We had an open house recently for the members in our Sonoma County Executives business networking and referral group. We had been planning it for weeks and everyone got involved in the preparations. It was sort of like having the entire family over to your house for a holiday meal, only in July.

The weather cooperated beautifully, as the day before the temperature was in the 90′s, but on this evening it was a beautiful summer day with the cooling breeze coming from the ocean and our large roll up doors open, bringing in plenty of fresh air.

We had explanations of offset printing, digital printing and letterpress printing. During the letterpress demonstration, I was explaining how we are using presses that were built 40 or more years ago, based on the printing practices that were hundreds of years old. While the printing practices are old, we’ve adopted modern plastics technology to make photopolymer plates instead of using the traditional lead type.

Afterward, one of our guests pointed out how it was ironic that the computer and modern imaging practices had impacted the printing industry so much, and yet it was the internet and our website that was making it possible for us to be printing letterpress wedding invitations for clients all over the world.

I was struck by this observation and realized that, yes we are given new opportunities in today’s business climate to be versatile and innovative. My son, home from college, is fond of reminding me that every business must innovate or perish. Certainly here at Ajalon we have been reinventing ourselves and approaching situations with new eyes.

We are always on the lookout to find new ways to make business cards more economically, to save our clients money. We try to stay on top of the changes in the printing industry so that we can use the latest proven technology to meet our client’s needs in this ever speeding up world.

We try to stay on the leading edge of innovation. This allows us to utilize processes that benefit our clients, but does not find us chasing after the latest unproven idea.