Voices from the Top
Wondering what the rest of the Top 50 have to say about the industry today? Check out some of the best responses from the remainder of the ranking companies
Promo Marketing: How do you set goals for yourself? For your business?
“Our philosophy is that goals need to be team-oriented and must strike a balance between being reasonably attainable and aspirational. Our intent is to maximize our collective performance by mutually agreeing upon what is possible and then working together to realize the success that can be achieved. We agree on the standard, we agree on the vision and then it is not difficult to agree on the specifics.”
– Marc Simon, CEO of HALO Branded Solutions
“I think goals, at a high level, is the cornerstone of any successful person or business, and setting goals and having the right metrics to support those goals is critical. … As a business, we’re very metric-centric, where each department is doing whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing to accomplish our annual operating plan. If we are not measuring the details of the business, then things get lost or our ability to execute won’t be as clear.”
– Jason Black, CEO of Boundless Network
“Our company spends a significant amount of time in strategic planning sessions and then develops an operation plan from the best ideas generated from the strategic plan. Less is more when it comes to focusing on what you want to accomplish!”
– Jay Donlin, Exec. V.P. Sales & Marketing, Newton Manufacturing
“Our corporate goals are based on monthly financial numbers driven from sales margin, so operating the organization with costs in line with revenue margin is our objective. (We are transparent with these this goal and the numbers with all employees.)”
– Michael Emoff, CEO of Shumsky Enterprises
PM: What’s the biggest way technology is changing your business? What do you expect the biggest technological change to be in the near future?
“I think one of the most interesting changes right now is the migration of really everything moving to smart phones. I find I’m never at the bleeding edge of technology, but I find that right now I travel primarily just with an iPad and an iPhone. I have a very light laptop, but it seems like it weighs 500 pounds now. I’m in my office and it’s sitting on my couch collecting dust. I don’t think I’ve used it in probably the last year. That would be one of most significant changes, things moving to the cloud and moving to mobile.”
– David Woods, MAS, President and CEO of AIA Corporation
“Technology is both a blessing and a curse. There are now literally thousands of tools and applications that enable us to get to market better/faster/cheaper. So it’s a great gain in productivity. The curse is that our clients now have higher expectations for new technology (social media, transparency, customization of reporting etc.). So there is a perpetual cycle of ongoing investment in new technology. Additionally, the availability of international “sourcing” websites has allowed customers to conduct their own searches for lowest cost products-often times without properly vetting the reliability and compliance of the manufacturer. Finally, mobile shopping apps will continue to grow and explode in 2012 and beyond. It’s estimated at 25 percent of the market now and will continue to grow.”
– Jerry Mulligan, V.P. of Sales/New Business Development of Chamberlain Marketing Group
PM: In 2011 and 2012, government from the national level down has been vocally condemning its own promotional products as “unnecessary government waste.” What do you think about this? Generic government scapegoating and placation, or something more threatening?
“To a degree, we have brought this outcome upon ourselves. For years we have accepted the low barrier to entry into our business and failed to focus on providing solutions versus selling products. When price is primary driver of value, you eventually arrive at the bottom of a downward spiral-COMMODITY. While our industry has made great progress in this area in recent years, we are paying for our government’s past sins as well as from those that took advantage of selling them products which didn’t meet their specific educational or marketing objectives. Call it corporate greed, lack of regulatory oversight, or just government waste, but all have contributed to increased scrutiny and more regulation from government and of government. From this perspective I would suggest it has been more about scapegoating, but regardless, we all need to consider the larger impact on our industry when it comes to how we position our medium in the marketplace.”
– Jay Donlin, Exec. V.P. Sales & Marketing, Newton Manufacturing
“We learned from the pharmaceutical industry that pointing at promotional products is an effective way to obscure the real issues and confuse and mislead government regulators. Now, politicians who have always relied on the effectiveness and economic efficiency of using promotional products for their election campaigns are doing exactly what Pharma did, only they are relying on the public to be gullible enough to shift focus from the real issues of government overspending. The most dangerous aspect of this is that promotional advertising and the products we use are being disparaged repeatedly in the national mainstream media. If business leaders, many of whom have close relationships with politicians, follow the lead of their elected officials, we could see real damage to our industry. The loss of traditionally low margin government business may not have significant impact on the industry.”
– Kurt Kaeser, CEO and President; and Gregg Emmer, CMO and Vice President, Kaeser & Blair
“Promotional products represent the best bang for the buck in advertising and marketing. … As a result, our industry has grown every year for the past 35 years, with only two short exceptions. We employ over 450,000 people and produce over $17 billion of commerce. Among the many groups that understand the value of promotional products and use them widely are the very politicians that attempt to grandstand with media events castigating promotional products. That is why it is so important that all of us volunteer our time to support PPAI’s government relations activities and answer the call when we ask you to educate your own elected officials as to who we are and why we exist.”
– Marc Simon, CEO of HALO Branded Solutions
PM: What’s one of the biggest leadership lessons you ever learned, and how did you learn it?
“I think the main thing is that you’ve got to have a passion for what you do. If you don’t have a passion for it, go find something else that you do have a passion for. I think that’s a cornerstone. I have a philosophy that life is short, we’re all going to die, you are only on Earth for a short period of time, so you really need to not be scared, take risks, follow your heart, follow your dreams. The people that are the most successful in life are the ones that are also the most risky. I think that people have the ability to be whatever they want to be if they have enough courage to step outside their comfort zones, more internally than externally.”
– Jason Black, CEO of Boundless Network
“Leaders can’t create themselves. It is people following that create leaders. Establishing an environment where everyone can excel from their own participation and not at the misfortune of anyone else has revealed more leaders than anything else. If we are considered leaders by the people we interact with, it is because of upholding that principal.”
– Kurt Kaeser, CEO and President; and Gregg Emmer, CMO and Vice President, Kaeser & Blair
“Keep things simple, articulate the ultimate vision of what you are trying to achieve, be sure you have buy-in from the people on whom you are dependent and then spend your own time helping your team be successful in what they are doing. I learned this as I came to grips with the fact that I only had so many hours in the day and that I had to find an effective way to leverage my own time to achieve the results I sought.”
– Marc Simon, CEO of HALO Branded Solutions
