Is Your Company Growth-Friendly?
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: June, 2003

Although some companies are finding success in the graphic arts industry, many owners feel like they're running just to stand still. While attaining profitability today remains the primary focus, it's equally important to find avenues of growth to ensure profitability tomorrow. The road to growth-friendliness can be a rocky one; skepticism of growth initiatives is never higher than in tough financial times. That's why it's important for owners and managers to break down the barriers to growth and innovation. Here are answers to three common questions to help you create a growth-friendly environment in your company:

How do I balance the need to achieve short-term profitability with the investment in growth opportunities that may not bear fruit for quite some time?
Achieve operational excellence: It may sound strange, but reinforcing the strength of your core business is the first step in developing a strategy for growth. This can be a tough balancing act, especially in difficult economic times. Your initial impulse may be to stand pat and pocket the profits from your core business rather than seek new growth. On the other end of the spectrum, it may be tempting to rush after the "next big thing", especially if it promises higher returns than those found in the graphic arts.

An efficient, well-run business will give you the foundation and the capital you need to act quickly on growth opportunities without compromising present-day profitability. Your belt-tightening efforts and focus on efficiency have the added benefit of giving you the experience necessary to pursue and implement growth initiatives responsibly.

Can I support innovative thinking and growth opportunities without losing focus on, or appearing to abandon, our core business?
Encourage growth from the top down: Owners and managers are the lightning rods of their organization. However, simply showing an interest in growth and innovation from the top is often not enough. Make growth strategy a part of everyone's job description, and the whole company will reap the benefits.

How can I tell the difference between a good opportunity and a disaster waiting to happen?
Limit support to only the best ideas: Once you've spawned a culture of innovation, expect to be inundated with "breakthrough ideas". This is where many owners can get bogged down in launching too many initiatives, mostly from fear of stunting creativity by rejecting poor ideas. It's a delicate balance, but you must be firm in hand-picking and acting on a few good ideas - and quickly shedding the bad ones.

Little Details Mean a Lot to Customers
One thing we frequently bring up with our clients is the importance of differentiation. Your company should do at least one thing really well that separates you from your competition. We're not talking "high quality" or "friendly service" here, either. It's the smaller things that make your company unique in the eyes of your customers, and help to create long-lasting business relationships.

Let's say your customer service team makes it a point to place a follow-up phone call to every customer the day after they received their job, just to make sure everything went smoothly. That's a nice touch, but it isn't unique. However, it does provide an opportunity to do something better.

Although most customers will (hopefully) say that your service was just fine, a few will have complaints or suggestions. Why not send a follow-up letter to each of these customers detailing what your company has done to address those suggestions? It's the type of gesture that doesn't sound like much, but can lock in a customer for years.

On the other hand, it's not uncommon for companies to overlook the minutiae of everyday business, and it's easy to understand why. The effort involved in bringing work into the shop, getting it produced on time and distributing it properly leaves little time to worry about "minor" details such as polite receptionists and delivery personnel or a clean customer waiting area. Yet these little extras are often what forges a long-term relationship with a customer - or sours one in their absence. Here's an experience I had recently that illustrates what I mean:

I travel to several cities on a regular basis for business, and in most cases I stay at a major chain hotel. On a recent trip, the hotel where I usually stay was full, so I went to a locally-owned hotel across the street. Everything about this hotel was indistinguishable from its corporate competition - except for one small detail. When I went to shower the next morning, I found that the small shampoo bottle had already been used.

In the grand scheme of things, this is admittedly a minor shortcoming. However, it has had a major impact on my impression of this hotel. It makes me question their attention to detail and the overall cleanliness of their rooms - a major factor when choosing which hotel to patronize. This small, overlooked detail will probably lead me to not stay there again.

Every interaction customers have with your company impacts their decision to continue doing business with you. Good quality, friendly customer service and on-time deliveries are a given in today's business environment. To forge long-lasting, mutually profitable relationships with your customers, maintain your focus on the little details that make a big difference.

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T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.