One of the most interesting things about Sir Martin Sorrell's lecture on Monday evening was what he didn't say. I don't think he mentioned the word "print" once, which is probably a first for someone making the annual Stationers' address in the shadow of the great stained glass window that depicts Edward IV and his Queen being shown a proof by William Caxton.

Of course, he talked about different media, and one of WPP's three main objectives is to grow its business in internet, mobile and video-driven channels. He was frank in saying that in the future the company will be more active "outside newspapers and magazines", while predicting that worldwide online adspend, currently at circa 12%, is likely to grow to 20% of the market.

While a lot of what he spoke about involved the challenges of running a huge global business, and his prognosis for key economies (pretty gloomy for western Europe), some of his comments were pertinent to print services businesses no matter what size or shape. For example, he said that WPP would be more data-driven, not least because the CFOs at client companies are more and more interested in justifying and measuring marketing activities.

This is a theme that's close to my heart, as it's becoming obvious that the future for print companies will be more and more about data too. Maybe these data will be used for physically printed things, maybe for the new media channels mentioned by Sir Martin, or a combination of all of them. Print businesses are already masters at dealing with lots of complex data inputs, to the extent that the level of expertise required becomes so normal that it can be overlooked. Being pro-active about extending those skills to channels beyond print, or developing suitable partnerships in that space, is surely going to be something that separates the winners from the also-rans.

Sir Martin also stated that one of his main challenges was internal communications. This is an issue on a grand scale when you have something like 130,000 employees and associates worldwide. But the simple question "how do I get my employees to face in the same direction?" is one that must exercise bosses at all businesses, no matter what the size, especially in such uncertain times. Keeping people motivated and mobilised is easier said than done.