Business

There’s a lot of talk about the CRO role, but is it really just a new fangled way of labelling the head of sales? For some it is, but done properly it isn’t. Charlotte Graham-Cumming, CEO of marketing strategy and business development company Ice Blue Sky, outlines how to get it right.

AI - are you concerned about how it will impact your business? Given it’s a topic on everyone’s minds I spoke with Precision Proco CEO Gary Peeling. As global chairman of DScoop - whose UK summit this October looks at the subject - he has his finger on the pulse.

Employee ownership advantages look good on paper, so should you bring your people on board with you? Specialist John Dormer of The RM2 Partnership talks you through the options.

“Who wants to own their own bank?” That’s how Matic Media founder and MD Richard McCombe pitched an alternative funding method to employees when he wanted to expand. He tells his story…

Many a print company has changed their business over the last couple of years. Do you want to transform yours? If you don’t, you probably should, given a warning of large scale disruption of your customer-base. Here’s some advice you may want to consider…

The Printing Charity has been around for almost 200 years, having been founded in 1827 as The Printers’ Pension Society. Today it provides practical and emotional support for those in need in the printing, paper, publishing, packaging and graphics sectors. Given the current economic climate, I spoke with its CEO Neil Lovell to find out how its services are being called upon.

How truly diverse, equal and inclusive is your company? There has been more talk about this issue in the past five years than in the previous 50 but the latest edition of the Inclusion Index, by analytics group Kantar, suggests that in employees’ eyes, companies have made little progress since 2019, before the pandemic. Luckily, there are things companies can do to improve their performance.

“We believe it’s our corporate social responsibility to increase sustainable solutions within the print industry.” So says Leicestershire-based Data Image, so I talked with founder and CEO Rob Farfort to find out what it’s doing to green-up print - and to ask whether its efforts are being rewarded?

The Independent Print Industries Association wants to know what you think about trading conditions, and your ideas for targeted industry support, so that it can better represent the print sector in discussion with Government. Are you prepared to make your voice heard?

How can large-format print providers market themselves better to establish new, profitable print niches for THEIR BUSINESSES? Marketing expert Jonathan Rogers aims to tell you just that…

KGK Genix has launched a ‘Student Retail Design and Careers Competition’ which it hopes will drive interest in careers in the retail design, visual merchandising, and print industry. So what’s it getting for its efforts, and should more PSPs be creating youth programmes of this ilk?

At the start of the year Fespa UK embarked on a series of Next Generation Networking Days for the print industry’s 18-30-year-olds, and subsequently formed a youth committee. So what are the expected ramifications for the sector’s youth, their employers and the industry at large?

We need more apprentices in print, but is the funding there to allow us to bring more young talent into the industry? The BPIF and Print Scotland, both key training providers, explore the issue.

If you’re still operating your print company after all the last couple of years have thrown at us you may think you’ve learned all the lessons there are to learn about running a competitive business. But could these nuggets of advice from Colin Sinclair McDermott, creator of The Print Growth Academy and perhaps better known as The Online Print Coach, help you do better?