The second part of that is … “digital is the doorway to print,” and it encapsulates the relationship between one of the largest printing companies in the world and the internet age.
It’s a marker of the stature of the EFI Connect conference that it attracts the heavy hitters and leaders of the industry. For more than an hour, Tom Quinlan, leader of the $12 billion US print company, RR Donnelley, sat on stage at the conference in Las Vegas to be quizzed about his business and the state of the industry by Guy Gecht.
His perspective proved unique, wide-ranging and valuable to share, especially his belief that the printing industry, at least in the USA, has recovered to where it was a couple of years ago. He was also confident and optimistic on the future of print in an internet age based on the complementary roles between it and digital.
A big advocate of printing as the most valuable physical contact with customers, he frequently refers to his business as ‘print communications.’ He believes the days of non-personalized communications are over with the $110 billion print market in the US an essential part of ‘the omni-channel marketing experience’ for customers.
RR Donnelley is active in mining the data that is increasingly driving the communications market. Quinlan regards his team as being able to analyze customers’ data even better than they can and suggest ways it can be used in the mix.
This is removed from the traditional print provider role but it is indicative of the continuing evolution of technology and services that has made the company the size and success it is today. That growth came on the back of a fairly constant series of acquisitions over the years based on his philosophy of looking for customers, capacity and cost in a target, with the aim of how it can feed into Donnelley’s service offering.
He says the days of companies being bought from positions of being in distress are over, with the survivors i.e. the printing businesses still operating, doing much better now.
On technology he would not be drawn on whether Donnelley’s would ever buy another offset press, but he did share the strategy that despite its leadership position the company is looking for tech partnerships through a Workbench division. This is based on the knowledge that ‘we don’t know what we’re missing.’ It involves working with start-ups, entrepreneurs and app developers to stay up with the game.
It’s a valuable admission from someone with so many resources at their command and one that all the attendees at Connect can relate to. That’s partly why we’re here.
As it proved I didn't get an opportunity to ask Tom Quinlan about his intentions in Australia. I did hear there were two RR Donnelley representatives at the recent Galley Club meeting in Sydney before Christmas. What could they be doing there? Either taking book printing work offshore to its plants in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines or looking to add another international production plant to its mix?