On July 16, 2012, author and businessman Stephen R. Covey passed away at a hospital in Idaho at the age of 79. Covey won a global following and a five-year run on bestseller lists by fusing the genres of self-help and business literature in his 1989 book entitled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. Mr. Covey’s book sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, and it also earned the distinction of becoming the first audiobook to sell more than a million copies. Covey established the Covey Leadership Center, which merged with Franklin Quest in 1997 to form FranklinCovey. This successful professional services firm and specialty retailer sold training and productivity tools to individuals and organizations.

Ironically, Covey was always a bit baffled by his success. To his mind, he was simply telling people what he thought they already understood—the efficacy of good behavior. According to Covey, people simply needed to form habits out of their best instincts to be effective. He considered his seven nuggets of knowledge to be natural laws, like gravity. These seven lessons have never been more relevant than they are today in the graphic communications industry. To honor Covey’s legacy, I thought this would be a good time to provide a quick refresher course on his seven habits, as well as some examples of organizations that are taking these lessons to heart.

According to Covey, “Your life doesn't just ‘happen.’ Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours.” The firms that I see thriving in today’s market are designing their success by focusing on specific business opportunities. They are proactively targeting specific markets and building solutions to meet their needs. For example, New Jersey-based EarthColor focuses on three primary industries: Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare, Telecomm/Cable, and Financial Services/Insurance. According to Executive Vice President Cheryl Kahanec, “There are common elements in the solutions that we deliver to these market segments. All three segments have strict industry regulations that require personalized communications on a day-to-day basis that benefit from customer segmentation and customized marketing messages. We proactively work with our clients to deliver a streamlined solution built to serve the unique needs of these heavily regulated industries.”