And Then There Was The Interview...

And then there was the interview…

What is funny is that we all look at things through our own filters. That is also one of the big reasons that people fail at their goals, relationships, and careers. I can remember the first time that I went with my sales manager to qualify a company for a copier. We came back and looked at a simple desktop and the total monthly cost was like $200.00 per month. I said, “Zack, you have to be kidding no one is going to pay $200.00 a month for a copier!” Little did I know that almost 5 years later I would be asking for that an hour.

We process everything from our own perspective and not from another’s. When you think from the other person’s view many times things look quite differently. I had a great example of this the other day. I started off working for IKON as a GAR (Graphic Arts Rep) Selling to no one but large commercial printers. This was a special corporate initiative to put together a team of selling professionals to move large amounts of the Canon imagePRESS and the imagerunner 7110, 7125, 7138 and 7150. With very large quotas they gave us our lists and sent us out into the brave beyond. Little did they know in a few short months we would be purchased by Ricoh and the “heavy iron” from Canon would soon disappear.

Left with the now Kodak product and Konica Minolta product relabeled as IKON gear we went out into the world to find out that people were a bit spooky to buy from us. As everyone let the doom and gloom get to them they found themselves not looking forward to what could happen but what they thought would happen. They allowed their “filters” to get in the way of their possible success and forced a self fulfilling prophecy of doubt and unbelief. The doubt and unbelief led to many deals being lost and with it their self confidence.

Now deep into the merger I have nowhere to turn to but to move forward with our Ricoh gear and make the best of it. I have looked at the alternatives and they are not good.

* Xerox Corporation over the last 12 months

As you can see Xerox is not the place to run to.

* Canon Corporation over the last 12 months

And Canon isn’t the place to run to.

Well there are no GREAT places to go. I decided that it was better to sell Ricoh for IKON than take my chances riding a new horse. Xerox hasn’t changed much in their production gear in about 10 years. Still living in the decade of fuser oil and pushing old technology with updated firmware is not an attractive future. Canon on the other hand has upgraded their technology but lacks the organizational breadth. They also can not move quickly in the field, they do not empower their on the ground people to be able to make business decisions for them, and I cannot even imaging working for an undercapitalized dealer ever again.

One of the things that sets IKON aside is the support for the gear. With a very broad range of products that go way beyond the equipment we have the people in place to design, implement and support long term the solutions that companies need to solve their issues and accomplish their business objectives. Since I sell the "big iron" I would fall victim to failure without this type of indepth support and ability to make quick business decisions in the field. Now with the financial strength of a successful manufacturer that is committed to research and development of new and innovative production products along with the IKON service and support I have a winning team to play on.

With what probably is a stronger portfolio that we have ever had we walk around defeated like a tiger with no roar. Like commercial print is dead or something. I had a sales manager "get stuck" with the “print for pay” rep that would take over half of my old territory. Now an overlay to support more people and help justify my existence I am now working feverishly to handle down the street accounts, major accounts and print for pay and national franchise accounts.

“Michael, this is going to be an impossible position to fill.” He said. “Find me someone that isn’t scared to do cold calls and we will be fine”, I said. Almost a month later I ask him, “Hey where is my guy?” “Well I have 2 I’m looking at but you will have to talk to them.” As he shies away from wanting to half to sell the program to them, he asks if I will talk to them. When there are plenty of positions open why would anyone want that position? Well that is all in the way you position it I was thinking. “Do you think that you have a sellable program?” “Not only is it sellable, but it is a profitable one as well,” I added. “Well then you are going to need to talk to them” he said. I told him, “Fine bring them on.” I mentioned. Now what you have to know is that I am passionate about printing, and I love the silly process of putting marks on paper. So these guys were toast!

I sat down in the driver’s seat (manager’s chair) and he brought them in and introduced them to me. I explained the corporate initiative and how I became the GAR. I talked about the program and its goals. I talked about the transition and how we needed better coverage and penetration into these accounts. I talked about the struggle of all new business development and the excitement of large equipment deals. I talked about the complexity and negotiations needed to secure these high volume accounts. I went over how they would have to be the best of the best or find another position.

After the interview and presentation, I had 2 willing volunteers. The sales manager was amazed, but I was not. Who would not want to work with the pirate? Who would not want to follow someone that is hell bent to succeed and believes in the cause? I too have drunk the Kool-Aid and am ready to move on. I have no more time to look back and wish for different circumstances.

All I know is that I have Kodak and Ricoh products to sell and a lot of people buying stuff all the time and it needs to be my stuff. Eventually everyone will get on board or float away drifting into failure. I am sure that eventually we will see a new generation that never knew IKON selling Canon or never knew IKON selling Konica Minolta. Canon and Konica Minolta is going away but what is left is enough to be wildly successful. So here I stand looking in the mirror. What will I do?

Will I filter everything with my own thoughts and fears, or will I look at things from my customer’s perspective? Will I look at the backing that I have to make things right and the infrastructure that makes me unbeatable? We must wake up each day and look forward to the battle. If not it is time to choose a different war.

With Sword drawn I run to the fight,

Pirate Mike

*Charts came from MSN Money...

RiKON The Next Generation

It sounds a bit like an old Star Trek episode but really this is my life. With all of the instability in the world what could happen that would bring all the stars into alignment, fix the global economy and solve world hunger? How about Ricoh making a play for the largest independent distributor of office products and solutions maybe? Ok maybe not… So you think that you had it all figured out huh, Konica Minolta buys Danka, Xerox buys Global. And maybe since IKON was almost a billion dollars of Canon's yearly equipment revenue that they would forsake the path that they followed with Global Imaging and Danka; well you were wrong! I can remember it like it was yesterday, "No Canon will never cut IKON off, that is ludicrous." Much to IKON's and Ricoh's dismay, Canon did pull the plug and sent Ricoh (the father of a brand new baby) reeling looking for a new horse to ride for the high end color and black and white portion of IKON's production portfolio (a 25% share of IKON's revenue). Watching this unravel (from the inside) was enough to send you to the doctor looking for a well deserved prescription of Xanex. Well thank goodness for Ricoh's Kodak relationship now we can all rest easy right?


In a playing field that is less than well defined it is funny where new bed partners come from. Just picking up Kodak sounds good but is not that easy to implement especially over night. Kodak is a very high end and expensive digital press not just in up front acquisition costs but also in day to day operating costs not to mention that it requires a much more skilled operator to run and make repairs. IKON with all of its production experience isn't going to jump in and start doing service on the NexPRESS and service is where it is at in the business model of the office equipment world. So now what? Hmm, well maybe the new Hitachi technology that they have buried into their new flagship product the Ricoh Pro C900 (Digital Press, Production Copier – What do I call it?) will be enough to stave off the bitter reveling of Canon. Either way just putting the Kodak label on portfolio brochures is not going to stop the bleeding. Especially when you have cut a main artery like in the case of IKON and Canon. IKON sold about 60% Canon products in a very well defined market place where over the last years IKON went around buying up successful dealerships that were primarily Canon in nature.


So now the acquisition is over and we approach the first milestone. What is that you say? Well since you asked it is the beginning of Ricoh's new fiscal year of course. Here comes 2009 fast and furious. So what is in store for IKON in this broad new world of opportunity? Will they remain ran as an independent subsidiary? Will they get quickly absorbed into the belly of the beast? With the changing of the guard from a political standpoint and the evolution of our economy it is anyone's guess. As companies draw lines in the sand and build alliances with other competitors either by acquisition or by contract we start to see the battle grounds becoming more defined. Now that the great expansion is over and we see the number of competitors collapse into a 3 or 4 player race; we now are starting to see the mystery unfold.


The new mission of RiKON is to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations. In my humble opinion this new world of RiKON is very well positioned for the midterm play. Why midterm you ask? Because RiKON is a large organization and they really cannot move and adapt that quick. I watched the launch of the Canon imagePRESS both from the outside (small Canon dealer that was first to market with the imagePRESS in the country's 7^th largest print market and from the inside as a newly head hunted acquisition of IKON to their newly formed commercial print initiative (which was 6 months late to market) and watched IKON take quite a bit of time ramping the program up to the monster that it became. Between defining the goals of the organization and the tools to hand out along with push back from local operations and management it was amazing that the program lifted off at all. IKON has a way of taking strong salespeople and administrating them to death. I wonder daily how I ever find time for sales activities in the midst of my spreadsheets and conference calls. But they do have the momentum of figuring out how they want to position their "go to market strategy" though which still makes them very dangerous; much like a wounded water buffalo one must be ready to pull the trigger or get out of the way.


The imagePRESS's successor the Pro C900 is a Hitachi engine (obtained from the Ricoh purchase of Hitachi Printing Systems) with a Ricoh wrapper (fast plastic B2C look and feel). It has obvious Ricoh influences though, odd finishing configurations and odd substrate limitations that are very familiar with typical B2C products. Without time to finish the development Ricoh opted not to use a polymer toner but to use the old fashioned fuser oil process and the slow down the engines speed capability to build it to a price point. This fusing process is the one that we have over the years come to know and love. For the old timers this should bring back fond memories, as many have come to love the glossy, greasy get out your shammy cloth and buff the proof look. Outside of that, the engine has a very good color gamut (very similar to the imagePRESS) and has 8 bit color depth at the 600X600 dpi setting. (Unlike Canon's "multi bit" technology) The engine has remarkable front to back registration and clearly shows that Ricoh is "on to something." A very strong competitor to the Xerox Docucolor series it will challenge and even beat the imagePRESS where its few obvious weaknesses are not the main consideration. Upon a more detailed look the Hitachi influence is pretty obvious. The registration system is something that closer resembles something off of an offset press not a copier, and the systems that monitor quality are obvious improvements "not Ricoh." From beefed up rollers and mechanisims inside the outer wrapper is purely cosmetic. With expanded controller options in the near future and the ability to incorporate all of Ricoh's finishing options this will be a horse to ride in an economy where people want more for less and sellable is good enough.


With Ricoh moving into the production arena full steam, backing this movement not just with the acquisition but in a total refresh of IKON demo floors, infrastructure, finances and personnel. With strong incentives to stay and see the changes through RiKON is positioned themselves to make strong moves on Canon and Xerox as the new product takes hold in the market place. Also for those elite customers that need NexPRESS or Digimaster they will have that to choose from as well as the IBM infoprint roll to roll systems that at the moment is a joint venture soon to be another wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh are also on the menu. Now with their PPBG (Ricoh production print business group) and IKON (a real production print equipment and solutions distribution system) Ricoh for the first time has some products to sell and a way to market and support them on a global basis.


How long will this take? My guess after watching the launch of the imagePRESS and seeing the state of the C900 today I am thinking that things will be in place to move forward for a strong play by Q3 or Q4 of Ricoh's 2009 fiscal. Also watch for a faster and a slower C900 along with firmware coming shortly to integrate all options on their mid volume line to fit the C900. This will give the C900 a dominant opportunity in the in plant and crd space given its specs and price point.


Where will it all fit in commercial print? We will have to see how everyone perceives the C900. With open houses going on around the country, and very critical trials being pursued as we speak; some of the country's largest buyers of digital printing equipment are trying this new Hitachi technology out. Once they make their decision we will have a clear idea of how well we are going to fare this round. Ricoh with enough stamina and finances to get through several boxing rounds gives me the impression that they will get to see the fulfillment of their new objective. "Become a player in the print for pay and high volume market." With Konica Minolta running tight on Ricoh's heels and niche players poised to be gobbled up by someone for example like Oce it is still anyone's race. And what if Xerox decides to drop this AP platform that is just an extension of worn out technology the race could renew yet again. Although pay close attention though as IKON restructures it may take the focus off of those that understand the production world (those that sold and serviced the Canon's) and replace them with new inexperienced followers of the Ricoh line (mfp, fax and b2c color devices) as part of a realignment that might make sense to someone that has been staring at spreadsheets too long.


It is hard to say how long Ricoh will allow the rogue IKON to continue selling multi brands and non focus products but it clear that nothing drastic is going to change in the short term. Everyone is still trying to convince themselves that it is "business as usual." And in an economic and political time like this makes this whole discussion even more interesting. Canon is still dizzy from trying to figure out how they are going to replace 400 locations and how much they are willing to drain out of their large cash reserves to "buy back" customers that chose Canon products and specifically picked IKON as their service provider; they have a tough row to hoe. If one looks at other mergers to glimmer a bit of history one remembers that Global did not lose the farm but instead grew their market share and did quite well after the Xerox acquisition. RiKON could very well come out stronger than ever. Unlike the Danka purchase by Konica Minolta. (I would guess that the danka.konicaminolta.us will quickly change to kmbs.konicaminolta.us as they have no need for the extra dead weight and reputation that Danka has earned over the years.)


I was there for the Minolta and Konica merger and survived it (2 President's Club Trips and 1 Circle of Excellence Trip) so I know how step children are treated. They are managed to success or simply managed out. With mostly the "Minolta Management Style" left they are a very shrewd and focused group led by a Konica visionary (Jun H.) they will drive hard till they reach their business objective which is to become a "Tier 1 Player." Konica Minolta will press on till they move over one of the Gartner's "4 leaders" or knock one out of the game completely. That was their new mantra as I left to chase the Canon imagePRESS product which now has done a vanishing act from my portfolio.


Gartner has Konica Minolta as a challenger and that they truly are. With a very different "to market approach" they are not part of the "leaders" group of thinking (Canon/Xerox/Ricoh/HP). They are very much out of the box and are non traditionalists that could become a wild card in this program; they are not to be taken lightly. With their 90 ppm engine to be out soon the playing ground will level once again and they will be competing from a position of strength stepping up from their current production platform which has done very well in office, in plant and print for pay markets (both commercial print and franchise print).


As I look at my options which are still considerable (enough to keep me with a headache all the time) I am not sure that I see a clear leader to "jump" to. I suspect that as I look at the different organizations that no one has a truly superior program to the one that IKON has put together and the one that RiKON has adopted. What I have seen is a clear indication from Japan that they intend to move into this brave new world that their direct group was unable to accomplish. Now with IKON in hand they can boldly go where they have never gone before.


So what does the future look like?


Muddy and troubled for everyone in this industry. But for those that are brave enough to stick out this new world of RiKON they will be quick to learn the new vision; we are on a 5 year mission to travel out to distant zip codes, and to seek out new customers, and to boldly sell what no one has sold before. We tip our hats to you Mr. C900 may your silicone oil flow through our veins and your "green" pulverized toner sustain us, and your plethora of finishing options take us to the promised land.


Amen


Just another personal opinion from Pirate "Big Iron" Mike…


(May the rate factor be with you and your credit analyst be "on vacation")

Our Master's Prayer

Our Father which art in Tokyo,
Ricoh be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done in the US, as it is in Japan.

Give us this day our pulverized toner.
And forgive us for our lack of prospecting,
as we forgive our slave drivers, I mean sales managers for their whippings,

And lead us not into whoreishness,
but deliver us from our competitors:
For thine is the C900,
and the tight registration, and the true rated speed,
forever and ever or at least to the midpoint in the lease. Amen

Pirate Mike


Obviously just for fun, don’t get bent out of shape over it...

7 Deadly Sins; The Qualifications of a Copier Salesman

Seven Deadly Sins… The qualifications of a copier salesman…

I have uncovered or become aware of some odd understandings relative to work over the last couple of months. I am not sure really sure how to articulate them, but what I can do is describe them to you and you can figure them out for yourself.

The idea of 7 deadly sins is not spoken of in the bible directly but was used in early Christian teachings to illuminate the idea that man was prone to sin. Catholic teaching broke sin into 2 classifications, venial and mortal sin. The 7 deadly sins are capital or mortal sins.

Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows: luxuria (extravagance, later lust), gula (gluttony), avaritia (greed), acedia (sloth), ira (wrath), invidia (envy), and superbia (pride).1

Every day I walk a simple path.

I talk to people and listen to their problems. After considering the causes and effects of their situation I ask them questions to probe into what they have done to fix their problems and how that effected their situation.

I pay close attention to the things that bother them the most and try to get them to prioritize their problems and find out what they are willing to do to fix or remove the problems. I identify the people involved in the problem and the people that are affected by it. I try to assess how much the problem costs them in both hard and soft costs.

Once I get a picture of who is involved and the process that they go through to solve their problems, I get an idea if this is something that they want to fix now or in the future.

At the end of the day I have to sit with myself and put together a plan of action and present it to the people that are responsible to fix the problem. If they buy into what I have put down they agree and act, if not they disagree we discuss it further. If we cannot come to an agreement we both go our separate ways and they continue with the situation that they have as it was before I came along.

This is the life of a document management equipment and services professional.

We are sometimes referred to as the "copier guy." I am sure that in this day and age we should be called the "copier person," as the gender reference is quite unnecessary. In this game either sex has the same opportunity to participate in the 7 deadly sins that are so profound in this industry.

When I talk about being a corporate pirate most laugh and think I am joking or exaggerating the situation but if you could be a fly on the wall in our building and the many buildings just like ours you would not sleep at night.

Ok, that is probably an exaggeration, but it would shock you and in many cases disgust you. After almost 5 years in this industry many things make me feel ashamed of the people I work with and for.

I have said that your success with a company like mine as a customer is dependent on your connection to it. If your rep is not good, neither will be your experience with the company they work for. Manufacturers and dealers of office equipment and document management services work on a very basal level. And in many cases the parent company or distribution organization is quite evil by nature. Your only hope is to have a buffer "rep" to keep you whole in the experience, or at least minimize the beating (both financial and emotional) you will take from it.

I most of the time try to overlook how others act and the underlying tones that are so prevalent in my business. I try very hard to balance myself and offer solutions to problems and charge people a equitable price somewhere between the extremes that are going to be presented by my counterparts. I also try to the an expert in the areas of topic so that I bring value and am not making money without earning it and putting in the work needed to earn the business for the long term.

I was privy to a conversation which displayed the ugliness that is so frequently seen that makes even the most native business person wary of people in our industry. When dragged into the conversation I was a presented a scenario and asked a question. I answered, "oh that is greedy you can't do that well I mean you can but you will be exposed and the customer will hate you for life."

Everyone looked at me like I was a Martian speaking Swahili.

I for a brief moment remembered why I consider leaving this business almost daily. The sad thing is it is the culture that has been fostered for many generations of salespeople and managers and is not needed at all.

You could almost say the 7 deadly sins are the 7 needed qualities of a "copier salesperson."

Companies interview perspective employees and make sure that they have ample quantities of each of the 7 deadly sins and forgo any real qualifications.

My first boss said, "Michael even a monkey can do this job." He further illustrated, "I could tape a lease to the back of a blind dog, kick him out of the building and eventually he would come back with it signed." He would later prove himself correct and become wildly successful as a salesman, sales manager and then a branch manager for a fortune 1000 company.

So let's for fun look into the world of a copier salesperson just briefly and examine the qualifications first hand shall we.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 1

Latin: luxuria (extravagance, later lust)

In copier sales an effective sales manager will show a young salesperson how to drive their desires for things which of themselves are not evil but to excess are lustful. Whether it is sex, money, power, control if you are still breathing surely you don't have enough of any of them.

A good copier salesperson will never be satisfied, and will always be disappointed with how much they sell, how much they make (see greed), how quickly they get promoted, how long their vacation is. A great copier salesperson will stop at nothing to further their lust of all things corporate.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 2

Latin: gula (gluttony)

In copier sales the best sales representatives will be easily identified by how well they gorge themselves on all things corporate. Copier salespeople are not temperate or aware that they should have any natural limits to anything the desire (see above).

A good manager will gather his or her sales people together on a regular basis and teach basic gluttony. This is really quite a simple thing to learn, you just take your newbie's out and feed them a $200 dinner, drink 2 or 3 bottles of very expensive liquor/wine, and have grand discussions on how they too can have more than they can legitimately use for themselves. A good sales manager will take the new people out shopping and show them how to buy things they don't need or will ever use.

The virtue of overkill will be a daily practice until they even employ it in their own lives.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 3

Latin: avaritia (greed)

Money is just the beginning of greed. A good sales manager will make sure to teach the principle if the customer is spending $10 and is unhappy they will gladly spend $20 to be happy, even when the solution costs $2 and can be sold at a profit for $4. Why would you save the customer $6 when you can increase their budget based on the pain they have and make an extra $16, $8 of which you will get to keep.

Managers are quick to instruct their salespeople to get what is theirs and a bit more. It is so bad that over time it becomes so common that the goal is to see how much you can charge someone without them going bankrupt before they make their first payment and lock themselves into the deal or before they realize how bad they got screwed.

Greed goes way beyond the customer but reaches into the team that they are on and the associates that they work with. Greed says that you must sell everything in your neighbors' pond before reaching into your own. A good manager will promote greed as it facilitates the need to sell more and makes everyone more competitive as they must to survive.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 4

Latin: acedia (sloth)

This is a principle that is taught by the manager that has to be managed all the time. It is the manager's job to manage focus of their salespeople and ensure that their needs are met first. Sloth is taught as a privilege. If you over achieve and sell more than anyone needs, and ensure the managers needs are cared for you can do absolutely nothing.

They are taught to sleep in, stare at their computers, take time off. It is the reward for proper lusting, greediness, gluttony as well as the other 3. When you have overloaded on the other 6 deadly sins you must Sloth. Slothing becomes a way of life. You wake up driven by the lust of being over full (gluttony) and greed and the reward for over achieving is Slothfullness.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 5

Latin: invidia (envy)

A good and experienced manager will stack rank their salespeople and grade them against all of the other salespeople across the organization regardless of how much of an apple vs orange comparison it really is.

A good copier salesperson cannot stand to see another have success and becomes driven by the lust of success to overachieve and be as greedy as possible so that they can overcome and surpass all of their comrades.

A quickly rising manager will ensure that every one of their sales reps cannot stand to even hear of someone else's success or participate in an activity with someone they think could possibly out do them.

Envy resents anything that is good that happens or is good about anyone that they see. Envy is very closely related to Pride, and it drives the lust of self worth which is the fuel that makes pride gluttonous.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 6

Latin: superbia (pride)

A sales manager cannot graduate until they are good at making each sales person believe that they are the best and deserve everything and more. Days of sloth are awarded to those that can be the fullest of themselves.

Copier sales people gorge themselves with the lusts of the flesh and material goods until they cannot move or afford to move then are pushed out the door with belief that they are the only person alive and that they deserve more. They are rewarded for becoming a prima donna. A good manager will know how to control their prima donna's and let them all think they are 1. A practical organization will parade their top performers around and show them that they are invaluable and that they can have anything they desire fueling their lusts.

Then the manager just begins over and finds new untapped desires and drives them to gluttony with greed, and keeps them competing with envy in the fearlessness of their pride. When they fall over from exhaustion they give them days to recuperate by awarding them time to Sloth. If they are having a bad month they will use their pride to control them with the envy and wrath of their fellow associates.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 7

Latin: ira (wrath)

Wrath is a byproduct of the final two deadly sins Envy and Pride. It is quite ugly and not as common but is a product of greed and envy.

When someone else has success a good copier sales person becomes instantly envious and because they are excessively greedy they fuel this emotion with wrath, which satisfies their pride in that they should be the only one that can be so successful or rich or whatever the deadly sin promotion is for the month. It is most obvious when the greed of one sales person takes an account from another to fuel their lust of one of their desires. Since they cannot satisfy this gluttony with their own accounts they must do it with someone else's. It is much more pleasurable to satisfy themselves with someone else's accounts.

This lust and greed creates the wrath of the sales person that is feeling envious of the success of the greedy and gluttonous sales rep. A good manager deals with wrath in the most obvious way, with a good dose of pride. "You are not going to let so and so do that to you are you?" "You know you are twice the sales person they are!" Then an experienced sales manager will look for a lust that can fuel the envy and promote the rep that has wrath to go out and be greedy enough to show up the original rep. Wrath is a great way to push someone to compete with the others when the other 5 are having little effect. Sloth is reserved for those that have been over gluttonous for some time and had a lot of success being lustful and greedy.

The seven deadly sins require a lot of effort to perfect so typically a good manager will only focus and practice one at a time till they manage a group of major account executives or specialists. In which case the sales people are quite advanced and can practice multiple sins at a time.

This requires a very greedy and prideful manager that can truly harness the energy of their people and use it to fuel their own desires (lust) and gluttony. And of course a good manager works their sales people to death chasing after the dream while they practice the greatest of all sins; Sloth…

In the end a good copier salesman or saleswomen (which there are many) are taught that they deserve whatever they can take from someone else and that it is ok at any cost. They are taught to pull out the stops and go for broke. They are taught how to gamble as professionals and to know when to risk it all for the payoff of the ultimate permanent full time sloth which is held as a carrot to a donkey.

I hope you have enjoyed this enlightenment…

PS – There are organizations that promote the 7 virtues and moderate their sales people keeping them "connected" and customer centric. But they are far and few between, and almost nonexistent in the copier business.

This is why I live a simple life on a 34 foot boat, forsaking the trappings of Dallas and all that is offers. Not that I haven't had my moments being caught up in the limelight. I was after all a 2 time president's club winner and a 1 time circle of excellence winner for that unnamed fortune 1000 company that way talked about above. I am the prodigy of that sales manager that eventually became a branch general manager ;)

Life is fast, life is hard, life never lasts long enough to learn how simple it really is. We complicate it so that we can feel superior to everything else that God has created, when really we were created from the very dust that everything else walks on - Pirate Mike

I am sure that this is considered blasphemous to those that are in my industry as we all want to believe that we are saints. (It is part of our pride) – Pirate Mike

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

The raindance that is color management

After getting back from the 2008 PIA Color Management Conference (Phoenix, Arizona) I really had to take a few steps back to regain my composure.

Even after all of the fun and comradeship of meeting my fellow national competitors and potential and current clients had to get back home to rest from the show. I too like many that have been involved with Color production for 15 + years (ok its getting closer to 20, shhhhh) have had many preconceived notions of what is right and wrong both in and out of the pressroom. As we get closer to our PHD’s in Physics and Electromagnetic Science we still are really not much closer than we were with filters and rubylith film.

The witchcraft we practiced in sales, pre press and then ultimately the great rain dance in the press room to appease the color gods so that they would bless the job just in time for the ever dreaded, “press check” was just part of the business.


Now almost 20 years later not really anything has changed but our understanding of the problems that we face. We can talk about standardization, we can talk about the initiatives and really between it all it has stayed very academic. Start anywhere say the measurement of color (spectrophotometer) The reality is whether to UV filter or not really doesn’t make much difference when the bulbs all come from different sources and age giving different results the only commonality. As all businesses drive to the lowest common denominator and it is sad when our response to the economic pressures of fierce competition is "how cheap do you want it and what are you willing to sacrifice to get it?"

Sure we love to fix it all of the problems or would we?

If G7 methodology was really the answer and we could come up with an idea that really could be visualized on paper and agreed upon by everyone and we could send it anywhere in the world and it could be reproduced without question would we really have accomplished anything? Do you really want your customer to have such an exact science that he or she could come up with your secret sauce so easily as to just waltz over say 12,000 miles away to a nearby printer and get the EXACT same results?

And for half the cost? Ok a fifth of the cost?

What makes printers so special is that they are innovators and what truly separates the Leaders from the Challengers is their vision and ability to adapt and create unique methodologies to solve unusual and creative business problems. What will separate the men from the boys now is the ability to; recapitalize their toys in the digital realm, commit to the long term, and their ability to automate the rest.

Robots or Die I say!

No really you will never take the “craft” out of printing and publishing, even if it all goes digital or better yet, visually digital and skips the paper process all together. You will always need thinkers and young minds with old experienced hands to make it all work right. There will always be deadlines to meet and customer visual misunderstandings as we all think we know what it really should look like.

Now more than ever I hold tight to technology as it drags me through the mud. As an equipment vendor I now have to be able to show it, justify it and in the end still have to be able to run it as to keep the peace when everything goes wrong. And even worse, since I cater only to the printing and publishing industry (actually one of their very own) I have twice the hurdle to overcome. I cannot walk away when things are not working out. I have to stay and operate the equipment like I did some 10-15 years ago and show that even know I am still the Pirate that is and not just “was”.

But even with all of the technology, no one will really agree on anything. It perpetuates the lies that have been told for a century or better. We all think we know better and that is great it is why you will see 3 brands of color viewers all of varying ages, bulbs, surroundings and types all in the same pressroom with yet a different set of circumstances in the prepress room and in the customer viewing area.

I am glad that we get to keep our secrets and continue making our secret sauce. I for one would be sad just to be another number that can reproduce color perfectly time and time again. I like to leave that to the prepress soothsayers and color witchdoctors of the here and now.
What never changes is one’s passion to excellence and the drive that it takes to realize it. Whether you are the pressman in the back or the salesman coming in from the front we all have to be on top of our game in these tough and competitive times. I look forward to the challenge and the surviving another holocaust like we have before. From the paper shortage to the realization of our harsh chemicals that we so daily rubbed on everything each contraction is volleyed with an equally and greater expansion. Nothing like seeing old friends and making new ones as this career of mine has treated me so very well.

Even though the technology is driving competitors to find new ways to distinguish themselves and solve yet new problems we are still doing the same thing we did before the Apple and Desktop Publishing – Communicating to the world through visual symbols and colors. I love this mess I’m in and I look forward to another 20 years of it.

You should see my rain dance it is awesome!

Pirate Mike…

Of Pirates and Digital Printing…

Of Pirates and Digital Printing you say, well that is the story of my life; this I make a conscious decision to unravel for you. Though there are many that would try to convince you otherwise the question still remains is the industry that surrounds document imaging equipment a noble profession? Every day I watch salespeople draw their swords and banter back and forth over territory squabbles, commission debates and the prospects in their pond. For the love of money this too is the reason that technology has overtaken such a noble industry like commercial printing. From what was once a simple and majestic art, created by the skilled hands of artisans taught by their fathers and their fathers alike. Now just the hum of electronic circuit boards and the flow of powered ink that spills upon blank pages are monitored by the children of a new generation. Pulverized, polymerized, organic, chemical, toner now called by many "dry ink" comes in many shapes and sizes but one thing remains the same; we will charge you many ways for it to lie down on your beautiful blank pages.

This is a story of the death of a noble art and a young man's desire to learn to harness the power of the printed word and to capture the impact of color and visual symbology. This young man was Pirate Mike and this is his story...

It was the summer of 1990 and we had recently moved to Oklahoma from Bellingham, Washington. My mother was volunteering for a local church that was lightly staffed and was looking for any and all help to help spread the good word. With an X386 computer, a 300 dpi laser printer and a $29 copy of print shop deluxe or something similar they had to find a way to create a church newsletter.

My mother had been a part of the high school newspaper and had done some free lance writing for a local paper back home, but putting together a church newsletter was not really her expertise. With most of the material being written by church staff what she did know is that it was going to involve that X386 PC and that she did know; she knew nothing about.

When questioned my mother boldly said, "Well if it involves a computer I'm sure my son can figure it out." I can still remember the day when I was handed about 5 type written pages that had been typed by an electronic typewriter and was sat down in front of was at the time a behemoth of a personal computer. Approximately 48 hours later, 4 clip art books, 1 floppy disk full of 5 or 6 fonts and the use of a flatbed scanner at a local print shop the first issue of the church newsletter was almost complete.

After a marathon of sweat, blood and tears I was then given the task to get this grand publication printed and in 2 color no doubt (black and an odd pms color). After about 50 phone calls and numerous visits to local print shops a deal was struck and a deadline given we were well on our way to having a finished product. The church was awakened by this new communication that had been handed out that morning before service. And somewhere before the "you are released" and after the offering it was mentioned that we have Sandee's son to thank for the newsletter. It wasn't but several weeks later that I started to get a bit of attention over the work being done on the church newsletter.

I can still remember one Sunday after service when a man walked up and asked me if I could do some business cards for him. Design, print and deliver was the task he needed me to complete. At the end I handed him 500 business cards and he preceded to hand me some money, I told him that I really wasn't a graphic designer and didn't feel comfortable taking his money. He said, "You did the job that I would have given to another and this money you deserve." I graciously took the money, and inside was very grateful as at the time I had no gainful employment.

It was not long before I really didn't have time to get a job I was way too busy doing design and brokering print to several local print shops. Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures and marketing pieces; little did I know that this new found skill would carry me over the next couple of decades. I finally went to a local technical school and took some adobe classes and an offset printing operations class so that I would have a stronger foundation for working with printers and be able to speak their new found language.

Eventually I did leave the world as a print broker and designer to work behind the presses in print shops all over Tulsa Oklahoma. Old beaten down equipment I had run it all; from setting lead type in chases for a 100 year old windmill letterpress to stripping up negatives with rubylith for exposure plate making. I received a lot of practical experience in the darkroom shooting halftones and line work, and in my off hours would practice at a friend's shop just paying for the materials that I used. After several years doing paste up and every menial job that can be found in a print shop I got my first break. I had worked through most of the small format duplicators (AB Dick, Hamada, Chief, Multilith, Ryobi, Davidson to name a few) and had worked my way up to a second pressman working on a 40" 6 color Kamori learning the art of high end color work for Roger's Lithographic when I got a call from my placement service. They needed to place a temp to perm spot in a small town called Dewy Oklahoma about an hour north of Tulsa.

It turns out that this new process had just come out this new thing called "digital printing." And this new company Indigo has created one of the first digital presses the E Print 1000. Now considering that only about 400 of these presses had been sold worldwide it was going to be a challenge. One I had to move to Dewey, then I had to learn the electro-mechanics of a copier as this was the basis for the platform. This small format press had to have sapphire coated papers and at the time there were about 6 papers that we could use. The company was Central States Business Forms and was the 17h largest continuous forms printer in North America. They were getting ready to try their hand at Digital Printing and I was chosen to learn the madness.

After 6 months of training and many months of trials and tribulations they disbanded the project all together and sent us all home. I don't know what happened to the 2 Indigos that they bought but it was a turning point in my understanding of printing and the future possibilities of digital printing. I came home and started to work for ABC Printing in Coweta. Over time I had gained some respect with the owner and we had even talked about setting up a second shop in Tulsa that someday I could own through "sweat equity." This had always been my dream to have my own shop and to further my knowledge of printing.

I have always been a rebel and found myself taking unusual paths to follow my dreams. A pirate if you will. The word Pirate comes from the Greek word peira. The Greek word πείρα (peira) means assay, trial, attempted, or experienced. Pirates were and are entrepreneurs. They lived very democratically and paid close attention to their crews. They lived by "articles" or rules, many of which we have adopted today. They offered workers compensation should they get injured while following the common goals of the ship. I have always followed my heart and a day came when I got the opportunity to work for a wildlife sanctuary that lured me away from my dreams of printing.

After about a 4 year sabbatical from printing taming the likes of Tigers and Bears Oh My, (Another story entirely) I came back to printing but in a different capacity, "Equipment Sales." My first job would set me up for what would become an infamous ride and new career beginning. Now while apprenticing at Minolta I was to truly learn the art of piracy and what it meant to be truly a corporate pirate. While under the tutelage of Zack Jones, sales manager for Minolta soon to become Konica Minolta I was to learn the art of sales and the 7 deadly sins of a copier salesman, up front, close and personal. Here is where I made my first 6 figure income. No education, No experience, just the drive to make things happen and enough common sense to listen and learn a new way of living.

Konica Minolta had 2 branches Dallas and Fort Worth; I worked for the Fort Worth branch and quickly learned that we were a merry band of "thieves." Not allowed to pirate in the building, but was given free rein on anything and anyone that was not "in the building." This is where I learned my art; this is where I earned my title. Stealing business from competitors became the battle cry. Never left behind we all made our president club trips and even set sail on the high seas on a circle of excellence trip on the Royal Caribbean ship "enchanted seas." Konica Minolta had been a good master and provided me more than just an education they had provided me a strong 6 figure income and a pirate's home.

Digging for pain and anything else that we could add up to create a compelling business reason to buy, buy now and buy big! Here I learned the art of piracy! Over the years at Konica Minolta I quickly learned that big copiers hit quotas quicker and were the "sexier" of sales. I quickly went to selling what I knew, "printers." I moved into the production print specialist role which was a new position with the company and then after my promotion I came to an impasse. I had made more money as a down the street rep then fighting the good fight with printers for large sales with low margins. Becoming the hunter I had given up a gravy customer base and large MIF to take on the impossible and sell entry level production color and black and white copiers to printers that would ultimately destroy the equipment and push it way beyond what anyone at Konica Minolta thought it would do. Dealing with hard to get credit approved and very high maintenance customers became my passion. Keeping a cell phone close and answering at 8pm or on a Saturday afternoon became a way of life.

From the Minolta C900, to the 3102 and the C5001/8050 soon to be a force in the light weight production equipment Konica Minolta was quick to learn from mistakes and reengineer what had to be done to garner a position with the big boys, Canon and Xerox. Needing a stronger income and more opportunity I kept my eyes open. I was passed up for an entry level sales management position and was refused a transfer to keep up with my mentor Zack and his career progression (Branch Manager of the Austin Branch). I left Konica Minolta to take a Color Systems Specialist position with the 2^nd largest independent Canon Dealer Datamax to sell the soon to be released imagePRESS and the Konica Minolta production equipment as a newly formed On Demand Publisher Dealer. Well I started at the end of 2007 the imagePRESS hadn't been released and Datamax was not yet authorized to sell the Konica Minolta equipment. As a result I wasted a lot of time and energy while waiting for these 2 events to happen. Thinking in error that they would have an established production base I again was fooled into the lure of "Big Iron" and "Big Money." 10 Months of struggling and with the new understanding that I could not be competitive in the Commercial Printing market at such a small dealer with very ridged ways I had to again make a choice.

What lured me to Datamax was the idea that a smaller company could react quicker to a local market and be more competitive as we could make decisions "on the ground." What I found out is that as a smaller company they did not have the resources to support such complex solutions and high volume clients. I found that it is much more about power and control as there is little to go around. Things were not as they seemed and they proved to be ineffective with inappropriate margins in a vertical market that demands the best price and the most labor intensive service. With 4 other Canon Dealers in the market selling the same product and a dozen Konica Minolta dealers differentiation was almost impossible unless you truly could talk the talk and come up with business solutions that addressed production problems and enabled printers to make more money and quicker. Unable to compete I started to get nervous, should I have left Konica Minolta? Maybe I should have taken the income hit and just waited things out; surely another promotional opportunity would have come my way if I had stayed.

Spending many hours every day working with the new Canon imagePRESS that we had on our demo floor I was beginning to build up my skill set for the next level in my production sales career. Now hitting the ground running I was making my way around town with this new challenger to the world of production "big iron." I could see that the imagePRESS was my future; now I just needed a company that I could sell for that could support it and be competitive in a market that IKON proved that commoditization was just a good place to start.

Quickly making an appearance on the commercial printing scene soon I became a recently acquired asset for the newly created commercial print initiative for IKON Office Solutions. Now selling the Canon imagePRESS, the Konica Minolta production equipment relabeled as IKON gear and the Kodak Digimaster black and white production gear relabeled as Canon IR 110/125/138/150's. I had truly made it. Selling the "Big Iron" to big companies with the knowledge that I wouldn't be beat on price. Bringing with me my well refined pirate ways now with one more shtick in my repertoire I came on board and started down a long road. Now divorced from my wife and companion for 10 years, and living aboard a French Sailing Vessel I had about created enough "unusualness" to make anyone nervous. Now the new guy again, Pirate Mike came aboard the IKON ship and started to do damage. Getting involved in the PIA and participating in every training session that came along I prepared to do battle with HP, Kodak, Xerox, Oce and Konica Minolta. Along with the normal cast of Offset characters that now were fighting for floor space in the print shop in this new age of digital printing. We sponsored the 2008 Dallas Digital Printing Conference, the Nolan Moore Golf Tournament benefiting the PIA educational scholarship fund, we showed up anywhere people would let us. Banging our chests and beating our drums we walked to the beat of a different drummer.

Starting a new company with new products I went to work. Having to start from scratch, creating my own list and fighting for any printer that might have potential I had to fight local account executives as well as major account reps. No one wanted to give up anything, keeping anyone that had ever mentioned that they might buy from IKON I ended up with whatever everyone wanted to discard. Selling into the Franchises and Commercial printers was not going to be an easy task even with a company as big as IKON. After about 10 months of taking names and placing many imagePRESS units, we heard the news. IKON was to be acquired by Ricoh and the imagePRESS would be shortly going away. My now well developed pipeline started to look like a white elephant. With this knowledge I stood and stared at the wall of my cube. Do I just jump ship? Or just jump out the window of our 3^rd story floor? Do I run as many have and will? Should I quickly look at my options and find a new master?

Ricoh knew what she was purchasing; pirates are what she needed and pirates are what she got. Now with new bounties in place most of the experienced sailors stayed aboard and paid respect to a new captain. New ship, new crew and new guns we went to war under a new flag. Ricoh did not have the footprint that IKON had, nor did she have the production experience or talent in sales, service or professional services to do service to any new innovations that she would bring to market. Without a way to sell and market such new inventions they would be rendered useless and of no effect in such a competitive landscape. Their own PPBG (Production Print Business Group) had been in existence for several years with no justice being served. It was now IKON's chance to shine and shine she will.

Well the merger came and went and the "business as usual" statements got quite old but everyone's fears that IKON would fall apart and that people would move to CBS or another Canon dealer quickly faded. As crew we just kept tabs on what was going on and just made sure that we "held on tight" as this was going to be Mr. Toads wild ride for sure. Trying to learn about our new master and the products which we were surely going to half to sell the job became learning the Ricoh story and taking a close look at the products that they have brought to bear.

Now we stand before the door with swords drawn and with a new tool of destruction and we are ready to wield it. The Ricoh Pro C900 Color Production System new to the market and a new name all together in the production print arena. Loaded with goodies from another (Hitachi Printing Systems – designer of many production print engines) this newly Ricoh wrapped treat has to earn its place in the production world along others that have been doing this for generations. So what does the future hold for the pirates of digital printing? Keep reading to find out only time will tell…

"Our voyages are very short in comparison to the time we spend telling the stories that come from them." – Pirate Mike