Fringe Benefits

A couple years ago, I attended a conference session led by a group of futuristic researchers – people who study how the future might be, and predict how we’ll react to it. One of the things they noted was that the rate of change in our world is increasing. In other words, our universe is both constantly changing and changing at an accelerating rate.

This leads to information overload, feelings of insecurity, a desire for solitude, and some wacky reactions, like the guy you know who still doesn’t have a cell phone.

There is insecurity in the air for PSPs, yet the same advice is doled out over and over: Find jobs with higher profit margins, invest in your employees, make informed choices, and move into new sectors of the printing industry. However, I haven’t read many “hows.” How are you supposed to do all these things?

Of course, it’s impossible to prescribe bold, specific changes across a broad swath of the industry. There’s no cookie cutter formula – another oft-repeated phrase.

At SGIA last year, Stephen Shapiro spoke to a breakfast crowd about innovation and change. His keynote highlighted a thirst for new perspectives that drive innovation. It’s like the laundry detergent manufacturers who found whitening solutions in their company’s toothpaste division. The missing idea wasn’t yet to be invented; it was just somewhere else – somewhere the detergent makers didn’t normally look.

To find your company’s “how,” explore topics on the periphery of print. Make time – and mental space – to study the ways other industry’s leaders have solved the same questions you’re asking. Print is not the only industry to have faced a recent shift. What about automotive manufacturers in the wake of electric cars, or the coal industry’s struggles with green energy? Study the successes and failures of others.

Find sources of creative inspiration among your interests. If you’re trying to reach a broader audience in your area, who else is? Probably local non-chain restaurants. How do they connect? If you need help becoming more nimble and agile in the market, study the start-up world. Page through Entrepreneur and Inc. Check out #startup tweets.

And lead by example. Does your design department ever check out what’s going on in the graffiti world? Have you sent them to Pinterest to study new typefaces? Are they familiar with recent art shows? Do your customer service reps get a chance to take vocal coaching or public speaking classes?

It never hurts to explore the fringe.