Do print management companies stifle innovation? Discuss.

This was a point that came up at the recent Vision in Print conference, where GI Solutions' Robin Welch spoke compellingly about his company's strategy of continuous innovation. "We're an innovative business" is one of those phrases parroted by pretty much everybody these days, but few companies truly manage it. GI has adopted a structured approach towards being innovative, and although this might sound like a contradiction in terms it really does seem to work.

However, Welch and his team find themselves at odds with print managers, because GI's mission is to come up with creative products that others can't produce, and which set the firm apart from the pack. In turn this provides clients with a point of differentiation. But all-too-often direct marketing work that is specified through print managers needs to fit into some sort of standard matrix that can be sent out to X number of print suppliers in order to get the best quote. Hence products become standardised, and creativity goes down the pan. If it's true that response rates are suffering as a result, Welch's mission to move up the food chain with clients might become a little easier.

See www.creativeformats.com for some of the ideas Welch and his team have brought to fruition.

PS

I'm referring specifically to DM here, as I just read with interest the news about how Charterhouse has instigated a new "refreshable" point-of-sale system at T-Mobile using self-adhesive overlays. This is more environmentally sound than the previous system and also involves saving of circa £600,000. Very clever.