Ramu Ramanathan highlights "few things they don't tell us about printing"

The past few days, I've been attending seminars, conferences, closed-door briefings - and a pattern is emerging. Let me try to give you a flavour, with some of the comments:

18 Oct 2010 | By Samir Lukka

That there is no such thing as fair trade and healthy competition.
Good print firms are not only about the personality of the CEOs, but it sure does help.
Salaries for personnel in rich countries are more than they should be.
The Blackberry has changed the printer's world more than any kit on the shopfloor.
Assume the worst about your customers and inevitably you get the worst.
When the cabinet secretary talks about macroeconomic stability; it does not make the price of print more stable.
Government can pick winners in the print industry, but as a rule it doesn't.
Laissez faire policies rarely make a poor print firm richer.
Is print global? Does print have a nationality?
We do not, as yet, live in a post-printing age.
India (and China) and even Indonesia are galloping at a fair clip, but the USA – in spite of all its problems – has the highest print output in the world.
Packaging is not destined for underdevelopment; likewise labels, books and ideas.
Making a few print firms productive doesn't make the rest of the industry more productive.
Print consultants are over-priced.
And print products are under-priced.
Print firms in Karur or Morbi are more entrepreneurial than print firms in other parts of the country.
Are we smart enough to leave things to the free market; and the print buyer.
Will more literacy make a country richer? Or merely more educated?
Perhaps today's offset presses need to become less, not more efficient.
Curiously enough, a solid print policy does not require a good technologist.