Benchmark printing companies

In the heat of the summer, when restlessness is felt, the amount of coolness that the history of reading brings is sufficient to calm down the impetuousness of your heart. The history of the industry is written to some extent by the benchmarking company. Regardless of whether you identify with it or not, it exists objectively. Therefore, in this hot July, we embarked on an itinerary to visit the former printing benchmark companies and follow their footprints to realize that the printing industry has undergone drastic changes during the past 30 years. Exquisite, colorful, bumpy, colorful, beautiful, beautiful, and so on... These familiar names were once the banner of an era. As benchmarks, they walked to the stage with glory, but in the end, they embarked on a different journey, hidden in plainness. Or to silence. Their ups and downs interpreted a brilliant and upsetting print legend.

Exquisite - This company, founded by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and the in-depth technical support of the "King of the plate making" Kwangyang Agency, immediately after its establishment in 1980, quickly became famous in the Beijing market. With the exquisite beauty of Gwangyang Society, with advanced technology awareness (the first mainland company to introduce Mitsubishi printing presses) and unparalleled level of plate making, it has been leading the printing industry in Beijing and even China for more than a decade. It has created the impressive performance of the second-largest per capita taxation in China and the first in Beijing (10 times the average level in the Beijing area).

Hundred flowers - beautifully named Hundred Flowers was once a benchmark for the Beijing market and a model for a nationwide printing company. Although always "being settled" beautifully, but this dare to spend a lot of money, "the continuous introduction of multiple Heidelberg machines," the mainland printing companies have repeatedly impressive with their extraordinary moves. For example, when most people do not know what the computer is, Baihua has begun to use computer independent development management system to monitor and plan the production process. The forward-looking vision and courage to dare to advance are admirable.

Bump - If the founders of exquisite, Baihua, and Micron are mostly government agencies, they can provide a certain amount of livelihood security. Bump color printing relies on self-reliance, innovation, and technology. As early as in the 1960s, it pioneered the new process of plastic relief printing; successfully developed a new process of stamping anodized aluminum on plastic films and various types of papers... a number of inventions have filled the domestic gap. Bump is one of the earliest companies that have challenged "World Print Products". For example, the success of the challenge has led to the success of Shanghai's packaging and printing industry in the world of printing.

Carnival - Shenzhen, the first three to fill a printing company, and the United States and the United States as the 80s Shenzhen printing industry "four kings." The foreign identity of Jianian brought up the advanced concept of “the workers must be first to sharpen their tools” for the occluded Shenzhen printing industry. Because of its entry, colored high-grade books, pictures, and color boxes first appeared in the Shenzhen printing market. . With the popularity of the Chinese New Year awards at home, the Shenzhen printing industry has been attracting attention from the outside world.

Micron - As the first domestic Sino-Japanese joint venture printing company, the beauty of "Three Highs" (high-end equipment, high-level talents, and high-level management) started to blossom. It once occupied 30% to 40% of the high-end album market in Shenzhen. “If Meiguang says that he is the second, no company dares to say that he is the first”, the dominance of Micron is evident. The reputation of the “joint venture sample” and “Huangpu Military Academy” given by the outside world is more than enough to prove its vanguard status.

However, a wonderful start does not mean a perfect ending. With market changes and technological upgrading, followers and latecomers pressed harder, and the first-mover advantage was lost. The hidden “fat” that danced with “prosperity” eventually became the development of the former protagonist. Therefore, “Shengji The fate of the fate was once again staged. The former leaders were gradually marginalized and some even went out of their way.

Then, what are the hidden “bombs” that are tied to these benchmarks, and what are the internal “fire lines” that triggered their subsequent outcomes? Through this search, we communicated with the interviewees on several occasions and finally obtained the following interpretation.

1. Systematic limitations. The halo will cover all hidden dangers and loopholes. Once the halo is dissipated, these hidden dark halos will be exposed. The institutional problems are the first to come. Regardless of the bumpy color printing, or the exquisite and multitudinous flowers (the latter two companies have not participated in the management, although the joint venture is actually a state-owned system), when they face the “deliberate” challenges of private enterprises and foreign companies with more flexible systems. The result of a positive confrontation tends to be a disadvantage most of the time.

In addition, problems such as management loopholes and personnel loss caused by system limitations have caused them to pay a lot of "tuition fees." Exquisitely, Baihua has sent a number of technical staff to study in Japan, and most of the technical backbones of these returnees have been lost to other companies. The unattractive compensation mechanism is the main reason leading them to go away, and the loss of a succession of people also puts the company into a passive situation.

2. The competitiveness is single and can be copied. Taking exquisite and multi-flowers as examples, they once occupied the commanding height of the printing market with advanced plate-making technology and high-end equipment configuration. However, when the plate-making technology is completely replaced and high-end configurations are reduced from rarities to popular products, they are single and available. The technical competitiveness of replication has become fatal.

3. Blind investment. Although not every investment can achieve expectations, once the investment fails and hurts the vitality, the company will bear huge debts and it is difficult to stand up. The last "straw" that was beautifully pressed was precisely the paper cup company that followed its investment. Due to the lack of predicting the risk of entry, the product was priceless and there was a huge loss.

4. The rules of cooperation are not clear, which has laid aside for the contradiction of the shareholders in the future. Micron unfortunately "invited", in the shareholders again and again, the United States and numerous opportunities pass, the dream of listing is also stranded. This old joint venture sample failed to escape the fate of “one beat and two scattered” and became a victim of intensified shareholder conflicts.

5. Leading team thinking is not ahead. It has to be admitted that the grasp of opportunity depends on the leadership of the enterprise most of the time. A leading group that does not have forward-thinking thinking and always “slows a beat” can hardly imagine how far the company can be.

The great contrast between today and the past has led us to conceive of whether the outcome would be very different if they had made the appropriate transitions (including markets and institutions) at the appropriate inflection point. Unfortunately, history cannot be assumed. As the wheels of history roll forward, the once glorious and falling marks of the benchmarks will become the nourishment of latecomers. And all this will continue.