A Mockery of the Copier Industry: NOT My Words

This photo is a creation of Steve Reisman.

Steve is a talented photographer and in the copier trade. I encourage you to check out his work here. And hopefully, I will use more of his work in the future.
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Sarcasm out here is cyber-land is a difficult convey, the writer takes a leap of faith that his readers will recognize it.

Here at DOTC, I take many things to task, and believe it or not, I re-write articles DOZENS OF TIMES, stripping out and watering down what some soft, timid souls may consider to be vitriol and venom.

So, when I see mockery and sarcasm applied by others I take note - when the example hits home, right in my backyard, I like to share.

I stumbled upon a good example via a Twitter Tweet.

I am going to cut and paste, these are not my words; a customer took the time to document his experience as witness to an interaction between a copier tech and his service manager - on site.

Enjoy.

Friday Guest Mock: Dear Copier Repair Area Manager Doing A Performance Review Of Your Employee In My Copy Room

2009 August 21

by mockers

I know that in this era of fast, responsive, and agile service that you are doing your best to model 21st century “go-get-’em” business habits to your employees.

May I suggest that your showing up at my place of business to do *your* business of delivering a bad job performance review to a guy we’ve been waiting two days to see may not be the best use of putting your management training skills “on the road?”

May I further suggest that taking calls from your office while in the middle of passive aggressively calling your employee “lazy” and “unmotivated”… all while he had the innards of our multi-thousand dollar paper shredder spread around the copy room doesn’t give me much confidence in the work that has been, or was being, done?

May I continue? I can’t print anything right now anyways so I’ll just keep typing.

The part of the conversation that went like this:

Employee: “Well, how long did it take *you* to get promoted to supervisor?”

Supervisor: “Three years. How long have you been with us again?”

Employee: Silence

Employee: Silence

Employee: “Three years. I’m seriously disappointed to be receiving this news today.”

*sound of something snapping, either in the employee’s head or inside our only tool for producing printed material in the whole building.*

Supervisor: “I’m sure you are.”

Listen buddy, I know that your two years of community college puts you into some kind of elite squad of management gurus.

I also know that your getting to wear the long-sleeved oxford shirt with your company’s logo rather than the golf shirt your employee was wearing means you have some kind of one-up on him, and us evidently since we are now your version of the back-shed.

However, my “take-away” to use your cheesy, uncreative, and stupid business-speak was that you just gave me a half-hour crash course in how *not* to manage, or lead, a team.

Once I clear up this paper-jam I intend to print a copy of this letter to bring to your office while you are in the middle of trying to do your job.

Sincerely,
Glad I Work Here and Not There
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Honestly, you can not make this stuff up!

Video In Your Newspaper. Inconcievable!! But wait..

The Death Of Print creeps ever so close - can video save print?

In next month's Entertainment Weekly, readers will see full motion video and be spoken to by stars of the upcoming Fall TV season - via a paper thin screen built into the page.

First singing greeting cards and now George Kastanza screaming, "Serenity Now! Serenity Now!"

It is finally here - the convergence of two media; video and print.

I bet my dad won't like it one bit.

When the unsespecting reader turns one of the pages in Entertainment Weekly, a commercial will run, on a small video screen, complete with motion and sound, pitching the new CBS fall TV season.

This is a first and a test of technology developed by a firm out here in L.A., AmeriChip

Imagine the possibilities.

Can't get that out of a ColorCube or Edgeline, eh?



Check this little article from July of this year;

Odds are, One Day You Will Not Get Your News/Information in Print or On Your Computer

SEC Asked HP About Middle Eastern Dealings - Back in February

This story is old - real old.


So why would the Sacramento Business Journal prints a re-hash today, the same day HP announces earnings?

The complete article, dated August 18, 2009 is here.

Today's SBJ article reports on events that occurred back in February - it seems all the SEC questions have been answered and today the issue is a non-issue.

The story first broke, from the Boston Globe, on December 29, 2008, is here.

Indeed, DOTC commented with,

HP Printers Sold in Iran - The Unholly Alliance -

The Boston Globe article resulted in HP making corrections, as outline in,

HP To Stop Selling in Iran - Power of The Press

a few days later.

I guess the SBJ isn't a big supporter of HP.

Interesting.

RICOH Stock Could Rise 30% Over The Next Year

The Ricoh/Ikon/Infoprint odyssey continues...

NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Ricoh Co Ltd (7752.T) shares could be undervalued as investors overlook the benefits of two healthy acquisitions that could help the stock rise 30 percent over the next year, Barron's reported.

The Japanese company has transformed itself from an office-machine maker into a global technology solutions provider that gets most of its revenue from software and services like consulting.

Ricoh's acquisitions of a majority stake in IBM's American print systems unit, InfoPrint Solutions in 2007, and its acquisition of Ikon Office Solutions last August will help the company compete with rival Canon, said Barron's.
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"The IBM purchase provides Ricoh with a solid foothold from which to launch further products in the high-volume document market," says Kunihiko Kanno, an analyst who follows Ricoh for Credit Suisse in Tokyo.

"Digital commercial printers are used to print big documents such as product manuals and direct mail quickly and in large volumes," he adds. "This is one of the fastest-growing segments of the office equipment market," he says.

Ricoh picked up "research and development, technology and skilled personnel from IBM that we could have never developed by ourselves," Kondo says. "This will be a profitable division once things pick up again." Because its clientele is mostly financial-services providers, InfoPrint hasn't turned a profit as yet. By 2012 analysts expect it could add ¥100 billion in revenue and kick in ¥2 to ¥3 per share in operating profits.

Ikon, which also hasn't delivered a profit to its new parent, holds even more promise. Ikon provides document- and business-processing services as an add-on to its conventional office-equipment lineup, Kondo says. The goal is to convert Canon customers to Ricoh products and introduce Ricoh clients to Ikon.

"We plan to assimilate their expertise, and turn Ikon's customer base of major global companies into our customer base," says Kondo. By 2012, analysts say Ikon should deliver ¥280 billion in revenues and ¥8 to¥9 yen per share in operating profit. Kondo says

Ikon will be an important driver of Ricoh's push into business and consulting services.

Article Here.

Is Your Managed Print Services Practice Customer Centric or Process Centric? - Maybe We Should Ask Your Clients.

I know a few of you chuckled when you read the above headline; especially those of us in the trenches, who sell against "no" all the time. 

Not from customers, but from our own internal team.

And by an internal team, I mean those sales managers who no longer sell, the owners/principals who confuse "taking orders" with selling, the inflexible cube rats who didn't read their own mortgage paperwork, the "inside people" who believe registering a client not only guarantees the lowest possible pricing(and 3 point margin)but secures a customer for life - I could go on, but why bother. 

So deep in the forest, we can't see the trees.  Stop. Look around you. Look at what you are doing. Are you furthering a prospect through the funnel, or tracking down toner cartridges to deliver to that church you just landed - fooling yourself into believing that shuttling toner is "customer service" - gag. (Does anyone remember delivering and installing ribbons?) 

Has it become easier to Sell than it is to Process the order?...sound familiar Ikoners, X'boys, HP-er, BTA folks, IT VARs? 

Are you asking simple business questions or analyzing a 120-column spreadsheet? Chaos is commonplace. We endeavor to reign in the chaos by throwing Process at the fray. This is good. We all need processes and procedures to work as well-lubed machines. 

And as much as we apply the process to the Selling environment - quantifying qualifications, next step criteria, determining relevant influences, and navigating the prospect through The Funnel - And as much as there are required steps involved with delivering your service/product, credit application, shipping, space and power, sales forecasts, order entry, pricing, prospecting, etc.

- where is the Tipping Point when Customer-Centric falls victim to Process-Centric?

When is it more important to have the correct paperwork on file versus helping your client process their Pay Roll? And more importantly, why? Look at your most recent MPS opportunity. They can most likely save a grip of money because of their existing, flawed "process" - the process became more important than the result. 

It's the classic Purchasing model. Grinding the price or "cost" down was all that mattered when getting a copier or a fleet of copiers. The process of acquiring the absolute best price overrode real end-user requirements and did not support the organization's, overall business goals. 

Tunnel Vision - In a sport, in which I participate, there is a phenomenon that occurs to all the newbies - "Tunnel Vision". 

Out of fear, stress, and the inability to process more than 12 things at once, the mind and the eyes focus on one, specific, detail. Everything else is in a fog except the one guy you can barely see, you know if you concentrate and FOCUS, taking your time, slowing down, aiming, waiting, willing him to move into your sights, you can eliminate him. 

Wait for it...wait for it...when

SPLAT,SPLAT,SPLAT,SPLAT,SPLAT!

Some other player walks out of the fog and puts 5 into your back. 

Welcome to Paintball, and welcome to Tunnel Vision.