Melanie Moran-Grover's Path to Finding a Seat at the Table

In 1991, Melanie Moran-Grover entered the printing industry and never left. After graduating from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in English, she was unsure what her future had in store. She knew she didn’t want to teach, but her ability to speak and write well left the door open to jump into any industry.

“The printing industry appealed to me, and I had moved to Wisconsin to be near my boyfriend, who was going to graduate school, and there was a printer in Wisconsin that had positions open for a management training program that appealed to me because it was the printed word,” Moran-Grover explains.

The print management trainee program at Quad was unique. It allowed Moran-Grover to work in every aspect of printing, from the press and finishing to prep, plates, estimating, and costing. While the printed word was familiar to her, being on a pressroom floor for the first time was “an entirely different world,” she says. Everything was exciting and new.

Whether she was to end up in customer service, marketing, or in the pressroom, she was prepared and understood how print jobs worked through the facility from start to finish. It not only prepared her for the print workforce with skilled training, but it kept everyone on the same page, cementing the company together.

Finding Her Place

Two-plus years into the program, she found her fit and took a marketing role with Quad. She eventually moved back to Minnesota, transferring with the company, when her boyfriend became her husband, and they were expecting their first child. After close to five years in marketing for Quad, she worked her way up to sales project manager.

After eight years with Quad, “a very large Minneapolis retailer came calling,” she recalls. She joined Target Corporation in 2000, where she spent many years as a senior print buyer and fell in love with retail. As the in-store marketing procurement manager, she led a large team of print buyers and analysts who worked on in-store signing solutions for several departments.

“To this day, I go into a store, and I can't help but take it all in,” she says. “Their floor graphics; what's on their walls. And my family laughs at me. I even do that on vacations, ‘Oh, what's that store?’ Part of it is to look around and shop at merchandise, but the other part is to really take a look and see, are you doing something else in there that I haven’t seen before? I’ve been known to do that quite a bit.”

After 15 years with Target, she took her experience to RR Donnelley in the client service solutions department and led an even larger team that helped major clients with multi-channel communication solutions. The company then wanted to use her vast retail knowledge, and she began selling.

“If you're doing all the talking with your team, you're not doing as much listening. And I think good leaders listen and really work to move obstacles for their team, so I ask a lot of questions ... ‘Have you thought about this, or what about that?’”

After becoming a sales leader and spending seven years of her career there, she had a full-circle experience when she took the director of regional sales role at Imagine in April 2022. This wasn’t her first run-in with the company. During her time at Target, she says Imagine was one of her favorite vendors she had the pleasure of working with.

At Imagine, she leads a team of sales representatives who help create and produce visual communication solutions for their clients — from packaging, display, and regular or soft signage to direct mail, labels, and out-of-home work.

She sees herself, her team, and anyone in print, for that matter, as creative problem-solvers. She has been fortunate enough to work with great companies that say “yes” to finding customer solutions. With all that Imagine offers, her team is hard-pressed to come across a scenario where they tell a customer no, which she says is gratifying.

Speaking of some of the great lessons she’s learned throughout her career, she shares the importance of guiding her team through challenges and projects. “If you're doing all the talking with your team, you're not doing as much listening,” she says. “And I think good leaders listen and really work to move obstacles for their team, so I ask a lot of questions ... ‘Have you thought about this, or what about that?’”

For her, it comes down to hiring good people and trusting them enough to get out of their way. She says the best approach is “guiding, not so much directing,” when they need support.”

A Hunger for More

From a changing consumer landscape to technological innovations, being in print means there’s a constant need to learn and grow – something Moran-Grover has prioritized since her first day in the industry 33 years ago. She says a desire to keep reaching is vital to personal and professional growth, especially when something feels unreachable or unknown.

“Do it anyway,” she encourages. “Because you never know where it will take you, and you never know what you'll learn, and you never know what you’ll learn about yourself. Learning is really what makes for a long life and makes it more interesting. I think one of the best compliments I've ever received in my career was someone that told me that I take on challenges that other people resist.”

At different points in her career, she’s kept that written on her wall as a reminder to keep striving for more. As she offers advice to other women coming up in print, she thinks about her daughter, who’s graduating college this year, telling them to take risks. “Find your own seat at that table,” she encourages. “Find your career. Be bold.”

"I think one of the best compliments I've ever received in my career was someone that told me that I take on challenges that other people resist.”

She remembers a TED Talk she listened to in the last two years that stuck with her. It said women hold themselves back if they don’t possess 100% of a requirement or ability, whereas men jump forward at a much lower percentage. She says boys are conditioned to be risk-takers from a young age.

“I think that’s really changing for the generation today, but we still need more of that,” she shares. “You don't need to have 100% of the requirement to go for it and try something new because there's a lot of other skills that you bring to the table. So, take risks.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Moran-Grover is excited about the company’s latest launches and the growth it's pursuing, including its creative agency, Imagine Studio, and new modules for its tech stack, Dotti.

When she's not in the office, she loves going outside and traveling with her family and friends. Planting new varieties of flowers in the garden gives her the reset she needs when things feel busy. “That is my meditation,” she shares, “and that's what quiets my mind.”