This month, I spoke with Jeff Ekstein who has a unique perspective on the Canadian printing industry. He is President and CEO of Willow Printing Group, headquartered in Concord, Ontario; Co-Chair of CPISC (Canadian Printing Industries Sector Council); Director of CPIA (Canadian Printing Industries Association); and, more recently, Jeff was appointed Secretary of the Printing Industries of America (PIA). And, he has no shortage of opinions on our industry, what we need to do to survive and thrive, and what the immediate future holds.
Willow has successfully navigated through this flat economy. What factors have played a role in your success?
Yes, it’s a tough economy and print share-of-market continues to diminish. Yet in 2010, Willow had an excellent year. First and foremost, we have a superb team of 35 hard-working and experienced team players. But our ongoing success, I believe, has been in identifying and predicting trends and acting well ahead of time. We do a strategic plan every year and are focused on aligning our team and resources so that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
We sat down as far back as the year 2000 and formulated a long-range strategic plan. We saw what lay ahead and knew in advance where we wanted to be at any specific time. Then, we followed-up at every monthly management meeting to assure that we were on course. For example, much of our printing was and still is distributed through the mail, so it made perfect sense to purchase a mailing company. Next, we were flexible and created strategic alliances that moved our company forward. Also, we found ways to add value to our customers’ businesses, rather than engage in cut-throat pricing. Finally, we have been able to continually differentiate ourselves from our competition by making Willow a key resource for many different types of clients.
As a Co-Chair of CPISC, can you give me an overview of the Canadian printing industry today and what we need to do to improve?
Any organization takes time to gain credibility. I believe that in our relatively short existence, CPISC has earned that respect, but more importantly, we have put standards and tools in place and the next phase is to implement them.
My immediate concern is that the baby boomers in our industry are retiring and there will be a shortage of skilled labour in the near future. On top of this, we must do more to attract younger people and make our industry more alluring as a career choice.
Printing used to be viewed as a job for life, aided by the fact that many shops were family-run organizations and were passed along to their children. For instance, I am the third generation in my family business and I grew up in the industry. There are still many families in our industry today, and we must encourage young people – show them what a great industry we have and get them to embrace this fascinating technology as a key component of integrated marketing.
What are the challenges that face us in the near future?
Print is still extremely important in our everyday lives. It’s all around us, but consumers often take it for granted and seldom give it a second thought. In the same way, I feel that many members of our industry have become complacent when it comes to contributing to important industry associations. Contributing time, expertise and sometimes money to industry associations helps to create solutions for our current and future challenges. Many of these organizations, such as CPISC, CPIA, PIA and numerous others, do worthwhile work and we should be more open to helping them because in the long run, they help us.
Another future concern is Canada’s strong dollar coupled with America’s current struggling economy. And yes, while our loss in consumer confidence in Canada has not had as much of an impact as it has in the U.S., the end result will likely be fewer exports of printing and products that support printing heading south to our largest trading partner. This, coupled with the fact that print may still experience further decline in “the mix” makes me believe that 2011 will be a tough year for all of North America, not just Canada.
Any final advice?
Absolutely. Don’t give it away. As an industry, we have to work together to stay focused and bring the value back to print in order to stop the downward spiraling of pricing that turns it into a commodity. This shortsighted approach is contributing to the demise of our great industry. Be innovative and create new products that bring value to your customers. We must maintain standards and keep them high if we are to grow and prosper.
