executive perspectives: Front Page News
Wise President and CEO Bill Prettyman has ink running through his veins. A fourth-generation printer, Prettyman continues to uphold his family’s legacy in an industry that put them in the headlines.
His family has owned the Butler Eagle, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 30,000, since 1900. The reins have been passed from generation to generation, beginning with Prettyman’s great grandfather all the way down to his cousin. Along the way, David Wise purchased The Eagle Printery, a commercial printing company owned by the newspaper. After five years in business, Wise realized he needed a competitive advantage over the other commercial printers churning out the same product in nearby Pittsburgh. Business forms, particularly snap apart forms, were the perfect solution, so he launched Wise Business Forms.
Prettyman joined Wise Business Forms in 1980. From that point, the company—and Prettyman—continued to grow. In 1981, Prettyman initiated the startup of a plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. As the general manager, he inherited three Butler team members, a building, new equipment and the working capital to get started. Prettyman’s brother, Jeff, later took over as general manager, enabling Bill to start another plant in Atlanta.
The two brothers eventually reunited when Jeff moved to Atlanta to lead marketing efforts. When Wise retired in 1994, Prettyman assumed leadership.
Here, he talks shop and opens up about himself.
Print+Promo (P+P): How do you set goals for yourself? For your business?
Bill Prettyman (BP): The first step in the process I use is to create a Life Plan, which came from a company called Building Champions. It is a process for looking at each area of your life that is important to you, setting out the vision and purpose for that part of your life and creating the disciplines that will help you achieve that purpose. For me, the real key to making progress toward these goals is to have a weekly review to make sure that my priorities have not changed, that I am meeting my commitments and that I have the best focus for the coming week to make progress. Obviously, life happens along the way and some weeks I can achieve more and some weeks I achieve less, but the goal is progress not perfection. If I get too caught up in perfection it just leads to frustration. [In regard to the company,] I meet with our key managers as a group and one-on-one every week to discuss our focus and what we need to do to make progress in the coming week. I try to keep that focus as simple as possible so everyone can understand what needs to be done. I believe that simplicity and clarity are two of the primary drivers of progress. People need only a few goals if they are to accomplish them. We have a great team of people at Wise so my role is make sure we understand what needs to be done, remove whatever obstacles are in the way and get out of the way to let them do what they do best.
P+P: How does your company remain nimble and ahead of the curve?
BP: We are able to remain nimble through constant communication of priorities and focusing on as few [priorities] as possible. It is hard to make progress when you have 10 priorities, so we limit them to just a few. I communicate with all team members on the company’s progress occasionally, but I rely on our management team to nurture understanding of where we are headed and how we will get there with each of their local team members. I love our team. They are committed to our customers, our people and the company’s success.
P+P: What do you expect to be some of the biggest challenges/changes the industry will face?
BP: The business forms industry and the print industry, in general, face the same challenges. Companies and individuals are calling for ways to produce products better, faster and less expensively. We are focused on these areas. Technology has had and will continue to have a big impact on our industry. Customers have sought out more and more ways to utilize technology to perform their tasks faster and less expensively. As an example, many people use online banking now instead of paper checks. Customers utilize email for sending electronic instead of printed invoices. Customers are looking for ways to drive out the cost of print in marketing by being selective as to which customers receive a printed piece and which ones receive an email promotion. I see our distributors leveraging technology in a few different ways to help their customers reach their goals. First, end-customers want to do business online, so e-commerce is part of the distributor offering. Second, distributors are focused on improving the efficiency of their customers’ operations. This may have been done in the past through combining forms and adjusting paperwork processes. Now many distributors are utilizing technologies such as taking on a software project to help their customers be more operationally efficient. Third, on the marketing side, distributors are leveraging integrated marketing campaigns to help their customers get better results for less cost. Some distributors are even adding iPad and iPhone app creation to their service offering to think creatively outside the box for their customers. Distributors have been involved and are now getting involved in strategic planning with their customers. This allows them to get in on a project in early stages and add value as more than a print vendor; they are solution providers in the marketing arena. Their focus is getting to the C-level and away from the purchasing agent. I see the cost of print continuing to be an issue with end-customers. Our industry needs to work together all up and down the supply chain to drive out costs for the end-customer. Every time we have a price increase it just drives end-customers to think more about electronic solutions instead of paper solutions. Our paper suppliers need to drive out costs, our printers need to drive out costs and our distributors need to drive out costs. This must be done not only in isolation but within the supply chain. This is imperative if we are to lengthen the life of the print industry. Another challenge for our industry is innovation. We must continually renew ourselves, our businesses and our industry if we are to survive, grow and prosper. We need to look for new methods, new products, new services to better serve the end-customer each day. Creativity will play a larger role in a company’s success in the future of the print industry.
P+P: What keeps you up at night in regards to the industry?
BP: There are usually two things that keep people up at night: challenges and opportunities. Both come with strong emotions that can keep you up at night. Challenges create fear and opportunities create excitement. Our biggest opportunity right now is the excitement of growing our business by taking advantage of the trends we see in the marketplace. This is a very exciting time for our company and our customers and we look forward to the challenge of energizing our company to take advantage of these trends for the benefit of our people, our customers and our company.
P+P: What do you think is the most exciting, cutting-edge thing your company is doing right now?
BP: It is difficult to pick one item as I think there are many exciting things that our team is executing on right now. One [example] is the way in which we are developing closer relationships with our customers to help them capture opportunities. At the risk of this sounding like a cliché, we are becoming more of a partner than ever to our distributor customers as we get involved in situations with them with the end-customer. By doing so, we are better able to understand the end-customer’s needs and to place our resources where they really count for them. This dialogue creates ways for our distributor customers to innovate for their customers as well as to capture pieces of business they may not have attained on their own. By working together, distributors and manufacturers are better solution providers for the end-customer.
P+P: What would people be surprised to learn about you—hobbies, special interests, etc.?
BP: My greatest love and time commitment is to Joy, my wife of 29 years, and my three boys, Will (24), Grant (22) and Jack (18). I have initiated with a friend and led a men’s Bible study group. We meet weekly for about 2/3 of the year. It is a great way to keep what is important in front of you and to keep you grounded so you do not get too far off track. I have always enjoyed coaching because I like to help kids make progress in their confidence and their skills. I coached Will and Grant’s teams, but they are out of school now. I am very involved with Jack’s Special Olympics sports. He plays on a softball team in the fall, a basketball team in the winter and tennis in the spring. I help coach all of these sports and love being with these special athletes. I am continually reminded by working with them how valuable a great attitude is in life. Most of these kids are almost always positive regardless of the circumstances. They celebrate each day and do not worry about the past or the future. They live in the present moment. Jack loves to work out so we go to the gym 3 times/week to lift weights and work out. He holds me accountable and makes sure that we meet the workout schedule. I also enjoy tennis for the exercise, the camaraderie and the competition. I also like to play golf and that is primarily for relationships that are important to me in my life. I like to play with Joy and the boys because we have no distractions for 4 to 5 hours and simply get to be with each other and get to know each other better.
Elise Hacking Carr is senior production editor for Print & Promo Marketing magazine, and managing editor for PRINTING United Journal.