C. Clint Bolte & Associates

The National Association for Printing Leadership's 31st annual pressroom productivity seminar, held Nov. 1-3, at the Marriott O'Hare Hotel in Chicago, drew nearly 140 attendees. Unfortunately three-quarters of them were supplier representatives and consultants rather than printers. Suppliers were overheard discussing what type of meeting format would better draw their printer prospects. Their more restrictive budgets simply cannot justify support for venues that don't provide them with greater exposure before decision makers. Nonetheless, the content discussed at the gathering was outstanding and very timely.

Responding to Challenges Through Education

Keynote presenter Joe Davis, chairman and CEO of Consolidated Graphics, described the challenges facing the printing industry and his company's response. A special team of experts markets all of the company's nonprinting services, such as variable data one-to-one, cross-media and fulfillment services, as CGX Solutions. But finding quality management, technical staff and journeymen operators is an increasing problem. Consolidated Graphics' answer is to hire four national recruiters to interview at 70 colleges located near its various printing plants.

Newly hired college grads enter Consolidated Graphics' Leadership Development Program for a structured two-year training program. After spending three to six months in a department learning and making meaningful contributions, they are given a written exam covering what they should have learned. The program began in 1991, and by 2000, 130 of these associates were hired into this program. This year, the company has accumulated to 225 new leaders, or about three per regional site.

While many of these associates have left the company, several have gone to work for clients, which, Davis thinks, will ultimately benefit Consolidated Graphics. Davis introduced two of his company's young associates to the conference attendees and read the rave reviews from their supervisors. It would have been interesting to talk with these young professionals and welcome them into the industry, but they left the conference with Davis only minutes after his presentation, missing the remaining 43 presentations and their educational insights.

From the audience, Fuji's Larry Warter described a Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation recruiting video that has been prepared for presentation to high schools' vocational education students. Although Davis was not aware of this initiative, he volunteered to help distribute the videos to high schools in his companies' locations.

Davis also challenged NAPL to be more aggressive in attracting craftsmen to the printing industry. Consolidated Graphics, meanwhile, is not sitting idly by; its national recruiters are paid commissions to hire journeyman craftsmen from competitors. In response to competitors' complaints about this pirating practice, Davis responds, "If your employees want to stay with you, you won't have a problem."