Complete Story
03/14/2018
PIA Print Management Survey
From Dr. Ralph Williams Jr., Middle Tennessee State University:
Dear PIA Member,
I hope this email finds you well and your businesses percolating nicely. Over the last few weeks, I have heard reports from printing firm leaders indicating business in our industry is good.
Today, a major issue for printing companies is developing a reliable and competent team, and this will become more important and challenging as baby boomers retire. Thus, our next PIA management study will explore effective recruiting, hiring, and HR practices. Hopefully, we'll provide our industry some insights into what practices relate to finding, keeping, and growing team members.
Below is a link to the survey. You will find this survey is much shorter than our previous studies, requiring only 10 to 15 minutes of your valuable time.
Please take the survey and help us build knowledge that will assist printing company leaders in their efforts to grow and prosper.
All the best,
Dr. Ralph Williams Jr., Middle Tennessee State University
Printers recognize that improved strategic and operational management are the keys to higher profits. However, what are the key strategic and operational management practices that printers need to implement? A new Printing Industries of America (PIA) study will answer this important question. The study is being conducted through a new on-going partnership between PIA’s Center for Print Economics and Management and the Department of Management at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).
According to PIA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Dr. Ron Davis, “This new cooperative effort with the Department of Management at MTSU will bring together the best of both worlds—state of the art academic research combined with real-world management practices—to provide PIA members with a competitive advantage over non-members.”
Dr. Ralph Williams, Assistant Professor of Management at MTSU, agrees, stating, “We are excited to be working with PIA to conduct empirical research to test and determine the best management practices in the printing industry. We look forward to a continuing collaboration between the two organizations.” Other management professors working in the program are Dr. Scott C. Manley and Dr. Joshua R. Aaron.
Since 1921, PIA has been at the forefront of the industry, helping printers to improve their profitability by benchmarking their operations against industry profit leaders. While the Ratios studies do an excellent job of providing the financial benchmarking tools needed for business intelligence, this study seeks to find the best management practices that will either help increase profitability or sustain profits. The study will survey members based upon the following parameters:
- Strategic Planning
- Goal Setting
- Financial Ratio Analysis
- Operations Management
- Community Involvement
- Entrepreneurial Orientation
- Effects of Family Involvement on Strategic Management Methods and Performance
Determining the best management practices in our industry will help both industry leaders and laggards. The laggards will learn how to improve their marginal results. At the same time, industry leaders will gain knowledge about what makes them different, which will help them focus on best practices that are key to their superior performance and the sustainability of their success.
