Recession makes the industry more professional

[Marco Roos]

Recession sounds negative and let's face it: for some people and companies recession is a bad thing. The other side is that all big companies of today became big after they survived a recession. A global recession looks like there is no escape from it, but it also creates opportunities. It sounds very obvious but we see a trend where people are looking more closely to what they are actually doing. Especially for digital printing companies there is a lot to gain and a lot to improve. During times things go well, nobody asks for 10 or 15% more profit, because it seems it is too expensive to get there. Today more and more people start to realize if they are capable of surviving with 30% less turnover, they will earn a lot more money when times are getting better.

Printing companies should invest today in a better workflow, education and fail safe printing processes. Misprints, material waste and time wasting testing procedures are too expensive and not necessary! Utilizing the technology you bought during the past years in the right way will give you saving of up to 40% on material, time and ink costs.

Suppliers are looking for ways to reduce complaints, offer better services and ways to create more loyal customers. Buying loyalty with low prices is a short term strategy: customers are trained to go after the lowest price and the lack of margin reduces your funds for customer satisfaction programs. It is not for nothing that resellers that stuck to 1 or 2 manufacturers are doing relatively well, even in this recession. Helping our customers to earn more money is one of the ways to build stronger partnerships. Supplies pricing becomes less interesting as soon as you are able to drive big projects with your customers. In the next coming months/year I expect a substantial growth in tools and networks that will enable you to help your customers with their problems.

My estimation is that the industry will become more focused on: sustainability, reliability and process driven companies. Hobby time is over!

I am curious to hear what is your opinion and how you think we all can work together, from all levels of the industry, to raise the level of professionalism.