Situation #3: Ninety-five percent of your company’s revenues and operating profits are generatedby 32-page, four-color picture books in the children’s market, printed abroad, whose paper, printing and binding cost is 30-percent below U.S. prices, and whose cost of maintaining inventory still generates cost of product below conventional U.S. printing costs. Management remains confident in its market and sees no reason to shorten time to market and risklosing their competitive cost advantage. Yet they also are concerned about transformations taking place in product customization and re-purposing emerging in the market, although the opportunities to generate revenue are still limited. Four-color digital, demand printers have been calling on you with on-demand solutions that include quick response repurposing and customization capabilities. What do you do?
- People:
- Howard Goldstein
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.