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3 Print Pros Share What They Learned in 2021

Members of Big Picture‘s Editorial Advisory Board reflect on a year filled with trials and triumphs.

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IF YOU TAKE a moment to reflect on the past year, things like supply chain issues, labor shortages, and “The Great Resignation” most likely come to mind. Dig a little deeper and more positive memories like unexpected growth, returning to in-person events, and the push to think outside the box in order to build your business hopefully come to the forefront. We asked three of our Editorial Advisory Board members what they learned in 2021. Here’s what they had to say.

Brian Adam

“Inflation is real, saying ‘no’ to customers hurts, you can’t have enough good people, the labor shortage isn’t going away, employee engagement/culture is the best form of retention, automation is painful and expensive, selling to ‘partners’ is a lot more fun than selling to ‘customers,’ buying from ‘partners’ is a lot more fun than buying from ‘suppliers,’ a government safety net (ex: PPP & ERC) can truly be a life-saver, I miss seeing my ‘print friends’ and can’t wait for in-person events, traveling is now excruciatingly painful, I’m done with Zooms, and for the first time in 50 years the Milwaukee Bucks are officially NBA champions.” — Brian Adam, president, Olympus Group

Elaine Scrima

“2021… It sounds cliché, but the takeaway from 2021 and 2020 for that matter is ‘Don’t take anything for granted.’ What does that mean? Think about sitting at your desk working away and the power goes out? Think about the ripple effect that has on you personally and the business. You can’t email, print, design, quote, invoice, or even charge your phone. By and large, we as a nation, were not prepared or had no contingency plan for a pandemic. When it began in 2020, I don’t think anyone’s crystal ball showed us the supply chain and labor issues we would experience as we moved into 2021. Unprecedented. The freedoms and conveniences we all enjoyed, like picking up the phone and getting material in 2-3-5 days has turned into 10-20-90 days in some instances. So, 2021 has taught us to be resilient. It taught us to think outside the box because the box collapsed.

“Second takeaway is: Be flexible and creative. Contact vendors to see if you can arrange consignment deals for high usage materials. We used to plan for what we needed this month. Now we need to try and forecast further out to stay ahead of supply chain and transit issues. The past two years taught us to re-examine everything about our business and forced us to update the way we do things because we didn’t have a choice. The things that used to work or the way we always did things were no longer viable. So, 2021 helped us re-examine everything we do and how we do it and that was not a bad thing because if you don’t keep evolving you will get left behind.” — Elaine Scrima, VP of Operations, GSP

Christine Walsh

“The biggest takeaway from 2021 was that growth is hard. This was our biggest year to date for the past 15 years and we have to hire, buy equipment, buy a new building, etc. You have to be prepared to grow, not just jump in it. I plan to have a strategy for 2022.” — Christine Walsh, President/CEO, Alpha Graphics

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