Print
Solutions December 2005
Japanese
Team Gets a View of American Printing
Landscape
Fifteen
members of the Japanese Business
Forms Association (JBFA) visited
the offices of distributorship
Vanguard Direct on Oct. 21. The
members, mostly manufacturers,
were in the United States to attend
the Print Solutions 2005 Conference
and Expo held Oct. 18-20 in Orlando,
Fla. JBFA, which is a DMIA member,
wanted a better understanding
of how distributorships work in
the American printing industry,
and Vanguard Direct volunteered
to be a host.
Vanguard
Direct greeted JBFA members at
its New York City offices with
welcome signs in Japanese, a gesture
that pleased the visitors. The
members, who were accompanied
by two translators, met with the
Vanguard senior management, including
Donald O’Connell, Robert
O’Connell, Ralph Fucci and
Paul Rye, and saw the distributorship’s
operations. “Vanguard sells
services as a value-added item,”
said Robert O’Connell, CEO
of Vanguard Direct and a DMIA
Board member. “They were
intrigued by that because Japanese
printers are very product-oriented.”
Paul
Wry said, “They seemed drawn
towards our customer-centric approach
and how they could make it profitable
[for their companies].” The
delegation also showed interest
in the company’s Six Sigma
quality plan.
The
visitors spent a couple of hours
at the company’s warehouse
and fulfillment center in Brooklyn
where Steve Dodson, vice president
of logistics, showed them inventory
control, order processing and
lifecycle procedures. On behalf
of DMIA, Vanguard Direct presented
two senior members with Yankees
(Hideki Matsui) jerseys and Yankees
hats in decorative bags. Vanguard
Direct also presented the visitors
with hats, pens and collateral
material inscribed with the company
logo.
“Forms
business is in decline in Japan
and they’re looking for
alternatives to the forms industry,”
Robert O’Connell said. “They
walked out with a whole new perspective
on the industry.”
—Preeti
Vasishtha
