To Print or Not to Print

Print-on-demand has revolutionized the publishing industry.

It is still a bit more costly to print digitally rather than via offset press, but the economics of printing only what you need or sell, rather than have over 30% of the printed books returned to the publisher far outweighs the added costs. 

The rate at which technology impacts an industry is startling, with publishing just one example.  

I saw this first hand years ago when I worked in the financial services industry.  The firm invested heavily in new microfiche printing equipment.  Microfiche is photographic film imprinted with very small images of data, text and graphics.  It used to be the standard means of storing and recalling massive amounts of information, saving space over paper.  To view this microscopic data, one needed a special reader which enlarged the images by projecting them onto a screen the size of a standard computer display.  

The firm I worked for spent $4 million on new printers just as digital scanning was becoming more affordable.  In order to recover the cost of these printers, they had to charge the users more money, and that led to a change in behavior.  Departments stopped using microfiche, electing instead to scan their own documents and read them on their computers.

The lesson here applies across all industries for all types of technology, but it is not limited to technological changes.  We are equally blessed and cursed to live in a time when ideas can be quickly converted into reality.  In less than a lifetime, we evolved from printing on massive presses using photographic plates to "printing" 3-D plastic and ceramic models from computer-generated graphics. 

Today, lasers capture all the dimensions of a patient's mouth and feed that data to software that aids the digital dentist in creating a crown that fits perfectly, and is produced in one day! 

With so much changing so rapidly, investing in the right technology or process at the right time is critical to survival of any business. 

It is easy to see why many business and practice owners adopt a wait-and-see attitude, remaining frozen in indecision over the right course to take.  

This is a lot bigger than "should I print or not"?   But the example is a good one.  Choosing a strategy that makes the most practical and economic sense means knowing how and when to deliver our products and services as well as to whom. 

Yes, we need to know our target market, but we also need to pay attention to how that target market navigates the world of choices at its disposal.  We certainly don't want to find ourselves with expensive outdated equipment or processes and no way to recover the costs. 

 

 

Lessons Learned About Mastering Change

What major decision are you facing?  And how will you choose?  

Over the years, I have developed a respect for change that affords me maximum flexibility in planning.   The concepts I employ are simple:

  1. Anticipate Radical Change - Assume whatever process or delivery mechanism I choose for my idea will change radically in the next 2-5 years.
  2. Create Once, Deploy Often - In other words, build something you can use again and again for as many purposes as possible. 
  3. Use, Recycle, Dispose - Everything has a shelf life, and that shelf life is getting shorter and shorter, so don't overbuild or expect it to last forever.  Build your process with future modifications in mind.  Repurpose whatever remains valuable, and be prepared to throw the whole thing out in the near future.
  4. Write with an Editor's Eye -  Whatever you have to say or do should be as brief as possible.  Always edit, edit, edit, edit.

Stay true to these principles and you will master change, capitalize on the confusion and uncertainty that stalls the competition, and succeed where others fail.

Marketing Without Advertising

Image credit:  marigranula / 123RF Stock Photo

Back when I was managing a large service group, I used to practice the art of management by walking around , which is literally accomplished by taking a walk around the department and talking to people.

Today, I like conduct my own market research the same way, I walk around and talk to business owners.  What I do is listen and learn.

People love to talk about two things, what works and what doesn't work.  So, if you have a few minutes, you can learn a lot about what to do and what not to do, or what to do differently.

In a recent walk-about, I met Danny, who runs a successful service business.  He has been delivering fuel to his customers for over 25 years and he doesn't advertise.  What he does do is nurture the relationships he has with existing customers, and they have remained loyal to him through thick and thin. 

He is not the lowest priced supplier of fuel and he doesn't try to be.  Instead, he delivers the best value for the money, and he never lets his customers down.  He delivers, and his drivers and other employees know that no matter what the customer says or does, they are to solve the problem, treat the customer with respect and let Danny know what happened.  He handles the problems personally.

Danny proudly told me that he believes in being totally honest with his customers.  He sits down with them and shows them his books, what it costs him for the fuel, for labor and other expenses, and how much profit he makes.  Amazingly, they understand and they want him to make money.  This approach has worked over and over again, enabling him to keep his customers through many periods of rising prices.  

In periods of fuel shortages and disasters, Danny is there for his customers, sending out trucks to check on them, to make sure they are ok.

He doesn't take on new customers often, choosing instead to grow wisely.  If he can't deliver the best service, he won't accept the customer.  At times, people have came to him asking to be added to the list, even though he charges more. 

What Danny has built is bigger than his company.  He has built a reputation of trust that serves him quite well.   

By focusing on his customers, checking on them in good times and bad, communicating with each customer personally, and by keeping them informed of what can and will affect them, he has implemented the most effective marketing plan he could have.

And it is his satisfied customers who do the work of advertising for him, telling their friends what a great service they have.