Posts Tagged ‘innovation’

Finding the Fourth Leaf

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

I found a four leaf clover today in my yard today
It had one leaf missing off it.
but that was ok

—-Todd Snider

This is what I call an optimist or a person who sees the brighter side of things.  I don’t think that is foolishness or stupidity. And in today’s business climate it just might be the way to go.

With all the doom-sayers and bad news bears out there, a business person could do well to find the fourth leaf in whatever clover is picked today.  Some people have even suggested that it is better not to be reading the news or watching or listening to newscasts so much. There is a tendency to be influenced by what we hear and read, and we can use it to build excuses why our  business is this way or that, rather than taking responsibility for the climate in our business.

We must be the optimist about our business and take control of what we can, which is the day to day management of our business and the direction in which it is heading.  We can ring our hands and declare, “Oh, woe is me” and feel like  victims of ‘the economy,’ or we can continue creating and being the innovative person who got involved in the first place.

At the same time, it is important to not keep your nose to the grindstone and miss keeping your nose in the air to know which way the wind is blowing. By this I mean, in these economic times, with income levels down, it is easy for a business owner to start working in their business and get caught up in the day to day work of production and to find themselves too exhausted to think and plan on working on their business.

Business owners become so busy trying to make a living that they forget to adapt and grow and change.  Doing it the way it has always been done is not a business mantra that is going to make it in today’s business climate.  If it was good enough last year, it may not be good enough this week.  To sit back and wish for the good old days, whenever they may have been,  will not bring success these days.

Businesses Must Innovate or Perish

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

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.

Letterpress printing demonstration at Ajalon Printing

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.


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