Mike Green, our general manager got in a car accident and ended up having neck surgery, which laid him up for 4 to 6 weeks. And I have every sympathy for Mike, I’d rather be scrambling around without a key employee, and doing it on hot coals instead of going through surgery on my neck. Period.

So in case you might be wondering, Mike got his staples out (that’s modern for old fasioned stitches) on Friday 5/21, and is scheduled to be back on Monday, June 7. But what goes on in the machine when a part is missing? It’s been a fairly interesting couple of weeks. It starts with a period of adjustment, which means you try to figure out how to squeeze what that employee did into your day and a few other people’s day. And as you make adjustments to the way you operate you start to learn things about your business. It’s kind of strange, and it’s only been about 3 weeks as I write this, but I’ve really been able to look at the Big Picture of our business. Even though I’m working more hours than usual (kind of like the old days) through this period, I’ve been able to step back and view operations a little more methodically. That probably has to do with the fact that I’m right back in the middle of the mix, seeing how the flow of work really happens (reality, not theory), and seeing a lot of things I just might do differently. Thats where I have to be careful though, because our system works great even with 200 jobs in the mix, it really clicks. I wonder how many times small business owner’s find them selves in the middle of operations saying we could do all of this better if we only….

Part of running a small business is trusting your employees. And we have a great team to trust, the more I listen to them, the more I learn. So in trusting them, I find that most things are done for a reason… probably a good reason not to mess with the process (at least till I have a solid plan).  I have learned so much about the inner working of our business over the last 3 weeks, that I’m sure it will lead to some very interesting discussions in future planning meetings. See, the printing business (as well as the whole communications business) is going through some big changes. The digital revolution has turned our industry upside down. So all I’m saying is that as we try to figure out what a print shop like ours will look like in 2013 and 2015, the experience of subbing for key employees will be an invaluable learning tool. It’s a good thing to be on the user side of the estimating and order writing system, opposed to the implementation side (like the guy who purchased it and heard about all these wonderful things it will do).

In the meantime, I never ceased to be amazed; even in the absence of a key employee, the wheels keep turning and incredible stuff keeps rolling out every hour and every day. It’s great to watch your business grow through thick and thin, especially when you get compliments from your customers on a regular basis and your employees like their jobs. It’s a small business and every day is a new adventure, but I don’t think I could do anything else.

Not only are we great printers, we keep our landscaping fairly impeccable!

4 weeks of this prior to surgery..

As anyone who has ever had surgery knows, it’s a scary thing. There are always risks involved and even though those risks may be small there is always a chance something could  go wrong. I am going “under the knife” on May 5^th to have surgery on my neck. The surgery is called a Laminoplasty and will hopefully allow me to return to normal activities. I will be off work for 4-6 weeks and in therapy for probably 6 months or so.

My Neck

This is a picture of the procedure. It involves putting in Titanium spacers after cutting “trap doors” in the Cervical Spine. I am having 3 of these inserted.  I will be in the hospital for a day or two then home recuperating for a few weeks. I wont be able to lift my arms above my head for 4 weeks or lift more than 1-2 pounds for 4 weeks, then nothing more than a gallon of milk for 3-4 months.  After that hopefully I will be back to full speed. A few things that are permanent as a result of this surgery are no more roller coasters or demolition derbies.

The biggest reason I decided to write this blog is to tell all of you out there how much I will miss you during my time off. Even though I haven’t met all of my customers and have only talked to some of you on the phone, I still have always tried to treat everyone with respect and always do my best to make sure everyone goes away feeling like they were treated the right way and got the service and products they expected. In my absence I am sure that the team at Oregon will exhibit the same customer service you have come to expect from me and that they will make my absence as unnoticeable as possible. While I am gone please don’t hesitate to contact Judd, Anita, Laurie or Joni and they will be more than happy to help you.

Follow up note: Mike’s surgery went well we think, his wife called and said he lived. We did not want to post his blog entry with this headline until we were sure. If you’re reading this Mike, we all wish you well!