Simon Biltcliffe's blog- welcome!

Print- the future

2011-10-16T12:56:00.000+01:00

Interesting couple of days in France last week at the PIRA print industry retreat. Exec. summary which will save you about £1500 and 2 valuable days of your life in 10 points:

1. Print will grow globally at around 2% per year, but

2. not in the west where it will decline by the same amount and

3. with approx 5% of printers going bust every year, this means that the average printer will get bigger but

4. unless they specialise in a client market and then

5. diversify their offering to become a marketing services provider, they won't make any money and will still die. Bah.

6. So wrap your offering around what your existing print customers need ( by listening to them)

7. and partner with other companies who can fill in the gaps identified with your offering ( collaboration skills here)

8. and open your mind to a whole world of opportunities ( new revenue streams) or close the doors now while you have some value left in your business...

9. luckily printers usually have great relationships with their clients and this is the most difficult thing for all the other digital media to replicate and customers don't want 237 relationships with different channels to market, so we are in prime position to have a bright future- if we as an industry decide to take it.

10. That's all folks!

Simon

Simon Biltcliffe
Managing Director
WEBMART®
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3C Economy 2011

2011-05-03T06:52:00.001+01:00

these few days off have given me a chance to think about the state of play in the west- specifically the UK. A complex but infinitely exciting time is what I see and feel, so here goes:

BAD:
as the austerity measures start to bite in the real economy (rather than just be debated by the political classes) we see the standard of living we have all become used to not only theoretically coming under threat, but actually happening. with VAT at 20% and income tax rates at up to 62% ( if you include national insurance, which is simply income tax with a different name) this mean that we are taxed more than ever in recent history.
with inflation rising the underlying cost of goods and services are rising and at the same time there is deflation in wages, we have economic misery.

this is the Malthusian view of Britain's future and certainly looking at it from any current position, things don't look like they are going to get any better with the rise of China/India/Brazil, Russia offering a new threat with their low-cost and well educated workforce coming onto the scene in the medium term. This will bring mas produced anything ( goods or services) at an unbeatable price point to you, that we in the UK can't compete with -if we keep our standard of living, so this will have to give and an inevitable gentle slide of per capita GDP has started.

tricky times ahead, and one that I am trying to explain to MBA's or my daughter ( who is currently 'revising' for her A levels whilst engaging with her social grouping on Facebook....) in that the world is unlikely to be ever as easy as it was to gain a house, nice life, an adequate pension and your health through to old age again. what was taken for granted, won't be in future- it will have to be worked for, harder than ever simply to stand still in economic terms.

this is factual and therefore will have greater real-world resonance with the populous than the next lot of thoughts. these are more ethereal. it is nevertheless real and happening! I see many nascent reasons to be optimistic in the UK about a potential rebirth and GDP growth.

GOOD:
there are many equal and opposite trends out there that are encouraging for the UK- they are more disparate and harder to see, but they are there and first I will list then and then come up with a "bundles" of combinations that could just change something's around in the short-medium term.

our innate competitive advantages brought to us by our forbearers- GMT making us slap bang in the middle of the world's economy (LA is 8 hours behind, Shanghai is 8 hours in front- we can speak to 90% of the world's people in our normal working day). the world speaks English in business. our concept of 'fairness' and honesty are well regarded in the business community, we have a stable country, both in environmental terms and political terms. the ability to work well as with individually or as a team. we are literate, creative, mercantile in outlook and tolerant of people different than ourselves ( racially, religiously or politically). we have some of the best tertiary education in the world. we have very limited organised crime or state/commercial corruption. we should never forget these facts (amongst many, many others) which makes the UK in the top 10% of places in the world to do business & I never take it for granted- it gives us a solid base to build on, a foundation for the new economic model we need to create if citizens of the UK are to keep what they have or build for the future.

so, we have a good starting points, but what are the building blocks that this new way of creating wealth will be built on over the next 10 years ( for it will be in that kind of timeline that all these bit will be brought together):

NEW ECONOMY FEATURES
- codifying of your social or business networks- if you are under 30 you will have facebook>LinkedIn- over 30 the other way around. you don't know how to use either network to create economic benefit without being crass and risking your friendship/business influence.

- lower cost of setting up a business or organisation ( either legally or infrastructurally) than ever before

- lots of free things out there to use ( software, hardware, advice, relationships)

- lots of free information, insight and ideas

- lots of people under or unemployed from conventional jobs

- lots of experienced people who now need to work again, after the age they would have conventionally retired

- lots of young people who are educated but the conventional career path is not open to them

- media that has made enterprise "sexy"

- 3D printing technology that allows an inexpensive prototype or batch size of 1 of any physical product you can think of- the opposite of mass production

- free IP in all sorts of places from universities to businesses

- "carbon transparency"- people will want a cradle-to-grave assessment of the carbon footprint of any good or service- producing local will have a massive competitive advantage here.

- the concept of mash-ups

- the concept of network effect

- the concept of the long tail

- the green agenda inverting the old way of doing things & opening up virgin opportunities in established markets

- the concept of peer-to-peer

- transparency; both in business practise and reputation

- the ability to source and connect with talent globally- and keep in touch with them for a lifetime easily

this is a far from exhaustive list but I see these as incredibly exciting times, another inflection point in the history of humanity in the same way that the agrarian revolution and industrial revolutions were. This is the Collaborative Revolution.

NEW BENEFITS
who knows in how many ways it will manifest itself, but here is my top 3 changes that I see around the corner, as at May 2011.

1. TALENT UNITED; older people need younger people and young people need more experienced people ( enthusiasm can only take you so far even Facebook needed a fair dollop of this to get the network moving), therefore there will be a business dating service to match the two- big opportunity.

2. LOCAL MICRO-FUNDING; I think it will be more community based than ever before with local funding being available thru the formation of community capital pools as a way for the asset rich to make a reasonable return on their savings. Community "banks" will replace VC and conventional banks for a lot of start-up and second round capital, as we are talking small abouts of money to achieve lots here and most of the time all suppliers need is a credit line they can rely on rather than actual cash up front- established companies could take the smaller ones under their wing by offering this for a gain share.

3. SUPPLIERS BECOME CLIENTS; there will be supply chain networks out there who will act as VC, looking for bright innovation within their industry or sector ( rather like google does now) to buy or partner with as they realise the old rules are no longer in play, and to leverage what they currently do they need to look outside & combine with others ideas. they won't be able to rip off the smaller players because their reputation would be in tatters and they would effectively be black balled for future opportunities, so all sorts of new collaborative frameworks will appear.

I have to get onto the day job now so enough for now, but there are 3 major trends around which the future economic advantage of the UK will be based- collaboration, creativity and community- the 3Cs of a sustainable economic future.

Onwards and upwards- hopefully!

:-)

One Wedding and Four Funerals

2011-04-29T13:16:00.002+01:00

Today there is a wedding in the UK of a couple -which is a very pleasant occasion for them, their parents, friends and family and if they love each other, as they seem to, one hopes they have a very happy life together.
Sadly though, this wedding comes with a lot of baggage which is less pleasant for the UK now and in the future. One could say that there are four funerals that come bundled with it.
Firstly, we are now in a world that is bursting with collaborative opportunities based on a meritocracy brought about by the internet like never before, so the most able ( not the one who starts with the most) will succeed. Sadly, this couple are where they are because of patronage, state support, monopolistic power (legitimised up by the legal system) and a 'birth-right' to a position of power. If this is in the middle east, we would bomb them ( assuming they had oil) or do nothing but rightly call for the establishment of democracy to the people(if they didn't have oil) . This hypocrisy will be tolerated until the current Queen dies and then be untenable. It will be the funeral of their legitimacy.
Secondly, this day's holiday ( that even though it wasn't statutory, in effect it was because the 'bad-Will' caused by not giving it would last a lot longer than the day and adversely affect the business more than giving the day in the first place) so todays Royal Tax has cost our Company £30,000 & it has been calculated costs the British economy £6,000m. The gain from tourism is estimated to be £600m. The net loss to the country they rule is £5,400m today. Without a royal family people would still visit the UK ( as when people visit the UK currently they don't expect to see the Queen) & so would continue to come when we are a republic ( it hasn't hurt Paris or Rome being a republic).Today is the funeral of the financial justification for having the royal family.
Thirdly, if you spend any time with the youth of today, especially the economic leaders of tomorrow as I have just done this week, you'll be surprised at how willing they are to share their knowledge and expertise to deliver benefit not just to themselves but to the wider community at large. Spurred on by the (often free) tools that are available now and the ( often free) support that peers give them and the ( often free ) mentoring of the older members of society give them, there is a massive drive into socially aware enterprises that create value for all. Set against this is a royal institution that is mainly self-serving and only recently under immense pressure agreed to pay tax at all, whose prime objective seems to be to build its own value and ensure its own survival ( does anyone have a strategy document that offers an alternative view?). It is not very far removed from Kim Jong Il in this respect ( though I concede the tactics to attain this end are somewhat less controversial than he employs!). The royal family used to be aspirational, to show the righteous way for their subjects to emulate ( for example and often cited- for very good reason- the courageous decision they took to stay in London during the Blitz), but rather like an old movie star who's had a face lift, it now seems increasingly odd to look at and increasingly out of touch with the modern world. The royal family needs to read Darwin and understand his theory of evolution- unless they are quickly "adaptable to change" with their role they will be extinct. It will sleep-walk to the funeral of their relevancy to their subjects.
Lastly, if the UK is to retain what we hold dear, our core values, our world class institutions (the NHS as much as the Royal Society), and the very essence of Britishness over the next 30 years we have to change. We have to embrace creativity, flexibility, innovation, to design things better, to prototype more to make new things and adapt ourselves. We are very lucky that we are starting from a great place and we CAN become world-class again by doing so. If we choose not to and to atrophy by repeating the past, to try and rekindle and refresh things that worked in the past & generally to look back rather than forward ( it's always more comfortable and easy to do this) then sadly we will become a marginal economy in the periphery of history. One doesn't have to look too far in to history to see examples of this happening from Mongolia to Persia to Turkey etc. This radical change that is needed and will increasingly be understood as being needed will lead to the funeral of the 'inevitability' of the British monarchy.
So the Royal family and the UK populous will have a choice to make.
To keep with its out-dated institution which is taking the UK down a cul-de-sac or change ourselves and them.
Indeed there is opportunity for them as they ( the royal family themselves) could realise what is happening and change ( it can be done- just look at the proactive change the British ruling classes made in the 1700's to work out how to kept in power by giving just enough to the people.... whereas the alternative strategy favoured by the French aristocracy of implacably keeping it all led to them losing the lot- and often their heads). The question is Will he or won't he see the writing on the wall and turn the anarchists logo into a Banksy?
The UK needs to have a head of state that reflects and leads the country that we will need to be and I for one hope that by evolution or revolution we get it for all our sakes and the sake of our own dynastic futures.

Exceptional!

2011-04-21T17:28:00.001+01:00

Webmart recognises talent and outstanding performance within the business. Each quarter, we award our Print Consultants with a "SaleStar" trophy for outstanding achievement and this quarter's winner is Darren Cummings from our Barnsley office. Thanks to his lateral thinking, Darren comes up with uniquely creative solutions on a regular basis which have led to entirely new revenue streams for us and delivered massive savings for customers.

Congratulations to Darren from all your fellow Webmarteers!

Aged 45, I decided that I should learn how to touch type. It is going to be a long road... :-(

2011-04-21T11:31:00.001+01:00

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

Cool kids

2011-04-21T06:09:00.001+01:00

We received an awesome email from a team of schoolgirl entrepreneurs who we recently helped dip their toes into the world of business. As it turned out, they plunged headfirst into the pool and have done an astounding job. And the end result? Fantastic business experience for a bunch of eager, bright young people - and a donation of £857 to the Webmart Charitable Trust (which will then go on to help others). As an example of how a small donation can go a long way - it doesn't get much better than this!

The girls (part of a Young Enterprise Company from Bath and North West Somerset) formed a business and devised their business plan then asked Webmart for help. Their idea was to create a calendar, identify retail outlets and sell it for a profit. They produced the creative for the project but needed an investment of £635 to print 500 calendars which Webmart was happy to give. They then set about selling. Take it away Lillian... :-)

"In the couple of months we had for selling, we were successful in applying for a day on the charity pitch at the Bath Christmas market and this was our largest selling opportunity. Our team took shifts as it was a long, 14 hour day but we made just over half of our final profit here, so definitely worth it! Another great selling opportunity we had was to attend a breakfast business networking meeting for small business around Bath. Previous to this we attended our school Christmas Bazaar held in the school hall on a Saturday morning, a Christmas Extravaganza that was held at school one evening and all the parents' evenings that took place in December. We distributed calendars in various shops that people worked in and they did not ask for any of our profits because they were for charity! Just after the New Year we reduced the price of the calendars dramatically and made sure we were in the school newsletter every week for 4 weeks. Lastly, we organised a raffle at the beginning of February in an attempt to sell the last of our calendars, advertising a chocolaty prize for the winner! "

Drive, creativity and hard work, invaluable real-word experience, profitable enterprise and a donation to others less fortunate than ourselves. A superb example of everything we stand for at Webmart. Well done girls, and thanks for letting us be a part of it! Finally, another huge thanks to Aero Vote who did us a great deal on the print and Howard Smith Paper who donated the paper for free.

How do you make a loading bay into a creative incubator?

2011-04-21T05:33:00.001+01:00

If you're a Yorkshireman living down south, you do this :-)

Special Webmart cocktail at Harvey Nics

2011-04-19T14:29:00.001+01:00

We've made the 5th Floor!

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

You know you have probably been profiled by Linked In under the "odd" segment of their database when they throw up this lot as "People you may know"... Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing tbh!

2011-04-01T23:02:00.000+01:00

[cid:image001.png@01CBF0C0.EC9B0300]

simply fantastic

2011-03-22T07:17:00.001Z

for those of you who have not experienced the humour of The Daily Mash ( and on-line newspaper), I recommend you give this a go. It lightens up a world that has the propensity to take itself a little too seriously...

[Description: Image]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/creeping-sense-of-oblivion-up-32%25-201103163629/

Enjoy!

Scotland in March!

2011-03-15T11:12:00.001Z

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

We now have a green yellow shed!

2011-02-08T05:23:00.001Z

This is the latest manifestation of our drive to have a carbon neutral business. When sunny it will give us 4-5kw of electricity to use.

You can't buy more time...

2011-01-22T11:51:00.001Z

But you can buy something that makes getting from A->B using less of it...welcome to our new Webmart-Mile-Muncher, the BMW S1000RR! 190hp, 0-60mph in 2-3 seconds with the added benefit of it being FREE to park (even at airports!), FREE of congestion charge, FREE to fly thru congestion generally come to think of it and FREE to use for all WEBMARTEERs ( who were wise enough ti have a bike license and old enough to be, er, over 25) without any tax benefit-in-kind thingy. We even got the VAT back cos its a pool bike and the insurance for it for a year was a whopping £163!
Time-effective, cost-effective, slightly quirky and very yellow- that'll be a Webmarty solution to not enough hours being in the day.
Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Seaborn
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:26 AM
To: Simon Biltcliffe
Subject: IMG00097-20110120-1437.jpg

Our newly unified Project Management and Commercial team ( well most of anyway- apologies to those who couldn't fit in my Yellowberry viewfinder!

2011-01-19T05:44:00.001Z

Fantastic first meeting and a raft of great ideas come out of it. The beauty is that they all deal with the same people (suppliers and salespeople mainly) but with a slightly different slant and this allows us to "triangulate" experiences and improvements to give much faster & more coherent improvements to our business and the service we can offer both suppliers and clients. Everyone wins; thanks to all for their awesome contribution under the expert guidance of Neil Moffat, our newly promoted Operations Director, and his two Deputies Ian McCord and Simon Cooper

The future is bright, the future is yellow!

Simpson group- Supplier of Quarter 4 2010

2011-01-18T17:49:00.001Z

Great team & smashing people to work with. Helen Potter has now departed to an in-house team far, far away and the baton has been taken up by Glen Herman who we have worked with before at Capital- thank to you both for the fantastic support. under the iron-willed guidance of the one and only Mark Simpson (pictured) they have consistently been one of our best Tier 1 suppliers.

Onwards

Simon

The current state of play of the EU print industry

2010-12-03T08:23:00.001Z

Depressing in a word

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/764142/Qualitative_study_into_the_European_Printing_Industry_FACTA_CONSULT%5B2%5D.pdf

want to do something about it and change your business for the better? Read the blog below and the pdf book. Simple.

One book to read over the Christmas break

2010-12-03T07:52:00.000Z

If you want to see a way for your print business to strategically be more relevent to clients in 2011 invest a day on this book. Merry Christmas!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/764142/Disrupting-the-Future-reva%5B1%5D.pdf

( open in iBooks on an iPad for the best on screen reading experience would be my recommendation)

Less is more

2010-12-03T07:18:00.001Z

Had a chat with a guy called John Elkington yesterday who is a very bright guy on sustainability and ( my words not his) socially aware businesses - talking the externalities in to account when you do business- so the right way to be when in business. Good first meeting- kindred spirits and all that. Anyway, we came to agree on the fact that there is so much stuff in the world that having less actually makes you appreciate what you have more- and it is more eco friendly.

Serendipitously, I got a blog from Seth Godin later on that day, which took it to then ext level but was on the same wavelength- as he says it:

The inevitable decline due to clutter <http://www.feedblitz.com/t2.asp?/198516/23437597/3928197/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/beylnbquPGo/the-inevitable-decline-from-clutter.html>

Digital media expands. It's not like paper, it can get bigger.

As digital marketers seek to increase profits, they almost always make the same mistake. They continue to add more clutter, messaging and offers, because, hey, it's free.

One more link, one more banner, one more side deal on the Groupon page.

Economics tells us that the right thing to do is run the factory until the last item produced is being sold at marginal cost. In other words, keep adding until it doesn't work any more.

In fact, human behaviour tells us that this is a more permanent effect than we realize. Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn't free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, a desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit.

And it's hard to go backward.

More is not always better. In fact, more is almost never better.

So there- think about it- have less be happier!

Marxist-Capitalism

2010-12-02T22:30:00.000Z

People ask me what this basic tenet of WM philosophy is all about. Dead simple.

We all know capitalism is the most efficient way of creating maximum value from scarce resources. The trouble is that those at the top get it all.

Marxism is based on sharing the economic value created with those that create it. The trouble is it doesn't create any value

We combine the two to maximise the benefit of both economic models to all Webmarteers. The SEXiScheme, our profit share where 50% of surplus profits are shared amongst the team, ensures that everyone benefits from working together as to create as much value as possible. Hurrah!

Good presentation about the macro-picture

2010-11-23T09:48:00.001Z

Worth trying to get a copy off the Intergraf website "Facta Consult-Qualitative Study"
Snippet:
47% of companies long-term strategy to cope with the industry-wide over-capacity? Closure!

:-O

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

The Future of Printing in the EU

2010-11-23T08:29:00.001Z

The print industry in the EU is €105bn.

The average age in the industry is nearly 50.

Even those who are in the industry realise that doing the same thing that made them successful in the past will kill them in the future.

Tell me where there is an opportunity bigger in the world for either bright young people or a radically different business model. I can't think of one.

Let's see what the 160 delegates, the best there is in the European print marketplace, come up with at this conference today.

Should be interesting.

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

Work/life balance; don't mix the two!

2010-11-22T14:19:00.000Z

One thing that all successful organisations have is hard-working, hard playing people within them. It is part of their DNA because to be successful you have to go that extra mile & that is harder than giving up.

Sat in Heathrow waiting for a short flight to Brussels in the wonderful T5, I eventually found a powerpoint & chair combo ( am I that unusual wanting to keep my laptop fully charged up- na.) but found myself in a dormitory. Yep, a constant stream of BA employees apparently skiving out of the way of prying eyes. Bizarre.

Now they may have been on a break, may have worked a 12 hour shift or have lugged 20 tonnes of luggage- I don't know. However perception is reality and the only impression that any passenger who happened to be there would have gone away with was "same old lazy BA- what are their management doing" rather than wow- look at this £1bn investment that I am flying from!

Can't be good for BA- or the UK.

Thinking

2010-11-17T15:35:00.001Z

there are many different places to think. ones that work for me:

Subconscious processing: open plan office it happens by osmosis
Lateral but shallow: internet+trance music+ipad+ paper pad anywhere
Narrow but deep: dark + pad ( I process a problem at least 5 times faster when it's dark but with trance music-try it)
Max creativity: hills, mountains, coastline- anywhere where there is a lot of powerful nature.

Business needs lots of thinking to max the opportunities out there- give yourself the space to do it that suits you & the type of thinking that works for you. All challenges are not the same so it is unlikely your office will optimise you for each circumstance. Think about it.

UPDATE- just seen this video off TED- interesting

Royal Wedding-One from my mate LC Singh

2010-11-17T15:10:00.000Z

Kate Middleton is an anagram of 'naked tit model'.

And Prince William is an anagram of 'Feckless, purposeless drain on our taxes'. Honest.

Or don't I understand what an anagram is?

:-)

It was all worth it in the end. Neil Swan, CEO Starlight and some ex-beardy wierdy with a cheque full of love.

2010-11-08T13:30:00.001Z

Watch all about what Starlight does with money like this in a series on Channel 5 (UK) 3rd week in January 2011, running for 10 weeks. Bring something to wipe your eyes

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

the final stage of the Polar expolit

2010-11-03T21:50:00.000Z

removal of my Polar facial protection ( for charity- hence the lovely Mustapha strutting his stuff courtesy of King of Shaves- the choice of the facially naked at the Ted Baker salon in London). 30 mins, 17 towels and a fair mix of voo-doo later I had lost two handfuls of Moses-beard and 10 years of age( apparently).

I have to say it's quite nice not to eat your own hair whilst munching a sandwich!

the last day before we went back home- a good crack!

2010-11-03T20:11:00.001Z

+ shits and giggles- it's a Canadian thing.

And then quite a bit of this with our good friend Julie/Jules/Joel ( depending how pissed we were- him and his sis were Canadian you see & we didn't know what his real name was until we'd been calling him the wrong name for 3 days :-)

2010-11-03T19:52:00.001Z

then- the end!

2010-11-03T19:40:00.001Z

Finally, after having run along side & then been left behind by quite a few people, the finish was in sight.

I passed at 5hrs, 53 mins & 32 seconds.

I had done it! Great feeling of pride and relief. And cold!! I was soooooooo cold.

Delighted tho: I'll never have to do a similar run again- I'D DONE A MARATHON

Woop!!

the run (cont'd)

2010-11-03T19:35:00.000Z

there was lots of this!

Polar Marathon 2010- the race

2010-11-03T19:33:00.000Z

In a word- harsh; the first 6km was uphill all the way, then onto the ice-cap. Running on ice is a new experience- spikes on & give it your best & try and avoid those with less mass than I! Then downhill back to the 11 km point and onto rubble. Then run, run, run.

Training day on ice in Greenland

2010-10-22T19:01:00.001+01:00

D-Day tomorrow!

On the route to Greenland

2010-10-20T10:24:00.001+01:00

First leg, Birmingham to Copenhagen- the only gateway into the largest island in the world, Greenland. Incidentally it has the oldest rock on the planet there. Not a lot of people know that (including me until last night!)

Simon Biltcliffe,
24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

simon biltcliffe is fundraising for Starlight Children's Foundation

2010-10-13T21:15:00.000+01:00

simon biltcliffe is fundraising for Starlight Children's Foundation

Re: Supplier of the Quarter! Q3 2010

2010-10-07T14:12:00.001+01:00

Handsome!
(you all are)
:-)
Jo

On 7 October 2010 11:47, Simon Biltcliffe <simon.biltcliffe@webmartuk.com> wrote:

We're delighted to announce our Supplier of the Quarter is SMP Group. They are a fab PoS printer that we have worked with for many years and consistently go above and beyond the "industry norm" in terms of innovation and service. Their quality is consistently good as well thankfully!

The winner is the supplier who gets the highest rankings from Webmarteers and Webmart clients over the largest number of jobs in a calendar quarter.

Darren Jarvis Sales Director and Bradley Slade (MD) received it on a recent visit to the Yellow Shed in Bicester but Jarvo got his name on it as he rolls his sleeves up more...

Well done to all at SMP from your friends at Webmart

Simon

--
Print on paper is genuinely sustainable. Visit www.twosides.info for illuminating facts about paper and its production

Supplier of the Quarter! Q3 2010

2010-10-07T11:47:00.000+01:00

We're delighted to announce our Supplier of the Quarter is SMP Group. They are a fab PoS printer that we have worked with for many years and consistently go above and beyond the "industry norm" in terms of innovation and service. Their quality is consistently good as well thankfully!

The winner is the supplier who gets the highest rankings from Webmarteers and Webmart clients over the largest number of jobs in a calendar quarter.

Darren Jarvis Sales Director and Bradley Slade (MD) received it on a recent visit to the Yellow Shed in Bicester but Jarvo got his name on it as he rolls his sleeves up more...

Well done to all at SMP from your friends at Webmart

Simon

The first month at WEBMART

2010-10-06T13:57:00.001+01:00

'Traditional industries' such as print often bemoan the fact they can't attract the right type of young blood into their industry.

Bollocks.

If you create the right (vital, fast-paced, demanding-and-rewarding) environment, you can. There are lots of the right people out there.

We have failed lots with recruitment. "Big hitters", grads, semi-experienced, customer service people moving into sales, estimators, 'seasoned campaigners' have all come and gone.

But some of each have stayed and thrived. Recruitment is an art not a science. 1:4 is a good ratio though so be aware.

Recently we have brought in some 18 year olds that went through the National Enterprise Academy to train in sales. Fab people with open minds and sponge up knowledge others share with them.

Below is from one of them- you can feel the enthusiasm & optimism coursing through it. No names to protect the guilty :)

'I have never considered myself a nine to fiver, but being at WEBMART it has really changed my perception on having a job. As an aspiring entrepreneur I have always believed I was unemployable due to my flamboyant ambitions, but not at WEBMART, you get what you put into it. It is a company where you can really use your entrepreneurial skills in order to excel.

The environment is not as I expected it, first of all for a sales team everybody was very nice and the people in finance actually had personalities, which is unheard of in most companies. The laid back, but target driven mentality has really grown on me and shown me that in business it is not all about targets but also making sure that the environment is fit for employees to work hard and play hard.

I have learnt the different paper types and also the different printing processes and printing machines. With the combination of the Printers visits and also the printing genius they call Xxx, I have grasped the basics and processes of print.

The amount of money that has been in invested and going to be invested in our training sends a very bold and hard-line message; we want you to grow so we can grow as a business. I feel that without the training either it be with Booner or at the institute of marketing, myself and my buddy Xxxxxx would not have felt as comfortable selling print.

I don't really want to waffle on because I believe my effort and hard work will show how grateful I am for this opportunity. I would like to applaud the decision made by Xxxxx and Xxx to take the risk of employing very inexperienced wannabe sales people during a very tough economic climate. My hats off to them both, I say it with the upmost conviction you won't be disappointed!'

If you want to attract this kind of person you need to be open minded. They might not work out. All the training you give them will then be 'wasted'. But if they succeed they will give you a 10/1 return.

Risk = 1:4, return = 10:1. You work it out- you can't afford NOT to invest in the youth of today.

So do it NOW- there are some fantastic people out there with no job. If it wasn't a recession you'd never get near them ( banks and M & S would have snapped then up) and if you start now they will be ready, trained and value-creating for the up-turn.

Go for it.

The amount of digital data doubles every 6 months!

2010-09-11T10:32:00.000+01:00

The trouble is no one knows what to do with it. We have dashboards and screens everywhere giving real-time pictures on our business, but it's still tricky to see the "bigger picture".

This may be the way forward- using google docs- see the vid. below- awesome!

The Business Magazine Sept 2010- article about Webmart (and me sadly... I'm odd- I have a pathological aversion to praise)

2010-09-09T16:03:00.000+01:00

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/elcot/thebusiness_201009/#/18/OnePage

The largest print consultancy team in the UK print + media industry?

2010-09-09T10:46:00.000+01:00

All 21 of us available to offer a free advice + media consultancy service in the UK from our Scottish, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire + London offices. Here to help.
Simon Biltcliffe, 24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

why run a Marxist-capitalist business

2010-09-04T23:28:00.001+01:00

Most entrepreneurs start out to maximise opportunities for themselves and their family- if the risk is worth the return you give it a go. I did and it worked. Phew!

But then I also wanted to create the same for those that worked at Webmart as well. We created the SEXiScheme & it achieves this; over the last 3 years it has delivered 88%, 55% and 35% of base salary bonuses to every Webmarteers who have worked here for 2 years. Everyone pulls in the same direction, so it makes running the business much easier & more efficient. Trust & common sense mainly replaces micro-managing. It's more fun as well.

And then we focussed on the least well off in society- The Webmart Charitable Trust has distributed almost GBP 200,000 to great causes over the last 3 years. Details are on http://sites.google.com/site/webmartcharitabletrust/

That's why I call it a Marxist-capitalist business. Capitalism to make the money and Marxism to make the most of it. For all.

We think it's a better capitalist model for the collaborative times that we live in. Feel free to email me for a copy of the SEXiScheme if you're wanting to do similar.

What a wonderful day!

2010-08-28T09:30:00.001+01:00

8.30am
The late summer sun is shining but there is a chill in the air as I take the dogs a walk this morning.
I always have enjoyed being outside and thinking- hence my choice of degree in Agricultural Economics.
I find it gives me mental space in the same proportion as the physical space around - and generally the higher I am, the better, deeper thoughts I think.
But this morning in rural Oxfordshire, without a hill in sight + only my three dogs as confidants, my world has been made clear + the future is vividly mapped out- I know what I need to do and how to do it.
Strange how things hit you in a eurika-esque way sometimes. I've been lucky to have a few- great pipelines of linkages that appear from a 1000 disconnects that were there before.
Now to put into effect. This one will take up to 5 years ( at a guess) but you have to start sometime. I'll still only be 50 so I suppose I can afford the 10%-of-life investment it will need- as long as it's fun along the way!
More as it becomes reality rather than concept :-)
You enjoy the sunshine too this bank holiday. Have a gud'un.
Simon Biltcliffe, 24/7 on my Yellowberry®!

the power of blogs!

2010-08-25T17:59:00.002+01:00

Blogging has just turned up an interesting twist.

Not sure if you know who Malcolm Gladwell is ? ( http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/13/influential-business-thinkers-leadership-thought-leaders-guru_slide_10.html ). Well I went to see him in Oxford with a group of Webmarteers. He was shocking- incoherent rambling. I posted ( see below- in May)

Someone last night sent me this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdptH4JfdQ

The world is a strange place!

Print is expensive. What a competitive advantage that gives us in this omni-media world!! Woop.

2010-08-20T05:52:00.001+01:00

Think about it.

1. When you buy something expensive, you have to have trust in the seller before you buy.

2. Trust= the highest form of business relationship.

3. Relationships are the only thing that can't be commoditised these days.

4. So we in the print media industry have a deep relationship with our clients because they spend lots of money with us.

5. These same customers buy lots of other media things from lots of suppliers.

6. They are also wanting lots of new things that they may have never bought before ( iPad apps, SEO, data services, analytics, email shots, Purls etc etc- it's endless)

7. We can offer them it all (as an industry)- every one of these are cheaper than print so trust isn't a problem ( which is usually the main barrier to trade, no matter how many times your sales guys say it's price!).

8. We already usually have their data files and graphic files to print from and we know their brand inside out and back to front. No risk then.

9. By offering this wider range of services, we get closer to the clients strategy and we help drive their sales. Both makes us less of a commodity and more of a partner.

10. The best bit is that no supplier of this "other stuff" can ever offer the print to the client (they know nowt about it & can't buy it well at all) so they can't compete with the print industry offering everything in this wonderfully fragmented media world that we live in. And the more fragmented it gets, the stronger our offer is!

Ten steps to heaven for the print industry... which will morph into the omni-media-industry (with-presses)!

There clearly are caveats; we need to act in a trustworthy way and not expect to make exceptional profits on each line but make more profit in total by offering more; we have to work in partnership with both suppliers (who you will be outworking to) and clients- collaboration is not a strongpoint of the current industry; only intelligent & agile printers will take it up; we should stick to the "output" and not the conceptual- leave that to the agencies who are great at this, etc,

But fundamentally breadth of offer builds on the depth of relationship so everyone wins.

Clients get a proactive media partner who can offer the one-stop-media-shop

"Printers" get more profits and a longer, deeper relationship with their clients

And it'll be more fun than staring at a loading board all day! Woop indeed.

Simon

p.s. Sold my first iPad app today to a publisher. Same Pdf's that we print from we will now use for this and it doesn't even cost us an extra phone call to project manage it so we can offer it at great value- and it's a cool thing to chat about to others. It's starting already for those that are ready :-)

It just doesn't get better than this in the UK!

2010-07-08T11:42:00.000+01:00

Time to reboot my cranial computer!

2010-07-07T23:02:00.000+01:00

Bpif AGM

2010-07-06T14:41:00.000+01:00

Let's see what the vision in print is for 2011

FW: Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks) | Video on TED.com

2010-06-28T12:07:00.001+01:00

I liked this- simple and short way to present analysis

http://www.ted.com/talks/lies_damned_lies_and_statistics_about_tedtalks.
html

One of our custromers with a Webmart beer bucket for the glorious 1-0 win

2010-06-23T17:13:00.000+01:00

Here we go!

SEXiScheme 2009/10 result!

2010-06-21T21:35:00.001+01:00

For those of you who don't know what the SEXiScheme is, it stands for Senior EXecutive Incentive Scheme, where everyone who has been working at Webmart two years gets a share of the profits. Basically 50% of profits over £400,000 is distributed amongst the team as an equal percentage of each persons base salary.

We have just gone through our year-end audit and done the calculation- this year each person got 34.65% of their base salary -a fantastic achievement given the severity of the recession. It shows the robustness of our business model and the collaborative way that a team of exceptional people work together with our suppliers and clients to deliver a simply better solution to each.

Now we strive to serve our clients and suppliers ever better this year and by doing so deliver exceptional value to them and as a by-product, ourselves.

Webmarteers; all for one and one for all!

Sexi-update!

2010-06-17T16:40:00.001+01:00

Nearly there- Oscar is on the way to the auditor for one last time.
We're nearly there- I can't wait!!!!
:-)

Presented to the young leading lights of the print industry the other day

2010-06-08T05:13:00.001+01:00

If you want to see where print is heading, I suggest you head due north-
80% of 'em were from Sweden!

Top time and very interesting

Singapore here we come!

2010-06-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

We're on our way!

Fantastic evening!

2010-05-24T22:51:00.000+01:00

In fact "the best experience ever" according to Jay Biltcliffe- and we won 3-1 :-)

grrrr

2010-05-11T17:23:00.001+01:00

Don't EVER go to see Malcolm Gladwell!

2010-05-11T05:56:00.002+01:00

My God- last night I had to endure this fuzzy haired freak ( says he), verbal meandering for 1.5 hours. Quite honestly I have never had to endure a less entertaining, futile load of bollocks in all my life, and it cost me £18 for the experience!
In desperation I tried to fall asleep as fast as I could, as it was too dark to do anything else productive, whilst my open mouthed compatriots stared in disbelief at the incoherent nonsense rendering forth in painfully nasal American intonation from the stage. My God, rarely do I wish mis-fortune on anybody but I made an exception in this case. I'm all for euthanasia now.

Simon

We always try to go the extra mile... but rarely 600 miles more than expected!

2010-04-30T16:11:00.002+01:00

We have just run through the night for a wonderful charity that helps
seriously disabled people enjoy freedom by using eye-controlled
technology

details here http://www.webmartuk.com/corporate/extra_mile.php

what it means to them- below. Fantastic team effort from a fantastic
team.....

From: Mick Donegan [mailto:mick@specialeffect.org.uk]
Sent: 30 April 2010 15:45
To: Geraldine Lay

Subject: Message from Mick at SpecialEffect

Dear Geraldine, WOW!!!!

I just wanted to say a huge heartfelt thank you and your amazing
colleagues at all of the Webmart offices - north, south, and far north.

To say that you've given over and above the call of duty is an
understatement. Since I phoned this first thing morning and heard that
you'd gone on and on and on through the night and some of you had done
so with hardly any sleep and then when I rang at lunchtime and found
that you done over a *1000 miles between you, I really couldn't believe
it. In fact, I honestly can't even think about it without choking up.
I feel genuinely humbled and privileged that our charity was chosen to
be been helped in this truly challenging and demanding way.

You are a remarkable group of people. Not only will the funds that
you've raised be of immense benefit to the severely disabled people our
small team does our best to support but, equally importantly to us, the
morale boost that having such a wonderful bunch of people prepared to
give up their time AND energies in this way gives us is immense.

Please pass this on to all of your terrific colleagues - again, many,
many thanks for a truly remarkable achievement on our behalf and, just
imagine - if you could have got Spiderman to do a bit less posing and a
bit more running, goodness knows how many miles you'd have covered...

Mick and the SpecialEffect Team

Dr Mick Donegan

Director, SpecialEffect,

IMG00606-20100428-1438.jpg

2010-04-28T14:39:00.000+01:00

IoD Convention is very interesting. Peter Mandleson is an excellent orator.

Webmart Charity event

2010-04-24T09:34:00.000+01:00

If you can help that would be great!
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiser
ProfilePage.action?userUrl=webmart live stream to follow!

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE WEBMART CHARITABLE TRUST

2010-04-23T14:30:00.000+01:00

Fantastic stuff!

( p.s. Marcopampa is here! http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBGB322GB322&q=Marcopampa&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl )

________________________________

From: Geraldine Lay
Sent: 23 April 2010 10:11
To: all@webmartUK.com
Subject: MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE WEBMART CHARITABLE TRUST

Morning all

Had a great email from Carol who runs one of the charities we support - Building a Future for Peruvian Children (some of you may remember Carol when she came to visit us last year).

We donated £7,500 to the charity last year which has enabled them to continue to support the 500 children we helped to get into school year before last and an ADDITIONAL 203 children last year. WHICH IS JUST BRILLIANT!!!

This picture is of the children from Marcopampa who had just been given their school rucksacks, dictionaries etc. This school is in a more remote, higher, northern part of the district where the charity operates and in an area where people tend to be even poorer on average than the children we have already helped.

Full report on the notice board in the postroom if you want to have a read.

Doesn't it just give you a nice warm glow!!!

WELL DONE EVERYONE - WE REALLY ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE. DURING THE PAST YEAR WE HAVE HELPED/CONTINUED TO HELP ............

703 KIDS IN PERU ;

25 YOUNG ADULTS IN ETHIOPIA;

LOTS OF KIDS BEING RESCUED FROM THE STREETS IN KENYA, GIVEN SAFE ACCOMMODATION AND BEING TAUGHT SKILLS TO HELP THEM SURVIVE;

HAVE PROVIDED A COMPUTER SYSTEM TO GIVE SOMEONE ( AND EVENTUALLY OTHERS) BACK THEIR INDEPENDENCE THROUGH SPECIAL EFFECT'S FANTASTIC EYE TECHNOLOGY AND

SPONSORED STAFF AND FRIENDS OF WEBMART WHO WERE RUNNING/CLIMBING/etc TO RAISE MONEY FOR THEIR PREFERRED CHARITIES.

WHAT A TEAM!!!

Geraldine Lay

interesting... I have an iPad at the office if anyone in the UK wants to play with it & see what this blog is on about!

2010-04-17T11:08:00.001+01:00

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/11/dear-authors-your-next-book-should-be-a
n-app-not-an-ibook/

Webmart Ethiopia Enterprise School- the next step

2010-04-16T15:24:00.001+01:00

Now they have graduated we are extremely lucky to have Stephen Whaley
out there supporting the next phase of the students careers, getting
their businesses going.
Pictures of the workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37427767@N02/sets/72157621228033133/
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/37427767@N02/sets/72157621228033133/>
Onwards and upwards!

The new Yellow Shed North!

2010-03-16T12:33:00.000Z

this week!

2010-03-12T18:26:00.001Z

firstly I was in Berlin at a EU conference on how to rationalise the "Heavy" print industry ( web & gravure to thee & me). The main thrust was eventually drawn out that unless there was a scrappage scheme for old presses ( over 15 years old?) the entire sector would probably implode due to 30% overcapacity. No one was making money & no one had really a clear vision of a way forward- retrenchment and some sort of price support. The German unions came out with some half-witted idea about reducing working hours to reduce capacity but the German employers swiftly explained which way was up and that was knocked into touch ( as far as I can tell from the live translation I was listening to anyway- you never know what come out in the transcript!).
The Brit unions and reps of print were much more realistic and are hopeful that the EU will be proactive in helping with the managed decline of the capacity in Europe rather than let it all disappear in a lump of destructive capitalism-in-action. Fingers and toes crossed but I wouldn't put money on it, no matter how compelling the logic.

Later in the week went into a customer who we print lots of inserts for and DM. Just walking around saying hi to the people (with cakes- we always bring summat to eat!) one of the guys said that they were just producing a DVD. "We can do that!" said I, "Can you?" said he...24 hours later we had an order for £50k having saved him approx £10k from the other supplier. Builds our relationship with them and new revenue stream for us. If you have a great relationship with your customers there is always new ways you can serve them and benefit yourself at the same time. To do this yourself just get in and ask for new opportunities! to get prices go onto www.FreePrintSales.com and you can work out most of it instantly- for stuff that you can't, we have a team of sourcing experts that will get a price back to you in no more than 24 hours.

Pre-packs. They are structurally weakening our industry big time. Unintended as I'm sure it was http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/3_March/editorial_63_07.html I attended a round table discussion at the IoD and was staggered that the issue was not raised by others. There needs to be a safeguard that the Directors that go through this and buy back their own company have a responsibility to the trade debtors post administration in my view- otherwise it almost forces well run companies into a pre-pack to compete- bonkers. Full details of the debate on this and other matters here http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/3_March/roundtable_63_07.html

have a good weekend y'all!

Simon

Pretty much sums it up

2010-03-09T13:32:00.000Z

:-)

Interesting views on Print Management

2010-02-22T20:28:00.001Z

http://www.printweek.com/news/984654/Reader-Reaction-print-managers-resp
onsible-print-price-decreases/

It will be interesting to see how it is perceived in another year or so
when most of the current "leaders" ( or more accurately "big") have been
taken over, merged or pre-packed. A new world order is coming about in
printing hopefully with the printer taking the initiative once again.

<http://www.printweek.com/news/984654/Reader-Reaction-print-managers-res
ponsible-print-price-decreases/>

My view on Exec education as per the IoD Director magazine

2010-02-09T05:56:00.001Z

see if you can spot the incorrectly inserted word "not" in my quote...
still the broad thrust is right. Why do Universities not have a clue
about Sales? where is "agility", "lateral thinking" etc in there
programmes. Dull, 70's corporate concepts without any vision about the
way the net is changing EVERYTHING in business ( and has only just
started). Makes you weep- academics who are intellectually indolent and
lazy, relying on comfort blankets of secure tenure and casting their
minds back to their 'experience of being in business' yonks ago. Anyway,
enough for now.

http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/2_Feb/education_63_06.html

Time to make the most of the snow

2010-01-12T05:06:00.001Z

... it was such a good idea at the time!

Libya 2009 -dad's 70th birthday bash

2009-10-09T21:08:00.000+01:00

I fear my dad went into hostage mode rather than
"let's-emulate-their-glorious-leader-for-the-camera" mode...

made me laugh!

2009-09-16T14:07:00.001+01:00

<http://www.socialnetworking-forum.com/images/stories/xingemailimage.jpg
>

whoa.. a pic of me aged 18 with my first vehicle, an awesome Yamaha RS100 which cost e £165 of my hard-earned cash!

2009-09-05T17:00:00.001+01:00

just found a picture of my first company car!

2009-09-05T16:54:00.003+01:00

Rover 213-tastic!

Happy article about WEBMART NORTH and young(ish!) Darren

2009-09-02T06:15:00.002+01:00

http://www.webmartuk.com/STB-26-08-09-004-E001.pdf

in this weekends FT....

2009-08-31T22:02:00.001+01:00

there was a review about the "e-book revolution" after reviewing a new book 'The British Book Trade-An Oral History'- it explains how the book market has changed and will never revert. They are all sad ( understandable) and are trying to reinvent themselves as the pace of change is fast- much faster than print

I then read my monthly fix of gadgets ('Stuff' to be exact), and they are comparing the best 5 e-books. Average price is £300 but they are good and getting better fast. They are cheap and the price will drop like a stone. This tsunami of technology is about to replace the way a lot of people read a lot of print.

I think the book industry will be a great case study as to how ink-on-paper based businesses make a good go of it in the new digital age. We wish them well and hopefully will learn their lessons- they have a much bigger challenge than we have.

WE MADE THE DAILY MAIL!

2009-08-28T12:32:00.001+01:00

Not sure if that is progress or regression! Thanks to John Billings for
owning up to reading this type of paper ;-)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1209533/MARKET-REPORT-Communisi
s-sell-looking-likely.html

( in fairness it was part of his monitoring of us- he's forgiven!)

The web 2.0 recipe to do strategy

2009-08-04T16:36:00.000+01:00

15kg of pre-read and annotated economics/history/management/technology
books + one laptop with a sliver of 3G card, 8 WEBMART work-books with
previous years scrambled notes within, add sun/pool/mountain-vista for
inspiration and thoroughly mix together with a dash of beer every so
often and trance music. What comes out of the other end after being
heated for 4 days is anyone's guess but hopefully will be to the
satisfaction of the WEBMARTEERS who will each have a slice of the added
value created. Yum!

Think free and prosper

2009-07-25T10:26:00.001+01:00

The printing industry has an enemy.

It isn't so much that the price of print has fallen through the floor or
profitability (though they are totally shit) or that print management as
a genus has ripped profits out of printers ( though they often have) or
that credit is unavailable ( though broadly it is) etc etc, no the real
enemy of the print industry is.... irrelevancy. Who needs it?

Be honest why would you want to deal with it? As a buyer you always feel
inadequate and you have to be on-guard for being ripped off, extras etc.
They use terms you don't understand and often involve you in areas you
feel unsure of- not least industrial estates at ungodly hours. On top
of that, print isn't a "must-have" skill set on your CV, unlike web 2.0
marketing, data analytics and other sexy things to learn, so every
minute I spend learning about print I'm not learning about something
that will propel my career to the stratosphere over the next 10 years.

Now one would think the future of the print industry is therefore bleak
and return to the PrintWeek blogs to bang on about BGP/PM killing your
B1 presses loading board or trying to shag the one blond bird in the
industry with your 'subtle' innuendo. How that's going to sort out all
your ills only you know....

However the opposite is true and print doesn't have to become the latest
casualty following in the wake of typesetting and repro into obscurity.

This is how to do it (in my opinion, but I have yet to meet anyone with
a problem with it once they have run through it). It is a twin, parallel
approach ( ie they run together and not one after another). It is common
sense broadly but like all things it's about the execution not the idea,
therefore the only printers that will survive aren't those with a good
press or print, but an intellectually able management team. Read Darwin
if you want to know why this is inevitably the case...

No-brainer for starters. Fill your presses with as much work as you can
from your core clients and over-service them. Never let them down. Build
trust and ask them what else they print that you could have a look at.
Get this work as well. Then ask if you can help them by offering them
"your DAM system" to keep brand integrity ( your FTP will do for
starters). Then offer data services ( buy lists for them, de-dupe) and
delivery services ( Royal Mail walk-sort, leaflet distribution,
packaging etc etc) then offer them a internet portal where they can see
all this.You will see that you are becoming more and more pivotal to
your client if you offer this clearly- you are the one that they come to
to facilitate all their communications with their clients. You are
highly relevant to their success not peripheral. You will make more
money AND they will love you more for it. Win-win.

The other nice thing about it is that you don't actually need to buy
anything or invest in anything really, as it is already there or free or
able to be bought in on a cost-per-use basis. All the skill set for this
is in a printers pre-press, customer service or post-press departments.
What is needs is a strategy to bring it together in a coherent way (
this is where the able management team comes in).Handily these is a
sensible framework out there in the BPIF Customer-Centric strategy ( or
summat like). It's free to download via the website for non-members as
well. If you can't find it email me and I will forward a copy ( it
involves cogs and looks very whizzy!).

Then move beyond this to be the central way that clients deliver their
message to their clients and you will be pivotal to your clients and the
price you get for your press-hour will be a dim and distant past.

The nice thing about the print industry is that we already know our
customers brand ( often better than they themselves do in the SME
world), we are local, low-cost, tech-savvy, colour savvy, down to earth
and as long as we don't abuse the trust of customers by ripping them off
or letting them down, we are there for the long term. As they grow, we
grow.

We also have free tools for the printing industry that can help printers
along the way to a profitable future:

Your presses are likely to be running at less than full capacity so get
sales without getting more salespeople by using www.FreePrintSales.com
(or FPS).On there is a list of all the non-contract jobs we have and you
just give a price ( no-negotiation, as it is time-consuming and
therefore expensive). You either win the work or get feedback as to how
your price stacked up. This marketplace insight is often the first time
a printer has seen honestly where they sit in the market and often shows
areas where they can RAISE prices without risking lose work as well as
showing them they are woefully uncompetitive. Both bits of info are
useful when you are quoting out in the market generally ( nothing to do
with WEBMART) and help to increase your profitability, even if you never
win a job from WEBMART!

As we place most work with the best printers and not the cheapest, if
over the course of jobs going though your rankings (each job you get
ranked by WEBMART and our end client... but worry not, you have the
opportunity to do the same to us and our client as well!) are amongst
the best, you will be invited to become a 'Dynamic Price' ( or DP)
supplier where you give us your cost rates and then can vary your price
onto the market in real-time. The benefit of this is that if we get an
order based on your price you will get the order without having to pitch
against all the other printers. You helped us win it so you should get
it in return- it only seems fair. Worry not if things have changed since
then ( a planning board is an ever moving feast after all)- if you don't
want it you don't have to take it; we would just put it on
FreePrintSales and place it that way.

When your customer wants you to print something you haven't printed
before ( see why they would do this above!) you need often to
outsource-with-confidence which of course you can do yourself and mark
it up to make new margin. We have tried to make it easy ( and free of
course) by offering this trade-only pricing through
www.FreePrintManangement.com ( if you have registered on FreePrintSales,
the same facility is available on here as well- you don't have to
register twice). We give you an instant price with our 8% margin for
project management of the job should you give it built in already AND it
gives you a suggested sell price to your customer ( after all if you've
not sold it before how would you know what price to sell it at without
looking silly-either way!)

Once you have filled your presses and are gaining all the other print
that you can from your client, you will be making good money and will
move from survival mode, to prosper mode. Now you need different things,
complimentary services, a unified account management structure and
client-facing software to make it easy for both you and them. There are
loads of web2print solutions out there and most of them are pretty good
and not expensive. I think that Printweek and PMM have run some tests
recently so have a look on their websites.
We have created our own ( called Print Manager +) which odes all theirs
does and more. Because we develop it in house we can give it away to the
printers that we work most closely with, skinned as their own site, to
allow them to be more productive and more profitable. The best printers
are usually the most profitable in my experience.

The print industry can once again be pivotal to our clients by being the
facilitator, the executor, the replicator of our clients message for our
mutual gain. Print and prosper.

I hope this has been useful- happy to chat through with any printer who
wants further details or can't quite see what the bleedin' hell I am on
about. It does offer a way out, I assure you. Best way is via my email
address simon.biltcliffe@webmartUK.com

Have a good weekend y'all!

Simon

Re:Webmart Rock! You make my life so easy I thought I would pop your logo in my tablet- higher status cannot be found

2009-07-20T12:58:00.001+01:00

from a client today- made us all chuckle!
________________________________

What a week

2009-07-04T11:27:00.001+01:00

Like all revolutions they are unpredictable an start with a single
incident which promotes a chain reaction. I think you could say WEBMART
being named the BPIF/PrintWeek 'Company of the Year' 2009 is the single
incident.

It was a brave move by the judges to give us this accolade. We've never
printed anything in our life and for those printers who have never heard
of us/ dealt with us we are a symbol of all that is bad in the print
industry. Those who deal with us and those who are open minded know how
wrong they are and the judges reflected that. Our suppliers last week (
yes we measure it on a week-by-week basis) in aggregate gave us a score
of 9.52/10. It rarely drops below 9.... and 5 is "everything you would
have expected/ hoped for"!

The outcome of this we shall see but this will bring the debate to the
foreground - just what role has printed media got in the future? with
that debate the future shape of the print industry will be shaped. My
view- clearly contentious to many - is as follows:

print will never have it's share of media spend again- it will decline
in the developed world but will expand in the developing world as
literacy rates and higher gdp means per capital consumption of print
will increase. There will therefore be less presses in the developed
world and more in the developing world. dead simple.

so onto the UK/EU.

our pool is drying up so we can either

live with declining revenue and die a slow death ...or decide not.

If you decide to die and move out of the print industry thereby then
that's fine- it will help the rest.

If you want to grow and prosper then you will either be taking some
print off other printers by lowering your price ( but losing your
profitability- no names needed here- there are scores of examples all
over the UK & EU) which means you will die slightly later.

Or you can look at the skill-set that you have, listen to your
customers, look at what the market is doing and grow profitably.

Print Management is solution that customers demanded and those who
filled the demand made money doing it. still massive opportunity to grow
this because it's easy for customers and once someone shows a customer
there is a better way, it's a no-brainer.

But that is only the start...

DAM/ Brand management is vital in this multi-media, interconnected
global world- big growth potential

Data services and analytics

Showing customers how to use their data to deliver higher customer
service standards

SEO

Media buying

Use of social media for business

offering logistic support and distribution/packing services.

If a printer has to look up any of these or is wondering "eh" the chance
is they are not going to last 5 years. Why? because these are what
customers want ad therefore someone will satisfy the demand and if it
is not you then you will lose the print as par of this process. sadly
this is a fact of life.

but it doesn't have to be like this. printers have all the skills to
offer all these to their customers. we know all about using data, colour
management, logistics, just in time, dispatch, media etc etc- it's just
that we put these skills to use doing one thing- filling your press. if
you look beyond this, there is a limitless landscape of opportunity.

Also- all these services don't need an investment ( but you can if you
want to... though you have to ask the question "why?" when there are
loads of people wanting to see you the service and they are experts at
it already... ring any bells?)

it's a dot-to-dot from a sales perspective

you have a print customer

say " thank you for all the orders we do for you" and ( in the best
Colombo way) "one last question- what else do you print that we don't
currently do for you? can we quote for it please"

Once you get all their print you say "what else can we help you with?"
and reel off a list of other services that will be of interest.

Once they buy more than one product line off you, you become more of a
partner than a supplier and the world becomes a happier place.

Next blog = how to deliver!

Interesting article on disruption

2009-07-01T07:10:00.001+01:00

It talks about the disruption in newspapers and scientific publishing
but the principles are 100% applicable to any traditional industry.

It follows on from an article I read 4 years ago in the FT which blew my
mind at the time ( will try to find it sometime- I ripped it out,
scanned it in and sent it to the board.... I can still feel the shiver
going down my spine at this moment!) Anyway, have a read & let me know
what you think about it!

http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/?p=629.

Simon

All hands to the pump. Time to lead from the front

2009-06-13T11:21:00.000+01:00

Data-tastic!

2009-06-13T11:00:00.000+01:00

Latest gangster cabling goes in

Starting to take shape!

2009-06-13T09:52:00.000+01:00

The desks return... Big aren't they without the monitors on them!

2009-06-13T09:28:00.000+01:00

After 3 weeks finally the desk is finished- well done baby Jake!

2009-06-13T09:26:00.000+01:00

Simon Biltcliffe
M.D.
WEBMART® Ltd.

www.webmartUK.com- about us!

www.FreePrintManagement.com- PM FOR PRINTERS
www.FreePrintSales.com- your FREE print salesforce

13-15 Wedgwood Road,
Bicester,
Oxon. OX26 4UL, U.K.
Registered in England & Wales No.3300270

WEBMART- European Business of the Year 2009: Growth Strategy
FAST GROWTH Magazine: Best Use of Technology 2009
ECMOD Supplier of the Year 2008
PRINTWEEK - Customer Service Team of the Year 2008: Finalist
WEBMART is FSC, PEFC, ISO14001, ISO9001, PAS75 accredited and a carbon neutral business.

Sent via a YellowBerry®- the funky bro. of the Blackberry!

A temporary view of what the floor looks like... Never to be seen again!

2009-06-13T09:22:00.000+01:00

Eeek!

2009-06-13T08:55:00.001+01:00

Clearing the way!

2009-06-13T08:38:00.000+01:00

Monitor Heaven!

2009-06-13T08:08:00.000+01:00

The office change is underway!

2009-06-13T07:33:00.000+01:00

2009-06-12T10:14:00.000+01:00

You can tell the pressure is getting to the team in advance of our Marxist-capitalist distribution of "economic surplus" (aka profit) to the team. Very soon it will be clear!

Rotogravure: A Missed -- and Misunderstood -- Opportunity for Publishers

2009-06-10T16:37:00.001+01:00

Rotogravure: A Missed -- and Misunderstood -- Opportunity for Publishers

Shared via AddThis

I wonder if you can tell what cardinal sales-sin Rob has committed?

2009-06-02T16:02:00.000+01:00

It happened to be in front of the biggest print-buyers in the UK as well. Doh!

#

Agencies had to evolve now the downstream part of their revenue is being "un-coupled", this sounds like a very logical move to me

2009-05-26T07:29:00.001+01:00

Ogilvy extends focus beyond traditional role

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: May 25 2009 20:23 | Last updated: May 25 2009 20:23

Ogilvy & Mather is creating a multinational practice to handle clients'
communications on the theme of sustainability, in a push by its new
chief executive to be seen as more of a consultancy than an advertising
agency.

Ogilvy Earth, with a presence in 30 Ogilvy offices round the world, will
launch this week, sharing expertise from its past sustainability-themed
campaigns such as Smart Planet for IBM and Beyond Petroleum for BP but
also combining disciplines such as advertising, public relations and
entertainment content.

Miles Young, Ogilvy's former chairman in Asia who became group chief
executive in January, said the initiative was an attempt to reclaim a
role as "business accelerators" vacated by most agencies.

"The industry as a whole has slightly dumbed down, so at one point
management consultants were making serious attacks on some of the roles
of communications agencies," he told the FT. "Interestingly, their
attacks have receded and I can see opportunities to make incursions into
their territory [and] move upscale."

The move by the WPP
<http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=uk:WPP> Group-owned
marketing group is timed to capitalise on December's United Nations
forum in Copenhagen, which is expected to focus consumer attention on
the roles of business and governments in reducing climate change. Ogilvy
won the pitch last month to devise a campaign for UN to build awareness
of the Copenhagen conference agenda.

The new consultancy represented "a move back to being a partner at an
intellectual level with our clients," said Mr Young, who has shuffled
Ogilvy's senior ranks since January.

"The view of taking a message and shooting it at people is shifting to a
new world where communications is about content and content knows no
boundaries."

Ogilvy would not disclose revenue or profit targets for the new
practice, but Mr Young said he expected it to contribute to growth.

Young, bald and proud of it... Jessica hasn't got much hair either!

2009-05-22T18:04:00.001+01:00

2 generations of Smiths visit the yellow shed of wonderment from Oz.
Marcus was WEBMARTEER #3 and now works over in Oz in the printing
industry seeing first hand the changes that have taken place in WEBMART
in the 4 years since he left. Significant I think you could say would
cover it! Great to see him and far too much was imbibed last night...
And p'raps even tonight as well! Onwards- it's only pain!

A whole new world of opportunity for printers- it's very exciting!

2009-05-21T06:42:00.002+01:00

Bid to take print-on-demand mainstream

By Joseph Menn in San Francisco

Published: May 21 2009 00:06 | Last updated: May 21 2009 00:06

The first serious bid for a print-on-demand bestseller began publishing
on Wednesday, as Rick Smolan launched The Obama Time Capsule, as a
customisable book which will be printed only after it is ordered.

The foray of Mr. Smolan, a photo editor whose A Day in the Life of...
series has sold millions of copies, into print-on-demand, could validate
the genre in the same way that Stephen King's first electronic-only book
brought instant credibility to that then-nascent market.

br>Apr-02

The move comes as the print-on-demand industry, where books are printed
only after they are ordered, is growing, with "Espresso Book Machine"
kiosks this month beginning to spring up in libraries and bookstores,
printing copies on the spot for paying customers of titles from Wiley &
Sons, Simon & Schuster and others.

Print-on-demand has been one of the few bright spots in the otherwise
slumping book industry. Sellers include works by self-published authors,
more of whom are selling respectable numbers of their editions by mail,
and out-of-print or out-of-copyright books that are reproduced by
various companies.

Mr Smolan's inspiration for the book came on election night, when his
exuberant friends were snapping pictures of themselves standing next to
the television as the results rolled in. "Everybody in that room wanted
to remember that moment the rest of their lives," he said.

But instead of putting out yet another Obama-makes-history tome, Mr
Smolan thought he would try to capitalise on emerging technology that
enables mass customisation. By printing only on demand, he figured he
could also allow everyone that ordered a copy to personalise it as a
memento.

Customers who order the book through TheObamaTimeCapsule.com
<http://www.theobamatimecapsule.com/> can submit a child's Obama
drawing, which will be snuck into a page devoted to kids' election
artwork; the customer's name will appear as the addressee in a photo of
a triumphant e-mail from the candidate, and so forth.

Because no publisher has to commit to an enormous press run, much of
which might end up getting pulped, Mr Smolan can keep the cost down.
Facebook, America Online and others have agreed to promote the project
for free, and a paper manufacturer is donating enough stock for 10,000
copies. The first 10,000 will be available for $34.95, after which the
price goes to a more realistic $64.95.

Mr Smolan also had luck in finding printing giant Hewlett-Packard as a
partner. The company is trying to expand its high-end press and ink
business as the more typical home and office printing business
stagnates. Earlier this year, HP opened an online store for
print-on-demand magazines, MagCloud.com, where publishers of nearly
1,000 titles charge whatever they want. Those publishers, many of them
hobbyists, have sold a surprising mean of 100 copies a piece and priced
their wares at average of about $7, said Andrew Bolwell, HP's director
of new business initiatives.

HP immediately accepted Mr Smolan's proposal. It will keep 58 cents per
copy after the first 10,000, while Mr Smolan will get $1.34-less than
the delivery charge. For both, the bigger payout will be if they can
push print-on-demand upscale and into the mainstream at the same time.

"This has never been done before at this scale," Mr Bolwell said. "We
hope this will be a showcase for how books could be produced in the
future."

How to buy better

2009-05-20T21:40:00.001+01:00

real quote from new client on our v5 Procurement Platform "That was a
borderline religious experience"- i think we're getting warm :-)

With print being the leader in "difficult things to buy well" we have
had a 10 year head-start on everyone else in how to buy b2b more
effectively! we have found we can now buy any product FROM THE SAME
SUPPLIERS approx 20% cheaper using our platform AND make them happier.
It's a strange world at WEBMART- but it kinda works well for everybody.

very interesting article that should show the way forward for local newspapers if you think about it

2009-05-19T06:28:00.000+01:00

Geldof aims to become main N Ireland news provider

By Ben Fenton in London

Published: May 19 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 19 2009 03:00

Bob Geldof, the musician best known for his Third World aid campaigning, aims to become the main news provider for Northern Ireland.

He told the Financial Times his Ten Alps production company would bid to become the regional news provider in the province when the government reveals plans to replace ITV's existing network.

The founder of Live Aid saw his media venture going on to become a news supplier for the rest of the UK.

His vision is for a consortium working with regional newspapers and "very, very local" reporters to provide news and information for communities on a 24-hour basis. Its programmes would be broadcast on terrestrial television (Channel 3), but the main means of getting information to local people would be via internet television.

"I am absolutely missionary about web TV and now [Ten Alps] are the Pearl and Dean of web TV," Mr Geldof said.

The opportunity he has identified is likely to materialise after the publication of the government's Digital Britain white paper , expected next month. ITV, currently the main regional news supplier, says it will have to withdraw from providing bulletins because they are uneconomic, costing about £50m ($77m) a year.

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, revealed plans last month for regional news consortia to bid for franchises in different parts of the UK. Media industry observers expect the plans to be incorporated into Digital Britain. Two existing Channel 3 franchise holders, STV and UTV, have expressed interest in leading consortia, with the latter likely to be a direct rival to Mr Geldof in Northern Ireland.

But the Irish musician, co-founder of Ten Alps and the largest individual shareholder, said: "Tendering out to the usual suspects just simply isn't going to work. In the age of the internet, the notion of television itself is as archaic as the word wireless - even if that has been reinvented for the digital age.

"It doesn't mean anything will be exclusively online, but multiplatform news will be required. Also, I don't think there is any way of doing this without working with local newspapers and those kind of agencies."

He said Ten Alps had offices across the UK and was already a market leader with internet television services like Teachers TV for the teaching profession and the community web channel Kent TV . On Friday, it will launch a similar channel in Northern Ireland called Fermanagh TV .

A senior industry figure familiar with the government's thinking said the proposal outlined by Mr Geldof was precisely in tune with the model being explored.

couldn't have said it better myself.... luckily i could John Kelly as one of my friends ( and I don't fiddle my ex's) so I am unlikely to be at the wrong end of one of his articles

2009-05-19T05:59:00.000+01:00

This lot deserve to be. Makes you weep...

http://thusmagazine.com/2009/05/britains-corrupt-politicians-deserve-a-b
reak-send-them-to-prison/

BPIF profile May 2009- says it as it is.

2009-05-15T09:54:00.001+01:00