Blue Star's green man: Print 21 magazine article

Tradition dictates that blue and green must not be seen together but Chris Mitchell believes otherwise. In his first major interview with the media, the new group managing director of Blue Star talks to Mitchell Jordan about the company's move into greener pastures.

Blue Star Print Group stands on the edge of a new era and guiding it is Chris Mitchell.

Appointed as group managing director in mid-March this year, Mitchell had not spoken to media prior to this article, but he is all too aware that Blue Star has a vexing reputation for being private about its business, granting and giving interviews very seldomly. Now that he's on board this is one of the first things Mitchell hopes to change.

With a background in IT, Mitchell is far from the archetypal computer nerd. Indeed, if there is one thing he is passionate about then it appears to be the environment. As we sit down to talk, he points out that sustainability was one of the major areas of attention in his previous job, back in the days before green was the new black, and it is now set to become the main focus for Blue Star.

Over the last four years, Mitchell worked as managing director of IT company, Electronic Data Systems, a subsidiary of major US corporation, EDS, where he oversaw all aspects of the business which employed a team of 8,000 across Australia and New Zealand.

One of the defining moments of Mitchell's career at EDS was his implementation of a 'Go For Green' programme, which targeted a 25 percent reduction in the company's carbon footprint along with raising awareness of environmental issues, earning him a reputation in and out of the IT industry as something of a green guru.

"I was a pioneer of the IT industry's response to environmental challenges," he says.

The power of print
Word of Mitchell's work spread and he was eventually approached by Blue Star with an offer that he believed could enhance his knowledge and previous experiences.

"At that point I had reached a crossroads at EDS because the strategy that I'd put into place was complete. I saw that the printing industry was undergoing many changes and felt that it was time for me to change as well," he says.

Mitchell openly admits that he knew very little about the printing industry before he came into it but does not believe this is in any way a disadvantage for him or the company. Besides, as he points out, there are synergies between IT and printing, not least being the fact that both are reliant upon technology.

"IT and printing are both capital-intensive, highly competitive and have undergone a lot of consolidation," he says. "Although printing is a different industry, there are a lot of similarities where you can still draw lessons from one to the other."

Mitchell points to his teenage daughter as perfect proof that the two go hand-in-hand and that print still plays an important part in the lives of those who cannot survive without the use of an iPod, Facebook and YouTube.

"My daughter is extremely technology literate and spends most of her time on the internet. But if she wants to actually concentrate on what she's studying then she will print it out," he says. "This isn't an industry that is going to disappear."

Now that his days at EDS are over, Mitchell manages a team of 2,000 employees on both sides of the Tasman, a somewhat smaller staff size than in his previous role. Regardless of this, he admits that "all CEO roles are challenging."

When it comes to leadership, Mitchell is a firm believer in the value of maintaining good staff and smiling along the way. Profiled in the book, Super Leaders of Australia, he said: "Knowing how to motivate and reward staff and keeping them interested and performing to the best of their abilities is vitally important in managing a successful business. And a well developed sense of humour always helps."

Blue Star for Emerald City
It might seem strange that a man with so little experience in printing should be running one of the largest print companies in Australia and New Zealand, but Mitchell's appointment is a reflection of the changing attitudes towards management within the industry. Gone are the days when humble printers worked their way up from the presses and through the ranks to become top dog.

And there is no doubt that Mitchell has his work cut out for him in maintaining Blue Star's momentum. Throughout the 90s, under the leadership of Tom Sturgess, Blue Star rose to become New Zealand's largest printing company, pioneering the business model of buying up smaller companies and offering an integrated service offering. Having out-grown its local market, Blue Star set its sights on Australia, buying up established companies such as Link Printing and Craftsman Press as well as setting up the stand-alone commercial web operation, Webstar, in Sydney in 2001.

Last year, private equity group, CHAMP, bought into the business, taking an 85 percent stake, and Blue Star continued on the takeover trail with the acquisition of the iconic McMillan Print Group as well as National Capital Printing in Canberra. Tom Sturgess has now taken a back seat (although he remains on the board), meaning that the reins are very much in Mitchell's hands. It also effectively means that Blue Star's headquarters have moved to Sydney, not that Mitchell seems too bothered.

"I don't get too hung up on where the actual physical headquarters are," he admits. "Blue Star is a trans-Tasman company."

Mitchell says he is very pleased with the company's progress, which has been expanding at close to a 20 percent annual growth rate for the last three years, and notes that its revenue has now reached $600 million across the whole group.

While Mitchell was generous in opening up to Print 21 about what goes on inside Blue Star, he remains tight-lipped about its acquisition of McMillan Print Group and refuses to discuss on-going talk of staff redundancies and rationalisation.

"I can't comment on McMillan's but the integration has gone smoothly with no service disruption. I'm sure there were some changes - there always are; but we are very happy with the acquisition," he says.

At the time of Mitchell's appointment, a media release from Blue Star mentioned that the company, in addition to continuing to grow in Australia and New Zealand, would also be looking to enter the Asian market. Having just returned from a trip overseas to Singapore, Mitchell is pleased to reveal that this is another part of his plan as group managing director.

"Asia is a very exciting market and we are actively looking at these opportunities as we speak," he says.

It's also an area that he knows well from his work in the IT industry, where he spent time in China, Singapore and Malaysia to name but a few.

"I have worked throughout each of these markets and would like to overlay that knowledge into the printing industry and figure out where to enter," he says. "The Asian region is a fast-growing one so it makes sense for us to focus on it."

The green star
Aside from further growth, Mitchell's top priority is to shift the company's role so that it becomes a star environmental performer. He believes that the printing industry has not effectively engaged with the environment and must counterbalance the staggering misconception that using paper is destructive. One widely-held belief that he finds frustrating is the notion that it is better to read something online and save a piece of paper in the process.

"This industry has really not done enough to articulate that looking at something electronically is not a better option," he says. "Desktops are extremely inefficient in their consumption of power."

It will take more than the example of his daughter to convince people otherwise. In an age when most electronic messages come with smug reminders to think of the environment before printing it out and companies choose to only make their annual reports available online to gain the kudos of being good, green citizens, some might wonder if Mitchell is fighting a losing battle.

Change of any kind takes time, and he is at least reassured by the fact that he managed to transform EDS at a time when the environment was not at the forefront of people's consciences. To hose down the green wash, Mitchell has developed an environmental strategy as part of his five-year plan for Blue Star.

"In the near future we will be a leader in this space," he asserts, "and our strategy will focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our organisation, further educating our staff and showing our customers how they can use printed communication as a part of their own response to the environment."

Mitchell knows that as Blue Star grows so too will its carbon footprint, so it won't be the overall footprint he aims to minimise, but rather the intensity.

"We will focus on reducing the carbon intensity of the products we produce along with further investment in tools and processes," he says.

With these developments and strategies, it is obvious that Mitchell is taking Blue Star in different directions to those in which it has journeyed so far, but he maintains that they are far from radical and that the company will not deviate too far from its origins.

"These changes won't be revolutionary, they will be more evolutionary," he says.