A fresh batch of college graduates will soon go their separate ways in pursuit of new opportunities—the perfect job, a nice ride, food that isn’t ramen. But bills don’t care about dreams, as Jeff Greenbury can attest. Shortly after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and decision sciences at Miami of Ohio University, Greenbury took a sales position with Standard Register to get his landlord off his back. That decision paid off.
“What was meant to be my first job, so I could make my rent payment, turned into a very fulfilling 22-year career at Standard,” he recalled.
Greenbury held various sales management and executive titles during his tenure with Standard Register, but he eventually stood again at a crossroads: Should he give up something familiar in exchange for a model that better aligned with his business goals? “I left Standard because I felt that the asset-light model of a BPO organization allowed me to be an advocate for my clients in ways that working for a manufacturer would never allow me,” Greenbury said. “No more fitting a square peg in a round hole.”
The fit still wasn’t quite right. That all changed when NPN360°, a marketing services and brand supply chain management provider based in Wheeling, Ill., recruited Greenbury. Drawn to the company’s culture and strong foundation, Greenbury signed on as co-owner alongside Artie Collins—and the rest is history.
Read on as Greenbury talks business.
Print+Promo (P+P): How do you set goals for yourself? For your business?
Jeff Greenbury (JG): I’ve always been a goal- and results-driven person. It’s in my DNA. In every organization I’ve worked, setting and achieving objectives as a part of the fabric of the organization. At NPN360° we continue that tradition. As president of NPN360°, I spend a lot of time with our team white-boarding processes and identifying gaps and opportunities to add value in our business. Our findings and improvement initiatives drive the goals we set for the company. Our goals are always related to optimizing the systems that support our business and our clients. We believe that “service is the new sales” and if we set goals that support that focus, we will continue to grow in the marketplace. Our goals, although achievable, definitely take us out of our industry’s traditional comfort zone, as we are constantly looking at new solutions and technologies to add value.
P+P: How does the economy continue to affect the industry?
JG: We believe overcapacity and mergers and acquisitions will continue to affect our industry in the short-term, suppressing prices as the end product output changes and becomes more commoditized. The speed of change will continue to impact the industry and those companies that are financially strong with foresight, vision and the ability to flex to the needs of the market will prosper and grow. That is why we’ve built NPN360° around the concepts of asset-light, fast and flexible execution delivered by experienced customer-facing associates. While the economy will have ups and downs in the future, we are trying to continuously deliver customer-appreciated solutions regardless of the economic environment.
P+P: What do you expect to be some of the biggest challenges the industry will face?
JG: The biggest challenges facing producers and distributors of content involve navigating the waters of the myriad of different marketing channels and what to deploy and when. Then, more importantly, hav[ing] the tools in place to execute the delivery of the message. The key to understanding how each medium—whether it’s print, email, mobile, etc.—fits into a specific marketing or advertising campaign is paramount. The marketing solutions and options our clients have to choose from are often overwhelming. And as traditional marketing solutions become more robust and complicated in a digital environment, we find that clients need our help and advice more than ever.
P+P: What do you think is the most exciting, cutting-edge thing your company is doing right now? Why?
JG: We are developing a next-generation portal that includes all the elements of a standard print and promotional e-commerce site with all the digital marketing tools that marketing is looking for today and tomorrow. Each version of the portal that we roll out to the market seems to have exponentially more options, features and benefits than the previous generation. We end up cannibalizing some of our business, but the commitment to technology is creating new additional opportunities, driving much of our new business growth. We believe this paradigm shift will continue well into the future, so we want to continue to position ourselves in a leading-edge position.
P+P: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
JG: Most people are not aware I am Canadian. Although I have lost my accent, I still enjoy time with the family on the lake, I am still an avid hockey fanatic and I enjoy cold-weather sports [like] skiing and paddle tennis.