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Solutions May 2006
President’s
Message
By
TIMOTHY J. MEHL, CDC
Interesting
Ride,
Valuable Destination
A
note from DMIA President Tim
Mehl, CDC: Some opportunities
require significant structural
changes to our businesses. Making
those opportunities happen may
require us to operate in a new
way. Jim Riley of RB&O Inc.,
a distributor in St. Louis and
Vice President of the DMIA Board
of Directors, faced an interesting
opportunity recently that required
significant changes to his company.
This story illustrates again
how the traditional channel
lines of our industry continue
to blur.
Riley |
In
keeping with President Tim Mehl’s
“Create the Opportunity”
theme, I want to share the story
of an opportunity that landed
at my feet about 18 months ago.
With any opportunity there is
always a good amount of excitement
as well as a fair share of trepidation
borne of practical experience.
This case certainly was no different,
but it had an added element. It
would take our distributorship
down a completely different path:
to manufacturing.
It
all started when a long-time client
sent us a request for quote. The
client was a large health care
Integrated Delivery Network (IDN).
An IDN is a large hospital or
medical center or a group of such
facilities that provide virtually
all health care needs in a certain
area. The RFQ was for all of our
current business, some additional
business we did not have, plus
all of their in-plant print volume,
which meant assuming their existing
equipment, equipment leases and
employees.
At
RB&O, we had always believed
that not owning any “iron”
put us in a better position to
serve customers, keeping our focus
on them and not the manufacturing
challenges of production/equipment
loads and scheduling. However,
facing the possibility of losing
everything if we tried to “cherry pick”
the business, we decided to reassess
our longtime premise of remaining
a “pure” distributor.
Over
a period of several months, we
researched the client’s
in-plant volume, employees, equipment
and equipment leases as well as
potential operational improvements.
Keeping the client’s objectives
first and foremost was essential.
If we were going to do this, we
wanted to be sure we met their
objectives. We were also fortunate
to have an extremely well-qualified
consultant appear on the scene
at this opportune time. Isn’t
it strange how the help you need
always seems to materialize? The
more we looked at this opportunity,
the more we realized it was a
great chance for additional business
with this client and a great addition
to our company’s offerings.
While considering ownership and
operation of the in-plant, we
also proposed an all-encompassing
e-commerce system for more than
6,000 products, a natural extension
of managing the in-plant production
volume.
We
created the infrastructure and
support network in a very short
time to allow all the customer’s
end users to order all print electronically
through a single portal and transmit
orders to our newly-acquired print-on-demand
facility.
After
a grueling evaluation process
competing against several large
rivals, our customer selected
us. That’s when the real
work started. It’s been
a year since we signed the contract
and began implementation. We pursued
this opportunity and succeeded
with a lot of hard work and a
little bit of luck, but mostly
because our performance has made
our customer very happy.
Looking
back, it’s amazing to see
what’s happened and how
much we’ve learned. Our
success with this opportunity
has elevated our value to this
client while making us a better
company. Because we acted when
opportunity came knocking, we
now have a growing five-year contract
with a great customer, a successful
program sale example to show other
current and potential customers,
and an in-house digital print
center manufacturing product categories
that are growing. Most importantly,
we’ve gained the increased
confidence that comes from a successful
venture.
So
my message is, when opportunity
knocks, open the door and get
ready for an interesting ride
with the value of the destination
in direct proportion to the effort
expended.
Timothy
J. Mehl, CDC, is CEO of Dispatch,
a manufacturer in Erie, Pa., and
DMIA’s president.
