To plagiarize the 80’s one-hit-wonder from Timbuk3, "things are going great - only gettin’ better". I am extremely excited about the direction of the Tekna ship. It is wonderful to be in a growing market at this time. While so many have so much challenge before them, we at Tekna have used this difficult economic time to hone our message and our offering. The current economic climate has given us reason to question our "status quo" and change those things that don’t measure up. One of the things that doesn’t measure up is our manufacturer-centric view of our products.

Recently a very good customer hit me with an astute (for me) observation. His comment was earth-shaking. He said, "I don’t want to buy your product (in this case, we were discussing shipping labels), I just want to get my boxes shipped." Now for most of you, this wouldn’t come as a surprise as you don’t care about shipping labels either. But, for me, I actually like shipping labels. When our press is printing these labels, it has the faint ring of the presses at the Federal Mint printing money (at least I like to think so). So when a very good client told me that didn’t like buying my product, it hit me hard.

I wanted to tuck my tail and run. But, I stayed a little longer and truly listened to my client. It is what he said next that changed my attitude and is changing my business. He said he loved using Tekna as his vendor for these products because it allows him to easily and efficiently do what he really wants done. He wants his packages to arrive at his client’s location so he can bill for his product. He wants the information on the label to be clear and clean, he wants the label to stick and he wants his system to flow without actually thinking about the label itself (or the label printer, for that matter).

So, we are gradually rethinking our CVP (Customer Value Proposition) from the perspective of the client’s job-to-be-done mentality. It truly is an epiphany. Not the religious kind but the sudden insight into the reality of a situation. My customers across all the aspects of Tekna’s products (flexible packaging, pressure sensitive labels, folding cartons, offset printing, etc.) have a job to do. They use Tekna’s products and services only as long as we provide an efficient and cost effective solution to that job.

This change in attitude is already showing new opportunities – not the least of which is Tekna Impact Printing Systems. TIPS allows us now to provide a complete (printer/software/ribbons/labels) system for something as mundane as shipping labels. Now the client has one solution for this function and one guaranteed to work. No finger pointing to various vendors to parts of the system. One call – one solution.

This job-to-be-done mentality will permeate our whole organization and I’m excited about the opportunities it will show us. Time for a new pair of Rayban’s. Life is good on my island , at Amigo Movil and www.tekna-impact.com