From dot bomb implosion to the printing industry: my personal and professional journey.

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Since its founding in 1974, Printing Control Graphics (PCG), a recent acquisition of Houston-based Consolidated Graphics (NYSE: CGX), has been known as a high-end, boutique, commercial printer, producing annual reports, presentation folders, catalogs, brochures, and direct mail. Before 2000, PCG was a successful medium-sized printing company with nearly $13 million in annual revenues. However, after the dot.com bubble burst in 2000-01, the slide in earnings began with back-to-back years of successive losses. But that was before Richard Lancaster joined the ranks of this rapidly sinking ship in June 2003 as Vice President of Business Development.

When Mr. Lancaster joined the company, revenues had fallen to $7.5 million and the company had an operating loss of more than -10%. At that time PCG was owned by a failed consolidator called Kelmscott Corporation, which in turn was owned by J. P. Morgan Chase and GE Capital, and managed through the JPM workout banking group. The goal on joining the company for Lancaster was to affect a turnaround and transition as quickly as possible and to help the Kelmscott group's effort to earn its way out from bank ownership.

Lancaster, at the age of 43, has lead PCG on a steady march back to profitability. Revenues in 2004 jumped to $10 million from $7.5 million in 2003 when he came onboard. However, the company's bottom line still showed some red, with losses of $716,000 in 2003 and $100,000 in 2004. Then in April 2005, after the closing of the merger with CGX, Lancaster was promoted to President of the company, and ever since the company has been profitable each month. July 2005 operating income came in at 18.5%, while the industry standard is around 5%. While the turnaround and transition is not complete, Lancaster feels the company is well on its way to becoming an industry leader in terms of operating income. The organization-wide restructuring resulted in a:

* 20% reduction in the workforce.

* 19% replacement in the remaining workforce.

* Crossed-training 60% of the staff.

* Increased sales revenues due to new customers.

* 10% increase in cross-selling additional value-added services to existing customers.

* Investment in new, state-of-the-art digital printing technology.

* Reduction in operating costs through various process efficiency improvements.

Lancaster noted in a presentation to executives at his new parent holding company that he set out six core ideas in leading PCG's transition, but pointed out that these principles were not all that different from using persistent, consistent, good management principles anywhere:

* Sales Focus--"nothing happens until somebody sells something!"

* Program Selling--sell value-added programs, not tactical printing jobs.

* Cost Consciousness--embed this in everyone for everything we do and make results clearly visible.

* Quality-Centric--customers know us as a high-end boutique printer, thus we must deliver a quality product to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace.

* People Focus--respect employee's longevity and knowledge. If people truly feel valued, this is infectious in their interactions with customers and with each other. Have fun (e.g., BBQ's for the staff and horse races for customers).

* Insist upon integrity in all that we do--always take the high ground on any issue where "circumstantial ethics" can creep into decision making.

What is particularly amazing about Lancaster is that he had no prior experience whatsoever in the printing industry I a traditionally "good-oldboys" industry.

Born in England into a British military family, Lancaster spent his youth traveling the world with his parents and attending Britain's equivalent of The Citadel military boarding school, followed by a small liberal arts college in Nottingham, England. Prior to joining PCG, he held a number of sales and marketing executive positions in various companies such as Dun & Bradstreet in Australia and England, Digital Systems/Avaya in Seattle (a computer/telephony mainframe manufacturer), and Nextel Communications, where he was the Director of Marketing. In addition, in 1994 Lancaster started up CobWeb, Inc., one of the first Internet companies in the Seattle area and a pioneer in the emerging field of online technology.

By 1996 he was running the company profitably as CEO and by 1999 he was actively funding the company through "angels" (i.e., private venture capital and institutional investors across the country as he pursued a product development strategy). Lancaster fashioned CobWeb into an ecommerce service provider, developing an application on emerging Microsoft technology, E-Storefront. CobWeb was then backed by a global investment banking firm, Lazard, out of San Francisco. Lazard and CobWeb embarked on a consolidation of six other Internet systems integrator firms across the U.S. and Canada to create a major new player in the Application Service Provider field, providing enterprise-wide application services to medium and large firms.

However, timing is everything, and CobWeb's attempts to raise $60 million to fund the closing of seven simultaneous mergers of the companies involved in the consolidation fell right into the abyss of private equity investing that marked the beginning of the dot.com crash. With the consolidation in tatters, the 9/11 disaster then served to finish off CobWeb as a going concern as the technology marketplace was lobotomized almost overnight and new sales revenues dried up. Lancaster voluntarily closed the company in June of 2002, having paid off the bank and all but a few of the creditors, laying off over 40 people, and transitioning the customers and technology to another firm to be supported.

Personally devastated by his first major business failure, and the cruel reality of "Thanksgiving Dinner Syndrome" ("when you have to face relatives over the Thanksgiving dinner table for the rest of your life knowing they lost their investment in your company"), he dropped out of fulltime business for 12 months and worked as a part-time consultant on an Open Source project out of Singapore, as well as on the very successful launch of "Scene-It?," a new DVD board game--now the fastest selling board game in history. Lancaster licked his wounds and contemplated his future.

What happened to Lancaster, like so many of his startup peers, is both a personal and professional transition story--going from the highs of running your own company and negotiating with investment banks and venture capital firms, to the depths of despair, having lost it all, and then career uncertainty. What lessons can be drawn from this experience and applied to company turnarounds and transitions across different industries?

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOT.COM AND PRINTING INDUSTRIES

It is conventional wisdom that different types of skill sets and business foci are needed to successfully lead a high-tech start-up versus a relatively stable, mature industry (see Figure 1). Therefore, it is not surprising that the founders of startup companies are often replaced by managers whose skill sets and experiences are more consistent with a pattern of stable growth. It is equally plausible, however, that a manager of an entrepreneurial venture may adapt his or her behaviors to fit changing business demands and environments. In other words, a manager can change his or her behaviors to a certain extent, dependent upon his or her prior experiences and predisposition, rather than it being assumed that they should be "replaced." In PCG's case, sales skills were necessary to grow top-line revenues, given historically slim industry operating margins and increasing price competition as a result of consolidation. Sales skills are often transferable from business to business--as the old adage goes, "a good salesperson can sell nearly any product or service, provided a market exists for it!" Lancaster's previous background, primarily in executive sales and marketing positions, meant he could bring his considerable sales acumen to bear on PCG's turnaround.

THE INTERVIEW

Richard Lancaster was selected for this interview because of his unique career path in which he transitioned from the high tech startup industry to a very traditional printing industry where he has never held a previous position. The general research questions were: (1) "What made him want to undertake this career transition?, (2) Are certain managerial skills and practices transferable across industries?, and (3) If yes, what are these?" The initial and subsequent interviews took place in Lancaster's office in Seattle, Washington. What follows are the questions asked by interviewers, and a summary of his responses.

Question 1: Why and how did you make such a profound personal career transition from a high-tech startup industry to a very traditional printing industry where you have never held a previous position? What kinds of insights helped you make this transition?

Response: At first, when I had to shut down CobWeb, I was personally devastated and burned-out. I felt somewhat like a war veteran--the experience was awful, but what was one to do upon returning to civilian life where there were lots of unknowns? For years I had written a high-tech column in the local business journal, lectured at business schools on entrepreneurialism, and sat on the board of the MIT Forum, as well as various startup company boards of directors. I even helped startup five or six companies. I worked very hard and kind of sat back and somewhat selfishly wondered what I had gotten out of all of the effort.

When thinking about what was to come next for me, instinctively, I wanted to return to the familiar world of high-tech sales and marketing. I even interviewed for various positions, but the opportunities just did not feel right anymore--did I really want to go back to another highstress, fast-paced, high-tech startup environment? Did I have the passion for technology anymore? I dabbled in the game industry for a while as a consultant, but there was so much uncertainty and I really didn't want to be with another startup at that point. I wanted something more predictable.

So I decided to sit back, wait, and "let the job come to me"--not in a passive way, but rather to open my mind to all sorts of possibilities (i.e., looking outside my familiar career boxes). My core strength is "sales," and the personal relationship aspects of sales are near universal to any product or service.

Additionally, I longed for the simplicity of real bottom-line results. Every quarter you either make or fail to make revenue and expense goals--NOT the "funny money" world of volatile Internet company valuations and fluctuating stock prices. The printing industry, by contrast, offered transparency of results, coupled with the fact that it was (and still is) facing technological changes, albeit at a somewhat glacial pace.

Specifically, increasing pressure is being leveled against the marketing function in all businesses. The issue here is how to tie specific marketing campaigns and advertising expenditures to visible revenue results. It could be argued that the Internet industry has led the way in being able to target and personalize (1:1) marketing promotions to measure the appreciable impact of a campaign upon sales and customer retention. Similarly, the print world is also being forced to move to personalized marketing campaigns whereby an organization may opt to send out different mailing pieces to different customers (i.e., profiling), based on the probability of a sale. For example, a company may engage in "data mining" to identify certain customers with likely repeat purchases. The company would then submit the segmented customer database to PCG over the Internet, who would then personalize mailings to different existing or potential customers. Technological innovation, even in the stodgiest industries, is inevitable to realize productivity gains. So, the marriage of my personal knowledge in sales, coupled with a climate of impending technological innovations in the print industry, was a tempting and challenging career opportunity.

The transition was by no means an easy one for me, given I knew almost nothing about the print industry; you can imagine how some of the existing staff reacted to "the new guy" coming in with zero industry knowledge! However, when making any management transition one must maintain the humility to learn fast and furious from your employees and customers. I tried to keep my head low and my ears to the ground until I had something relevant to contribute.

Question 2: Tell us what you see as your organizations' competitive strengths and core competencies (the things your company does especially well) in your market(s)?

Response: At this point in time, I would summarize our core strengths as:

* Thirty-year reputation of excellence and low employee turnover.

* Customer service (i.e., quality guaranteed or your job redone).

* Program selling versus selling print jobs.

* Technological innovation.

* Economies of scale in purchasing from our parent company.

Concerning our reputation, we enjoy a 30 plus-year reputation of excellence in offset printing, something that has been hard fought and won over the years and is not easily replaced. Our reputation as a specialty printer at the highest end of the quality spectrum is clearly our most easily defined strength. In this business, personal relationships are everything. Printing has become commoditized over the past ten years and without our long-standing personal relationships we would be in a world of hurt right now. Our reputation and relationships are, in part, a reflection of the longevity of our sales team and production staff. Many of our employees have been with the company an average of 15 to 20 years. Our customers within our major accounts know and trust them. This is often in stark contrast to the high-tech industry where turnover is rampant and employee longevity is low; thus, there is not the same kind of historical consistency presented to your customers.

The core competency we deliver to the marketplace really is service. We have to deliver on time, within budget, and with the highest quality possible. We are in one of the oldest industries in the United States (the first press arrived here from England in 1670) and there are over 40,000 print shops of all kinds in America. With that much competition we have to differentiate our service by being known as "a company easy to do business with." How do we do this? First, the customer is guaranteed quality work or we will re-do it at no charge if they are not satisfied. "Quality" is admittedly a customer perception and that is what counts. For example, there is a saying in the industry: "Black and white, sleep at night." This means that black and white print is fairly simple to succeed at, in comparison to color print where there are subtle variations in colors, hues and intensity. We provide all of our customers a set of "proofs" on their job run. In addition they can come in house during the actual printing of the job and do a "press check," where they can see the printed sheet coming off the press and on a realtime basis sign off on how it looks.

However, color can even change during the course of a long run, after a press check and proof have been approved. When that happens, the printer is typically 100% responsible for the job, reruns the job and eats the entire cost. This situation probably will not change until the industry develops the use of spectrodensitometers to measure the depth of color and the consistency of proofs and press sheets, and then has a written contract with the client stating the specific readings that are acceptable. Until that happens we provide the customer the assurance that we will get the job done right.

We also make it easy for the customer to do business with us by "program selling" designed to alleviate a customer's pain points, and by using technology. I will explain these next.

A transition is underway at PCG to sell programs to marketing managers, as opposed to transactions (print jobs) to buyers/procurement staff. By that I mean we want to bundle additional value-added solutions with traditional print jobs that provide a more complete solution to our customers identified areas of pain. For example, if we learn that a customer's problem is that they still need to arrange and contract with a mail shop to get the printed materials mailed to customers, then we offer to take over and bundle "mailing services" with the contract. Or if they do not have any physical space to store skids of printed material, then we will arrange warehousing to hold their inventory. These are only a couple of examples of providing "one-stop shopping" to our customers.

Printing is an industry that is becoming more digitized each year. We have caught that wave and invested in a color digital press. We are now working with our clients to move their direct marketing programs onto our digital press and to personalize each piece we print for them in order to raise their individual response rates and revenues per piece. For example, we have recently launched a "web-to-print" job whereby one of our largest clients logs onto a website we host to configure their customer flyer each month. They have 450 sales representatives who are now able to build unique promotional flyers, featuring 50 products each month, with five price choices they can configure per product. The rep does the configuration of each piece on our website and then processes the order online through a shopping cart interface. We then receive the orders from the 450 reps via email, download the necessary files and print, pack and ship them to the rep's branch office so they can take them into the field and deliver them. This customer is reducing the number of flyers they print each month from over 20,000 to less than 5,000 and, more importantly, they are raising the revenue per flyer substantially by virtue of the fact that the customer is receiving specifically targeted product selections, at the right price and with a personalized message from their sales representative.

Finally, we are able to leverage our purchasing power for supplies by going through our new parent company, Consolidated Graphics (CGX). Due to CGX's sheer size, we have been able to decrease our costs and streamline our purchasing process. This, in part, has resulted in a July 2005 operating income of 18.5% while the industry standard is 8%.

Question 3: What is your industry's greatest challenge and what is your company doing to meet it?

Response: The printing business is intensely competitive, and like other industries (e.g., travel) we experienced a price war for the reduced amount of business since 9/11 across the local market, as well as most of the rest of the U.S. Locally, in Seattle, we have been hit particularly hard with the dot bomb fallout as well as a general slowdown in aviation-related activity. Consolidation has been rampant in the past 24 months with several of the big producers around town (including us) being consolidated into much larger holding companies. In addition, one of the most respected companies in the field recently went under, causing ripples throughout the marketplace. So, the struggle has been on differentiation among the surviving players, and defining our core competencies. Identifying strengths the company can leverage, however, has been (and still is) somewhat of a moving target.

CGX, our parent company, is a network of 70 commercial printers. The plants range in size from a few million in annual revenues to over $40 million. Between us we cover 25 states and many of the major markets within the United States; we also can provide almost every kind of commercial printing known to man. This network has huge intrinsic value to our largest clients who are seeking national solutions, but hoping for local service. This localization of service is a feature we can provide our customers that is virtually unique in the commercial printing marketplace that we inhabit.

As I mentioned before, the industry is moving towards a digital future, but somewhat reluctantly. Our goal is to speed up the evolutionary process by jumping into the deep-end of providing value-added services to our clients. Value-added services are functions we can easily add to our core capabilities that enable a client to purchase more and more of what they need from a printer in one place, from one company and one representative (i.e., one-stop shopping). The future for our company lies in training our staff to think about how specific printed materials, of all kinds, are actually used by marketers to affect an end result. Currently, most folks in the printing world see ink on paper and how good it looks, how professionally it was produced, the level of craftsmanship deployed, etc. But rarely do a group of print professionals sit around and talk about what a particular piece is actually going to be used for, and then how they can collectively add value to the process by putting themselves in the position of the marketer producing the piece. This transition requires a nontraditional mindset in the printing industry. I believe the biggest impact management can have on an environment like this is to be the catalyst for change, the reactive agent that causes everyone to start looking outside of the box and at the whole picture, and most importantly to start looking at and understanding the client's business perspective. Of course I have to model these behaviors myself by looking for solutions to customers' admitted pain areas that we can solve, typically by bundling our value-added solutions with traditional printing. If I, myself, fail to show actual results (increased sales revenues), then why should my staff adopt this perspective?

Question 4: How do you go about finding new opportunities that fit your organization and what it does well?

Response: Luckily for me printing is ubiquitous, so opportunities are everywhere. However, like everyone else, we have a sweet spot and we need to aim as much new business at that sweet spot as possible in order to maximize our results. What is true across so many industries and individual businesses, and true for PCG, is that 80% of our business comes from 20% of our clients. Therefore, what we need to do is find new, large opportunities, not many small ones. Of course we must also retain the high-margin clients we currently have and sell them more bundled services. What is equally true in most industries is that established sales people do not want to cold call anymore, and getting them to do so at times is like pulling teeth. The solution that we are working on is to have our sales force target a handful of new, large opportunities on a go-forward basis. In other words, they have to have at least five key account prospects being worked on at any given time--if one drops out another is added, if one becomes a customer another is added. Clearly our folks here have to look for medium to large corporations in the state that have a decent amount of printing to do each year, so those criteria are also added to the equation. Generating long-term relationships is never easy, and starting the process from scratch typically creates a lot of inertia. Sticking to the process and being very disciplined about it is the key. We are in the very early stages of this initiative right now, and we are quietly confident we will succeed with this approach.

Question 5: In the final analysis, the core values of the leader heavily influence the way an organization operates and its managers manage. What are your core values that you hope are represented in how your company does business? In other words, when people hear the name Printing Control, what do you want them to think?

Response: PCG is a 50-person company, so as President my values influence people in a very direct way. I try to mix having fun at work, with a sense of community and then with being serious about the important business of making money. Our customers are primarily marketers, designers, procurement managers and print buyers from medium to large corporations and design firms, from the arts community and nonprofit organizations to the for-profit sector. So I try to ensure that my management style reflects the values of our various customers. For example, in dealing with the arts community our customers expect a high quality product with excellent professional service, but in a somewhat relaxed environment. On the other hand, a procurement manager of a large corporation may expect a somewhat formal professional style and wants us to help them identify demonstrable cost and efficiency savings. My role is also to reflect those values to our staff and help them recognize that they must adapt to different customer styles.

Another value I promulgate includes dealing very fairly and openly with our suppliers and vendors. Printing is an old, established industry where personal relationships are critical on every level to the profitable operation of a commercial printing plant. In many areas of the industry there are duopolies or triopolies, and we have to navigate our way carefully through these areas. The only way to successfully do that is to play by the rules, be honest and truthful with your business partners, and not slip into allowing staff members to become "overly competitive"--for example, by beating up our partners on prices or terms when we are partnering closely with a favored supplier.

At the end of the day what I want staff members to take home from their experience at PCG is the feeling that they are valued, that they are heard, and that they have been managed consistently and with integrity. Those values should also be reflected in their dealings with customers. I also want staff members to have an outlet during the day to enjoy their time while making an important contribution to the business. Another area of concern to many of our staff is our position within the business and local communities. It is important to us that we participate in a meaningful way within the greater community, so we nearly always have some kind of project going on that in some way helps improve our community. Whether it's supporting the local community symphony, collecting fun items for troops in Baghdad or holding a Katrina Relief Raffle, our staff love this kind of activity as it represents who they are, and these projects are always so much fun.

Question 6: Were there any special role models, educational experiences or any books or ideas that heavily influenced how you developed as a manager/leader?

Response: Yes, so many I can't begin to say, but I'll give it a try. Certainly military boarding school in England springs to mind as representing a style of management and "motivation" that I would run a hundred miles to avoid! Living in an autocracy with a highly structured hierarchy was very painful for me and I craved freedom from all the restrictions that come with a military lifestyle. So, you could say I learned what I didn't want early in life which shaped my views later on of what I did want dramatically! I never want to be known as a "control freak" that goes around micromanaging everything and every body. I want people to take initiatives and have the freedom to continuously improve the business, but also to take ownership of the consequences of their actions.

Although I felt unlucky in some ways to be sent to a military boarding school for six years, I was very lucky in that my parents lived overseas for a large part of my childhood. Consequently I have been heavily influenced by the years I spent in Singapore, Iran and Australia as I was growing up. Events shaped my thinking tremendously, from independence celebrations in Singapore in the sixties to the Iranian Revolution of the late seventies. Through the course of growing up overseas, with multiple trips back and forth to Britain each year to go to school, I was exposed to a depth of culture that is an absolute privilege to experience. Different people are affected differently by this kind of life experience and, in me, it produced a deep appreciation of cultural and religious diversity which has definitely shaped how I see the world and what value I place on my business life. I think it helps me keep it all in perspective.

As far as pure business books are concerned, I was heavily influenced by Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm (2002). Although Moore directed most of his remarks toward marketing in the high-tech industry, his ideas on emerging markets and competitive positioning are applicable to almost any kind of business including printing.

Certain characters in my life have been quite influential. I vividly remember my dad telling me when I was a teenager that computers were going to be the business to be in (kind of like the scene from The Graduate where Dustin Hoffman is told to get into plastics). Years later, when I was selling large software applications to big banks, I realized how my dad had influenced my direction. Also, a former CEO I worked with had encouraged me to get out of being a sales guy and get into marketing management. He then provided a path for me to do that, which hugely influenced my subsequent direction as an executive. Within two years of becoming a marketing manager at a mainframe company I was Director of Marketing at OneComm/Nextel, which was a multi-billion dollar startup.

Question 7: Many companies are having trouble attracting and retaining the types of employees they need to be competitive. What special things or strategies does your organization use to hire and keep the best?

Response: One of the most innovative programs offered by CGX, our parent company, is called the Associates Program. It is designed to attract the best and brightest from local universities wherever there is a CGX plant. The program pays a decent salary for three years of training, as well as generous stock options, Associates are trained on every major aspect of commercial printing with the goal of moving them into senior management roles as soon as they are deemed ready for the responsibility. This program has been so successful that at this point in time there are eight company presidents, out of a total of 70 companies, who have come through the program. In addition, many senior corporate roles are filled by former Associates. CGX keeps a stable of several hundred Associates constantly in training. I plan to bring another Associate to the firm by the end of this year.

In general, hiring in the commercial printing trade is pretty straightforward. For most positions there is heavy competition for decent jobs, so we are always able to see a handful of well-qualified candidates for each vacancy. The one exception is with sales people. There is no easy solution to hiring sales representatives and most company presidents across the country find hiring reps the most challenging of all tasks. Part of the problem is that good reps tend to stay with their existing employer as they know that account transition is usually only about 35% successful, and they do not want to lose their base of revenue since printing has traditionally been a 100% commission sales paradigm. Every kind of incentive is being used to attract good sales people from incumbent plants, but rarely does this work out well for the hiring company. The trick is to balance compensation packages with results so that the company does not end up spending a large sum on a transition plan for a rep just to have the rep leave for the next printer at the end of the plan--having not delivered enough revenue to cover the transition cost. Quite often printing companies fall victim to this mistake, and all too often there are sales reps that are prepared to "bounce" from company to company being paid a large guaranteed salary for 12 months and then never delivering the revenue before moving on. Unfortunately, I do not see any silver bullet for this dilemma going forwards. Our hope is that we will find a couple of great Associates who we can bring onboard and train to be excellent sales executives.

Question 8: Are there any special strategies or approaches you use to keep everyone focused on the organization's goals and mission?

Response: We are small (50 people), so it is fairly easy to keep everyone focused. We have set revenue and expense goals that we review with all our employees and monitor these on a regular basis. We dedicate space in our monthly newsletter to do this, but we do not use anything as formal as a Balanced Scorecard type of approach. Beyond this, we all develop "Trouble Reports" (an underutilized piece of equipment, an unhappy customer, etc.) and then engage in collaborative problem-solving without casting blame on individuals. The Japanese have a saying, "Fix the problem--not the blame!" I think we would all do well in politically charged company environments to remember this simple, yet powerful management principle.

Question 9: What do you see as your greatest current leadership challenge?

Response: The printing industry globally is in decline, having peaked in 1999-2000. A few years ago there were over 55,000 printing plants in the U.S., today there are less than 45,000, and this is heading to less than 35,000 soon according to industry analysts. Larger jobs are now being outsourced to China, digital technology is taking the place of offset printing and reducing the amount of paper and ink being used, online capabilities such as email have replaced the need for mailed correspondence, websites are replacing brochures, and inkjet and laser printers are now installed in over 100 million U.S. homes. So the greatest challenge I face in leadership is staying on top of these massive changes in one of the oldest industries in America-knowing how to react to these changes, keeping people focused on where the opportunities are for growth, relentlessly going after business in a diminishing marketplace, finding new ways to cut costs and helping clients understand their alternatives to save money. Customers will help you get what you want (sustainable sales revenues) to the extent you help them get what they want (e.g., faster turnaround, higher quality, ease of doing business). We are not alone as an industry since everyone is going through something similar, and so there is a lot of empathy out there in the work-world.

Question 10: As you reflect on your leadership of this organization, what do you see as your greatest contribution or legacy?

Response: My contribution to PCG, and to our parent company (CGX) as well, is primarily in the sales and marketing area. I have sold mainframes to banks, marketed wireless services, and brokered merger and acquisition transactions, etc. I love to sit with clients, identify their pain, empathize with them and then show them how we can solve their problems creatively and to their advantage. I also enjoy helping the staff understand the depths to which they need to discuss the client's issues in order to win much more of the business that is available. So I am out on the road a lot with the sales people, mentoring them. The other contributions I make are less tangible--things like providing a vision ("our goal is to become a world class commercial printer as defined by our operating income and to achieve this while maintaining a fun culture that we all enjoy each day").

Another part of my legacy I would hope would be to uphold the integrity of the group in all that we do. The group of people I manage expect their leadership to represent the highest standards in terms of business ethics, as do our customers. A leader should not only promote one's own agenda, but also embody that of those being led. I hope to represent the people that work with me in the way they most appreciate and respect. If I can move on in life having achieved corporate growth and profitability, while maintaining the respect of the people that I work with, then I will consider my legacy well worthwhile.

Question 11: What are the common mistakes you see businesses make in managing?

Response: One of the most common mistakes I see in business in general is that executives tend to underestimate the power of professional marketing. There are entire industries where the culture is to not employ marketing people at all, whether they are internal or external (outsourced) to the company. I think this is a huge mistake. Almost every executive understands the critical importance of employing the very best sales people you can find; however, if they are selling a badly focused, or out of date, product or service, then over time it will not matter how good they are!

Another classic problem that is prevalent today, and linked to the one just stated, is that so many medium and large companies have done a reasonable good job of collecting valuable client data, but then have absolutely no idea how to use it. There simply isn't enough vision of the possibilities within executive offices to go beyond data collection to personalized direct marketing in order to in crease response rates to marketing programs. Employing more "data mining" analysts, as well as direct marketing program managers, would significantly improve results within many companies.

Question 12: In this era of corporate malfeasance, what do you believe is the responsibility of the leader of any corporation like yours for leadership in the local community? Any examples of your own activities and why you chose them?

Response: Since the collapse of the technology sector after 9/11 there has been a purging of corruption from the corporate world, which was long overdue, and probably has not gone far enough to include the worst offenders. Our local work in the arena of social responsibility is quite typical of all business units within a public company. We adhere to all of the terms of the Sarbanes Oxley paradigm, and we work hard to ensure that no one is outside what are really traditional boundaries of business ethics. We hire the best people for each job, ensuring that personal integrity is central to the character of the individual, as best we can. From a leadership perspective we scrutinize our behavior more and debate gray areas to ensure we always take the high ground on any issue where "circumstantial ethics" can creep into business decision making.

Probably the most important thing we do as a company here locally is to show what we believe in and what is important to us by virtue of the causes we support and the customers we have. Almost every organization needs printing of some kind, so we find ourselves at the center of the business world. It also means we have the opportunity to work on almost any kind of charitable cause imaginable, because most of those organizations also use a lot of print. Many of our customers are non-profit organizations, like World Vision and the Seattle Symphony. Typically our work with these organizations involves some form of trade or discount or both. We try very hard to be good corporate citizens and to help where we can, but we also must keep our own financial health at the forefront. Other events we have organized recently within the company have included the Multiple Sclerosis stair climb where we had two teams of staff members participate, sponsored an HIV/MDS soccer tournament to help educate African immigrants, collected two pallets of toys and goodies for a squad of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sponsored the local community symphony's Concert for Peace, and provided a gift raffle for victims of Hurricane Katrina (many of the gifts were in fact donated by our customers). We try to always have a project ongoing that provides us all with a connection to our community--a sense that we are lucky to be able to do what we do, and something to help improve the lives of others less fortunate. Many of these causes are identified by our employees and employees are always very involved in these events.

Finally, we also believe in being good stewards of the environment. Printing Control Graphics takes pride in actively supporting the reduction of waste generated from the printing process. In fact, the county's EnviroStar program has certified us as a four-star company. We are committed to using environmentally safe products and in providing an environmentally safe facility for our employees to work. To maintain these commitments we:

* Use soy-based inks and water-based aqueous coatings.

* Recycle used aluminum plates.

* Sort and recycle paper, cardboard and plastic wrap.

* Reclaim and reuse solvents using a distiller.

* Control and properly dispose of any hazardous waste that we may generate.

* Test and qualify all chemicals for safety before using.

* Have created processes to control chemicals so they are not accidentally released into the environment.

* Have a team that continually improves our policies and practices.

* Do not use paper and plastic in our kitchen ... every department has a week rotation of kitchen duty to keep cups, plates, and silverware washed.

We are currently working very hard to earn a five-star award, the highest level of environmental stewardship. I personally guest speak to any community organization that invites us to tell our story of why we believe in corporate social responsibility and what, specifically, we are doing to achieve this.

Question 13: If you could summarize your managerial philosophy in one statement, what would it be? Or, if you could put up a wall poster of "management lessons" for your readers, what would be on the list?

Response: Over the years I have been asked this question in a variety of ways, and I do not think there is a simple answer. My basic managerial philosophy is biblical: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Management is what I do in order to support my family and the other things in life that are important to me. If I lose sight of the fact that I am dealing with other people, if I turn them into objects that I service, who service me, or who I compete against, then I am dehumanizing myself in the process. I like to compete and win, which means I want to have people to compete against on a level playing field. The management lessons that I can share with your readers are:

1. Always remember that nothing happens until someone sells something!

2. Fix the problem, not the blame.

3. Keep the work stimulating, honest, and fun--in short, keep it real!

4. Technology will impact every business-don't fight it, harness it.

5. Model desired behavior and the resulting rewards will convince others to follow.

6. Be a good steward of the environment.

7. Don't underestimate the power of professional marketing.

8. You will crash and burn occasionally-learn from it!

CONCLUDING PERSPECTIVE: LESSONS FOR MANAGERS, SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS

Mr. Richard Lancaster's insightful observations and comments offer a number of important lessons for managers, students, and scholars. For managers, regardless of industry, it is important to model desired behaviors for employees (Luthans and Kreitner, 1975; Bommer et al., 1987). More important to employees, however, are the actual consequences of one's actions. If a given behavior results in satisfying a customer need, while at the same time earning a sales commission and repeat business, then the results are likely perceived as desirable and worth emulating. Paradoxically, modeling poor ethics (e.g., bribes), which results in a sales commission or unjustifiable reductions in expenses, will also signal to employees that such behaviors are indeed acceptable! Secondly, technology (correctly deployed) in the marketing arena can result in a more targeted, personalized approach to selling (Han and Kamber, 2001; Betson et al., 2000). For example, data mining along with other technologies has the capability to yield a visible return per dollar of advertising expenditure. Such scientific approaches to marketing are currently under-utilized in many organizations today. Finally, if we collectively put more effort into fixing the problems than we do on assigning the blame, then fewer good managers would be fired and more problems would likely be solved.

For students, as future managers, the lessons cited above for managers are equally applicable to their careers. In addition, students need to know that they can learn from their mistakes. In a society that is preoccupied with success stories, we also perhaps need a journal of managerial mistakes to learn what not to do and the resulting consequences. It is okay to fail at something, so long as we learn from the experience and don't repeat it. Students also need to expand their career horizons. Too often students feel pigeon-holed upon graduation to think about careers only in terms of their chosen academic major like accounting, finance, marketing, etc. (Bolles and Bolles, 2005; Louis, 1980; Sullivan, 1999). Rarely are they given encouragement to explore a multitude of careers and industries where their attitudes, abilities, and likes may indeed be transferable. As the CIO of Alaska Airlines, Bob Reeder (2006), states "Hire for attitude, train for skills." Finally, it is possible (indeed desirable) to have fun at work and contribute to society, while at the same time address the serious business of making money.

For scholars, future research on managerial career transitions needs to investigate and identify what managerial skills and practices are relatively transferable across industries and under what conditions. Which, if any, are not? It is clear that a shrinking U.S. labor pool will demand a more flexible workforce (Sullivan, 1999). Rather than preparing people for linear career paths in a given industry, we need to find creative ways early on in one's career to educate, create incentives, and promote people for lateral career moves.

References

Berson, A., S. Smith and K. Thearling. 2000. Building Data Mining Applications for CRM. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Bolles, R. and M. Bolles. 2005. What Color is Your Parachute? 2005: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Bommer, M., C. Gratto, J. Gravander and M. Tuttle. 1987. "A Behavioral Model of Ethical and Unethical Decision Making." Journal of Business Ethics 6 (4): 265-280.

Han, J. and M. Kamber. 2001. Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Louis, M. R. 1980. "Career Transitions: Varieties and Commonalities." Academy of Management Review 5 (3): 329-340.

Luthans, F. and R. Kreitner. 1975. Organizational Behavior Modification. New York, NY: Scott Foresman.

Moore, G. 2002. Crossing the Chasm. London, UK: Harper Collins.

Reeder, R. 2006. "What we look for in hiring at Alaska Airlines." Speech at Seattle University (May 5).

Sullivan, S. 1999. "The Changing Nature of Careers: A Review and Research Agenda." Journal of Management 25 (3): 457-484.

Diane L. Lockwood

Associate Professor and Chair of Department of MIS

Seattle University

Colette A. Frayne

Professor of International Business

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Robert E. Callahan

Associate Professor of Management

Seattle University Figure 1 Dot.com and Printing Industry Differences

Dot.com Business Printing Industry Time Frame Daily/Hourly Quarterly/Annual Financial Stock valuation and Steady quarter-to-quarter Drivers stock prices and year-to-year returns Human Transitional and Low turnover and stable Resources unstable workforce workforce Operations Evolving, unstable Repeatable processes (e.g.,

processes analysis, design,

estimation, construction,

production, testing,

maintenance) Use of High Low, but evolving rapidly Technology (e.g., variable demand

printing) Sales Focus Sell total "one-stop Sell a print "job"

shopping" Financial Comparatively "lose" and Stable, repeatable Reporting future oriented (e.g., constructs (e.g., equipment

market share in future) costs vs. depreciation,

profitability per machine

or employee) Time Horizon Delayed, future oriented "Here and now" time frame Exit Strategy Sell out or go public Sell out to large holding

company or remain

independent