Denise M. Gustavson
At the BoxWorks 2015 conference, John Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco Systems, told the audience that, “at least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years … if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”
Forty percent is a sobering number, but when you look at industry news from the past few years, that number might not seem so unrealistic. Consolidation. Convergence. Call it what you want, but the industry is changing. Companies are merging. Others are being acquired, becoming part of a larger conglomerate of companies.
Businesses in adjacent industries — commercial print, garment, packaging, industrial — have been taking advantage of the newest wide-format technologies to establish a presence in the sign and graphics market. Some of them might only have a small percentage of sales coming from sign and graphics applications, but the sheer size and scale of those companies could translate to millions of dollars in revenue; millions that once might have come your way.
Today’s competitors are not the same ones you had five years ago. Succeeding today means changing the way you do business. Author Martha Beck said, “any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking, but a full-on metamorphosis.”
Leaders need to reinvent themselves, because it is that reinvention that allows a company to innovate. How can you incorporate new technologies to improve every aspect of your business? Do you have the right people to execute on your new vision?
With the pace of change happening so quickly, business owners need to be ahead of the market trends. Ask yourself, where will the industry be in five years? To really succeed, you need to get there before everyone else does because if you don’t, the industry — and new competition — could easily blow by you and keep on going, leaving you in the dust.
Are you planning for growth? Who are you partnering with? This is more than just vendor partners, it’s also about partnering with your peers and your employees. Do you have training in place to help your employees grow? How are you building your exponential growth plans?
In this issue, we want to arm readers with some of the tools and business intelligence you need to start answering some of these questions, so you can succeed and grow well into the future.
And remember:
“Change can be beautiful; butterflies are the greatest proof of this.”
— Matshona Dhliwayo.
Are You Poised for Growth as Convergence Continues?
Denise M. Gustavson
At the BoxWorks 2015 conference, John Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco Systems, told the audience that, “at least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years … if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”
Forty percent is a sobering number, but when you look at industry news from the past few years, that number might not seem so unrealistic. Consolidation. Convergence. Call it what you want, but the industry is changing. Companies are merging. Others are being acquired, becoming part of a larger conglomerate of companies.
Businesses in adjacent industries — commercial print, garment, packaging, industrial — have been taking advantage of the newest wide-format technologies to establish a presence in the sign and graphics market. Some of them might only have a small percentage of sales coming from sign and graphics applications, but the sheer size and scale of those companies could translate to millions of dollars in revenue; millions that once might have come your way.
Today’s competitors are not the same ones you had five years ago. Succeeding today means changing the way you do business. Author Martha Beck said, “any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking, but a full-on metamorphosis.”
Leaders need to reinvent themselves, because it is that reinvention that allows a company to innovate. How can you incorporate new technologies to improve every aspect of your business? Do you have the right people to execute on your new vision?
With the pace of change happening so quickly, business owners need to be ahead of the market trends. Ask yourself, where will the industry be in five years? To really succeed, you need to get there before everyone else does because if you don’t, the industry — and new competition — could easily blow by you and keep on going, leaving you in the dust.
Are you planning for growth? Who are you partnering with? This is more than just vendor partners, it’s also about partnering with your peers and your employees. Do you have training in place to help your employees grow? How are you building your exponential growth plans?
In this issue, we want to arm readers with some of the tools and business intelligence you need to start answering some of these questions, so you can succeed and grow well into the future.
And remember:
“Change can be beautiful; butterflies are the greatest proof of this.”
— Matshona Dhliwayo.
Denise Gustavson is the Editorial Director for the Alliance Media Brands — which includes Printing Impressions, Packaging Impressions, In-plant Impressions, Wide-Format Impressions, Apparelist, NonProfitPRO, and the PRINTING United Journal — PRINTING United Alliance.