The global doctor blade market leader continues to prioritize the success of their customers with additional leadership for their Customer Experience team.
Flexo Concepts, global manufacturer and market leader in doctor blade innovation, has announced the promotion of Joe Spritza to Customer Experience Manager. In this role, Spritza will help execute Flexo Concepts’ vision for its Customer Experience Team.
“Having been with Flexo Concepts for more than 15 years in sales, customer experience and manufacturing roles, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to leverage all the skills I’ve developed at FC to support our customers,” said Spritza. He continued, “Helping customers find solutions to their problems and working to continuously improve their engagement with FC will be a welcome challenge. I am excited to get started.”
In this new role, Spritza will ensure Flexo Concepts is listening to the voice of its customers and taking actions to continuously improve the company’s products and services. In addition, he hopes to strengthen existing customer relationships, reduce churn, improve engagement, and find new ways to ensure customer success.
“Joe’s passion for people shines though in everything he does. I’m thrilled to see him advance into this new role and have him as a dedicated resource for our Customer Experience team. Given Joe’s prior experience at the company we’re certain he’ll have a positive impact,” said Phil Ryan, the company’s Service & Supply Chain Manager.
Flexo Concepts is committed to providing more connected and memorable experiences for their customers. In addition to Spritza’s promotion, Flexo Concepts recently launched FC Marketplace, a full-service ecommerce platform which is already changing the way FC does business with its customers.
What do 850 solar panels, a giant vacuum collection system, new LED lighting fixtures and a bunch of blue receptacle bins at 100 Armstrong Road in Plymouth have in common?
They are all part of Flexo Concepts’ efforts to “go green.”
Today we will talk with the engineering manager, the man behind the curtain, John Ferris, to find out the story behind these changes and how he is leading the way at Flexo Concepts when it comes to sustainability.
John, tell us about some of the things Flexo Concepts has done to reduce its carbon footprint.
For starters, Flexo Concepts installed a solar renewable energy system last year that produces 100% of the energy used by our company and the other tenants in the building. The project, which included 850 panels on the roof, 40 power inverters and all materials required to connect the energy to the building and electric grid, was completed over five months. We are proud to say that our entire facility is now energy-independent!
Also, two years ago, we equipped our entire facility with more efficient LED lighting. The scope of the project consisted of all Flexo Concepts’ manufacturing and administrative space as well as the parking lot and other common areas of the building complex. Every bulb in the office areas was exchanged for an LED lamp and all lighting equipment in the shop and common areas was replaced with new fixtures that contain LED lamps.
Could you describe some of the less obvious ways Flexo Concepts is leading the way in the industry with its sustainability practices?
One of my primary responsibilities as the engineering manager is to look for ways to develop products using materials and processes that don’t have a negative impact on the environment. Our R&D team and material suppliers work closely together to create polymer doctor blade materials that not only deliver performance to printers but also offer eco-friendly options to help our customers meet their sustainability goals. One of the criteria we use to select new materials and material combinations for testing is the eco-friendliness of the polymerizing methods. For example, the main polymer used to make our TruPoint Green® doctor blade is created from carbon monoxide that’s recaptured from a steel mill. If this vapor were released into the atmosphere, it would break down into carbon dioxide which is a well-known greenhouse gas.
Another example is the procedures we have in place to reduce, reuse and recycle waste throughout the company. Flexo Concepts recycles 100% of its manufacturing cardboard waste and has placed blue recycling bins at every desk and in common areas to collect office waste and food packaging. But, in addition to these more “typical” recycling practices, we have installed a central trim collection system in the manufacturing area to consolidate blade material waste. The system consists of a network of pipes from each point of plastic chip generation connected to a centralized suction machine. (As an added benefit, we found the system significantly reduced electricity usage by replacing the use of higher-amperage and landfill-disposable shop vacs at individual workstations.) The waste is then made available to be reused as filler by other industries.
John, explain how this program could be adopted by other companies in the industry.
Any company can install a solar system, LED lighting and recycling bins in their facilities. But our efforts reach beyond the bricks and mortar of our facility to the printing industry as a whole. Our customers choose plastic doctor blades in part because they help reduce their carbon footprint. Producing steel is a highly energy-intensive process that uses up large quantities of fossil fuels and releases a significant amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Producing plastic uses much less energy, emits smaller volumes of greenhouse gases, and has lower transportation requirements due to local sourcing of raw materials and its relatively lighter weight. Plastic blades, such as our TruPoint Orange® doctor blade for the tag and label market, also lasts longer than steel in the press, which results in less start-up waste and fewer order deliveries. We believe, by setting this example, we can inspire other organizations in the industry to turn to their supply chains to source more eco-friendly components.
What is unique about your approach?
Our desire is to not only pursue environmental responsibility for our company but also help our customers achieve their sustainability goals is what makes our approach different. To our knowledge, we are the only global doctor blade manufacturer that uses 100% solar carbon-free energy to power its entire facility and the only blade manufacturer that uses recaptured carbon monoxide as a feedstock in our products.
While every company wants to be able to call itself “green,” we feel we have gone above and beyond to reduce energy dependence, improve efficiency, and recycle and reuse waste across our entire organization. Plastic, as a material, has developed a negative image in society due to a culture of “throwaway living,” its limited recycling and its inability to break down in the environment. As a manufacturer of plastic doctor blades in an industry that primarily uses steel (sometimes referred to as the “most recycled material on the planet”), we are working hard to change this negative image by promoting the “green” benefits of our operations and products.
If a time period in a company’s history can be characterized by a single phrase, 2018 could be called the “year of the export” for Flexo Concepts.
On the verge of wrapping up its 3rd decade of selling overseas, doing business globally is nothing new for our doctor blade manufacturing company. But 2018 has been a year to celebrate. Flexo Concepts received two high profile export awards, won its fifth export grant, and is about to onboard its third international business development manager.
First, Flexo Concepts was named, “2018 Exporter of the Year” for Massachusetts by the U.S. Small Business Administration in April. The very next month, Flexo Concepts was recognized at the national level, receiving the President’s E Award – considered the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making what Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross calls “a significant contribution to the expansion of exports.”
In November, Flexo Concepts received notification that it was awarded funding for the fifth time through the Massachusetts State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) to facilitate long-term export growth. When allocating the grant, the Massachusetts Export Center chooses companies based on their demonstrated commitment to boost exports, create jobs and impact the economy.
And now, the company is adding to its team of overseas sales representatives fully dedicated to international business development and service.
Flexo Concepts understands the importance of having salespeople in the field who understand the regional markets, speak the native languages and are intimately familiar with local cultures and business practices. Soon Arnoud de Jong will join Bernat Ferrete (based in Spain) and Steve Kao (based in Taiwan) in promoting the TruPoint line of doctor blades globally. Arnoud will be based in his home country, the Netherlands, and brings a wide range of strategic capabilities to his new role – a good sense for the European flexo industry, strong marketing background and proficient language skills in his native Dutch, English and German.
The activities of the international business development managers are fortified by support from back home – Flexo Concepts’ headquarters in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The company actively participates in foreign trade associations and regularly exhibits at key trade events around the world. To localize its selling, the company’s marketing department provides translated versions of its sales tools and promotional materials – brochures, installation guides, email campaigns, blogs, white papers, infographics, ads, training documents, etc. – and recently launched Spanish and Chinese versions of its website (with French and German to follow in 2019).
Behind the scenes, developing and executing a successful international business model is a whole-company team effort. From navigating the intricacies of international accounting, to mastering the complexities of shipping and logistics and maintaining compliance with foreign regulations, every department is involved.
But, while “internationalizing” the business has been (and will continue to be) one of our biggest challenges, it will surely also remain one of our biggest rewards. Exports have grown from 17% of revenues in 1991 to over 40% today. We maintain OEM relationships and distribution on every (habitable) continent, and our current customer base spans 50+ countries worldwide. The recognition we have received in 2018 celebrates our efforts over the past 30 years to advance the global flexo printing industry.
As printers, or as suppliers to printers, we obsess in the pursuit of perfection– perhaps in no area with so much focus as on the spectrum of color. The perfect color match, the lowest Delta E, correct ink density and a flawless alignment of parts and plates from station to station. All to deliver the exact hues our customers demand. But there is a different spectrum that is perhaps even more difficult to master, and for which alignment is even more critical: the Cultural Spectrum.
People, and the culture they share, are the true core of our businesses. The owners and leaders of the organization who direct our businesses; the employees designing our packaging, running our presses; the vendors and partners supplying us with the tools we need to get the job done; our audience, the manufacturers buying our packaging—these people are all part of a complex cultural spectrum. Each group has its own standards and expectations, its own motivations, and its own collective personality.
Most people, when asked about their company’s culture, are unlikely to think in terms of this entire spectrum and may miss the opportunity to drive greater success. Seeking to create a culture that recognizes and fosters alignment across all of these interdependent work groups is a challenging path, but one with great rewards. We’d like to share with you the story of how our team identified the elements of its own spectrum, as well as the steps we took to pursue alignment across the spectrum.
Our Culture Journey
Rachel Acevedo and Phil Ryan of Flexo Concepts speak on The Spectrum of Culture at the 2018 FTA Forum.
In 2015, our company, Flexo Concepts, felt a need to work on and improve our culture. But what does that even mean? To us, we wanted to improve employee retention and satisfaction, but really had no idea how to get started. To help us, we engaged a cultural consultant and embarked on a journey so much bigger than just building employee morale. It started with one of those intensive 360° reviews typically done of individuals by persons from every part of their work sphere. For us though, it was a 360° review of our entire business. Customers of all sizes were interviewed to learn the market’s perception of our business. We also went about privately interviewing every single one of our employees—the owners, the guys running our equipment, our accounting team, engineers, customer support—everyone!
The result of this process was not just the most complete view of our business we have ever had. We understood our customers better. We learned firsthand about their perception of our brand, our strengths and our weaknesses and then used a simple Venn diagram to map our capabilities and also those of our competition against the wants and needs of our customers. The areas where our business uniquely supported the customer expectations were defined as our “Points of Distinction” [PODs]. We worked with this information to create a new focus and strategy for the business. For example, one of our PODs is centered around innovation. To grow this strength, we constructed an R&D lab specifically to support application testing and the development of new polymers.
While the PODs gave us a tactical roadmap, we had more work to do to understand and develop our culture. The cultural consultants had helped us to collect and compile information, but for the next 6 months we worked on our own to further grow the concepts. This process was done by way of a biweekly meeting held with the entire management staff. All departments worked together, taking a ground-up approach to write our Vision, Mission and Promise statements. It’s an exercise many organizations go through, but one we took a fanatical approach toward. We had a rule in these meetings that no one was ever to leave in silent disagreement. To say one thing during the meeting, but to act out of synch in the day-to-day would completely undermine the process and would not foster alignment.
People, Trust, Accountability and Performance
Another product of these meetings was a clear definition of our values, organized around four pillars—People, Trust, Accountability and Performance. These values closed the loop of a sort of “corporate operating system,” which we were ready to roll out not just to our organization, but to the rest of the spectrum as well. The efforts to understand and align ourselves to our audience were a good start, but we felt a more holistic approach would be more effective. To achieve this, we did more than work with our own staff; we reached out to our key vendors as well and educated them on our corporate values. We met with them to find common ground in our values and to get them to understand not just our needs, but the needs of our customers. We felt our own transformation would do little good without the support of our partners. Some suppliers got weeded out in the process, but our supply chain is as strong now as it has ever been.
With leadership, employees, and our upstream support network now closely aligned, we had to circle back to the final group: the audience. A strong, progressive and uplifting culture is a great asset for an organization, and we wanted to communicate it to our customers—especially because they had been so key in shaping the changes we made. To do this, we boosted our social media presence, opened our business for employee-led tours and started sharing our story: the day-in-day-out ways our culture shapes our business and our interactions with each customer; the journey of continuous improvement that we want our customers to enjoy and benefit from as much as we have.
After a year and a half of work, we found ourselves with the improved culture we had sought, and it extended beyond the sphere of ourselves and our employees. We feel
our culture and values are bigger than ourselves because our Vision and Mission are bigger than ourselves and they require more than what just the people in our building can provide. We recognize that our aspirations require a big-picture perspective, one aligned across the whole spectrum. It is not an impossible task, and though it is one that never ends, it also is one which never stops paying back. We would encourage any team looking to repeat this work for themselves to ask:
Who is in your Cultural Spectrum?
Does your Culture value what your Spectrum values?
Is your Culture aligned through the Spectrum?
If you attempt to honestly and thoughtfully answer these questions, your own cultural reinvention will have already begun!
Flexo Concepts® wants to bethe world’s most innovative doctor blade company.
How are we going to do it? By creating products, services and a brand experience that inspire.
Products that inspire
We start by crafting superior products and designs.
Our salespeople “have their finger on the pulse” of the industry. They are well-versed in flexography and stay up on market trends. When they report back printers’ needs and challenges, our engineers get right to work.
We partner closely with the world’s most advanced material suppliers and perfect designs in our state-of-the-art doctor blade innovation lab. New blade concepts are subjected to rigorous internal benchmark analysis and then sent out for advanced third-party testing with customers, industry associates, material labs and OEMs before being released to the market. Our premium, solution-based portfolio of innovative products ensures that customers have blades that meet their exact needs. Combinations of materials and tips present a large range of options so that blades can be customized for specific applications.
But we don’t stop there. Our culture of “continuous improvement” compels us to keep moving forward. Whether it’s experimenting with an interesting new material or working tirelessly to perfect the geometry of a new tip, we never rest. The same goes for our manufacturing processes. We regularly invest in new (oftentimes custom) equipment so we can produce our blades swiftly and efficiently while maintaining high standards of quality.
Services that inspire
We make doing business with us easy for our customers so they can focus on their businesses. As trusted advisors, our highly-trained salespeople and customer experience reps help printers find the best solutions, even if it means sometimes recommending a competitor’s product. Wait, what?? It’s true.
Providing support before, during and after each sale is important to us. Our company understands that printers need flexibility from their partners; we pride ourselves on providing quick responses, short lead times, inventory management programs and expedited shipments (even second-day or overnight guaranteed deliveries for those times that receiving blades ASAP is critical!).
A brand experience that inspires
Flexo Concepts wants to be the professor that’s helpful, collaborative and innovative, as well as the uncle who’s friendly, unconventional, guiding and cool. We promise to build meaningful relationships through exceptional experiences. We want our customers to feel comfortable working with us and trust us to have their best interests in mind. Having always been “different” as a niche manufacturer in the industry, we’re comfortable blazing our own trail – trying new things and coming up with unique innovations that set us apart from other doctor blade manufacturers.
Flexo Concepts works hard to consistently deliver products, services and a brand experience that inspire. It’s not just our understanding of the market’s needs, highly-focused R&D efforts, ground-breaking blade technology, sales “consultants” and adaptive support services. It’s also a culture throughout our organization that makes us always try to be better. These are the things that will make us the world’s most innovative doctor blade company.
Today, successful sellers act as trusted advisers to their buyers to help them find the best solutions. By adopting a consultative selling strategy, salespeople create value in the selling process and benefit from better sales results, stronger customer bases and referrals.
What is consultative selling?
Consultative selling is defined as “personal selling in which a salesperson plays the role of a consultant” by www.businessdictionary.com. It’s a sales method where the salesperson gains a solid understanding of the buyer’s challenges before recommending a solution. An important distinction from other methods is that the main objective is helping the prospect find the right solution, not just getting him to “sign on the dotted line.” The key elements of consultative selling fall into four categories: research, relationship, resolution and reward.
Research
Today’s customer is much savvier than in the past and is doing his homework before buying. The explosion of digital media has made it easy for people to access information online and share experiences with each other. The buyer has already explored solutions, competitors, and prices and is well educated by the time a vendor comes calling. The salesperson has to do his research, too, and can take advantage of “lead intelligence” to learn about his prospects and home in on the most qualified leads.
Relationship
The consultative salesperson is an industry expert who “gets it” and wants to help. He continues to learn more about his prospect’s challenges and obstacles by asking open-ended questions to uncover his real motivation for buying. He builds trust by sharing his knowledge without asking for anything in return.
Resolution
If the seller’s products are determined to be a good fit for the buyer, the salesperson presents the customer-specific benefits of his products, figures out the next steps in the purchasing process and establishes a timeline for closing the sale. If it is clear that he can’t meet the buyer’s needs, it is completely acceptable for him to recommend an alternative solution, even if it’s a competitor!
Reward
No matter the outcome, consultative selling results in a valuable experience for both sides. The buyer is able to get advice from an industry expert who helps him understand his obstacles and navigate a solution. By investing time to provide tailored, customized solutions, salespeople will enjoy better closing rates, higher value sales, increased customer retention and referrals.
In the end, consultative selling is about helping prospects find solutions. Salespeople who take the time to fully understand their buyers’ needs and challenges are in the best position to recommend the right solutions. They will be rewarded with satisfied, loyal supporters.
Testing a new doctor blade in your printing operation should be a collaboration with your suppler that boosts performance while avoiding costly guesswork. Instead of randomly ordering samples, follow a systematic, data-driven approach.
Collaborate Start by sharing key details about your press—dimensions, machine model, blade holder type, ink specifics, and any pain points you are experiencing. This information lets your supplier recommend tailored doctor blades rather than generic samples. There are a lot of options in terms of material type, thickness, and edge configuration.
Run Your Trial Your supplier will likely send you one or more blades based on your provided data. Appreciate what these are and take care when testing them. They’re designed for your specific needs and should be used in a controlled production run.
Crawl, Walk, Run
Install and test the blades under normal operating conditions. Consider starting on a single print/coating station if the blade is new to you. Contact your supplier with any questions related to setup or installation and alignment. Clean the blade holder or chamber, using minimal blade pressure.
Provide Feedback
Complete any surveys your supplier has seeking feedback on the sample performance. Record important details and observations made during the testing related to blade longevity, metering quality, and any anomalies. Feedback is especially important if the blade fails as this can help your supplier make alternative recommendations by changing blade material, thickness, or edge configuration.
The Takeaway An iterative, collaborative testing process is more efficient than random sampling. By working closely with your supplier—starting with detailed information, running controlled trials, carefully documenting results, and refining based on feedback—you achieve optimal performance and a long-term printing solution. Embrace this method to streamline your doctor blade selection and keep your press running at peak efficiency.
