What’s going to be the next big thing in print?

Maybe it will be the subject of this issue’s briefing, near-field communication (NFC), now that the ‘cool-tech’ kingmaker Apple has taken one step closer towards rolling out the technology on the iPhone.

Or perhaps it just doesn’t matter, and the fact that people are looking for and talking about the next big thing in print is enough, because it proves that print is still evolving and the sector’s drive to innovate is as strong as it ever was.

As has been proven time and time again, hitching print’s wagons to a new technology is far better than simply circling them in a vain attempt to see off a perceived threat. Even if in our heart of hearts we know that this year’s lift might just be a stopgap while we’re waiting for a friendly technology to see our protruding thumb as it whizzes by.

However, there is an argument that in our search for print’s next big thing we shouldn’t be looking at technology at all and that maybe it should be business related.

And if that’s the case, then can I be the first to nominate the ‘1% rule’ that Andrew Scrimgeour talks about in this issue’s interview.

Anything that is so elegantly simple and can seemingly have such a big impact on a business’s bottom line, with no upfront investment to worry about, or new processes or acronyms to learn, has got to be the way forward.

Because life would probably be a lot simpler and more profitable if we remembered to focus on the little things rather than get too distracted looking for the next big ones.