[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:00] DC: This podcast conference is brought to you by GelatoConnect. Learn how to get control over your entire print operation, and work more efficiently at gelato.com and through the links in the show notes.
It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, where we explore all facets of print and marketing that create stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host, Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.
[EPISODE]]
[0:00:42] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, and welcome to building a print business that will last the podcast conference, sponsored by Gelato. Today’s episode, Leveraging Technology for Business Growth, will show you how to turn raw data into smarter decisions, build a clear roadmap for continuous improvement, uncover quick wins on your bottom line, and deliver the kind of seamless service that keeps customers coming back. Whether you’re running a tight-knit family shop or managing a larger operation, this conversation is about turning bites into bucks.
So, joining me today for this conversation are Paul Hudson and Rebecca Razulis. Paul Hudson is the President and CEO of Hudson Printing in Salt Lake City, a 110-year-old printing business. Paul drives the mission to reinvent print by focusing on why clients print, not just what they print. Under his leadership, Hudson Printing treats technology as a tool guided by client objectives to deliver personalized data-informed campaigns that blend the tactile power of print with instant digital response.
Rebecca is the COO at Gelato, where she oversees global operations and supply chain, managing a network of 150-plus local production partners. She also leads the operational side of GelatoConnect, Gelato’s AI-powered operating system that is transforming print production. Under her leadership, GelatoConnect is helping print service providers around the world unlock new revenue, reduce waste, and run more efficient, resilient operations. Before joining Gelato, Rebecca led customer experience and delivery operations at Amazon in the UK. She’s also worked as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte, advising global logistics companies on optimizing supply chains. Welcome to my most accomplished guests.
[0:02:55] RR: Thank you so much.
[0:02:56] PH: Thank you so much, Deb. It’s so exciting to be here.
[0:03:00] DC: Paul, you and I have known each other for quite some time. I’ve been through many digital transformations with you. Can you share a bit more about your business? And you actually have a really interesting GelatoConnection, the return of Gelato.
[0:03:17] PH: Yes. So, a tiny bit about Hudson. As you mentioned, we’re a really old company and we’ve just crossed 50 years actually as Hudson Printing. Prior to that, it had previous other names, which is an exciting milestone. I think that it’s exactly right, is that, in this business, we have to transform, because the business is transforming, the world is transforming. And boy, we’ve really been going through a transformation the last, I don’t know, 15, 20, 25 years or so, haven’t we?
My relationship with Gelato, it’s absolutely true. When we set on the task of building a companion digital business to our traditional web offset business some years ago, one of the first people we met way back when was Gelato. We started to do some work for Gelato. They had a worldwide network. Loved the idea of distribute and print. That concept, I think, is still going strong. But we have sort of reengaged in the last year or so, year, year and a half, around some of the smart software they’re doing. I think they’ve been transforming their way that they interact with the printing ecosystem or the printers around the world. We were sort of like captured by that and very fascinated by what they were building from a software perspective.
[0:04:29] DC: Back when you first, one of the early adopters of GelatoCreate, right? That’s what they call the print side of it. What was the value proposition that enticed you to look into this really emerging system that wasn’t really applied to regular people yet? It was still out there in the vistas of the world, right?
[0:04:50] PH: Well, I think back in the day, what it was, the skill we were trying to develop was how do we as a manufacturing partner integrate with global smart work aggregators, how are we able to build the infrastructure and systems internally that will help us manage these micro-orders in a very efficient way, and be able to integrate directly with data streams from our customers.
[0:05:14] DC: Okay, I mean that makes total sense, and the fact that it’s like an invisible salesperson, right? Orders just come to you as long as you can fulfill them, correct?
[0:05:24] PH: That’s absolutely true. Every time you integrate with a partner who is aggregating the work, usually in an e-commerce type way, with some sort of a website, I find that interesting. It is helpful because you build a very deep integration. You have consistent work that happens over time and builds. I think that there is a downside to it, though, I will have to say. I think that downside is, I personally feel like sometimes my highest pleasure in the work I do is the ability to be consultative with my customers.
So, if I know what a customer is doing and I can one-on-one talk to them and help them do that thing better, I really love that, and my customers really love that. So, this is the opposite side of that, where it’s much more hands-off, it’s all about automation, it’s all about direct manufacturing. So, it’s great in that, these are kinds of relationships that last, it’s fantastic, and that we can send things directly out to customers that they receive and are excited about. The downside is that I don’t get to interact with those individual customers. I don’t have any way to really change their product or help them do that thing a little better.
[0:06:27] DC: I mean, you’re pushing my buttons in the best way right now because I agree with you 100%. I’ve been pondering this, “Is automation killing creativity” thing for a little while here. Just to address what you said, I also have this thing where, “Why do printers always think they need to talk to people? Nobody wants to talk to them.” So, it’s like this double-edged sword. Like someone like you, I understand, you really just want to make it better. But other people feel like they’re just going to get upsold too if they get on the phone. So, I think the approach matters and having a relationship with your printer?
[0:07:06] PH: Honestly, that might take us right to the point of like having the modern tools to facilitate that, I think, is really maybe the core of this entire relationship.
[0:07:16] RR: I think there’s room for both. I think there’s different types of customers, and different types of buyers, and how Gelato has been set up from day one is like – actually, we send our orders overnight. They’re the first jobs that can get printed in the morning because they don’t require any interaction with the customer. They should be the most automated, be able to run the fastest. So, with this goal of keeping the machinery fully utilized and really tapping into the full capabilities of a company like yours, I think there’s room for both of these types of approaches. I think we benefit from both sides of that.
[0:07:51] PH: I also think there’s just massive opportunity for product creation. You don’t have to be sort of in a room with Gelato folks for very long before they start talking about the creator community and how it is that the creator community is absolutely exploding. Not only in terms of people who are participating, but also in terms of value. And that, networks like Gelato are able to connect creators and manufacturers. That is cool, that’s super great. So, there is an opportunity to add value to that equation, but also to create products that then, you know, the creator community grabs hold of and continues to expand on. That’s exciting.
[0:08:31] DC: It totally is. I mean, I think of these storefronts, like the Etsy people and all the others. It’s like the gateway drug to a relationship with a printer, because that – they don’t own equipment, they’re forming it out to somebody. So, at a certain point, they might get to the point where they have to speak to somebody. So, I think it’s all great because it gets people hooked on the drug of print, and then, they start thinking, what else can I make? What else can I do? How do I differentiate my bumper stickers from everybody else’s? Stickers are exploding, so that’s why I’m mentioning stickers. Who knew, right? Actually, when I was in elementary school, I collected stickers. I really did, but I didn’t know it was coming back.
[0:09:21] PH: Everybody loves a good sticker, that is for sure.
[0:09:24] DC: All right. Let’s turn our conversation to data-driven decision-making. There are a myriad of points in the production process in a print shop where data can inform a decision. So, Paul, I want to know how data informs your critical strategic choices?
[0:09:52] PH: It’s an interesting question and you’ve asked very specifically about how it informs the strategic choices. So, I’m going to try and stay honest to that question. I think the short answer is, in every way. It has to. The longer answer is that we have applied the framework that you’ve probably heard of, called OKRs or objectives and key results. The way it works very quickly is just, objective is just what you’re trying to accomplish. That can be big, can be large vision, it can be this huge goal. This is just a goal-setting framework.
Then, the key results are basically your goals that help guide you to that objective. The key thing I want to get to is that, a key result has to be time bound, and it has to be something you can answer yes or no to at the end of that time. Basically, you say, “I’m going to do this by then.” At the end of that, you have to say, “Yup, I achieved it” or “No, I didn’t.” It really isn’t a gray area sort of thing.
My answer to your question then is, how is it that data helps in my strategic decision-making? Because we have all kinds of these strategic objectives. Is that, we use the data very specifically to answer the question about our key results. Like, we are trying to achieve this. This is what we have to achieve. Steps one, two, three, four, five, by these dates kind of thing. Yes, no, yes, no, yes. Data is the way that we do that. It’s the only way that we can come back and say, “Yes, we did achieve that, and now, we’re moving towards our objective.” Otherwise, everything gets so murky. Everything gets really hard to sort out over time.
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[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:12:15] DC: A lot of times, when people are talking about the data, how fast was the press going? Did everybody hit their production metrics and all that stuff? But I like the people who look at that data and they try to extrapolate things that maybe they didn’t know. Oh, we happen to be using a lot of that substrate lately. Maybe we can get a better deal on that. Just looking at it for trends, like, are there certain applications that more people are asking for? Are they not buying the things that we produce the best and make the most margin on? Things like that.
Rebecca, I want to turn this to you and ask you what data trends have the biggest impact, in your opinion, on print shop profitability?
[0:13:01] RR: Yes, I think so. Firstly, I’m a big fan of the OKR methodology. I think it really does help sort of shape where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there, and how you’re going to know if you got there and orient the team and the company around those goals. We also use that methodology here in Gelato. It helps us to set that ambition and also keep the whole organization aligned with what it takes to achieve that pretty big ambition.
When I think about the data that I think would be helpful to making these types of decisions, so much of it is around the customer. So, we have our own set of things that we want to achieve internally as Gelato or Paul might want to achieve as the CEO of Hudson Printing. But there is ultimately the customer that we’re all serving, and what do they want.
Of course, my background from Amazon taints me a bit in this, but it’s always more stuff, faster and cheaper. I think that’s pretty uniform across all industries. I don’t see particularly this industry being different, but I think that’s a big opportunity. What I’ve seen in working in this industry is just how much possibility there is to make new things with the same equipment, really, with just innovation. I think very much what Paul mentioned, the sort of innovation around thinking about what the customer really wants and how can I give that to them in the best way.
I think that trying to measure how much selection you’re adding, how much a newness you’re adding, how can you be more competitive on pricing, how can you get there faster to the customer? There are so many unique things that can be done that can position someone to be more successful. I always want to start with the customer and work backwards on the data points that the matters to them, because I think if you serve that customer and that customer has a great experience, ultimately, you’ll get more of that type of work, which will drive up volume, and therefore, drive up your ability to be profitable there.
But I also see the opposite being, a case for the – when you don’t do that, like things can go in the other direction. If you don’t sort of go into new technologies or you’re not thinking about how you’re offering can translate to what a customer wants in 2025, then you will potentially be left behind because you can’t convince them to do things the same way they might’ve done them five years ago or 10 years ago. So, I think there’s a huge opportunity, and I think data can help you make that decision, and know when it’s the right time to jump to the next curve.
[0:15:27] DC: Paul, can you share an example where a small tweak in your technology produced a big financial return for you?
[0:15:37] PH: There are a couple of ways to take this question on. The first one is, I’ll stay with you and say, a small example is something like taking advantage of a larger network opportunity for buying, or say, leveraging a larger relationship. Within Gelato, one of the really nice opportunities is that you can take advantage of larger buying power. For example, we send thousands of parcels every day, but almost all of them are under our customers’ account numbers.
So, if I go and walk into UPS or FedEx, they look at me as a small shipper. They don’t see me as a large shipper in any way. So then, that affects the rates that they offer to me, and et cetera. So, the chance for me to be part of a larger organization allows me to do things that can have significant financial reward, not only for me, but also for my customers, which I love. But I would love to take that question into maybe a slightly larger scale, which is that, I think that one of the really big opportunities here is to use smart software to help break the silos that I think most of us in the print industry have. I know in our world, we cobbled together kind of like computing environment and we also have that coupled with the kind of the ecosystems that equipment manufacturers might put out there.
Getting all of that to talk together and therefore draw intelligence from is really hard. It’s really hard and it’s really hard for us to do as individual companies because, like HP Indigo has their environment, their PrintOS. They’ve done amazing things, they’re great, and it’s connected to the color bead and these other kinds of things. But it’s very, very limited to just that small bit of space around their equipment. Yet, I’m feeding lots of work into those presses and the various pieces of equipment that may or may not be connected. That creates a really big opportunity, I think, for a smart company to be able to integrate all those things together. I think as printers, we’ve done a pretty good job of trying to do that, but we’ve all done it differently. Now, I think we have the opportunity to maybe do it in the age of AI, and in the age of machine learning. and things where we can use intelligence in much broader ways and very effectively for our own businesses.
I think we now need to take advantage of those opportunities. And honestly, that’s sort of in my mind, sort of why I really reengaged with Gelato, is because I saw a smart software company that was helping to build an entire infrastructure end-to-end, that helped create intelligence that just makes me be able to run my business smarter.
[0:18:07] RR: Yes, I think it’s really about connectivity, like connectivity of the different things that you make, of the different systems that you have, the different processes, and visibility. I think that’s part of what it will take to actually get the data to run your business. So, if data lives in so many different systems, if one customer runs it this way, if one press runs it this way, it’s really hard, and I think there’s quite a lot of manual work that’s needed then to bring all that together to get insights. I don’t think we live in a world with too little data points, but we live probably in a world with too few synthesized. This is what we should do and this is why it matters.
But the biggest reason I think we live in that world is because it’s all over the place, and one system has one strength, another has another strength, but they don’t share the same way of working together. So, our hope for this type of platform and our ambition is to have one system so you can see everything from what’s an inventory, what’s in production, what’s in shipping, by customer, by machine, by all of these different parameters, and be able to then take that to build insights on growth, operational efficiency, control, all based on that. I think this is something that the industry has really asked for, I think, and I think will be a big benefit. We’ve spoken earlier in this conversation about data and the importance of data, but this is, I think, foundational to be able to make data-driven decisions.
[0:19:33] DC: Rebecca, if I could just stay with you for one second. For the printers who are listening to this and are sized like a Hudson Printing, they’re like, “Great, bring it on. I’ve got a team here, and we can look at this, assess it, and get it going in our shop.” Then, there’s going to be more people who think that they’re not big enough for this. They don’t have the right people in place. So, let’s just bring it down for a minute, so we don’t scare anybody off. But if they want to get their business to function the way that Paul’s does, let’s just welcome them to the Gelato party.
[0:20:14] RR: Sure, yes. I think that’s a good invitation. So, thank you for that. Our ambition is to bring local production to as many people and as many products on the planet as possible. We believe that software is a big reason why that isn’t possible today, and that we can play a big role in bringing the software so that local producers can become part of this on-demand, programmatic type of world. It’s not the only part of the industry, but it’s certainly one of the fastest-growing segments. There’s no reason why people should not be able to share in that growth, and that’s what our software is meant to do.
How do we do that in reality? Well, on GelatoConnect procurement, we aggregate our purchasing power. We have a marketplace of suppliers with preferred pricing that printers can get access to, and then, immediately have pretty competitive rates with all of the raw materials that will be associated with orders in this type of domain. On workflow, they’ll benefit from millions of products set up on the platform in positions that work based on their press. They’ll be able to take and tap into all that knowledge and set up SKUs in minutes, not in months.
Then, on logistics, as Paul mentioned, like this scale that we bring with our orders and our relationships, but also the intelligence around this package is going to this location and it has these dimensions. Therefore, you’re better serving your customer with this particular carrier versus this other one that they may be asking for. So, we have a lot of maybe smaller printers who also benefit from this, and they benefit because, all of a sudden, they’re playing at a completely different playing field in terms of access to customers and the ability to serve those customers profitably. We’re really excited about that and that’s core to our strategy is, being local in as many places as possible and supporting local business. So, I think there’s a lot to be done there.
[0:22:08] PH: To build on that, I think there’s also a synergistic network effect as well, because some of these smaller printers that you mentioned would likely have capabilities I don’t have. I have Landa presses, and Scodix, and things like that, which maybe they won’t invest in or can’t invest in, but they might have wide format or something which I don’t have. I would love to be able to kind of like utilize their equipment, because maybe I don’t need to buy all that. I think that in the print world, we’ve all kind of been taught that, yes, we all have to buy everything, and I just don’t think that’s sustainable.
I think that what’s really valuable is, that small print shop that you’re talking about may have a really high value customer that they have a great relationship with, that they can use a trusted partner like me to do a portion of that fulfillment. I think that that’s a much smarter way for us to do business, because I can’t afford to buy everything, I can’t be in every single market, but I do have customers that have needs, if I have a trusted source that I can very easily move work to, I think that’s also a huge benefit.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:23:10] ANNOUNCER: The print shop of the future isn’t coming. It’s already here, and it runs on GelatoConnect. Built on 15 years of insights, GelatoConnect is the operating system for digital print production, connecting every machine, product, and process with real-time control and AI-powered automation. Printers using it are increasing packaging speed by up to 5x, reducing stockouts by 85%, and doubling profit margins without adding headcount. Unlock growth, increase efficiency, and take back control. Power your print business with the operating system built for growth. Learn more at gelato.com/connect.
[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:23:48] DC: Paul, what I’m trying to get out here is the level of knowledge of people in the print shop. I think that that is what is a tremendous obstacle when people hear software. They hear optimization, they hear workflow, they hear global network, and they’re like, “Okay, it’s me and four people in here with three presses. This is not for me.” But it could be, yes? So, as somebody who’s actually worked with the technology, talk to those people, and tell them what’s up.
[0:24:18] PH: I actually think that’s funny, because I have the same reaction. So, for example, if I’m talking to Henrik, the CEO at Gelato, for example, he’ll bring up examples of customers he’s talking to and I’m thinking, “I don’t have access to, I don’t know, Starbucks HQ,” or whoever the thing is, right? I’m always saying, “I just have enough problems in my own little four walls here, that keep me busy from beginning to end of the day. I can’t think about that much larger problem.” So, you’re sort of phrasing it as if I’m kind of like the larger person with the resource, but I feel exactly the same way. So, I think to some degree, we’re all starting from that same place, and we can’t all do it all.
I would also say that. my experience, because again, about a decade ago, well, longer than that now, I set on this task of building a companion digital business to our existing web offset business. What I found was, that that was hard as hell. It was incredibly difficult, and I underestimated lots of things, which are the kinds of things you’re talking about. You have to have some really smart people; you have to have a lot of software. At that time, you did have to build it all yourself to some degree, or cobble it together from bits and parts and pieces.
I think now, in this world of API-driven connected software, I actually think it enables all the shops out there, including much smaller ones, to leverage that because they don’t have to build it themselves. We’re in the process of kind of like transitioning some of the stuff we build ourselves and trying to understand where it fits, where it doesn’t, where we can encourage more development to happen so that it all can be more cohesive in one big solution.
[0:25:54] DC: You said that technology provides a path rather than a vision. I thought that that was really interesting. What do you mean by that?
[0:26:03] PH: I just love that you picked that up because it’s really core to what I believe and how I believe about the industry. You actually said something in your intro of me, which I also thought was very astute because it means that the things I’ve been saying, you heard, and I love that. Because you said that the concept of reinvent print, which is sort of our little sub-tagline under Hudson is focuses on why clients print and not just what they print.
The answer to the question about the technology provides a path rather than a vision is 100% that the vision is all about the customer. The vision is, how can we do better, whatever the customer is hiring that piece of print to do? Whatever purpose they have, whether it’s to sell a pizza, or whether it’s to journal down their thoughts, to preserve their memories in a photo book, or whatever the purpose they have for producing that piece of print. If we can help them do that better, that is the vision. Because if they can transact easily, and then actually achieve that, they will be happy. The technology is just better ways to do that.
I often say, and I think I may have said this to you before, but like, whenever I get a note back from a customer, if they’re happy with something that we did, they always say three things. They say, “Got my stuff,” means it arrived on time. “It looks great,” that’s always there, it’s always part of it. And “thanks to whoever.” So, the technology, if the technology is not taking us to that, then the technology isn’t helpful for us because that’s what clients care about. That’s what clients want to do. They want to make buying print easy. They love our things. They love the physical things that we produce, but it needs to be easy, and it needs to arrive, and look great, and there needs to be some level of, this was not hard to do. I purchased this easily.
[0:27:45] DC: I am officially telling you that I’m stealing that buyers hire print. I love that so much, because you’re right. They’re hiring print to be the marketing person to sell the car for them. They’re not buying a piece of print; they’re hiring an employee to sell something for them.
[0:28:00] PH: Can I take 30 seconds to tell a story on that?
[0:28:02] DC: Please, because I’m going to steal that too, so please.
[0:28:05] PH: Okay. So, you’ve seen that we produce this magazine that we call Milkshake. People are like, “Why is it called Milkshake?” I’ll tell you very quickly the story. So, you probably remember Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business Review for fame. He was hired by McDonald’s to find out why it is that people were buying so many milkshakes in the morning. They just didn’t understand. Why are people buying milkshakes at breakfast time?
At the end of this big study by Clayton Christensen was, that people were hiring that milkshake to perform a job. And it might be, “Hey, I’ve got a long drive, so I need to just like sip on this and I can enjoy the drive.” Or, “Hey, when I ate the pancakes, I’m hungry in 20 minutes.” So, they had a purpose. They had a particular job that they were hiring that milkshake to do. So, I have a very, very smart marketing friend who told me a long time ago that your business is no different. Everybody’s hiring that piece of print to perform a job.
So, whenever I walk around the shop and I pick up pieces of paper, I’m always wondering and always asking myself, I call it my milkshake procedure, is what did they hire that piece of print to do? So then, our thought process is, how do we do it better, how can we make it easier to transact and can we help them do that job better?
[0:29:15] DC: His milkshake brings all the print to the yard.
[0:29:20] PH: Well, I do get that sometimes.
[0:29:23] RR: What we think about a lot in Gelato is what’s the job to be done? What are we trying to solve for when we’re releasing something, when we’re driving some piece of software? It’s very much the same type of principle, like there is this thing that needs to be solved, there is this way to solve it, and our job is to bring those two things together. So, I love that analogy with the milkshake and we’re obviously a big fan of Clayton Christensen over here as well. There’s a lot of learnings from his research.
[0:29:47] DC: I’m a big fan of milkshakes, so look, we have closed the loop.
[0:29:51] RR: Something for everyone.
[0:29:53] DC: Yes, something for everybody on this podcast. Okay, Rebecca. How can a print business choose a technology path if they don’t have access to the data that would help them to identify the areas for improvements? And if they do have some data, what should they look at first? In your opinion, is there any shark closest to the boat?
[0:30:16] RR: I like how you sort of circle it, because I said, data was foundational, and it’s like, well, what if you don’t have the foundation? So, I think it’s an important point to clarify. I think for me, it comes down to ambition. What is your ambition for the future? Because it’s so much about vision. Things are not the same now as they were years ago. The industry is moving so fast. The question is, is your ambition to grow with it, to capture something new? Because, again, customers are speaking. We don’t live in isolation. We know what is happening. We go to events. We see the new technology. We see sort of all this innovation happening.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you need to be the first mover on everything, or to Paul’s point, that you need to own everything. But having a relationship to that future is really important. That’s honestly the number one thing that I look for when I’m speaking to potential printers who want to be a GelatoConnect partner or customer. It’s like that path towards the future, what is that? Because we can’t change the trends that are happening. We can only be part in making a decision about whether we’re going to adopt them and how fast.
I always think about growth mindset, how do you look at that? Then, it’s like, how do you play in that new angle that’s growing? Okay, yes, my capabilities are traditionally wide format. What can I do with that? Okay, maybe I could add some manual canvas stretching, and then I could see if that’s a big enough business to then maybe pivot into automation in that angle. Like it’s a calculated risk based on the capabilities you have today.
I think that that type of insight is available if you’re out there thinking about what the customer really wants. I think that a lot of print houses have that. They receive calls from customers all the time about, do you do this? Are you open to this? If you just looked at all the things you maybe have said no to, you have a pretty good repository of the types of opportunities that are out there. So, I think that would be the way that I would approach this. You don’t have perfect data, you’ll never have perfect data, but you have a thought about the future driven by customers. And then you have a thought about your specific, where you are today, and where would be the next sort of pivot for you to climb up that way to the future. That would be my recommendation, my advice.
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[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:33:08] DC: Just to bring it back down to earth a bit. A lot of printers I speak to, their biggest challenge is getting through today, getting through tomorrow, getting through the end of the week with less people in their print shop, with customers cutting back budgets due to economic and other geopolitical turmoil in the world. So, with that being said, where do those people start? When that is really who, I hope that we can help. It’s those people who are – they want to do everything you’ve said, but they don’t know how to start while everything’s being piled on them day to day. Paul, I’d like to hear your response to that too.
[0:33:47] PH: Oh gosh, I don’t know to be honest, because again, I classify myself in that very place. I don’t – when you say these, other people, that’s me. I feel that same bit of overwhelm every day. I feel like some of my objectives I’m achieving, and some I’m not. I think it’s incredibly difficult. I think that my particular way of doing that is – of trying to make sense of it, though, is to – I already mentioned kind of the OKR methodology, like I have to work on one thing and I have to see it through. Because I constantly have ideas. I’m actually a really big problem for myself and other people because I like constantly have like these new things, and new ideas, and something else I want to implement. It’s very, very difficult sometimes because it’s like, well, that thing from yesterday isn’t done yet. Now, we’re pivoting and we’re working on something else.
I really have to have a methodology to actually sit down, look at certain things, and determine that those are my primary pieces of data. Those are the primary things I’m looking at. This is moving me towards this goal, which I have for this month or this quarter. I think that I myself, I need that discipline in order to not just go in too many different directions. Therefore, divide everybody’s attention and we don’t accomplish anything.
I think that my feeling around answering that question is it’s, I think starting with our intuition, we have ideas about what are the right things to work on. Then, we bring in what we’ve already discussed in this podcast, which is, we take those data points that reinforce or measure those things which we think we need to work on. Then, we test it. We say, “Yes, okay, yes, we’re working on the right thing. Things are improving. Therefore, we double down on that.” Meanwhile, we kind of start the next thing that has been uncovered while we’ve been working on thing one.
We have to have the organization to do that. We have to have the discipline to determine what it is we’re working towards, and then make the measurements, and actually continue to look at them. Because otherwise, they will be forgotten if you don’t have kind of like process around that. What I find is, you put energy into something, and a week later, it’s only being done at 50%. A month later, nobody even remembers you had the conversation. So, you have to have sort of that process that continues to build the muscle to make improvement.
[0:36:03] RR: I think there’s something about like short, mid, and long-term, and having your eye on all of the three horizons. Of course, I don’t operate in your environment, Paul. I know myself and I know that I would get quite like, what is happening today, what needs to get out the door today? But what I think, there is this perspective on like, where do I want to be midterm? Maybe, okay, I’ll just help you get there. But like long term, where is my business going, 110-year-old business, like incredibly impressive.
Yes, there have been inflection points of change, but this culture of like consuming that and making decisions for the short, mid, and long-term I think is really, really impressive and very important. So, yes, I want to commend you on that, because I don’t think that that’s easy. We in Gelato like to talk a lot about skating towards where the puck is going, not where it’s at. Of course, Wayne Gretzky quotes. Here, I think that’s so difficult because you have a business here and now, but that business is changing. But positioning yourself for the future, the future might be unknown also. But if you don’t make that, if you don’t keep those two things in perspective, you know that this business is changing materially. Yes, I don’t know if you can add any thoughts about how you’ve addressed that or how you think about that.
[0:37:21] JH: The only thing I would add to that is just that, we have had a strategy since 12, 13 years ago now that basically informed where we would spend money, the types of places we would really put focus. So, that was a general thing, it was just generally, we think this is where print is valuable and this is where it’s most valuable into the future. So, that is what created the right conversations, which led to the right business partners, which led to investing in one way versus another. I think that having that sort of like overall strategy helps with the day-to-day, or helps the day-to-day eventually stack up to making directional progress to where you want to go.
[0:38:07] DC: I think there’s also just a human way that printers can assess what is going on. Are there customers who used to order from them frequently, not ordering from them frequently anymore? Are they physically calling them, or visiting them, and finding out why? Do they survey their customers and ask them, what is it that – I’m so glad. Let me take your thank you note as an example. It’s lovely to get a thank you note, but it’s better to ask them, is there anything we could have improved on this job for you? That is when you might start hearing, “It takes me too long to get an estimate. You’ve got great prices, but you take three days longer than everybody else. Often when I work with you, you can’t get the paper that is required for this job, so I have to go somewhere else.”
So, there are ways to start gathering data without tools just by using your salespeople, your CSRs, whoever might answer the phone and start asking your salespeople, what are the top three questions you’re asked, or the top three complaints that you get, or the last three pretty critical problems that you needed to solve? And see if there’s a way to get a little electronic friend to help you with all of this.
Oftentimes now, to your most excellent point, just like you kind of embed a YouTube video on a website, you can hook up your system to another system to that API connection tool. Now, I’m not the person that does that, but there’s plenty of people out there. So, the point of this conversation is you don’t – no matter what size your shop is, speed to market and being able to get orders 24/7, 365, if you can manage it without having to spend on the customer acquisition and all those other things, means that you can look at your print shop and modernize as much as possible to take the work in.
Especially to Paul’s most excellent point before, the areas where there’s not a lot of coverage. I’m sure if you want to get a business card through a network, you can get it a thousand places. But who’s going to make me a 3D prototype of, you know, a building? Or I just need one embroidered hat to show the client. So, there are ways to do it, and I just want everyone to know that, certainly, you can call gelato and talk to them, or you connect with Paul. He’s a very nice guy, he might answer some questions, but don’t be stagnant. Because without being Debbie doom here, everybody else is doing it, so you’re either a leader or a follower. When you need it is not the time to start investigating it, because it takes a little time. Everything has to talk to each other, and work together, and ultimately, have value for the customer, right? Because otherwise, why would you go through anything like that?
Before we had this podcast, we had a little prep call, and you guys accidentally let it slip that you’re working on a secret project. Now, I love exclusives here on Podcasts From the Printerverse. I know you can’t really talk about lots of it, but it was described as a tool that could bridge natural language to print. So, Paul, without being sent to Guantanamo Bay, what can you tell us about the secret project that’s going on?
[0:41:45] PH: Let me frame it this way. We’re living in interesting times. We have the opportunity now to take advantage of technology. Obviously, I’m referring to AI into our shops. I think lots of us have wondered, “Okay, well, that’s interesting.” We’ve all had our ChatGPT moment. But I think sometimes we’ve wondered, how does it apply? I think that if we look at our print shops, there are so many tasks that are repetitive, that feel like busy work. I think that the new world of AI and computing, I think has the ability to really take our smart people and make them much more effective, to really exponentially increase the amount of work they can do. I think that those smart people are incredibly important for maintaining relationships and doing the consultative work that I was talking about before. But we’re working an early prototype project with Gelato that we think does make a difference in a print shop in terms of how long and how quickly the estimates are generated.
[0:42:47] DC: All right, that was very lofty, Paul. Congratulations. Rebecca, can you fill in any more blanks? Because you can’t really get in trouble.
[0:42:54] RR: I think the punishment is not quite as severe as Deborah mentioned. But it’s quite exciting what we’re working on together. We see GelatoConnect as bringing all of the visibility of everything happening in your facility into one software. But we also recognize that there’s a world outside of this e-commerce work that is happening every single day that takes quite a lot of power from the team and resources from a team like Paul’s. We want to relate to that and use the latest technology to help identify solutions to solve it. We are really excited about what this could bring and the collaboration. Yes, I think like this time next year, we’ll have some pretty powerful results. Just watch this space.
[0:43:36] DC: Okay. I’m putting my hat in the ring to break it on the podcast. Paul, any final words? This conference is called Building the Print Shop That Will Last. What is your advice on that?
[0:43:48] PH: Make it easier to do business. Make print easier to buy. Answer status questions. Use everything you can to make your customer experience better.
[0:44:00] DC: Amen to that. Rebecca?
[0:44:02] RR: I would say, adapt for your customers. Like, that isn’t a choice that any of us have. It just is what it is. I think it’s great for this industry. This industry is so creative. There’s so much power within production that we’re not yet tapping into, that customers can’t even fully comprehend all of the cool stuff that can happen. So, our job is to make that part easier. We want to bring a lot of people on that journey, but it starts with that ambition, that ambition to be part of that future. I think like, yes, leaning into that future is the only way to continue to transform as customers needs just skyrocket, and put amazing demands on all of us to be better.
[0:44:41] DC: I think that that is a fantastic perspective. We all live in the world and we know how we function, and there’s no reason to think that customers and consumers don’t function that same way. If I know where my pizza is, and who’s making it, and how far away is it from my house, there is some sort of more transparency that I could have into my work and have that peace of mind. And as a customer, be afforded all the same customer convenience I am if I’m paying my bill, or I am researching a vacation, or finding a dentist. I mean, I do it all online. I read the reviews. I see if there’s anybody who knows anybody who works there. It’s the same way.
So, put yourself out there in the world. Find partners that can help you say yes to everything and don’t dismiss technology. It’s here to help you, and it’s getting easier for regular people to take advantage of it. Everything that we’ve discussed in this podcast will be in the show notes. Until next time, print long, produce long, and prosper.
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[0:45:55] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com. We’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcast. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
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