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| Audience |
I have been used to seeing
sponsors or industry suppliers make monotonous presentations in the garb of
delivering knowledge to printers at various print industry conferences. The
procedure is relevant at most conferences even now. When it gets a little over
bearing, delegates in the audience are seen yawning. At the FINAT Congress in
2008 at Paris, I was surprised to see a speaker speaking of her mountaineering
experience. As the US based LNW magazine reported, “Some people in the audience tend to leave conferences before the end,
pleading important engagements (particularly on a Friday) so that the last
speaker addresses rows of empty seats. Few of the delegates at that FINAT
congress had previously heard of Cathy Dowd, but the sheer incongruity of
inviting a female mountaineer must have intrigued many, and the house was full
to hear of a South African team's ultimately successful bid to conquer the
world's highest, mountain. Dowd has the actress' ability to match words,
gestures and images. The images were of peaks and yawning chasms; the words
were largely about teamwork under extreme conditions, and what happens when it
goes sour. It was a little theatrical, but nonetheless a memorable performance.”
I have been in awe of what she shared from her experiences with the crowd
and how it translates to enduring situations in day to day work. BMPA’s “Print
Summit” brought back not just memories of that day in 2008 but excelled in
taking the concept to amazing heights. I am overwhelmed by what they created at
this excellent event. With close to 1000 delegates attending and staying glued
to their seats till the end shows, what an excellent event it was.
The summit started with
presentation by one of the most highly decorated officer Lt Gen Syed Ata
Hasnain, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM & BAR, the former Corps Commander of the Indian Army’s Srinagar based 15th Corps
who has experience of almost every turbulent spot where the Indian Army is
deployed. He served in Sri
Lanka, Punjab (during
the militancy), North
East India, Jammu
& Kashmir and commanded his unit in the Siachen Glacier. He
also served the United
Nations in Rwanda and Mozambique. In 2010 he was assigned to Kashmir for the seventh time
to lead the Army’s efforts to
find peace. His leadership
techniques famously titled — ‘Heart is My Weapon”, “Play Friend,
Not God” and “Passion in
the Heart & Fire in the Belly”, are considered new age
mantras for the Army and other organizations. His narration of experiences on the
“Challenge of being a Siachen Warrior and leadership management” thereof, left
delegates imagining the replication of these procedures in corporate management
and the results it would deliver!
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| General Hasnain |
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| Faheem Agboatwala |
Faheem Agboatwala, director of
Mumbai based Hi-Tech Printing Services spoke on the need for businesses to
recognize the “S Curve”. He described it as a time in life of a business where
the promoters need to recognize the approaching end of a profitable cycle while
the business is still making profits. It is a time to make investments into new
arenas or move on to the next S Curve in the life cycle of their enterprise to
reach higher levels of success. Enterprising promoters have the sixth sense to
foresee the situation and jump ahead to the next curve. Attributing the courage
of entrepreneurs to accept exponential change from ending an ongoing successful
business to initiate a new venture to drive growth, he showcased the story of
three such companies who used the theory of S Curve and reached a pinnacle. Two
of these have a strong presence in self adhesive labels. In fact all three have
indulged in labels in their life cycle. These companies are Akar, Mudrika and
Printmann. Ashok Jain lead Akar Ltd. is a provider of innovative solutions in Printing,
Packaging, Publishing and Promotional products. I met Ashok Jain the first time
in the mid 1990s when he was into regular commercial offset printing and was
also printing stickers on sheet fed offset. He went on stage to narrate his
story of jumping the S Curve multiple times to success. His Mantra has been to
pick and choose clients, go out of the press room and think business like a
leader. Tejas Tanna of Printmann spoke about the need for printers to draw
respect from customers as partners and not just being vendors. Printmann moved
from just commercial printing to cartons and self adhesive labels with high
concentration in the pharma sector. I have known Manish Desai of Mudrika
Labels, a 100 Crore company, for decades. I have also written his story on my
blog https://harveersahni.blogspot.in/search?q=mudrika . I have seen
Manish and his team jumping the S Curve as decribed by Faheem a number of
times. From screen printing to outsourcing offset printing for making stickers
to the achievements until now has been a very interesting and curvaceous
journey. Manish attributed his success to the regular visits to customers, exhibitions
and virtually moving out of his shell to connect and grow. He is the past
president of LMAI (Label Manufacturers Association of India.
I am not really a movie buff, I now
see maybe one or two films in a year. It maybe interesting to note
that from
1984 to 2000, for almost 17 years I did not see a single film. In the new
millennium my children do drag me to movie that they feel I will enjoy
thoroughly. When I saw the list of speakers, I noticed the name Sonam Wangchuk from
Ladakh as a speaker, it immediately reminded me of the movie “Three Idiots” a
movie that I had seen and was thrilling! I did not think much of the
resemblance in name thereafter. At the Print Summit in the after lunch session,
Sonam Wangchuk a Rolex laureate came on stage. I was having difficulty in
keeping my eyes open. The heavy lunch was playing mischief. When Sonam started
to speak on innovation in adversity, my mind jumped to alertness and the rest
of the session I was listening in overwhelming attention? I had goose pimples! It
was as if I was watching a sequel to the film “Three Idiots”. He spoke on
simple things created out of just the nature’s bounty. A school is constructed
without electricity and heated with sunlight and use of convection principle.
When the outside temperature is -15 degrees, it is +15 degrees inside. In winters
upto April when you have ice in Ladakh there is water but when in may the ice
has melted and flowed down there is acute scarcity and difficulty. Sonam saw in
May one year that there was an unmelted block of ice in the shade of a bridge,
drawing inspiration from that. Realising that the Ice did not melt under shade,
a fountain spraying droplets of water in the air was created from the pressure
of water flowing down the hills in subzero temperatures. These would freeze and
fall down forming a stupa of tons of ice that with its reduced area of exposure
to the sun, would remain as ice and be a source of water during summers. It
sure was a wow presentation with many such stories. I wish I had heard some
more. Sonam is now working on creating a university in a desert in Sikkim with
natural resources.
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| Sonam Wangchuk |
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| Mehul Desai |
Mehul Desai, founder and
chairman, Mail Order Solutions and President of BMPA highlighted three
companies Prodon Enterprises, Seshaasai Business Forms, and Vistaprint he
stressed the need for dwelling and researching the historical data to evaluate
the growth areas and identify contributing factors to your bottom line and
moving ahead using this information so as to decide on future investments to
remain profitable in growth. Padma Bhushaan, Shekhar Gupta said “I hear that
print is dying. Let me assure you, it is not. We have a literate population
that is growing.” He spoke on leadership qualities reminiscing his interaction
with various prime ministers of the country. Padma Bhushan Dr B M Hegde spoke
on wellness.
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| C N Ashok |
Autoprint Managing Director, CN Ashok speaking on, "Will the next
generation inherit?" said it was time for investing in a strong positive
balance in the emotional bank account for the next generation. Delegation and
then allowing the next generation to indulge in decision making is need of the
hour. Not letting go of the authority is a hindrance to smooth transition to
Gen Next. Speaking at the event Satoshi
Mochida President and COO of Komori Corporation Japan said, “That print market
is on the rise in the near future.” Puneet Datta, Canon’s director, marketing
and sales in his presentation stated that technological innovations are
transforming businesses within print. “The time to embrace digital is now” he
concluded.
The “print summit” has
established itself as a landmark event for the print industry! Getting huge
number of printers to attend from beyond the geographical reach of the
organising association and then having them sitting in full strength with rapt
attention throughout the presentations upto the end is something rarely
witnessed not only in India but across the globe. Clapping in unison to
acknowledge the delivery of wonderful speeches, standing ovation to outstanding
presentations and appreciation of organization by the BMPA’s young team was
seen abundance. Industry leaders who were seen at this event include Ramesh
Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging, Technova boss Pranav Parikh, Narendra Paruchuri
of Pragati Hyderabad, Kamal Chopra President AIFMP, Anand Limaye Hon. General
Secretary AIFMP and many more. I
congratulate the BMPA team and thank Mehul Desai for having invited me to
attend this wonderful show.
Written by Harveer Sahni Managing
Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-10008 January 2017
