While the buzz of PacPrint drew the industry to Melbourne in May, and the National Print Awards was the crowning celebration of the best efforts of Australian printers in the past year, there was another moment during that week that may have repercussions for the industry.
In his annual speech to the gathered industry at the National Print Awards, managing director of Heidelberg Australia New Zealand, Andy Vels Jensen, remarked that it is time for the industry to examine the means by which it represents itself. In fact, it was time for the industry to reinvent itself for the times. He suggested that the industry needed to mould a new representative body to take its issues to the world.
Some might argue that there are already more than enough bodies or associations in the industry, each of which deals with a sector based on technology or business sector development. But few would argue that the print industry in Australia needs to find more effective means of engaging with all levels of government and the business sector as a whole.
Andy Vels Jensen was open to discussion about his perspectives on where the Australasian industry finds itself, and what it can do to to improve its prospects in a future that does not value print as highly as it has been valued in the past.
At the National Print Awards you made mention of an idea for a new body to oversee the print industry’s relations. Can you enlarge upon your views about where the industry is at the moment?
Upfront I want to make it clear that I am not making this “noise” because I am trying to find a nice warm post-Heidelberg retirement spot for myself. When I retire, I retire from my job and the industry and will start doing all the things my doctor says I should be doing every day! So, call me lazy, call me too busy or even part of the problem, but let’s change.
My point is, if we want to make a change within print in Australia, we need a change of leadership and we need to bring some new blood into organisations — individuals who don’t have too much old personal baggage and as few axes to grind as possible. Less “personalities”.
Too many people within today’s industry are in it for their own benefit/ego and because they can’t let go. Their efforts are admirable, and in some cases performed without any pay. However, they end up killing off any new innovation and imagination within the industry organisations as they stick around for way too long. If they couldn’t make a change before they joined an industry organisation, what makes them think they can now? Making any change ends up taking “retirements” or a need for generational change within industry organisations.
Do you think the industry is genuinely represented, and has a fair voice in the general business community at the moment?
My view has always been that the print industry in Australia is overly fragmented and awash with organisations supposedly serving the same purpose within the industry. The three main ones are PIAA, GAMAA and GASAA, and by main I mean their financial situation and credibility.
The common denominator for all organisations is that they are involved in print, be it PIAA, GAMAA, LIA, GASAA, APIA, SPA, NPA, ACA, PCA, APFA, etc. Each organisation has put in efforts to improve over the past many years, and some have succeeded. However, the industry in 2009 is vastly different from what is was four years ago, even 12 months ago.
Is having so many organisations in the best interests of the industry, or is there a better way to promote its interests?
There has to be a better way and in my view we should start with a consolidation of industry organisations. Everything else is consolidating, so why not the organisations who support industry?
If we could get all organisations together, great. However, a great start would be the PIAA, GAMAA, LIA, GASAA and a few others together. One has to question why they are standalone organisations today.
If one asks around, there has not been a great relationship between most associations and the PIAA over the years, and the PIAA has not enjoyed a great reputation as being the peak body, despite of course PIAA seeing themselves as such and making a genuine effort. They have suffered from a lot of infighting and PIAA has not taken in new thinking and new blood.
The view is that organisations become overcrowded with individuals who have left active duty elsewhere in the industry and as much as we need some of these great personalities within any organisation, it becomes a problem when organisations are controlled and overly rely on such individuals. Not fair to the organisations, the industry or the individuals themselves.
These issues at the PIAA are in fact what led to the industry becoming even more fragmented as alternative organisations were formed by people who then go their own way as they didn’t feel confident in relying on the PIAA, alongside membership dwindling.
Has this fragmentation had other repercussions?
Well, all organisations require funding and the efforts of people who put in their time to run organisations. In particular, the PIAA has a substantial investment in people and infrastructure, which requires a lot of money to feed. They have lost a lot of members over the years due to their members going elsewhere, to the likes of AIG and the Chamber of Manufacturers, which hasn’t helped. GAMAA, on the other hand, only has two employees on the payroll, and I believe they are even part time. The rest of the work is done by supplier volunteers and committee work, so there is less need for heavy funding.
Essentially, all industry organisations in Australia serve one purpose and one purpose alone: to further their cause, promote issues and work with government and others to secure the future and wellbeing of their members and their business. However again, the common denominator for most of the organisations in Australia is PRINT.
It should also be remembered that quite a few GAMAA members are also PIAA members and already pay their membership, and therefore funds, to the PIAA.
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