What they learnt: Snehangshu Ganguly, NK Gossain Printing Press

My initial journey was full of hurdles and temporary failures that I can refer to as teething problems.

 

It was in the last quarter of 2012, that I decided to enter the print business, after being an investment banker for a decade. The shift for me was quite challenging, as everything was extremely alien to me.

Especially while interacting with clients or initiating any discussion related to a particular print issue.

 

One incident that I recollect was about an urgent job at the initial stage of my career in print.

 

My father was out of the country, and there was a pressing job, a common occurrence in the printing business, where the execution time was a deadline of flat 72 hours. The work involved printing and fabrication using different substrates like paper, vinyl, sunboard, PET and branding using acrylic cut-outs. The client requested for the quote and wanted to finalise the job at the earliest. 

 

During the initial phase, I never used to pay much attention towards detailed costing and relying on my experienced team for the same. While briefing my team for the quotation, I had been quite casual and did not bother to cross check the detailed cost and the markup. The quote provided by us exceeded the expectation of the client and during negotiation I had already agreed to his offer considering the volume of work. 

 

Later, we discovered there was an error in cost inputs as I had forgotten to mention some key elements such as a lit unit that was required, the overtime cost required since it was to be delivered within 72 hours plus I misunderstood vinyl for flex. 

 

We eventually overcame all these obstacles, and managed to deliver the project. But the flip side was that we had to incur substantial loss. It taught me a lesson to remember.