You’ve got a strategic plan right? Most printing company owners I meet all have one. To be kind, some are more real than others. It’s something they worked on, they believe in, and could probably recite it back to you if you woke them up at 2 AM. That’s not the issue.
Fewer of them have the right kind of fuel behind it. That’s when the best plans begin to stall out. In fact, the lack of fuel can sometimes be worse than an adverse marketplace. And in my experience, a good fuel mix is a combination of technology, insight, and strategic investment. A good plan that lacks fuel, just like an engine, doesn’t stall out dramatically, it may just idle for a while. You’ve seen it, everyone stays busy, but the business doesn’t accelerate.
Incrementalism Feels Responsible. It isn’t.
Some owners like to refer to a modest growth path, a cautious one, as having discipline. Maybe, sometimes I guess that could be true. More often though I see this level of incrementalism as risk avoidance. Printing and Graphic Arts are mature industries. What I see are businesses that continue to consolidate and modernize at a brisk pace. That decision to grow at a modest rate, albeit cautious, may not be playing it safe. In fact, it may be a decision to fall behind, but just at a manageable pace.
The owners that I see who are pulling ahead and widening the chasm, aren’t necessarily working harder. They’re just fueling their strategy better.
Three Inputs, One Engine
Accelerating your business comes down to doing three things, and most business are underfunding at least one of these. OK, maybe there’s more than three things, but here are the three things I’m going to talk about today.
Technology. I look at tech from a couple different viewpoints. There’s the client facing technology that solves client problems, creates sticky relationships, and makes everyone look like heroes. The other side of tech I look at is internal. What kind of systems and tools have been built to accelerate the jobs in the shop. I’m not talking just about pre-press workflows, rather from the time of customer says, “I think I want to print something,” until they pay your invoice. Accelerating these various steps can create a competitive advantage in any marketplace.
Insight. You’re an experienced business owner and have been operating for some time and weathered many a storm. Your institutional knowledge and intuition don’t come from a textbook; it comes from leading from the front and being that steady hand through both the good times and the bad. You’re a great problem solver, not because you’re any smarter than anybody else, you’ve just seen the movie repeatedly. So, in the end, gut instinct still matters a lot. Now combine that instinct with real time visibility into your numbers, your operation, your customers, and the markets you serve. That combination can be unstoppable.
Strategy. Where is the business going, and what do you do and why should I care? Those are the things that when properly articulated are clear as day and are impactful to the customers you serve. Vague direction around your strategy will burn fuel and spin the tires: but you won’t get anywhere.
It’s the combination of these three elements that really make a difference in my opinion. Once dialed in, they become the difference maker between a plan that’s on paper, and a plan that’s in motion.
The Diagnostic
Here’s a great way to check to see if you’re providing the right amount of fuel to power your strategic plan.
- Your growth targets have gone up over the past couple years, but you have not invested in the technology, data, or strategic thinking to keep pace. You’re under fueled.
- If your team can recite what the plan says but can’t really explain what’s different about how you’re operating this year versus last, you’re probably under fueled.
- You’re also under fueled if you’re totally reliant on your instinct and have no data or metrics to support your observations.
Being deficient in any one of these areas is not the end of the world. If you’re serious about improving though, look at these as signals worth taking seriously.
Your Call
In today’s marketplace, growth isn’t about doing more of the same, only slightly better, and slightly longer. That’s incrementalism, and that’s a slow way to lose ground in a fast-moving industry.
The plan you have is probably fine. Whether it’s on a napkin, or in a leather binder. The question you should be asking though isn’t whether the strategy is right. Ask yourself whether you’re fueling it like you believe in it.
Mike Philie helps owners and CEOs in the Graphic communications industry validate what’s working, identify what needs to change, and create a practical path forward.
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