Monthly Archives: October 2012

Multichannel Closed Loop Marketing | Capgemini Consulting Global

http://Www.BigDogInnovations.com works to bring powerful strategies out of the closet for clients. When I read a class act performance by someone else in the industry, it challenges my creativity for clients. This is great thought proker. Be provoked. Call us for conversation on how you can make sparkle happen in your results. http://www.capgemini-consulting.com/multichannel-closed-loop-marketing/

High Volume High Efficiency On Demand High Requests

Over 200 requests for this presentation recently.  Thought I would share for all to see.

High Volume High Efficiency On Demand reviews the five Ps necessary to effect short and long term change for an organization.  This is specific to an In Plant print shop, but the principles apply to any endeavor.  People – Process- Projects- Props (tools and technologies) – Products and Services.

 

#graphexpo…. new stuff

GraphExpo exposed some new opportunities for In Plant and commercial and hybrid operations.  The print services provider of the moment is fast becoming the communications provider of the future.  There are incredible opportunities.

New opportunities:  More than one spot featured what I will call, “Talking Paper”.  Ricoh featured this and DocuMobi (now loaded on my Android and I hate loading new apps). It is the image that is recognized instead of a barcode.  A good idea if the readers become  integrated I can just use one scan and my device figures out which source I need quickly.  The interactivity of the quick video with documobi is  a blast.  Print with a smile.  In fact, DocuMobi was using Direct Smile in the mix.

Next up was a great development.  More than one press manufacturer had mixed roll paper feed into multiple option feeders.  How I wish I had this six years ago when 75% of the paper I was using was one type. The inability to mix roll and cut sheet is frustrating for most shops. Kudos to the front end company that is making this possible.  I did not delve deep enough to know which one it is.

Social interaction. Not social media. Social social.  IPMA and Print Media Centr both had open booths.  The playability at the PrinterVerse was oustanding.  What a refreshing step away from the vendor hawk areas.  Vendors take note.  Provide a place where no sales people are allowed and people can just enjoy.  One of my great friends in life is Emerson.  No, they have nothing to do with printing or communications.  They provide power systems.  Every once in a while they provide a few days in a non typical convention town where only their engineers are communicating with customers.  They mix education on trends and build great relationships.  Kudos, GASC.

More fun?  Ricoh gets the all out award for creative display.  That town center was a blast. I wish I had four hours just to walk around.  I sure hope you caught it on pictures so I can redo a virtual tour with easy drill down into the shop windows.  Wow.

As Gomer would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”  Right in the middle of Konica Minolta is EngageIT.  I love EasyPurl and Mindfire and InfusionSoft and Interlinkone and Xmpie, and, and… anyone who mixes up the channels in easier ways for printers.  This product looks to be a game changer.  Written by a gaming ad agency, it has simple abilities to make it happen based on realistice patterns of interactivity.  And you  don’t need rocket scientists in your shop to make it work.

In Plant education was a phenom.  Much thanks to GraphExpo for courting this audience that makes up a bigger and bigger portion of the industry.  Sorry commercial guys, if you don’t learn how to in plant, you are going to go away.  More and more companies get it.  The digital revolution brings ability for volume, quality, variability and impact in smaller and smaller and more affordable packages.  The need for mass volumes and monster equipment is waning.  Companies that have never thought about In Plant operations will start thinking. Those that have them have begun serving others.   The education options were superb and dead on.  The In Plant folks had fun, learned, and were exposed to new possibilities. I talked to many of them.  They are ready to grow and take a bigger portion of the market.

That’s enough for today.  Just a little reporting on the fun side.

You are not who you are. It just looks that way.

The first step to change is a holy dissastisfaction with the present state.

You are not what you have done or what you are doing.  You are what you’ve become and where you are going.

Like that?  Makes sense to me.  Where are you going?  What have you become?

Do you like the answer to both of those questions?   So many times we settle for status quo because of what we have experienced and then work to keep adding to blanked existences and shop patterns and sales attempts that are working to a degree, but never seem to break through to the level of performance we would like.   That is one heck of a long sentence.  Mull on it for a minute.

We settle for status quo.

We get comfortable with prior experience.

We labor at the common and comfortable.

Eventually it is dull and boring and feels like a blank.

Our shops become patterned for problems.

We like the problems with which we are familiar.  We know how to fix them.

Our sales are structured and predictable.

The circle remains unbroken.

Deep inside, we yearn for a new level of productivity.  We want to grow.

We want to become more than we have become.

We want to go where we have never gone.

Familiar?

Remember T. S. Seisel?  Of course you do.  He is American and world history.  As a young man his political cartoons graced many key magazines.  His 15 years of ad work for Standard Oil helped build the company.  Working with Frank Capra, he produced animated training films for soldiers of WWII.  Still don’t remember him?  That was the majority of his life.

Oh, the middle most S?  Seuss.  Dr. Seuss.

The first book was rejected 27 times.  At the time he was a famous cartoonist.  Rejected.  What had become of him?

Then the Cat in the Hat project just seemed to expose a different man than any had ever met.  Over the years, he had become and was becoming someone much different.  Where he was going was an unknown until that book well into his career. 

Every one of us has that potential in every part of what we do.  So many organizations settle for mediocrity.  The incredible potential bottled in their staff just sits and stews all the way to retirement.  It gets so bad, companies begin giving away the mature workers because the organization has doomed them to zombism through saying, “No”, to creative becoming idea after powerful results changing idea.  The source of great ingenuity and innovation that resides in the years of wisdom and experience is put aside for youthful energy who have yet to become much of anything.  They will.  Given time, we all do.  Most likely they will become zombies like their predecessors.

Seisel broke mode.  It was a persistent and purposeful pursuit inside of him that broke mold.  He just refused to quit growing and becoming.

You have systems of work, opportunities for new product, and development of people ahead of you.  What can you become?  Where can you go?

Let’s find out together.

images:

http://clatl.com/imager/visual-art-dr-seuss-goes-to-war/b/original/1433174/eb2b/seedo2-1_44.jpg

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/Dr.Seuss_431x276.jpg