The print industry in Mumbai has rebounded from its earlier days when the rise in property prices enriched printers and also limited their expansion in familiar surroundings. There was also the opportunity cost associated with a print business occupying such valuable real estate. While some printers have monetized their ‘land banks,’ many others have expanded by diversifying to pre-media and print exports, digital signage and POP production, and perhaps to most effect – packaging. In many cases this has meant the consolidation of several locations or the building of new plants in Navi Mumbai and even further away. The majority of multi-location packaging, label companiesin the country are headquartered in Mumbai.
The BMPA Summit was attended by not only many of the veterans but also many second and third generation printers – highly educated and ready to implement new paradigms in the commercial and communication capital of the country – at a time when the economy is showing exuberance with a business oriented single party enjoying a majority in parliament. On many levels the printers of Mumbai show the leadership qualities that the industry requires.
An instance of the collaborative spirit is that the Bombay Master Printers Association and the Mumbai Mudrak Sangh are not only civil to each other but are also entering meaningful cooperation. With its share to benefit programs and its continuous development of eight Print Summits, the BMPA seems a positive reflection of the improving health of the print industry in Mumbai and the region it dominates. Above all its young leadership displays teamwork and an interest in problem-solving – it wants to take the industry forward and while showing respect to the formidable contribution of its elders, it is an example to the next generation.
The content of the Print Summit is always motivating and inspirational and this year’s event started off with an excellent keynote talk by BS Nagesh who spoke about the business and professional opportunities in organized retail – an industry that he has helped to create. He shared some of his experiences in pioneering the organized retail boom over the past 25 years. And while dwelling on the conference theme of collaboration and innovation in business, Nagesh also celebrated the individual’s responsibility to the community.
On a day filled with motivational talks, Steve D’souza the owner of Kalamazoo Group in New Zealand, revealed the power of belief and selfbelief. Although claiming to be just another “poor Catholic boy from Chapel street in Mumbai,” D’souza is clearly a brilliant print businessman, who portrays his confidence in seizing opportunities and his many successes as a way of acting and risk-taking without fear. Nevertheless, he is forthright in attributing much of his success to the fourteen years he spent working for TechNova in Mumbai.
vijit Mukherjee of Ricoh India made a very interesting presentation about priorities and self-organization. Fundamentalto modern business and professional life this was a very practical lesson to many of us who are driven not by our plans but by our haphazard and chaoticway ofworkingwithout analyzing the importance of each task and putting it in the appropriate quadrant.Another practical presentation was made byRakshit Tandon, an information technology and cybercrime expertwho made it clear to those who would listen thatwe are likely to drown in the cyberworld around us unless wewake up to its dangers.Appropriately his presentation wastitled – ‘Virtualworld – it’s not a game – it’s your life – stay safe.’
The Mumbai printer Iqbal Kherodawala demonstrated maximum creativity and innovation by moderating a session for which he had already made a video of each of the panelists in their own surroundings. He interspersed the video clips with his own comments and simultaneously discussed the breakthrough innovations of his panelists on the stage – Haresh Mehta of Jayna Packaging, Harsha Paruchuri of Pragati Pack, Rajesh Kulkarni of Keetronics and Jalaluddin Kabeer of Delta Printing Press in Dubai.
Towards the end of the day-long conference Rustom Vesavevala of the Taj Group showed a video and spoke about why the employees of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai stayed until the last person was evacuated during the terrorist attack on the hotel in November 2008. The question Vesavevala and the Ted talk video by Rohit Deshpande of Harvard Business School sought to explain was – why would employees risk their lives when they could have easily evacuated? Ultimately, describing it as ‘Leadership from below’ he pointed toward the customer centric human resource policies of the Taj group – a combination of both the personal values and character of the individual employees as well the institutional values that the Tata group stands and it methods of training and rewarding front line staff.
Interestingly, the talk by professor Samish Dalal of the SP Jain Institute of Management Research on creativity and innovation echoed the theme of leadership from below. He spoke about a young person who not only used creativity in applying for and gaining employment but who was able to able to inspire her employers as well with her efficiency and her sense of duty to her parents.
At the print summit, six industry veterans were honoured by the BMPA for their significant contributions to the print industry. Pranav Parikh of TechNova Imaging Systems, Ashok Nerkar of Unique Photo Offset Services, Arun Mehta of Vakil & Sons, Ramesh Kejriwal of Parksons Packaging, Sanat Shah of Manugraph Industries and Burjor Poonawala of Commercial Art Engravers were so honoured.
