Life after EFI for Guy Gecht

Long-serving former EFI CEO Guy Gecht sat down with EFI CEO Jeff Jacobson in a fireside chat to talk through some of his time at EFI, activities after leaving the company, and trends he’s seeing in the industry.

Gecht said that following his resignation from the EFI CEO role, two years ago, he was faced with uncertainty as to what he wanted to do with his time.   

“It was always a mystery to me what I was going to do when I left. I was with EFI for 19 years and the company went through so much transformation in that time; and as a CEO, the weight was on my shoulders because customers expected us to deliver quarter after quarter,” he said.

“But when I stepped down from all that responsibility, I wanted to slow things down to zero. I took things down to zero to think about what I wanted to do. In the early days, I slept as long as I wanted and recuperated.

“Then I slowly picked things up. I never had more than a meeting or catchup a day. And then I took classes in stand up comedy, which my family signed me up to, I don’t know why and also took the time to read some books.

“After a few months, I ended up on the board of Logitech. There’s plenty of innovation in that company that I had to learn about. So, I utilised my time towards that.

“I have also been mentoring CEOs of startups as well. Silicon Valley is a huge space for startups and I try and impart my knowledge to leaders that seek it,” he said.

The change of pace has been a transition for Gecht, who has also taken up some projects on the side.

“I never thought this sabbatical thing was going to last. I’m now a general contractor with my wife and that keeps me busy. We have been building our home, the land which we bought from the Hewlett (the Hewlett part of Hewlett Packard) family and we’ve been working on that project together,” he said.

When Jacobson asked Gecht about the billion-dollar vision that he had for EFI, the latter said that the move was to catapult the brand from what it was to becoming a major player in the industry.

Gecht identified the four areas that were a part of the company’s plans to becoming a billion dollar business:

  1. Getting deeper into embedded systems
  2. Getting into consumer electronics
  3. Moving more into data conversion to web
  4. Expanding into industrial print

“It took a while for us to figure out what we wanted to do. At that time, we were being outnumbered by other players in the industry. But, we had a good cash balance so that’s when we started to buy other smaller players,” he said.

“We also wanted to stay close to what we were good at – which was images and printing, software, and embedded systems. So, we wanted to grow and capitalise on that. Implementing on these plans meant having a number of acquisitions but without having to disrupt or go into competition with our customers.

“For example, the beauty of buying VUTEk was that we didn’t want to get into document printing. That meant we weren’t in competition with our customers.”

Gecht said one of his biggest achievements in EFI was bringing Nozomi to market and getting the product working quickly in customer sites.

“There’s no pressure, but I hope to see the new CEO take it to new heights,” he said candidly.

Moving forward, he mentioned that he has three potential directions that he could possibly take. 

“I want to do more of what I am currently doing in helping startups – not necessarily having that responsibility of being a leader of a company, but helping others run a company,” he said.

“Otherwise, I think I may end up in a startup as a leader, because startups and new technologies excite me. The last option for me is to do more for the world and give back to society.”

Jacobson also asked Gecht about areas of opportunity that he sees in the industry, of which he replied the changes that come with digital transformation.

“There’s going to be some tough times and some pressure on our industry but one must stay as an optimist and remain positive. This industry is one of the most creative of industries and it’s been that way and will be that way for a long time,” he said.

“There are tremendous opportunities with digital transformation and many industries still require digital images.

“It’s a great time to be in this decade. All the good things are being emphasised and there’s plenty of optimism and focus on big technologies like artificial intelligence, big data and 5G that come with digital transformation.

“These technologies are revolutionary and change everything for all industries. It is getting tougher for retail, but people in retail want to change experiences and they’re fighting to make it better.

“Packaging is one industry at the start of its growth curve – we’re just at the start of the opportunities possible. Textile is also another area of growth, as is outdoor. These are areas to focus on.”

In terms of the necessary skill sets to meet industry requirements, Gecht said technologists and experts in product management are in demand.

“We need technologists as everything is done using software and you want to get the maximum out of it and connect with data. Technologists are experts at that. As for product management, the market is such where customers need the direction from people with market knowledge and product expertise,” he said.

“And nowadays, people like to work on things that have a mission; it’s not just about having a career. So, we need to make greener companies and focus on connecting the world. The younger workforce wants to transform industries in a different way and that is what established businesses should be enabling.”

 

Sprinter travelled to Connect in Las Vegas as a guest of EFI. 

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