Standard Register, founded in 1912 in Dayton, Ohio, has been making strong headway in renewing itself in the Digital Age. Over the last two years, the company has been revitalizing itself in the face of a declining forms industry. This included an intensive review of Standard Register’s products and services and the market segments and customers it serves.

Led by Dennis Rediker, who joined the company in 2000, Standard Register launched a Renewal Plan in January 2001 to take advantage of growth opportunities and create increased shareholder value. The four-step plan, which includes Restructuring, Reorganization, Performance Improvement and Growth Initiatives, aims to create Total Shareholder Return averaging 30 percent per year through 2004, a tough challenge in a difficult economic climate. The long-term goal is to position the Company for sustained top line and bottom line growth.

As part of the Renewal Plan, the Company reorganized into Strategic Business Units (SBUs). The change to SBUs allows each unit to have a dedicated management team that is accountable for and focused on growth opportunities while helping to drive performance, productivity and continuous improvement for Standard Register as a whole.

WhatTheyThink.com spoke with Standard Register’s CEO, Dennis Rediker, to get the latest update.

Part One Topics:
- Strategic Business Units
- Core business areas
- Where did “forms” go?
- Target industry segments
- Acquisition of InSystems & PlanetPrint

Tomorrow's Part Two Topics:
- The paperless society theory
- Staffing strategies
- Dealing with this economy
- The environment for success

WTT: Mr. Rediker, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. You’ve spent a number of years in a variety of different types of companies prior to joining Standard Register, including an interesting stint with a British company. Can you share with us a little about your background and career?

DLR: I was educated as an electrical engineer at the University of California and joined IBM where I was involved in computer design, sales and product and market planning. Later I became Vice President of Mead Data Central, which is now known as Lexis-Nexis. I served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Mead Corporation and then President of Mead’s Worldwide Coated Board Division. Next, I joined English China Clays, plc, the British company you referred to, which provides specialty chemicals and minerals for manufacturers in a variety of industries. I served as President of its American Pacific Division and later I became CEO of the company and moved to London. Following English China Clays’ merger with French mineral company Imerys in 1999, I became CEO of the Imerys Pigments and Additives Group. In 2000 I became CEO and President of Standard Register, having served on the company’s board of directors since 1996.

When I joined Standard Register, the board asked me to lead a renewal of the company. We want Standard Register to thrive in the Digital Age, where companies are seeking to improve how they operate by leveraging technology. So, we have been building on our strong foundation of solutions, technology and talent over the last year and are now focusing on executing strategic plans to drive strong long-term profitable growth.


WTT: The move to SBUs is different for Standard Register. What was your strategy there?

DLR: The change to SBUs allows each unit to have a dedicated management team that is accountable for and focused on growth opportunities while helping to drive performance, productivity and continuous improvement for Standard Register as a whole. That means that each business unit is responsible for developing and executing an approach to the market most appropriate for its business segment, while still taking advantage of the synergies of the entire organization.

Each SBU is aligned with the overall company vision and purpose. Our vision is whenever companies want to leverage their information to improve results, they come to us.

The key to accelerating growth is providing inspirational leadership about a new vision and getting employees excited about it and engaged in making it happen. That’s what I and the other leaders are focused on.

We recruited outside talent to join our leadership team, including executives from e-business, consulting, and Fortune 100 companies, giving us a well-rounded perspective on the business. The expertise of the team and our workforce combined with our Voice of the Customer effort is helping ensure our SBUs and the company overall are doing the right things today for our customers and that we are making the right investments to meet customers’ changing needs.

We have a great platform for success.


WTT: Standard Register has come a long way since 1912, when its premier product was the autographic register, a system that automatically produced eight copies from the writing of one document. What are the core business areas for Standard Register today?

DLR: We provide information solutions that help companies improve their business results. We have been doing this over 90 years. Mostly the vehicle has been paper-based documents, but increasingly that information platform is digital.

Our offerings include secure documents such as checks and licenses with security features such as thermochromic or "mood" inks, void pantographs and transparent watermarks to help protect companies from fraud. U.S. companies are losing more than $600 billion a year to fraud--mostly document fraud and counterfeiting--so this addresses a major market issue.

We also are a major provider of label solutions, offering everything from barcode, compliance and holography labels to warehouse management software, label applicators and radio frequency identification systems.

In our consulting, fulfillment and e-business services, we help customers by helping improve their processes and business communications. For example, our consulting team helps customers achieve a net savings of 15 to 45 percent of their annual print expense through an enterprise-wide print-communications strategy.

Our Internet-based marketing-communications solutions help companies dramatically increase their direct-marketing response rates through more personalized business communications, or one-to-one marketing, and closed-loop campaign management. In addition, SMARTworks, our e-procurement solution, helps customers manage their print expense and interface with their customers and partners through Internet-based products, services and capabilities.

We have a broad range of innovative products and services and continue to evolve.


WTT: It is interesting that you didn’t use the word "forms" anywhere in your description.

DLR: Standard Register has always been providing solutions that help companies improve their results. The autographic register of 1912 is one example. But also consider that we’ve been providing consulting services since 1945. Even then we offered Work Simplification consulting to help companies improve their efficiency by streamlining workflow.

Business forms are a way to manage processes and share information; they are just one part of our solution.

We are out to be a strategic thought partner to our customers. That holds true whether we’re improving their workflow and processes and helping them migrate from paper-based to digital ways of operating … or we’re helping them strengthen their relationships with their clients through more relevant and impactful communications. It all boils down to helping customers improve their business results.


WTT: Who are your typical customers, and on which industries do you primarily focus?

DLR: Our customers range from very large global customers in the Fortune 1000 down to mid-size companies. They include financial services companies such as banks, insurance companies and securities firms; healthcare organizations including hospitals, integrated delivery networks and group purchasing organizations; manufacturers; distribution companies; and various governmental agencies.


WTT: You’ve recently made a couple of acquisitions. What capabilities have those added to the mix?

DLR: In July 2002 we acquired InSystems Technologies, Inc., Toronto, Canada, to strengthen our digital solutions that improve companies’ processes and performance. With InSystems, we have the premier extended relationship management software in the financial services industry as well as leading document automation software. InSystems solutions enable customers to do business on the Web with agents, suppliers, customers, regulators, etc. in a very streamlined and effective way. InSystems serves Canada Life, Humana and hundreds more of the top North American financial services companies.

We also acquired some of the assets of PlanetPrint, based in Minneapolis, in July. It has three capabilities: consulting, software development and integration; and print on demand operations. It’s a world-class organization. It is very strong in providing sophisticated consulting services to help clients with enterprise document management including their overall printing, copying and archiving activities—on site or near site—to achieve superior efficiency and reduce costs. And they provide on-demand printing, such as producing perfect-bound books and manuals in quantities as low as one within 24-48 hours.

The acquisitions strengthen our ability to help customers be more efficient in how they communicate and conduct business, whether in a paper-based infrastructure, a digital environment or a combination of the two.


See Part Two Tomorrow