Navigating the Channel -- The Post 911 World of NAGASA and Our Industry
Observations by NAGASA President Greg DuRoss
Like most folks, I expect that I will always remember where I was and what I was doing on that tragic day of September 11, 2001. The terrorism has changed our personal lives as well as our business lives, in large ways and small. For me personally, living and working in walking distance of The White House has taken on a decidedly different significance.
The 24/7 sound of fighter jets circling over the city is both disconcerting and comforting. To read about concerns that bin Laden or his associates may have nuclear material and that just a small bomb in a car would wipe out the core of Washington, DC - well, that makes it very personal. And yet I find myself wondering just how much we should suspend civil rights and treat some people as guilty until proven innocent in the interest of national security. That too is very personal for the hundreds of citizens and legal residents being held for weeks and months on charges that did not warrant incarceration without bail in the past. And just because our free and democratic society once created internment camps for U.S. citizens, doesn't mean it was right or that we have to repeat history.
One day I ask myself if the very freedom we are fighting to defend has not been sacrificed in the war against terror. The next day I remind myself that alleged traitor John Walker was raised right here in our backyard in the Maryland suburbs, and if a terrorist strikes what is now probably the numero uno target, I may well be dead. Then I go about my planned activities for the day because I am not directly affected.
I started working for NAGASA two years ago on December 1, 1999. To think I am writing a column such as this, I honestly had to stop writing and contemplate the enormity of the paragraphs that I have just written. Now you might be wondering, what does all this have to do with NAGASA and you? Simply put, this industry and this association must forge ahead despite the events following 9-11 having made the challenges even more demanding.
The challenges posed by the recession, consolidation, and technology are enormous for your companies and for NAGASA. In an industry that grew up fragmented but that is now in the midst of massive consolidation, it was inevitable that there would have to be consolidation among the sixty plus industry associations. That process has begun and will continue. To his credit, Frank Romano is the first person I have heard speak publicly about association consolidation. In his Print Outlook presentation, he pointed out that there will be further consolidation in the ranks of mid size companies, and mid size companies have been the backbone of associations. That, along with the impact of the recession, and the growing resistance by large companies to what they perceive as dues that outweigh the benefits of membership, brings us to where NAGASA and other associations are today. One can only hope that a positive outcome of all this consolidation will be more cooperative relationships between associations as well as companies and their corporate partners.
A separate article in this issue of The Compass details in more specific terms the current and future status of NAGASA. That future is very much linked to the future of our members. Even on the day I was preparing to write this column, I heard from yet another member how important an association like NAGASA is. He wasn't just speaking for himself. He was sharing feedback resulting from many conversations he has had with other members. Top management in companies are understandably focused on tomorrow even though that short term focus may be very short sighted in the long run.
One thing NAGASA can do is provide the forum to step back from that atmosphere and take a look at the big picture. That's right, Forum -- our annual education and networking gathering. I am reminded of a Washington area retailer whose tag line in their ads say, "An educated consumer is our best customer." I am thinking how, if I substitute the word member for consumer, it speaks to the mission of NAGASA.
As NAGASA member companies revise income projections and make critical decisions about staffing and spending based on those projections, hopefully the economic information in this issue of The Compass, will prove useful to them. One think that struck me as I digested the presentations from Print Outlook, was the vagueness of the word "recovery." Then, while doing research for one of the articles, I came across a poll asking folks to vote on when they believe the economy will recover. Does recover simply mean the end of negative growth? Does 1 or 2 percent positive growth mean recovery or has recovery only occurred when growth is back to pre recession levels? People would be well advised to differentiate between trends in the overall economy and trends in our industry, and to carefully interpret the words used to define "recover."
I don't know how it will all end but I do know that this industry will look very different in a few years. As Neil Richards stated in a perspective piece distributed at Print Outlook, "It is not time to give up hope, but to look for new solutions … it is time to shift the industry's focus on lithographic printing to the broader context of graphic communications." Dealers and manufacturers would do well to plan the future of their companies along those lines. One reason, as Richards pointed out, is that the younger generation is much more digitally and computer focused. The extent to which they become print oriented will have an enormous impact on the future of our industry. I would conclude by suggesting that you tap into the resource know as youth. Consider becoming a mentor, It could be the wisest thing you do for your company. Find a young man or woman, and develop a mutually respectful relationship in which they teach you and you teach them. Let them help you guide your company to it's future.
