Trends in Print and Mail

“Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, 
discourse a clear man.” – October 1738
 
“Generous minds are all of kin.” – March 1734

Ben Franklin understood the importance of networking. Whether building a printing company, founding a library, or creating a postal service, he was successful because he involved others. Significant achievements are never completed alone, but with the help of others.

The best way to connect with the people who can help you – networking. And how we define success determines how we  network. A lesson I learned from my father, Bill Fallon, I’m sure Mr. Franklin would approve of my choice for a role model – Bill had a career at the US Postal Service.

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USPS / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / growth / strength / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information

“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.” – June 1735

The print and mail industry is an era of innovative technologies that are transforming the largest and the smallest operations. The rise of cloud-based systems and software-as-a-service remove the obstacles to improved address management, document enhancements, and workflow. Inkjet printing, wide-format equipment, and better finishing hardware continue to drive down costs. In-plant operations and service bureaus have more options to exceed their customers’ expectations.

An option that always needs to considered is changing your operating and customer service hours.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information / process / workflow

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”  February 1736

Ben Franklin understood that self-improvement is a lifelong affair. He developed a chart to track how well he adhered to the virtues he espoused as essential to a good life. Ben even made a “black mark” any time he failed to live up to his goals. 

We can follow the same philosophy for how we manage our operations. We must be diligent in our efforts to find ways to improve our processes. That means we must continue to work on our workflow.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information / process / workflow

“One today is worth two tomorrows.” April 1757

Benjamin Franklin was a strong believer in personal responsibility. One of the virtues he listed in his autobiography was “Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”

To “perform what we ought”, we need to account for our actions, and the actions of our department. That means integrating systems that monitor not just every job, but pieces within that job. Just as important as any technical tool is the attitude of the individual performing the work. The team must adopt a culture of accountability.

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United States Postal Service / Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Postage Rates / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information

“Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.”  January 1735

Benjamin Franklin’s success as a printer, postmaster general, and politician assured his place in history. Yet he was also a scientist and inventor.

He demonstrated that lightning was electrical in nature, and used that information to invent the lightning rod. He studied the Gulf Stream (actually naming it), and charted its course. The Frankling stove improved the efficiency of heating the home, and is still in use today. And some of us of a certain age appreciate his work in optics, including the invention of bifocals.

These discoveries and inventions, now considered basic knowledge in our society, were cutting edge technologies. By pushing the boundaries of what was known, Franklin changed the lives of people in the 18th century, and we still feel the impact in the present.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / Postage Rates / Leadership / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / AI / artificial intelligence / education

“Little strokes fell great oaks.” August 1750

A constant theme in Franklin’s Almanack was frugality. When considering the above quote, think about always looking for discounts, or other ways to save money. No matter how small the savings may be.

When contracting for services, an oft-overlooked opportunity are multi-year contracts. Ask vendors for considerations if you extend a one-year contract to three years, or three years to five years. Add language to guarantee pricing – or limits to increases – for the length of the contract, including extensions.

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Operations Management / Strategy / Postage Rates / Purchasing / Leadership / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism

For this month’s installment, we’ll look at two aphorisms from Richard Saunders:

“Observe all men, thy self most.” (August 1740) 

“There are three things extreamly hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one self.” (January 1750)

In other words, we need to keep accurate records of volumes and costs. This is especially true in a production environment. We all want to improve ourselves and our operations. But you need to know where you are before you can make any changes.

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Operations Management / Strategy / Postage Rates / Purchasing / Leadership / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism

“Tho’ modesty is a virtue, bashfulness is a vice.” – Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1750

You should be proud of being a professional operations manager.

For decades, we’ve been told “print is dead” or “nobody mails anymore”. Yet, we’re still here. And there’s more of us than most people realize. The EMA Foundation for Paper-Based Communications tracks and identify trends in our industry. Their 2023 U.S. Mailing Industry Economic Job and Revenue Study revealed that the mailing industry (including print and design) accounts for 7.9 million jobs and contributes $1.9 trillion to the US economy. That’s more than the airlines, and almost as much as the oil and gas industry.

Too often, print and mail are seen as archaic professions. Negative articles have images of presses that have more in common with Gutenberg than today’s digital production models. Mail is portrayed as licking stamps for envelopes. In reality, print and mail are high-tech industries.

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Operations Management / Strategy / Leadership / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism

“What one relishes, nourishes.” - Poor Richard's Almanack 

The year 2025 marks the 250^th anniversary of Ben Franklin being appointed Postmaster General by the Second Continental Congress. In 1753, Mr. Franklin had previously been appointed joint Postmaster General by King George III.

Before that, Franklin was a printer and author. Perhaps his most famous work was the yearly Poor Richard’s Almanack, under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. From 1732 to 1758, the pamphlet provided seasonal weather forecasts, puzzles and astronomical information.

What people remember are Franklin’s witty sayings passing along homespun wisdom. Most of us are familiar with: “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Or “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

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Operations Management / Strategy / Leadership / The Berkshire Company / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin

"Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced. Even a proverb is no proverb until your life has illustrated it." - John Keats 

Too often, successful executives are classified as being either innovative leaders or efficient managers. The innovative leader is defined as a visionary, a passionate idealist, and an inspirational thinker. On the other hand, the efficient leader is process-oriented, a student of Agile, or Total Quality Management (TQM), or a black belt disciple of Six Sigma. In reality, the successful person blends these seemingly opposite traits into inseparable qualities.

In his acclaimed book,On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis states, “The manager does things right; and the leader does the right thing.” He further differentiates the manager and the leader:

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Operations Management / Strategy / Leadership / The Berkshire Company / reading / learning / success / positive / inspiration / management / strength