I first heard the word “meritocracy” while reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles: Life and Work. Dalio speaks and writes extensively about what he calls “idea meritocracy.” He runs the largest hedge fund and is one of the richest people in the world. My favorite quote from him is (after making a very large and painful mistake), “It changed my thinking from ‘I’m right,’ to ‘How do I know I’m right?’ It gave me the humility to balance my audacity.” In order to prevent that kind of mistake from happening again, he implemented an “idea meritocracy” in his business.

What does meritocracy have to do with running a successful print business or making good decisions about how you utilize print software? Good question.

Technology is not typically a core strength of the current set of print business owners. In fact, it is quite rare. I don’t believe in surveys, but my guess would be that a large percentage of print business owners would cite technology decisions, strategy, and investments as one of their top concerns/frustrations for the future of their business.