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Last year, industry pundits gave their peers some sobering advice. They believed failure to embrace change would lead to lost opportunities and, eventually, closed doors. Many distributorships scrambled to reevaluate their current infrastructure and tweak plans accordingly for 2012. And just like that, January turned into November. The wheel of business didn't fall apart; nor did it get reinvented 1,000 times over. The months in between consisted of a little of this … a little of that. It was business as usual.
The new year illustrated the common highs and lows companies face. Old threats backed down and showed signs of improvement (the recession), while others continued to signal danger for the reluctant. Cross-media campaigns saw a surge in popularity and those who got it right generated additional revenue. Technology was typically disruptive for companies still abiding by the old school of thought. For instance, social networking moved from a nice perk to a major competitive edge for marketers who understood the idea of social selling. Businesses folded, got purchased and merged in ways that would affect the flow of the print and promotional products industries for years to come.
Despite some struggles, these respective industries showed heart. Certain distributors were more successful than others at keeping their footing and bracing to fight imposing threats. They innovated, thrived and expanded. The following piece focuses on some of the top-earning distributors. Read on to see how they survived and flourished in 2012.
INNERWORKINGS INC.
Chicago
www.inwk.com
Principal: Eric D. Belcher, CEO
Print+Promo (P+P): What was your company's greatest success over the last year?
Eric Belcher (EB): Global corporations will be increasingly looking to one provider to support all of their branded marketing and packaging materials across every major market they operate in. Over the past year, we finalized the development of a global platform to provide our services in all corners of the globe.
P+P: What is your company's top priority for the new year?
EB: Now that we've developed a truly global solution, it's time for us and for our clients to take advantage of the benefits.
P+P: What is the biggest problem(s) facing the industry today? Do you foresee any improvement?
EB: In order for printed materials to continue to deliver positive economic benefits to the end-user, the production of the materials has to be as efficient and affordable as possible. Today, there is far too much waste in the supply chain. For example, too many jobs are not being produced at the right facility, and huge sums of money are being paid to a structurally flawed direct manufacturing sales force. We see valuable capacity not being utilized, price discrimination, very little optimization of freight and distribution costs and many other issues. We hope the pace of change will accelerate in the months and years ahead to help preserve the long-term health of our industry.
P+P: What is the most important thing you want the industry to know about your company?
EB: We're just getting started. It's wonderful to be recognized as the largest distributor. As we continue to expand, our focus will be on maintaining our reputation as a trusted and respected company within our industry.
PROFORMA
Cleveland
www.proforma.com
Principals: Greg Muzzillo, Founder, and Vera Muzzillo, CEO
Print+Promo (P+P): What was your company's greatest success over the last year?
Greg Muzzillo (GM): Our biggest accomplishment in 2012 was wrapping up our $5 million investment in our global enterprise solutions platform. We are prepared to help our owners aggressively win global enterprise accounts in 2013 and beyond. In addition to our technology investment, we have entered into an exclusive agreement with a leading global sales performance consulting group. Their work with Proforma will include coaching the Support Center business development leadership team and top-performing member owners, offering sales consulting services and hands-on real time opportunity coaching all built around an end-to-end process for selling and managing enterprise solutions at the highest level. Also, to further support our member owners at the highest level, Proforma has hired two co-chief sales officers to join its executive team. This new position will help our member owners build their businesses with global enterprise solutions clients and other growth strategies.
P+P: How do you set goals for yourself? For your company?
GM: One thing I believe about setting goals is that goals don't matter. A lot of people want to talk about goals, a lot of people want to talk about strategic plans, and I don't think any of that matters unless you know why you want to accomplish your goals, unless you know why you want to execute the plans you're making. I think most people don't start there with the why. Why do I want to do this? At Proforma we believe in starting with your dreams. It might sound stupid, it might sound corny, but it's real, and it's real important because if you talk to a lot of people, year-in and year-out, they get the same results—and they get the same results because they don't know why they want to do anything different. If we don't dream big enough, goals don't matter and plans don't matter, so we start at Proforma with number one: dreaming.
P+P: What keeps you up at night?
GM: If I can't sleep at night, it's not due to worry, but rather my excitement for the future of Proforma and our member owners. There is a big problem facing our industry and it's the slow demise of some printing which is challenging the very survival of many printers in North America. But this bad news for them is good news for Proforma and our distributor model. I believe that Proforma and our member owners will see big wins at the customer level as end-users increasingly understand the power of dealing with a distributor over a limited printing company. Most industries eventually shift from a manufacturer-selling-direct model to a distributor model. Ford invented cars, but they do not sell them. Dealers sell all cars and trucks. Coke doesn't sell coke. Distributors sell most all soda, beer and liquor. And the same is true for food, tires, office supplies and just about all mature industries. As the printing industry continues to mature, we will see a giant shift toward printing being sold through distributors representing best-in-class printers.
BENSUSSEN DEUTSCH & ASSOCIATES (BDA)
Woodinville, Wash.
www.bdainc.com
Principal: Jay Deutsch, CEO and Co-founder
Print+Promo (P+P): What's one of the biggest leadership lessons you ever learned, and how did you learn it?
Jay Deutsch (JD): Invest in your people and they'll invest in you. We have the most amazing team. I would put our people up against anyone. Their passion, drive and commitment to this company is astounding. We are successful because of the great work produced from all departments across the agency. And when clients walk our halls, they're always quick to comment on the great vibe at BDA. Our greatest satisfaction comes from being named a best-place-to-work eight years running and it's all thanks to the great folks here. We genuinely see ourselves as a family.
P+P: What is the biggest way technology is changing your business? What do you expect the biggest technological change to be in the near future?
JD: Technology is granting us the ability to be much more creative and innovative while increasing speed-to-market for custom products. We've also added internal resources focused entirely on digital marketing and mobile initiatives. The next technological advancement in our industry will likely revolve around providing consumers or crowds greater ability to customize and personalize individual products.