On September 12th, Standard Register announced the appointment of Joseph P. Morgan, Jr. as acting CEO following the retirement of Dennis L. Rediker. Previously, Morgan served as executive VP and COO. He has a variety of experiences in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Operations and Technology. During his seven years with SR he has run a mix of businesses, as well as leading significant improvements in operational excellence, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability.  In its release, the Board of Directors expressed full confidence in Morgan’s abilities to lead the company, but also indicated that a search would be undertaken in order to explore all options.

WhatTheyThink spoke with Morgan to get a feel for where he would take the company and his views on the industry and technology in general.

WTT:  Joe, thanks so much for talking with us so quickly after your appointment, and congratulations.  Perhaps we could start by discussing a bit of your background, both before joining Standard Register and during your tenure there.

JPM:  Sure.  I have been at Standard Register for seven years, and I bring an interesting perspective to the company, since I had been a supplier to the company since the late 1980’s.  The two most notable instances were at FLEXcon and Sony Chemical Corporation of America.  At FLEXcon, which is a materials supplier to the labels side of the business, I spent seven or eight years in the barcoding area as thermal and laser technologies began to displace dot matrix and pin-fed printing.  I am a chemical engineer by background, and worked with materials development in what turns out to be one of our core businesses at Standard Register, labels.  I was the Vice President of Business Development for electronic imaging when I left the company.  At Sony Chemical Corporation, where I was President and Chairman of the Board, and employee number one.  We built the first facility for thermal transfer ribbon technology in the 1990’s.  We also had a digital media business, CD and DVD manufacturing.  I was there almost six years.  In between Sony and Standard Register, I did some start-up work, so there is an entrepreneurial side as well.

WTT:  What roles have you played at Standard Register?

JPM:  I started out as the CEO of SMARTworks, our technology platform.  Then I was subsequently CTO, and then General Manager of On Demand Solutions.  I have been the COO since April.

WTT:  What stands out most in your mind as accomplishments you are most proud of during your tenure?

JPM:  First—and this links the two roles as CEO of SMARTworks and CTO together—was the fact that we brought technology to the executive table at our company and were able to use technology as a strategic advantage by connecting it with the overall strategy of the business.  We have been recognized in the marketplace by third parties like Information Week on a consistent basis as being in the Top 100.  Last year, we ranked Number One in Manufacturing and Number Six in Innovation, and we are very proud of that. The decision to outsource our infrastructure to HP was a catalyst for these achievements, because it brought a whole new culture of technology to our company. It gave us access to a technology platform that it would have been difficult to achieve any other way. It also gave us a platform that allows us to attract incredible talent, which continues to be a differentiator for us.  It also led to going to market with HP to serve HP’s customers.  

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The second one that stands out was when Dennis asked me to take on a new responsibility with On Demand Solutions. This brought together our print-on-demand capabilities, document systems software and related technology for health care and financial services, along with new technology focused on increasing the profit contribution of those businesses to Standard Register.  We were able to align our portfolio so we could take advantage of some of the growth that was going on in those markets.

WTT:  With SMARTworks, as I recall, Standard Register was one of the early entrants into the e-commerce market.

JPM:  SMARTworks started out as a PC-based application in 2000, but the last three versions have been Web-based.  We have 100,000 active users at 2,400 customer sites for that service. You are right that we were very early with that solution, and we have continued to evolve the platform pretty dramatically. Joanne Cummins, our Vice President of Technology, has an interesting background with both client-facing technology and client services.  She has brought a different perspective on how to advance the software platform and has done a nice job with her team in continuing to develop the roadmap.

WTT:  Another aspect of Standard Register’s business I have always been intrigued with is your holistic approach to the way customers use printing, looking at the office, centralized internal print and outsourced print, to ensure that they are printing in the most effective manner possible.  Has that model continued to gain traction?

JPM:  Yes, it has.  The vertical market focus we have had over the last year and a half to two years has contributed to our ability to deliver those services effectively.  You have to balance technology and workflow with people involvement.  We have also advanced our technology platform around sourcing so we can be even more efficient than we had been in the past.

WTT:  In your opinion, what are the key strategies Standard Register must pursue going forward for success?

JPM:  The first thing we are looking at is a bit obvious, relative to the assets we currently have in place in our print-on-demand and software businesses focused on vertical markets and other solutions. We need to maximize return on those core capabilities, and we are spending a lot of time on that.  We are also evaluating how we can best apply our core competencies as part of our go-forward strategy.  Those would include digital workflow, supply chain management, material sciences, document services technologies primarily focused on print, and business process outsourcing around print, linking in print management. Those are the core elements of our strategy as we move forward.

WTT:  Much of this seems to be focused on print.  What is Standard Register doing relative to leveraging the opportunity for multichannel communications, where print is included along with other communications media?

JPM:  We believe that print has a critical role in what we do.  However, surrounding print with the proper amount of services is a more effective go-forward strategy for our company than having printing as our sole purpose.  With the combination of our evolving market focus and our application and solution focus, we have the depth in the organization and in our portfolio to bring a higher level of value to clients in markets like health care, manufacturing and financial services.  If you are a generic printer bringing services to the marketplace, the value tends to be almost entirely attached to the product. By demonstrating our true knowledge of these vertical markets, we are on the same side of the desk with the customer, and we can help them understand their total cost and how to improve their business processes.  Once that happens, there are other dynamics that come into play.  That includes digital color. We have invested a great deal in our StanFast and fulfillment offerings.  So we will continue to combine specific investments around print with the services that are required to be successful in key vertical markets.

WTT:  What types of multichannel initiatives does SR have in play?

JPM:  We absolutely have examples where we have deployed e-presentment of bills, personalized URLs and other multi-media approaches to communications on behalf of our customers.  Candidly, part of our work is to accelerate the strategy around those things.  In this industry, you have to focus on more than print.  You have seen the dynamics occurring around traditional forms; that is a market in decline, and the horse is out of the barn on that one.  But with that change comes tremendous opportunity around presentment, content management, and new ways of communicating.  That is where we are putting our energy, not on holding on to the past. Our customers have relied on us for decades as a strategic partner.  Let me give you an example.  In health care, there is a movement toward totally electronic medical records.  Our customers are working with us to tap into our expertise in the hospital industry to help them get ready for this initiative, and we will be a player there.

WTT:  What about acquisitions?  Historically, Standard Register has not done as many acquisitions as some of your counterparts.

JPM:  Over the last several years, acquisition has not been a core part of our strategy.  As we go forward and refine what we are doing, there may be opportunities, but acquisition is not a critical part of what we are doing in the foreseeable future.

WTT:  What do you see as the most critical technologies for the printing industry and for Standard Register moving forward?

JPM:  Content, personalization, and simplified data integration technologies are going to be key. Also, the industry has a tremendous amount of capacity in almost every category of print. Simplifying workflow around capturing orders and production is very important. Those are the technologies around which we are building our solutions at this point.  A passion I personally have is studying the new generation, their expectations around communications, and what affect that will have on our industry over the long term.  I have a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old. I know their expectations around receiving detailed information electronically.  They get their bank and credit card statements online, pay their bills online—they have a completely paperless view of the world. They also communicate in ways that I certainly didn’t know about when I was a kid, things like Facebook, etc.  I think there is a very significant opportunity to leverage those technology sets around B2B communications. And they haven’t yet been leveraged.  I do think it has a relationship to our business. That is something that we are spending a lot of time thinking about.

WTT:  What message do you have for buyers of print?

JPM:  I think there is a tendency on the part of buyers to productize print because there is so much capacity and so many people that can provide print.  But more and more, print is an integral part of something far bigger for a company—a communication program or the like.  It is important that buyers of print understand the role that print plays in their organization before they acquire it.  Companies like ours that have the ability to simplify what is available and to present a more compelling solution -- really help the buyer figure it all out.  We often get new business after something has gone wrong because someone in the value chain didn’t really understand that print is more than a product.  It is the result of a workflow and a creative decision, and delivers the most success when you can measure the impact that document or marketing collateral has on your business.

WTT:  Joe, do you have anything else you would like to share before we close?

JPM:  The only additional comment I would make is that on a personal level, I am excited about the opportunity that our Board has provided me, and I firmly believe that the associates in our organization are focused on the right things for us to continue to grow.  Our commitment continues to be strong as the industry changes and we respond to those changes.  Technology, services and the appropriate amount of focus on print are key for us going forward.