Good morning and welcome to Sunday AM.

Today is my bashing Sunday. I apologize in advance and don't let it ruin your Sunday, but let's discuss!

BUSINESS

Every business owner or management in a business hopefully operates their business best possible. You manage operations, staff, sales, marketing, R&D, and of course, also the legal side of your business. Some companies focus on being 'good' like you probably remember it was a mantra for Google when they started. Google wanted to win their customers and employees by being the good ones vs. the ones not good. So what identifies a good company? Well, if a company does what they say, comply with laws and regulations, treats their employees well, they are, of course, on the right way. But isn't this the case with most companies? So why and who did Google see as not being good? The big tech companies like IBM and Microsoft, and others, were seen as 'evil' companies by Google.

Many big companies become "evil" since their size gives them enormous influence and power, politically and financially. In the printing industry, we also see major companies that, in my mind, don't play after the book, and therefore can be seen as "evil." These are companies who, instead of dialogue, fight in courtrooms. These are companies that bypass rules and can end up on the front pages of any media in the world. Recent examples are Wirecard, VW (#dieselgate), and you can probably mention hundreds of others - unfortunately. If you don't inform your investors and shareholders about risks or don't do your background checks probably, you may end up in unpleasant situations. The way you judge a company in any context will be based on how they react.

When I was a sales manager in a printing company, I said that all companies make mistakes, but how you get back to your customer is how you handle a claim or error.

Fortunately, most companies in our industry are good companies with people understanding their roles, responsibilities, and how to play respectfully to their colleagues/competitors and the media.

But not all companies are good - and fortunately, the evil companies have a short life ahead of them since the evil management first hit the employees (who will eventually flee the sinking ship). The market understands that R&D and great products also require a 'good' mentality, so I believe the 'evil' companies will not invent new products and services aligned with customer needs. They will focus 100% on their own needs to survive. Finally, the company will either cease, get sold, or get new management.

TECHNOLOGY

Let's bash technology development a bit. Years ago, I worked as marketing manager for Roland Musical Instruments in Scandinavia, and I remember how new products were introduced to us from Japan. Typically we got a list of, for example, new Digital Pianos to be introduced at a trade show. Maybe five new models were introduced, so imagine that you have five models listed next to each other with specifications. All models were then compared to competitors' models, so if Yamaha introduced 7.5-watt speakers, Roland would introduce 8-watt speakers, and so forth. I believe this is referred to as incremental development, and of course, this works. Still, when a disruptor enters the market, the new player has relatively easy access. The new company or supplier will enter the market with an approach to deliver what's possible rather than what's previous generations offered. Think about Teslas. It's impossible to believe that GM, Toyota, Ford, or VW couldn't have done similar cars at the time. They just didn't. Think about the MP3 players before the first Apple iPods. Couldn't HP - or any other tech company, not have done a similar product? Or Kodak. They could, of course, have developed a digital camera (they did) and brought it to market (they didn't). So technology and development are either based on incremental development or maybe more interesting driving demand by understanding customer needs.

Looking at the printing industry, it's most likely not very different. All vendors introduce new products at the drupas - but aren't they mostly iterations of what we already have? Landa disrupted the concept with Nanography, which essentially is inkjet, and challenged all inkjet manufacturers to step into the game - and they did. If you look at the latest offset machine generations, they are all amazing, but do they deliver on demands from clients, or are they more iterations of previous generations? Of course, we don't always need disruptors, but with a market slowing down these years, it becomes obvious that we are in the middle of a technology change - and there will be winners and losers.

Though the market will continue to have "space" for most technologies, there might not be room for all vendors, and I expect to see mergers and acquisitions, closures, maybe even bankruptcies. This is, of course, sad for mainly the employees working at the companies that will be eliminated. Still, in a broader perspective, it's good since customers will win with better products.

My prediction for the future is one fewer offset vendor, and maybe even two on the digital print side. Of course, only the future will tell :-)

MUSIC

This week I re-discovered a very talented musician Mads Björn. He is so talented, and he pretty much plays all instruments himself. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that he has any good management that can help out globally, but here is a link to a song I really like. Maybe you like it too, and perhaps you would like to share it in your network so that we can show the power of community? Here is a song called 'White Trees,' recorded LIVE.

MEDIA

Governments subsidize media worldwide, and as media are changing from being publicists to businesses, more and more, and with that, challenges occur. Can and should media be subsidized? When you read this, you may think that this isn't the case where you live, but think of this as direct and indirect support. Many countries have lower sales tax or VAT on media. Some countries have zero VAT on news media, and other countries support media with funds based on various criteria. Why should media be supported? There can be a very important culture/language support in small countries, which I believe is important if you believe your language to be an important part of your culture. Other reasons can be to build walls against huge international media, but it could also be as simple as supporting media diversity in a country. However, with decreasing subscribers and a huge change in media consumption, a new breed of totally independent media sees the day of light. INKISH is an example. If it weren't because for YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn - we would never be able to grow, and this is just one example. I see more and more independent "radio," "TV," and "News media" - but not using subscriptions and micro-financing as essential revenue sources. These upcoming media challenges existing media and governments, and maybe most importantly, the ability for YOU to evaluate the accuracy of a media - so exciting times!

Politics

The pandemic financially influences almost all countries in the world. Huge stimulus packages, a dramatically lower production (GNP), and enormous pressures on the health industry, and in general, a change like never seen before is changing the financial markets. The central banks and governments intensively keep inflation, exchange rates, and all the instruments possible to secure the national economy. We all know this, and we can agree or disagree with the measures, but the result will only be visible within some time. In Denmark - a small but relatively strong economy, the central bank now has a negative interest, forcing many Danish banks to introduce negative interest on saving accounts typically exceeding approx. €15,000. This, of course, annoys people, and the Social Democratic government strongly recommends banks not to have a negative interest. The banks, of course, decide for themselves, and we do see competition between banks, so people with a fortune can have an interest in changing to another bank. Why is this important? The minister responsible for trade and commerce doesn't understand the relationship between the negative with the central bank and the national banks need to follow - this is a problem. A minister should realize this, which raises a more generic debate about who can become ministers?

The Danish minister's name is Simon Kollerup. He was born in 1986 now 35 years old with a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Copenhagen. His only work ever is working as a consultant for the Social Democratic Mayer of Copenhagen for one year - he is now responsible for developing trade/commerce/banks in Denmark. His Colleague Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod is mainly known for his sexual relationship with a 15 years old girl (when he was 34 himself). As I believe that politicians in most countries have limited experience, the question, and the discussion, is what to expect from people with no experience - and even questionable moral?

TRENDS

I look very much forward to the exhibitions in the autumn. PRINTING United in Orlando, and FESPA in Amsterdam, are confident that the shows will take place. I have put these under 'trends' because these two shows will be a compass for how future trade shows will attract both exhibitors and visitors. I have on NEWS written an article, where my conclusion about virtual/hybrid evens was quite negative. Unfortunately, virtual Drupa didn't do any good for the industry, and I believe that webinars have proven to serve a purpose now almost 1,5 years into the pandemic, and now it ends.

My conclusion is that webinars, as we know them, are over, and my second conclusion is that far fewer visitors will go to the real events. That leaves me with - then what?

See you next Sunday!

Jun 27, 2021

Author: Morten B. Reitoft

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