TMC: Is the Sky Falling?

How can printers discuss what to do in the coming year, without first taking a cold, hard look at reality?  That's why TMC opened with a compelling review of the State of the Industry by Andy Paparozzi, NAPL's Chief Economist. The picture wasn't pretty, but it wasn't all bleak either.  As Andy asked:  "Is the Sky Falling? "  And his answer was that though there's lots of blame to go around -- from The Fed to Moody's and everyone in between -- it's not yet Chicken Little time.

Here's what time it is:  Time to play Offense, not Defense.  Could it be that Andy comes from NAPL President's home state of NJ and is also reeling from the recent NY Giants win of the Superbowl?  No, Andy's not the sports fan Joe is.  Instead, Andy's been doing what Andy does -- seriously surveying the industry nationwide, and this is what he's found...

In every region and every printing business size category, the economy is the biggest concern.  This is the first time since Black Monday 1987 -- the first time in 21 years! -- that data has shown this broad concern throughout all sectors of the industry.  Here's what else he found:  Most printers are still playing defense not offense.  Perhaps there's a lesson here from our football Giants afterall.

-- Rhona Bronson

Comments

[Toni McQuilken, Editor, Printing News magazine]

One of the things that really struck me about Andy's presentation was the final list of reasons printers give for not acting on the leading economic indicators.

Fear of change was one of the ones he listed, and that's something I've been hearing a lot of from people in the industry as well. Second, third and subsequent generation printers sometimes lose the drive to take risks that their companies were originally founded on. I hear "we do it this way because we always have" quite a bit when I talk to people in the industry, and more and more, in this economy and industry, that philosophy is a road to going out of business.

It's great to see so many people here at the conference interested in changing that, and interested in evolving and growing instead of just maintaining the status quo. These are the companies who will be around for the next 50 years. Are you one of them?