The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) is honoring 15 graphic communications companies with NAPL Management Plus™ Awards at the industry-wide Vision 3 Summit in Marco Island, Fla., tonight. Management Plus Awards are sponsored by manroland; Printing Impressions magazine serves as media sponsor.

Think Patented of Dayton, Ohio, will be awarded the Management Plus program’s highest honor, the William K. Marrinan Hall of Fame Award, in addition to a 2011 Management Plus Gold Award. Think Patented becomes the 28th company to enter the Management Plus Hall of Fame, an honor accorded to a select group of companies that have consistently earned Management Plus awards over a period of years. Think Patented has won 10 Management Plus Awards over the last decade, including three Gold Awards in the last three years.
 
“We are very honored to be selected for the Management Plus Hall of Fame Award,” said Niels Winther, company Chairman and Managing Partner. “While many opportunities exist to judge a printed piece, only Management Plus gives you a complete picture of every aspect of your business—it’s a tool for analyzing your company on a holistic basis, highlighting areas that need improvement so that you can focus on them. Think Patented has participated for several years and we have seen progress year over year in our level of achievement. The Hall of Fame Award is a huge honor.”

"We're very proud of this award,” added Think Patented Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner Ken McNerney. “We take this as a vote of confidence for what we do, and we appreciate it on behalf of our staff and our customers."

In addition to Think Patented, Management Plus 2011 Gold Awards will be presented to Portland General Electric in-plant, Portland, Ore.; PrintingForLess.com, Livingston, Mont.; Classic Graphics, Charlotte, N.C.; Dome Printing, Sacramento, Calif.; and Harding Poorman Group, Indianapolis, Ind.

Silver Award honorees are the Washington State Department of Printing in-plant, Tumwater, Wash.; Alpha Graphics Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Telepress, Kent, Wash.; Editorial Padilla, S.A., Santo Domingo Oeste, The Dominican Republic; Allstate Legal, Cranford, N.J.; Edwards Brothers Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.; Ripon Printers, Ripon, Wis.; and Suttle-Straus, Waunakee, Wis.

“Management Plus Award-winning companies demonstrate clearly their commitment to excellence in every managerial and operational area of their business, including interactions with their employees, customers, suppliers, and the community at large,” said NAPL President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph P. Truncale, Ph.D. “On behalf of NAPL, I am proud to congratulate these exemplary companies on their outstanding performance in continuing to set the management standards for our industry.”

Management Plus participants compete in one of six categories:  five based on size and one for in-plant printers.  Entrants are judged on how well they perform against industry standards in seven key management areas: Leadership and governance, human resources, strategic planning, marketing and sales, operations, community/industry relations, and financial performance. Entries are based on the NAPL Management Plus Best Practices Assessment™, a free diagnostic tool that printing companies can use to compare their own management performance against accepted industry best practices, even if they choose not to enter the awards competition.

For more information about NAPL’s Management Plus program, or to receive a free copy of the NAPL Management Plus Best Practices Assessment, contact Laura Shoemaker at (800) 642-6275, ext. 6377, or [email protected].