The COVID impact is creating turbulence and waves of change moving through all facets of life. One of these waves is flowing through the ocean of business meetings and face to face appointments. You, as a new copier rep, can catch a wave to more success.
We used to call them “networking groups.”
Local Chambers of Commerce and small business groups would put together an after-hours event, inviting local businesses to connect with each other and prospects.
They met once a month and ended up being full of real estate agents and insurance salespeople handing out business cards and trading stories over drinks.
It seems almost old school, but I think these types of get-togethers are more important now than pre-COVID. But there is a difference and I’m suggesting you take...
These thoughts are my personal critique of an industry, not an individual.
Weeks ago, over one hundred leading MpS providers congealed in Park City, Utah to discuss the future of MpS. It was a great educational and entertaining event - recommended.
This event was one of the best I've attended in years - only the MWAi show from last year, stands above. West put together a great agenda and was able to recruit a diverse set of industry luminaries.
Here's a quick list of observations from The Top 100 - "MpS is Changing" conference:
The venue: Superb.
Event organization: Stellar.
Promotion: Unparalleled.
Presenters: Both gargantuan and irrelevant.
Content: Both significant and forgettable.
Off-line conversations: The best in over a decade.
For a detailed tracking of the event, talks, and feedback, see Ken's, Art's, West's, and Andy's most accurate reports.
The video, recorded, edited, and presented on-site, nearly live, is one of the best promotional pieces in the niche. It was organic and fun. See it here.
Enough of us patting each other on the back, like we’re all buds. Here's a two word summary of the show: "Points Missed."
It has been said our niche moves at the speed of an HP Series II - I don't agree with that 100% of the time, but after this conference, I'm having second thoughts.
I've stewed on this for what seems years - why do so many still believe in the old models? Why don't they see what others see?
In a juxtaposition with the best content I've witnessed, the audience comments were befuddling. I sat there, shaking my head, not at the presenters(mostly) but frustrated over the 1970 mentality of the audience. Still!
Here it is. A list of call-outs from my perspective:
"Automatic Toner Fulfillment": 2007 called...
"If you sell hammers, everything looks like a nail" so, if you sell re-man toner, all the world is an empty printer, right?
ARRRG.
Getting toner to the right desk at the right time is something we've cut our teeth on, back in 2007. Staples delivers more toner to more desks, on time, "automatically" than anybody else and they use people. Automation for automation's sake is not visionary.
The fact that we are looking at ATF as a new advantage, in 2015, is trite - Clients expect every MpS program can 'get toner to the user' as a mundane function.
There is no such thing as "MNS": Really.
This irks me on a personal basis. Nobody in real IT refers to anything as managed network services; it is simply managed services. Whenever we say "MNS", we look like wanna-be, IT knuckleheads. If you're IT contacts don't flinch or roll their eyes every time you say "MNS" they are being polite.
When the Epson dude referred to his ink bags as "disruptive", I think most in the room assumed it was we doing the disrupting.
Immediately, calls of, "how can I make money the old fashion way, when I sell the machine and lifetime ink all upfront?"
The answer is, "you can't make money the old-fashioned way..."
But here's the miss: we won't be using ink-bags to disrupt, this disrupts Managed print Services.
It's the other way around: bags-o-ink AND "Instant Ink"(DOTC, 2011) will move the channel closer to irrelevancy. Not because wet-toner is better than dry-toner - the iceberg here is "Lifetime Supply". Buy a printer and never purchase toner or ink again. All the costs, revenue, and profit are upfront. An offering, so simple a monkey could sell it.
The 'lifetime' model will remove MpS from the lexicon because there is no need for a relationship.
Those MPS consultants and OEM programs that stress toner as "the most important component" of MpS have led us down the primrose path.
This one issue, redefined as "MpS" is slipping from the dealer channel into the hands of surviving mother-ships.
"Toner" is not a relationship and the biggest reason OEMs say they need an independent dealer channel is to maintain the relationship. Well. The relationship is getting thinner every month.
Think about it, the 'lifetime ink' business model eliminates:
Meter reads - no billing
Monthly billings - see above
Deliveries - UPS
Phone orders - machines phone home
Service calls - these things don't break
Quarterly reviews - why?
Contracts
Independent Dealers
Etc.
If I were getting into managed print services today, I would become an Epson reseller and push those guys to start releasing model after model, ASAP, before HP kicks their super-duper, closed loop MpS machine into gear.
I mentioned this during the Q&A, and nobody understood what I was saying.
...chunks...blown...
points...missed...
Watch Epson. Watch HP MPS.
In The End: It's Not Me, It's You
I've seen great things in our niche. I've seen companies make the leap, shun the old ways, and thrive.
I've also seen organizations espouse the future, make cosmetic changes and fail - the road back to 1991 is littered with used-up MPS Directors. Settling into the old ways of selling copiers, hiring sales managers from yesterday's enterprise, 'trapping customers', paying salespeople a pittance yet expecting them to be professionals, and forcing equipment quotas on their customers - is the easy thing to do.
I've been ringing the bell for years - "MPS is the gateway to something bigger than toner and copiers...". I evangelized the new ways only to see big equipment manufacturers hijack and kill innovation, searching for more shelf space and stickier schemes.
It is the way of things.
But it doesn't need to be your way. Many have made the shift, pivoting off the copier and into fertile markets. It isn't easy to break free the ordinary ways, but it's got to be done.
Conferences that break the mold, separate the future from the past are few and far between - this Top 100 is one of the less ordinary get-togethers. If you were there, you are one of the less ordinary people and nowadays, the Life Less Ordinary is the life evolutionary...
Heck, you've probably viewed a clip or two during one of your Monday morning sales meetings intended.
I get it.
These Hollywood caricatures display the gumption of legends - cold calling, motivating speeches, wild excesses of the selling life. Success. Power. Influence. Acceptance.
But there's more to the story, isn't there? The movies tell the entire story, but we don't replay those bad bits do we? No manager is going to show Bud's perp-walk in Wall Street. Nobody is getting motivated watching the federal cops pull into the J.T. Marlin parking lot complete with busses and tow trucks(Boiler Room).
And sure as shooting, no one remembers the ending of Glengarry Glen Ross, when Shelly Levene steals those leads.
Consider the following examples:
"Greed is Good"
Major Wall Street player earns millions through purchasing and breaking up family owned companies supported with insider information. Protagonist seduces young upstart anding ends up in prison.
- Wall Street
"Put that coffee down! Coffee is for closers."
Real Estate agents complain about the leads, smart-dressed, hit-man comes in from HQ to deliver a high pressure, all or nothing, speech intended to get sales back on track. Salesman descends into chaos and steals leads.
- Glen Gerry Glenn Ross
"...act as if..."
Sharp dressed, smooth talking broker initiates new employees into the world of shady deals and illegal trading. Cold calling taken to a new low, one scene depicts a broker lying to a prospect, along with a cheering team of cohorts, and bamboozling a victim out of thousands. The movie ends with federal agents storming HQ complete with tow trucks to recover the fleet of ill-gotten automobiles.
- Boiler Room
These stories end in flames, yet sales 'mentors' still run around telling newbies to, "Sell me this pen."
Why do all sales people know "Coffee is for Closers"? Why do we cheer when Vin Diesel lies his way into a sale? Yeah, sure, we'd love to deliver that Alec Baldwin speech, or kill it on the phone like Leonardo DiCaprio. We project ourselves into those situations - understanding the dramatic and sexy scenarios - who wouldn't?
Why?
I'll tell you why. Motivating you to sell more, no matter how, is good for the OEMs and ownership. Sure, it feels good to you, right? That feeling is false and manipulative. I get it, we need to sell to feed our families and survive - that's the way the game is set up - and watching a fictitious "selling animals" provides a fleeting moment of entertainment and hours of motivation. But it is propaganda. It isn't real. If it is for you, chances are, it will end badly.
Showing rundown videos of yesterday's demons is just another symptom of the slow to change selling ecosystem. I'm not sure what we should utilize in place of these video's but there must be something; there must be thousands of quick, 30 second video's of new sales consultants spewing nuggets of re-treads.
Change, real change through turbulence, must occur at ALL LEVELS of the ecosystem, not just in the trenches. Selling will become more relevant, consultative and fulfilling after the pillars of the status quo resign to the future and ceasing to show criminals and thieves as selling examples is just the beginning.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve written about copiers here at The Imaging Channel. During that time I’ve been in the field, in the IT realm, watching office print disintegrate from the end user side of things. It isn’t 1999 out there; companies are not buying big, 11x17 copiers as they once did and end users are not printing emails or recipes by the thousands anymore. On the good side, end users don’t hate printers or copiers as much. Unfortunately, that’s because end users hardly, if ever, think about print. To them, toner on paper is approaching irrelevancy.
Can anyone deny that this niche is in the midst of historically turbulent times? We’re witness to the transformation of an industry embedded in the fabric of modern living. Every person in the business world recognizes the copier and printer as foundational tools of the trade. Our industry is all over the world, but that world is changing, transforming daily away from the mundane, away from slow processes and away from paper.
We see the results of this movement in the way our OEMs are fracturing: Xerox is splitting, HP has split, and Lexmark is disintegrating. The Big Three of American office automation are shattering into stars.
This turbulence affects the independent channel as well. Merges, acquisitions and the entry of investment groups tell the tale of a smaller, less-populated landscape. Indeed, as the manufacturers fight for their lives, how can the independent reseller manage? Should you jump into the fray, slapping a “For Sale” sign on the front door? Should you shutter the place and simply get out?
I’ve noticed a peculiar thing:
Could end in burning flames or paradise..." - T. Swift
Mps Practice Managers, salespeople, BDMs, specialists, consultants, experts, evangelists, directors, principals, planning managers, and vice-presidents - I got a question for you:
If you had the chance to build an MPS practice, today, from scratch, inside a VAR, how would you do it?
Where would you start? Building a team? Compensation plans? Assessment tools and DCAs?
What's your visionary statement? Would you put together another, two-dimensional, old-school, top-down, business plan? Really?
What about legacy accounting systems, dispatch, vendor relationships, existing BDM mentality, corporate philosophy/culture, probes, NOC, SLAs, BDR, MS, and customer transformation off paper? Can you lead or will past mistakes haunt you like the phantoms of Macbeth?
The DOTC Office Technology Partnership Ecosystem Expands R&D Division
Plotting the Data-Based Course Into a World Without...
Our crack team of researchers, data scientists, investigators, and web-surfers have been enhanced - dare I say, 'augmented'.
We've rekindled an alliance with a company known by the biggest players in the industry. Their computational analyses comprise more than 1,000 variable elements and scientific approach has been referenced in thousands of client engagements.
I've worked with All Associates Group on many projects from Mayo to Mission Health - indeed, back in the IKON days, their analytical engine was available to every salesperson in the company. The cream of the crop professionals engaged the tool often, with resounding results.
The closure of The Future Forum by Slack is a short-sighted move that ignores the positive impact of remote work on productivity, trust, and employee turnover.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's push for workers to return to the office is out of touch with the current trend towards remote work and flexible work arrangements.
The future of work is being shaped by Artificial Intelligence, and companies like Salesforce will need to adapt or risk becoming irrelevant.
_________
For about 4 months, I've been following and consuming content from The Future Forum. The site was chock full of good data and reports around the 'work from anywhere' movement, something I've been a part of and an evangelist of, since 2009.
It WAS supported by Slack/SalesForce back when the thought of remote workers was temporary.
Marc Benioff recently inflicted large layoffs and brought down a back-to-the-office mandate to Salesforce and today is one of the few voices imploring anyone that work is best done in an office, under management's thumb, and in front of a computer screen illuminated by his software.
"You will never print another document ever again.”
I know you still have printers and copiers. But I know you’re not printing or copying like you had three years ago. If you’ve made business process optimization an initiative, then you know what I mean. I’ve also found that companies with no ‘green’ or digitization plan, have naturally reduced print. Some telling me, ‘we just don’t print anymore’. I also know players like Xerox, Ricoh, and Lexmark are experiencing great consolidation, and paper plants have shuttered across country. Indeed, from the WSJ, 1/2018-
"One of Xerox’s problems is that it has been broken into two pieces. A year ago, Conduent Inc. (NYSE: CNDT) was spun out. It describes itself as a “business process services” company, which makes it more of a consultancy than a seller of hardware. Xerox retained the hardware business, which sells products that may have been useful to businesses a decade ago but are no longer.”
Customers around the world, are organically reducing devices, copies and prints needed to conduct business- this has been going on for years. For companies like Xerox and Ricoh, whose primary revenue stream is generated with each sheet of marked paper, this is a formidable challenge. And like every shrinking industry before it, the copier niche is not going quietly into the night. For those of you left looking for a copier, it might the best time to work your provider for better pricing - just wait until the 25th of the month - everyone is scrambling and competing for a slice of a shrinking pie.
In the face of this turbulence, photocopier manufacturers and independent dealers are responding in one of three ways -
1. Selling themselves as a "document consultant” and trusted advisor, promising to help you manage your decreased reliance on print.
2. Selling to a larger dealer or manufacturer in an effort to cash out and retire.
3. Shifting away from copiers and printers to markets like IT services, water or energy management.
As you explore new ways to eliminate cost, you may fall within one of these stages:
1. You’ve implemented cost reduction program successfully and want to expand
2. You’ve implemented a failed program
3. You have no visibility into total costs
In each case, starting a study, correcting a misaligned program or continuing to reduce costs, you have three sources of partners:
1. IT providers(including your internal IT)- primarily supporting IT infrastructure
2. Copier/Print supplier & MpS Providers - hardware and software vendor within the copier/printer industry either through direct or indirect channels
3. Professional IT advisors - organizations who derive revenue through sharing subject matter expertise and managing change
No matter who you choose to partner, you should consider three important aspects of each:
* Agenda vs. intent
* Knowledge vs. Wisdom
* Neutrality vs. Bias
Let’s take a look at each:
IT Provider -
Agenda: To support organizational technology infrastructure
Intent: To transform with as little negative impact to end user environment
Knowledge: Deep ‘specification’ knowledge.
Wisdom: Experience and a varied history of supporting IT infrastructure in different types of organizations may give rise to wisdom or business acumen, but this is rare.
Neutrality: Not very. Comfortable with manufacturers they have a history with; CISCO, IBM, DELL and HP, etc.
Bias: To what’s been proven in the past or passes a proof-of-concept.
Copier/Printer supplier -
Agenda: to move opportunities to a close and their intent is to sell more devices/clicks.
Intent: Transform with as little negative impact to end user environment.
Knowledge: Deep ‘specification/machine’ knowledge. May posses basic scanning and onboard application knowledge.
Wisdom: Very little business acumen. Fresh sales professionals lack experience in varied customer, business models. Seasoned profess
Neutrality: Claimed yet impossible, therefore a lie.
Bias: Toward a solution that include's hardware sold.
Professional Advisor -
Agenda: Help client achieve business goals.
Intent: Establish an ongoing relationship.
Knowledge: Business acumen and technical prowess beyond the scope of the project.
Wisdom: Experience over time with many environments and business models.
Neutrality: Completely neutral and open to continuous evaluation of new solutions.
Bias: Toward a solution that supports the client business goals.
Conclusion -
Economic pressures on providers of equipment is severe. Machines are becoming more self-sufficient and easier to manage remotely, business requirements are changing from paper flow to digital flow. Even if your printing less than 500 images a week, you are a prime prospect for the remaining copier vendors - your company is guaranteed to be on some copier rep’s cold call list. There is no shortage of cost reducing value propositions, white papers and marketing material.
Continuously reducing costs associated with output is an internal function - asking teams of folks motivated to sell more devices to help you reduce the number of devices is counter intuitive - a provider with show rooms full of equipment pitching themselves as an “agnostic, trusted advisor” is disingenuous.
So who do you turn to? There are a thousand copier dealerships, hundreds of MSP’s and maybe a dozen proven, reliable and seasoned advisors. Of course, if you can find a good advisor, with an open calendar, I recommend engaging - but the odds are forever in the copier companies favor - it is simply math.
Here’s a quick recommendation:
If you currently support 1-20 devices, copier dealer and MSP
If you currently support 50-100 devices, MSP with Advisor
If you currently support over 100 devices, exclusively work with an Advisor who manages an optimized portfolio of suppliers and software providers.
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
- Hunter S. Thompson
In 2009, we jumped on the MpS bandwagon, supporting Photizo, evangelizing Preo,Printelligent and the new opportunities MpS could provide...
In 2011, we consulted companies into the world of managed IT services recommending Collabrance and others...
In 2015, confronted with the most turbulent run ever, we heralded in the End the copier industry as we knew it...
Through every turn, zig and zag, one constant remained; there is ALWAYS a tomorrow. So it shall be with our niche. Once everything settles, when leverage money guys leave, and a single OEM remains, when the channel is nothing but a memory, you can prevail.
You can sell this as a service.
As a copier sales professional, you know how to work with leasing companies and construct a complicated finance deal.
You know how to SPIN, how to uncover business challenges and discover new prospects. More importantly, you know how to present a piece of hardware with services and derive revenue from your efforts.
Ask yourself, "What's the difference between a copier and a commercial air conditioning unit or managing lighting usage/costs vs. managed print services?"
What's the difference? You are the difference.
You know how to assess, construct a proposal and present both complex sales as well as simple engagements.
Also, those industries are going through the same pressures we experienced, almost a decade ago; shifting from equipment only sales to services-led engagements. More than managed services or doubling down on MpS, shifting into adjacent industries represents the greenest of greenfields.
Trane is monitoring equipment.
To prove my point, consider this statement:
"...With industry-leading expertise, innovative equipment, and cutting-edge technology, we can help your business operate better than it ever has before. Our clients have found they have the capacity to run smarter and more efficiently. To operate more sustainably and cleaner. To realize better outcomes and provide more for those who live and work in your environments..." If somebody gave you this value proposition to use in your copier/printer/MpS/MNS/toner sales efforts, you could, right? It makes sense.
Which OEM made this statement? Ricoh? Xerox? Konica Minolta? HP? Lexmark? Did the copier dealer across town or a big MpS software company put forth this value proposition?
No.
TRANE, the manufacturer of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems and building management systems and controls said this, here.
TRANE has been this business since 1885. They've experienced turbulence and transformation along the way and are currently trying to address the IoT, remote monitoring and service of their equipment.
This is ONE example. There are many more and the number is growing every day.
After surviving the Titanic, Rose let go of her past, embracing all possibilities. Exploring West, elephant riding, barnstorming, family - adventures once imagined, lived.
Our industry has deep damage along the starboard side - the ship will sink.
Darkness and gloom lurk. No one is to blame, it is the way of things.
Do not listen to the OEM's siren song of new partnerships and growing print business. Do not believe pundits parroting, "Remain calm, everything is under control..." You are in control, not them.
Yes, MpS is coming back. I know dozens of successful MpS practices engaging clients, supporting MpS, and making a profit today; it isn't that we've completely abandoned the idea. But, I'm observing that we've left MpS to pursue the latest shiny object, managed services. I'm not deriding that effort - worthy is the quest away of print. And no, clients haven't fallen prey to our hypnotic social media or cold call campaigns - they've heard the "30% savings" mantra and see through the "optimized fleet" scheme. What I see is that we've come full circle. MpS programs, benchmarks, best practices, and philosophies have been rooted and everyone has logged their "10,000 hours. Today, we've got programs and associations: CompTia's Managed Print Services community, Xerox PagePack, Canon MDS, Ricoh MDS, HP MPS, Toshiba Encompass, Lexmark MPS, Sharp MPS, Muratec MPS, Kyocera MDS, Okidata MPS and the grand daddy of them all, your Managed Print Services Association. Today's software, unavailable in 2008, reads devices and spits out proposals in the blink of an eye.
Like cities in the dark, MpS programs dot the landscape: Supplies Network, Digitec, LMI, Clover, Synnex and more provide sales training, assessment/TCO tools, and automatic toner fulfillment. These managed print services pillars are proven, standardized and in place. In other words, managed print services is the status quo. The establishment is MpS.
Consider the following: MpS is part of a stale and complacent offering. Is there anything staler than copiers, printers, and paper? No. There is nothing more old-fashioned than marks on paper. Don't believe me? Ask your customers. The providers are not in touch with customers. While we've been promoting OEM-specific solutions and telling prospects about our 14 new models, businesses have been shifting from copying to scanning, relieving themselves of those big, nasty A3 copiers, and going paperless - without our help. Think I'm wrong? Check Xerox's earnings for the past 3 years; review HP's numbers for the same period and feel for those Lexmark CxOs, crash-coursing Mandarin. They all lost touch years ago. These shinny offerings are wedged into old business models. I've had paying clients tell me, "...if it(managed services) doesn't fit into the 'blah, blah, blah', copier dealer business model, it will never work..." Indeed, even successful managed print services practices utilize yesteryear's example; contractual services tied to equipment placements. What once was our strength, is now our greatest weakness. "Complacent, out of touch, old business models"- I challenge you to google, "How to Recognize an Industry Ready for Disruption" - you'll find that we are sitting on the bubble. The niche is primed for major turbulence; bigger than experienced at the beginning of MpS, and separate from current consolidations(OEM/Dealer). I suggest that you and I are on the cusp of a Revelation and Revolution. The MpS 'third day'. Resurrection. This time, the MpS revolution will be carried forward by in-the-field, MpS practitioners, free of stifling processes and discombobulated compensation plans... This time, executives who've forgotten how to sell, aren't fashioning a strategy designed to secure more self space, create equipmentquotas then calling it 'managed print services'...
This time, we help our clients move away from ink, away from printers, away from copiers, without the promise of 30% savings...
Who's coming with me? This moment will be the moment of "....something real and fun and inspiring in this God-forsaken business and we will do it, together..."
Much is being said about how the work-from-home movement will negatively impact the corporate culture.
What is Corporate Culture:
"Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires." - Investopedia
Long established and organically grown, corporate culture resists outside influences - you, as a salesperson are an outside influence, especially in the post-Covid age.
Today, implemented managed print services still presents a shock to the system and a threat to the 'how we've always done it' position.
Visualize an MpS implementation as an enhancement to your customer's existing workflow.
How can you cut through the fear of change, when that fear is on the global pandemic level? Go with the flow.
One of the first articles I wrote was about implementing a managed print services program and the risks of ignoring corporate culture in the process.
Back then, we were concerned about the impact of reducing devices on the way people felt about their jobs. MpS engagements were new; they changed the way toner was ordered and revealed how the number and location of devices could be a shock to the system.
Today, implementing new services is a shock to the system because it threatens the 'how we've always done it' position.
Visualize an MpS implementation as an enhancement to your customer's existing workflowand be 'like water.'
Workflow is about optimizing the processes of everyday business tasks. In other words, it’s how work gets done. Change is guaranteed, and the corporate culture at the organizational, departmental, or personal level can’t help but be influenced.
I once heard a really smart guy say, “Culture kills process every day.” It’s something we should all keep in mind.
The past few months, paid ‘experts’ yelled “change or die”. It’s been a broken record for decades. In the end, no matter how loud and often these pundits shout, “You are not changing!”, you HAVE changed – you ARE changed. It is inevitable – everyone and everything transforms.
Instructing us to change is nostalgic.
Today, in the turbulence that is Covid19 are the ways of 2019 still viable? Your customers have changed. They now wish for fewer face to face meetings, prefer working with an existing relationship, and no longer consider “remote” a dirty word. Many companies are moving to a remote working relationship with employees.
"What's old is new." A statement uttered by countless generations before and leagues to come. For me, and I am sure many timeline-compatriots, today's world seems eerily reminiscent. Certainly not identical, and more than nostalgic. More like a Renaissance.
Managed Print Services is still alive and experiencing a bump. Partly due to some pent-up demand and a reduction of IT resources.
The demand is provisional. I still believe pivoting into IT services is possible, not strictly because of an existing print-centric relationship as much as the supporting infrastructure of MPS practices is a solid foundation for the transition.
Sales and marketing will shift demographics and talk tracks, but needs assessments and proposals are parallel paths. But again, the demand for IT services has a shelf life.
Consolidation runs rampant, and the larger, establishments remain overconfident in their temporary position.
Smaller, more agile companies bite at their ankles, stirring up turbulence and poised to disrupt the onetime disruptors.
On a more celestial stage, the Webb telescope released stunning photos of our both crowded and sparse galactic neighborhood. The pictures are sure to give a great perspective.
The DOTC Office Technology Partnership Ecosystem continues to grow as we welcome All Associates to the realm. These guys have been measuring office output usage and Running Up That Hill, since the 80s.
This week, Tigerpaw moves forward, robots are causing stress at the 'Sarah Conner' level, and Zuke tells it like it is, predicting rough waters ahead. Mark my words, Meta, Alphabet, Tesla, Netflix, Disney, Hulu, and dozens of other high-tech darlings will transform beyond relevancy to be replaced by up-and-coming Young Turks.
Studies continue to reveal back to office mandates are harmful and serve only the plantation bosses of the 21st century.
Currently, six out of ten US workers are remote, yet our cousins to the north, Canada, report a mere one out of ten working from home - how very obedient of them.
Trying to understand the brain can be a trippy escapade and big-headed scientists are using data and Psychedelics to help understand what goes on between our ears.
Take a trip and find out.
More DOTC Office Technology Partnership Ecosystem Influencers discovered. This time in the realm of Sales Acquisition. Firms inside and out of the office technology niche contribute to helping sales move with the times and remain rooted in proven, foundational relationship concepts. Turbulence demands smarter, more worldly, selling professionals comfortable with meeting face to face AND nurturing through every channel.
A saddened industry mourns the loss of a Xerox power player - Ichan may leverage to reignite options and opportunities.
"We will own the third party toner market and then we will destroy the third party toner market."
In what can only be described as one of the boldest moves by an OEM to control its destiny, HP Inc. is positioning to 'disrupt' the aftermarket supplies niche with its $1.1 billion take over of "...the world’s largest collector and recycler of imaging supplies..."
After years of competing with firms that 'recycle' empty cartridges by re-labeling, re-assembling or simply manufacturing exact duplicates of their product, HP Inc., in one intrepid motion, becomes the largest supplier of recycled toner cartridges - not only HP, but a multitude of other manufacture's aftermarket supplies are now under the control of HP, Inc.
The industry is rife with shocked response...
###
Let not your heart be troubled, the above statement is a journey into the absurd, macabre and fiction.
But imagine the consequences of such a move.
The next time you complain about how HP has "screwed its customers" by initiating software that checks toner cartridges for a chip, consider mother blue setting up her own recycling factory south of the border.
On the other side of the coin, when HP exclaims the 'disruption of the A3 industry', take it with a grain of salt. Sixteen new copiers does not a 'disruption' make; buying her way into the aftermarket niche would cause great turbulence.
Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, the Romantics, and so many...the list includes Greta Van Fleet all from Detroit, the Home of Rock n Roll. BABY! ( I know, I know, Greta is from Frankenmuth, just go with it) The moniker is borrowed from a real lady.
Yeah, there is a bunch of Led, Rush, Queen, Prince, and REO(who uses an organ nowadays?) and even 60s hippie, blues shit in this - with this release, these guys blow through the "Led imitator" and come away unique, familiar and cutting edge.
I've got a story about how an 11PM bourbon tour became a Greta Van Fleet play fest until 4AM. I was slinging bourbon and pitching the Mp3s. We played every single Greta song and were impressed. Until we lit up Black Dog. We swore never to play Greta again. We were wrong.
Anyway, is Greta Van Fleet a metaphor for today's Office Technology realm?
"Shark Tank" is the latest "walk in a room, be berated and leave" TV show. Think, The Apprentice, The Voice, and The Gong Show all rolled up into 47 minutes of thrill packed demonstrations.
Entrepreneurs (everybody is one now days) pitch their idea to the 'sharks', asking for funding in exchange for ownership. If the sharks like what they see, they may bid against each other in an effort to get a piece of the possible up side. If they don't like a proposition, they drop out.
One of the sharks, Barbara Corcoran, was interviewed by LinkedIn revealing some interesting ideas about intuition and partnering. Barbara built a real estate empire in New York, employing 1400 folks before selling her company for about $60 million. Today, she advises and runs up and coming businesses.
She knows what she does best and where her weaknesses lie - when hiring or partnering, she seeks out those who have qualities she does not and utilizes her intuition on all decisions. She doesn't actively seek out MBA's - she's lost money with them in the past.
"She didn’t wait for karma to come around and bless her at some later point; she got mad and she fought for what she wanted now."
I equate her attitude toward MBA's similar to my view about benchmarks. Why utilize other people's academic musings. The world changes so quickly, book knowledge or user surveys cannot keep up.
Sure, standard mechanisms of accounting and finance apply; there are plenty of talented people excel in the science of 'double-entry'. When the environment is stable, meandering or static comparing today to yesterday in order to see tomorrow, is prudent.
But it ain't that way anymore, is it? Turbulence is everywhere. Looking aft only tells you where you've been and listening to people who measure tomorrow from yesterday is a siren call.
I follow her example and advice: let others live the normal. Believe in what you feel as much as what you think - most of all, hear yourself.
What are you doing in your business? Are you adding up the numbers, working harder to get more done? Are your wheels spinning?
If you could alter anything, what would your gut tell you to change?
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