Tools for Becoming Lean and Green

A recap of the 2009 Signage and Graphics Summit.

More than 200 industry leaders convened for the fourth annual Signage and Graphics Summit (SGS) at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, CA, in January 2009 to meet with peers and discuss how to better their bottom lines.

The industry’s only event bringing together top executives from the digital-printing, screen-printing, and sign making markets, this year’s SGS offered up dual thematic educational tracks: “lean and green.” Attendees spent three days in panel discussions and roundtables, with networking in between and, for one afternoon, soaking up the San Diego sun while being challenged by a championship-level golf course.

Here are just a few of the highlights from SGS 2009:

• Chris Laszlo with Sustainable Value Partners and author of the new book, Sustainable Value: How the World’s Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good, started off the conference with the keynote address. Laszlo regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies on sustainability and social-responsibility initiatives that create business value and competitive strength. His “Sustainability for Competitive Advantage” session at SGS 2009 discussed sustainability-driven business leadership and the best management practices, providing case studies from major organizations that have made themselves more sustainable and more competitive.

The conventional wisdom is that sustainability is a ‘nice to have’ and not a ‘need to have’ during tough economic times, said Laszlo. “But on the contrary, there may be no better time to reorient your strategies along these lines. As has been made very clear in the financial sector, companies risk complete annihilation today if their reputation and confidence evaporates. The sub-prime mess has illustrated the huge costs of not accounting for the risks of unsustainable business practices. The clients’ definition of where business value comes from is shifting rapidly. As always, you gain a competitive advantage by being able to create stakeholder value better than others, and health and social concerns are becoming increasingly important in the final buying decision.”

Wal-Mart, GE, DuPont, and Toyota are proof that large companies can be green and profitable at the same time, he continued. “Fairmount Minerals, Green Mountain Coffee Roaster, Interface and many other smaller companies are demonstrating that ‘green is green,’ no matter what sector or size. These companies, and hundreds more like them, are looking to their vendors to not just conform to sustainability initiatives, but to lead the way through innovation. Being green isn’t about meeting environmental targets for their own sake. It’s about advancing your existing business priorities.”

• “Managing Through the Downturn: The Perils and Promises of the 2009 Economy” was the topic presented by Peter Navarro an economist and author regularly featured in business media such as CNBC and The Wall Street Journal. Navarro provided a detailed forecast of the 2009 economy as well as the stock market. In addition, Navarro  provided a primer so that print providers can develop their own economic forecasting skills, and share proven strategies that executives who are savvy about business cycles have used during recessions to make their companies even stronger.

As a rule, he said, the smartest companies engage in counter-cyclical behavior during economic down times. “Rather than decreased advertising, for example, they increase advertising to build brand and increase market share.  Smart companies also use recessions to 'cherry pick' from a deeper talent pool to staff at lower costs.”

He also added that the two things that CEOs really need right now is a high level of economic and financial market literacy and large cash reserves. I”f you find yourself with large inventories and in a cash squeeze, your company simply doesn't know how to manage the business cycle very well. That's a task you need to learn.”

• The Fourth Annual SGS Buyers' Panel, where industry buyers from some of America's biggest corporations discussed what they're looking for in vendors, included: Kraig Kessel, director, Bedrock Brands; Thom Lasley, lead design project architect, Target; Mike Majoulet, VP, brand manager, Wells Fargo; and Marcus Duffel, group manager, construction, Shell Lubricants/Jiffy Lube.

This interactive discussion featured the key buyers responsible for some of the largest signage and graphics programs in the country. The foursome discussed how the economy and other changing business conditions are affecting their needs in signage and graphics. And they discussed what their signage and graphics providers could be doing better for them.

• The conference’s  third day included a discussion on “Using Lean Ideas to Get Jobs to Production Faster,” by Darren Dolcemascolo, senior partner and co-founder, EMS Strategies. Companies typically begin their lean journeys, said Dolcemascolo, focusing on the production facility, where waste reduction and other benefits can translate to great savings. But in many businesses, manufacturing accounts for less than half of the total lead time from order to delivery. His seminar discussed how to use a concept called value-stream mapping to make a shop’s pre-production process (sales, design, client approval, purchasing, etc.) leaner. Attendees learned how to get orders into production, to customers, and to accounts payable faster and with fewer resources.

Sample of topics covered at our roundtable discussions:

• Ideas in Corporate Social Responsibility
  Retaining Your Best Clients
  The Value of Training
  Is It Green, or Greenwashing?
  Differentiating Yourself from Competitors
  Achieving Zero Waste in a Graphics Environment
  Side Code Forum
  Battling for Scarce Talent: Hiring and Retaining Staff
  Decreasing Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
  Business Planning in an Uncertain Economy
  Writing a Sustainability Plan
  Profits on the Go: The Vehicle Graphics Forum
  Keys to Building Sales
  Finding Environmentally Friendly Supplies and Tools
  Is There an Opportunity in Packaging?
  The Color Management Blues
  Extending a Lean Effort to Suppliers and Contractors
  New Ideas in Inventory Control
  Sign Industry Regulatory Issues
  QFD: A New Concept in Meeting Customer Expectations
  Outsourcing: The Benefits and the Drawbacks
  Repairing a Broken Workflow
  Ideas for More Effective Marketing
  What’s New in LED Technology?
  Strategies in Salesforce Management
  Fulfillment: The New Frontier or Profit Cul de Sac?
  Developing a Succession Plan
  Improving Your Company’s Website
  Solving Permitting and Regulatory Challenges
  Critical Factors in Shop Floor Layout
  Which Value-Added Services Do Clients Really Value?
  How is EDS Affecting the Sign Industry?
  Developing Business Growth Plans
  Variable-Data Opportunities
  Improving Teamwork Throughout Your Company
  Making Strategies Align with Tactics and Action Plans
  Boosting Productivity through Awards and Incentives
  Comparing Organizational Structure Models
  Establishing an Installation Network
  Order Tracking from Sales through Shipping