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LIST RENTALS
Elizabeth Jackson
ejackson@meritdirect.com | 847-492-1350 x18
CEO Paul Bonaiuto
President Chris Ferrell
CFO Ed Tearman
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www.MyPRINTResource.com
MyPRINTResource.com Quick Printing | February 2015 5
H
aving an open mind and keeping your mind open
could be the key to more proftability in 2015. An
open-minded management style allows you to focus
on empowering employees by listening and respond-
ing to their ideas, issues, ways of thinking, and approaches
to their work.
Flexibility is essential to the open-minded leader, and
open-minded managers have the beneft of always learn-
ing. Your door is always open to staff. Managers with open
minds are still in charge, but they do not "lay down the law" like their
closed-minded counterparts. Instead, they make decisions based on a care-
ful consideration of their own ideas as well as those of others.
Sales consultant and 30-year print industry veteran Wayne Peterson
discourages micro-managing. In fact, in his recent Overlook newsletter,
Peterson distinguished between micro-managers and their even more evil
cousins, "micro-dictators," some of whom he calls "subatomic managers."
These control-freak management creatures usually lead to frustrated em-
ployees, lost customers, evaporating profts, and crippled businesses.
One organization-destroying habit of subatomic managers is a chronic
condition that Peterson refers to as "'four walls myopia,' believing that re-
ality is defned by what exists and takes place inside the four walls of their
particular organization or enterprise."
Ken Garner, the new CEO of the newly named Epicomm print industry
association (formerly NAPL/AMSP/NAQP), said of Peterson: "No one un-
derstands strategy, effective selling, and customer retention better than
Wayne." No doubt, Garner and Peterson would agree that sharing best
practices with industry peers is a key attribute of open-minded managers.
Opportunities Abound
Use the Printing Industries of America (PIA) 2014-15 Ratios report to
benchmark your operation against print industry proft leaders. This past
December, the PIA's Color Conference provided the opportunity to meet
and learn from top color experts. And, the Epicomm's content-rich Execu-
tive Leadership Summit was held last month in Las Vegas, this year in con-
junction with the EFI Connect annual worldwide users' conference. As you
attend additional association and vendor meetings in the coming months,
strive to try take away something new and different from a peer company.
Upcoming events for a fresh perspective include:
§ Konica Minolta Business Conference & Expo in Los Angeles (Feb. 15-18).
§ 2015 Automation Solutions Network meeting, Feb. 25-26, in Ohio.
§ 40th Graphics of the Americas expo, February 26-28, Miami Beach.
§ 10th annual Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative) Conference, HP Users
Group, March 5-7, Washington, D.C.
§ The next NAPL CEO Roundtable in Chicago next month on March 19.
§ The 67
th
annual Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA)
conference on March 22 in New Mexico.
§ Epicomm (AMSP) Southwest Chapter conference in late April, in
Arlington, TX.
Here's to fghting those "subatomic" demons and wrapping up an
open-minded Q1 in 2015!
Open Mindedness
Stay fexible and resist the urge to be a
micro-manager or worse, a 'subatomic manager.'
By Mark Vruno