Hagop quits PIAA, calls for printers to become “boutique operators”

The outgoing national manager of policy and government affairs told ProPrint he felt it was time for a new challenge after two decades with the PIAA.

"My initial intention is to explore opportunities in the industry. I've got extensive contacts and I know the industry very well. Having said that, my skill set would also suit opportunities elsewhere," he said.

Tchamkertenian will finish at the peak industry body on 26 July. He joined in 1993, soon after completing an economics degree.

Tchamkertenian said an industry history he had read when he started the job revealed that printers were expressing concerns about price and capacity as far back as the 1920s.

He added that the internet might finally force printers to solve those problems.

[Related: Hagop tells printers to embrace change]

"It has decimated certain sections of the industry, but at the same time I see what it is doing to the industry is turning it from a mass production industry that was a commodity- and price-driven industry to a boutique or niche industry where you don't have to produce volumes anymore," he said.

"If you take volume out of the equation, price isn't going to be the key motive for purchasing decisions."

Tchamkertenian said firms had to evolve from being 'printers' to 'communications solutions providers' if they wanted to thrive in the new environment.

"If you're still identifying yourself as a printer, there's a problem, because in many circles print is defined as an industry belonging to the 20th century," he told ProPrint.

"The mass scale model of producing volumes will itself become a niche market. Very few printers will be engaged in mass volume.

"Most printers will become boutique operators. I think that's a positive development. It will in the short- to medium-term cause disruptions, and there will be further consolidation, but in the long term those who survive the industry transition will enjoy the fruits of that transition."

[LinkedIn: Do you sell 'print' or 'communications'?]

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