As I write this I am preparing for the Owners conference (NAQP show) on Friday and to moderate a panel at Executive Outlook on Saturday. These two pre-show events look better than ever. At the Owners Conference, former Chief Marketing Officer at Kodak and always popular funny guy Jeff Hazlet will talk about his new book, “The Mirror Test – How to Breathe New Life into Your Business.” And I, along with most of the NAPL consulting staff, will be making presentations on sales, marketing, M&A, going green and new technology.

Executive Outlook is another great pre-show event. For me, I always want to hear about the “MustSeeUms,” which talk about new products and technology that have been chosen through a peer review as important to see. My role this year is to moderate a panel called “Harnessing Technology for New Era Success.” It is always fun to moderate a panel because you hear new and innovative ways that companies are achieving success.

Typically these types of panels start by discussing markets, applications and technologies. But some attendees think that is the most important point or the take home story and then they leave. To quote a line from the movie Pretty Woman, “Big Mistake, Huge Mistake!”

For example, one of my panelists has achieved success in pharmaceutical markets, with a digital printing packaging product that is sold as quick turnaround and in short runs. Those people that start walking to the doors early might conclude that this company’s success is based on a focused vertical market, targeted technology, and automated workflow.

While true, what is not obvious is that the president of this company is a Deming disciple and therefore the fundaments of TQM are also responsible for the success. Dr. W. Edwards Deming is one of the founders of quality programs and created TQM (Total Quality Management). TQM is credited with the success of car manufacturers. For any company, including those in the printing industry, a focus on TQM is another way of talking about the importance of measurements in a process focused on continuous process improvement.

Another panelist is a manager of a university in-plant who has been fortunate enough to get to bid on work from other in-plants in the state system.  I work a lot with university in-plants and it is rare for in-plants to have the opportunity to bid on work that is outside the university. As I learned from my friends Jimmy and Richard in conversations about the next TACUP meeting (Texas Association of College and University Printers), this is a new trend. The advantage of course is that the in-plant has the ability to bid on state work outside their own system which means they can increase their workflow when they run into a low point in demand.

Again if you walked out early you would think that the ability to get more work is the main reason for this in-plant’s success. While this is unusual and very valuable another reason for the success of this in-plant is that the manager focuses on prepress. He grew up working in prepress and understands the relationship between good file prep and productivity. Simply put prepress is often the bottleneck in production. Speed work through the bottleneck and you speed up the entire plant.

The point here is that the underlying reasons for a company’s success are not as simple as markets, applications and technology. There are often deeper and equally important reasons.

What do you think? Are there reasons for your success that goes beyond your markets, applications and technology?

Howard Fenton is a Senior Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research.