Scaling the Heights and Reaching the Pinnacles of Performance in our Businesses

Scaling the Heights and Reaching the Pinnacles of Performance in our Businesses
Graham J. Galliford
President, Galliford Consulting & Marketing

What a Summit! What a great and valuable event! With a focused theme of “Prospering in the Americas’ Consumables Market” the topics encompassed patent and legal issues, market and technology changes, trends and opportunities, and new products and solutions.

Merritt Blakeslee of the Blakeslee Law Firm, gave us a thorough understanding of the legal situation and actions of the ITC in their prevention of the importation of infringing cartridges and supplies into the USA. Blakeslee’s explanation of what to do in the event of a denial of entry was both interesting and useful. He also made recommendations of what to do, and steps to take, even before importing goods, so that the chance of problems could be avoided.

The Executive Director of the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC), Tricia Judge told us “How to Win against the Legal Challenges, Chip and other Technology Challenges the OEMs are throwing at the Aftermarket.” The audience were provided with key elements to attend to when making decisions about the products they market.

Specifically in the inkjet field, Charles (Chuck) Sharp, President of Digital Image Technology, reviewed new OEM inkjet technologies and explained how industrial printing applications presented the best and largest opportunity for growth. This included products for packaging and textile applications, custom printing, including that of promotional items, and even applications of edible inks for food decoration. The upside of addressing these markets is the customers’ inevitable need for service and support which provides additional opportunity.

The penetration of Aftermarket color toner cartridges has been stuck below 10%. Maluz Orci, Imaging and MPS Business Consultant for LMI Solutions, explained what could be done to increase market share. As the most profitable opportunity to industry players today, she showed the crucial impact that improved market share color printing will have on the industry. Consumers will pay more for color printing as they value its attention-getting impact. Quality, reliability, trust and service are the keys to success in improving market share.

The imaging market expert that so many around the world rely upon, John Shane, the Director of Communication Supplies at InfoTrends, spoke about the “Trends and Factors Impacting Print Consumables in the Americas.” Shane revealed the trends in the toner and inkjet worldwide markets. The contrasting patterns of decline and growth between developed and emerging economies showed markedly where the opportunities in the global market lie.

Thilo Lutzeler, the CEO of Drivve, Inc. is an authority on mobile printing and explored how the stratospheric growth of mobile applications both threatens and creates new opportunities for printing. He demonstrated clearly that the potential for growth was latent and ready to impact the market. Mobile technology will not affect how printing is performed but it will affect where and how much printing is done and what printer is used.

The development of Managed Print Services (MPS) by Aftermarket players has long been touted as an important strategy to improve business revenue, profitability and stability. Daniel Mazzeu, of Brazil-based DMZ Global Connection talked about how to make MPS a winning business model. MPS can be a Win-Win opportunity for customer and provider alike and not only provides for better business but can lead to new untapped sales opportunities and profits.

Renowned Aftermarket expert, Luke Goldberg, recently promoted to Executive Vice President of the Clover Imaging Group, examined how to capture more business from the OEM instead of just competing with other Aftermarket companies. He argued convincingly that the only way forward to better and more profitable business was to compete more effectively and convert OEM product consumers to users of quality Aftermarket products. He spoke of the Blue Ocean—serviced exclusively by the OEM—and the Red Ocean—the one inhabited by Aftermarket players hemorrhaging from ever lower pricing, profit and compromised quality. Regrettably the Red Ocean has imprinted a poor impression of Aftermarket products in the minds of consumers. The way forward is to focus on the Blue Ocean with a differentiated product strategy with quality products that have patented product features and by giving excellent customer service and support. The provision of quality is a key attribute in both the product and the customer experience resulting in a 95% rate of repeat purchase.

The growth of New Built Cartridges (NBCs) has been meteoric over recent times. Knowing whether to and how to incorporate NBCs into a business is an important question. Giovanni Giusti, the President of Doxense Europe analyzed whether blending these into a remanufacturing business is a recipe for disaster, or a necessity. The careful inclusion of NBCs into a company’s portfolio yields great potential benefit to the business in product breadth and depth. He outlined the steps needed to be taken to successfully include NBC products. The creation of brand awareness and the assurance of quality are imperative for success.

Along with the rise of mobile technology is the ever increasing importance of eCommerce, social networking and having an online presence. Ian Elliott, the CEO of Power Ecommerce explained why eCommerce works for some and not others. He exposed the reality that, the length of time a company has been present online is no guarantee of improvement in its website being high on the order of being found by online searchers. The Domain Authority (DA), a score on a 100-point scale is a metric that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. This metric is calculated by combining 40 different metrics into a single score. Ian showed us that the Aftermarket printing supplies industry needs to do a far better job of improving its online presence increasing its DA to grow successfully in the ever transitioning online world of commerce.

Steve Weedon, the Global CEO of Cartridge World was irrefutable in his argument for change in the way business is conducted by Aftermarket suppliers. He rightly affirmed that the Aftermarket in its innovation and adaptability has risen, and will always rise, and overcome any challenge that might present itself. Change is not an admission of failure of a previous business path but rather part of the continuous improvement. Steve reminded us that Albert Einstein said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” a notion we should all take to heart.

For my part in the proceedings, I urged toner manufacturers to invest in Research and Development, improved quality and manufacturing resources for new technology to remain competitive. To develop and provide special products—colour, special colour and clear toners, metallic, fluorescents and functional toners such as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) toners and Ceramic and Textile printing toners— gives the opportunity to increase profitability and profit but requires investment. It is a given that a strengthened financial base in the industry is much needed to enable such investments.

Overall the Summit showed us that, with the right approach, the printing consumables Aftermarket remains a dynamic, innovative and exciting market space. The market is subject, like all other markets, to the pressures of competition and change from internal and external factors. Adaptation, investment and the development of revised and enhanced business strategies will help us to weather any storm and assure plain sailing into the future.

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