Viewpoint
June 2000
Bitch, bitch, bitch
What are you doing in this industry anyway?
One thing we’re good at in this industry—no, actually, great at—is complaining. At most meetings and events you can hear the complaints roll: the business is tough; it’s hard to get good help these days; there is no customer loyalty; there is too much iron on the floor. And then you’ve got the chorus of bleating about banks and suppliers.

An outsider would get the impression that either the industry was on the verge of collapse or that most people who toil in this business are a miserable bunch of SOBs.

While the printing industry in this country has its fair share of problems (not that any industry doesn’t) it shows no signs of collapse. Actually it shows all the signs of a very stable, healthy and growing sector. Printing sales are up, more companies can afford to buy and are getting better equipment. The industry is as close to full employment as it will probably ever get.

When you consider all the pros and cons, the pros come out on top

As for people, this industry has a lot of great individuals. It’s free of the back stabbing and mistrust that’s pervasive in a lot of other fields. Some industries seem to be built on secrecy and deception, and work on the assumption that you have to hate your competitors and wish to wipe them out at all cost. In contrast, most people in our industry are willing to share information and ideas. The Craftsmen Club, one of the largest organizations in this industry, even adopted the motto “share your knowledge.” A lot of print-shop owners and managers have close friends at other printing companies. If you concentrate on the negatives it becomes very easy to overlook the positives. And, if this industry is so lousy, why are so many people still in it?

To start with, printing does pay well compared to a lot of other trades. Press operators get paid a lot better than your average garage mechanic. Printing sales reps do a lot better than shoe sales reps or most reps in the retail trade.

Every printing job is different. We do not suffer the boredom that a lot of other manufacturing industries have. Try working on an assembly line or in the post office and you will really come to understand what monotony is.

Printing is one of the few manufacturing industries left where people still make the difference. The successful printing companies are all built on people, not equipment. You can install the greatest equipment that money can buy but without good people, you’re dead.

Yes, building a printing company is tough work, but most worthwhile things in life are. If it were easy, everyone would be in it. As for it being competitive, yes it is and it also has the advantage that no one company controls the market. Predatory practices present in other industries don’t happen very often in the printing sector. The problems that Microsoft is having because of “unfair business practices” would be unlikely to happen in our industry. Despite the competitive nature of printing, the small guy can still grow and prosper.

When you consider all the pros and cons, the pros come out on top. So, next time you’re at an industry event and hear some colleagues complaining about this industry, have a little fun and ask them why they are still in it.
Alexander Donald is the publisher of Graphic Monthly Canada.
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