Print Summit to witness series of panel discussions

The topic for the panel discussion is “How should the Indian print industry measure success? Top line or bottom line”.

The one day summit will witness a 90 minutes panel discussion featuring two traditional print firm chief executive officers (CEO), A Balachandra of Rajhans Enterprises and Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset, two firms headed by professional print CEOs Pramod Khera of Repro India and C J Jassawala of Thomson Press and two disruptors Nilesh Parwani of Vistaprint and Dharti Desai of MOS will cover many areas and examine different methodologies for different types of print operations. 

Mehul Desai, chairman and founder of Mumbai-based Mail Order Solutions (MOS) who along with Ramu Ramanathan, editor, PrintWeek India, will chair the panel discussion.

Desai, said, “In an industry as volatile as printing, it is important to have a stable financial system in place. The discussion will examine cost of sales, the mix of products sold, sales against target, sales conversion rates, staff absenteeism, delivery on time, employee turnover, number of new ideas generated, how many ideas become profitable, rate of conversion of hot leads, customer acquisition cost or inventory turnover, bank finance and interest rates, error rate and the number of customer complaints.”

According to Desai, how does a printing company's profitability be measured? Through its bottom lines or through top lines? It is important not to confuse business success with goals. Unfortunately, print companies make that mistake.

Desai said, “For example, a printer might have the objective of generating Rs 25 crore of sales for a particular year. That’s a goal. The method would be around the sale process, not the Rs 25-crore figure. It might include how many new customers, how many visits from prospective customers ended up in presentations and how many presentations ended up in sales.”

Desai added, “Some companies have big targets. That’s good, but they have to be realistic. If the company needs thirty extra people plus another Rs 10-crore of machinery to reach those targets, it might well become economically unviable. If the targets feel unattainable or ridiculous, should a print firm try and achieve it and more importantly, at what cost?

Mehul Desai feels, it is important that the print industry needs to review how it does real business. Business practice changes, and so a printers need to change in order to succeed. As a result, some business modules can get out-dated and stale and need renewal. Bottom lines or top lines are critical in determining business success, but what should a growing print firm look out for?”