15 Minutes

Mark Cupach understands it takes more than luck to thrive in your chosen field.

When he first started in the printing industry, Cupach worked for Cleveland-based American Greetings Corporation, where he concentrated on sharpening his skills in the essential areas of business: customer service, production management and marketing. After gaining some experience, he switched industries and worked at British Petroleum (BP) in human resource management. While there, he managed the self-insured program for more than 15,000 employees and did a stint with retail operations management. But, he eventually returned to the print world.

"After leaving BP, I managed a family-owned printing company and I also sold printing in the Cleveland area as a distributor," Cupach said. "In 1996, I joined Proforma and managed the print training, vendor development and vendor participation in Proforma shows."

He currently works on the manufacturing side 
of things as director of national sales for Business Stationery/Identity Group, located in Cleveland.

Here, Cupach shares his thoughts on the industry.

Print Professional (PP): Tell us about your background.
Mark Cupach (MC): Born and raised in Cleveland, I attended Lakewood St. Edward High School and obtained my bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Cleveland State University and a master's of Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace University. ... I 
also completed courses from the American Management 
Association and the Time Management Association.

PP: What is the best business advice you ever received?
MC: ... Procrastination is the greatest threat to success. ... To be successful in life, both business and personal, we must have a vision for attaining our goals and create the moments when they can be realized. Some of us wait for memories to happen to us; some of us create them.

PP: What is your company's biggest challenge today?
MC: Our biggest challenge is to find a way to 
effectively market to the widest range of distribution channels that will yield positive revenue growth. We are investing in emerging technology to better serve our customers with more cost-effective estimating, order placement and data management tools, bringing greater value to their clients. We continue to engage our customers with training and support, delivering new ways to sell beyond just the printed product. Part of our challenge is to integrate our sister company's product lines into our online offerings so distributors can integrate our offerings into their storefront programs. End-user markets range from consumers to small office/home office (SOHO) to mid-sized businesses to Fortune 1000 [companies]. The good news for us is that all of them buy what we make.