President's Column
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Andrew Carey, IADD PresidentThe following President's Columns first appeared in The Cutting Edge, the IADD's monthly magazine:
To view columns from previous issues, chose the issue from the drop-down list below:
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This column first appeared in
the December, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Andrew Carey, IADD President |
| To Our Members and Colleagues, While great strides have been made to reduce our potential losses the last two years, the fact remains we are still losing money as an association. Whatever other goals are made for the two years I will be at the helm, the main one surely has to be bringing the IADD back to a state of profitability. Our main sources of revenue are membership dues and advertising in The Cutting Edge. Thankfully advertising has not dropped much, and the Membership Committee, and especially Bob Pettijohn and Greg Zimmer, have done an amazing job stabilizing our membership numbers and subsequently stemming the bleeding from our bottom line. Changing over The Cutting Edge to a color publication has been a great move, and while not cheap, it has helped us keep our current level of advertising. We are struggling to get enough technical articles for The Cutting Edge and need to keep up the content of the magazine so members will still want to read it and advertisers will still see the viability of advertising in it. We had a very successful Odyssey this May, although we did not make as much money as we would have hoped for. One of the best opportunities to improve our bottom line lies in the 2013 Odyssey show. Making that show a success also has to be one of the main focus areas. Improvements from the 2009 show were pretty much across the board, but the one that stands out the most to me was the participation in the education sessions, which basically doubled. If we could appeal to our membership on every level as well as we seemed to have done with the programming at the Odyssey show in Nashville, we should be all set. And we do need to appeal to our membership on that level to continue to be viable as an association. Many associations have come though this in much worse shape than us, at least we can take some comfort in that. We are struggling with attendance at our chapter meetings, and although not an area that has a great effect on our bottom line, it is somewhat indicative of an overall lack of participation and needs carefully looking into. Are those numbers sending us a message, that we can’t just keep doing the same thing and expect that to work the same as it did over prior years? What do we need to do differently; what do we need to do a better job on? Do we need to modernize the programming, as we did for the San Antonio annual meeting? What is it members want to hear at the chapter level? What can we do to get more new blood involved, to give opportunities to people who would like to have a role, but don’t feel there is a spot for them, or just don’t know? We have gone through quite the staff changeover in the past few months, and while not necessarily for the faint of heart, it also is an opportunity to start fresh and reconsider. Although an opportunity, there will be growing pains, and we all need to help train our new staff members, Nikki and Jenny, and give them what they need to succeed. We are struggling to have much of an impact on our desire to be more of an international association. However, our July executive meeting will be held near Dublin, Ireland, combining the necessary meeting with tours of various converters and diemakers in the area. Hopefully this will be a spark to get us moving in that area. If nothing else, I am sure the local pubs will be glad of the extra business since the recession has certainly been a global one. For most of our members, the IADD is almost exclusively seen through The Cutting Edge and the IADD website. While we’ve done a great job with the new color The Cutting Edge, we’re overdue on a complete overhaul on the website. I think it is time for a more graphical, less textual website that would look more modern and sophisticated. What can we do to help free up the resources to get this done? If we have 700 members, but only 70 at a meeting, the website, The Cutting Edge and the chapters are all critical to our continued success. With a change in leadership every two years, it is easy to change direction more times than a ball in a pinball machine, and I am sure Cindy, our CEO, sometimes feels like that ball. However, I want to work more closely with our new President-Elect Darrel Griffin so that we’re talking about what we both see as important over the next four years, not just two, to maybe bring a bit more stability in that area. Every challenge is an opportunity. Through various mediums like The Cutting Edge, the IADD website, our chapters and, of course, Odyssey, we want to continue to change as needed—the biggest lesson of the last few years—and do what is necessary to bring more to the members, which will indirectly bring more perceived value to the membership and also our bottom line. I look forward to working with all of you, as the goals are not just mine, but ours. Thank you,  Andrew Carey, IADD President andrewcarey@cimexcorp.com |
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This column first appeared in
the November, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, Well it’s been a two-year blur and now my reign—uh, I mean my “term”—is over. It has truly been a wild ride. At the beginning of my presidency, I presented some ambitious goals I had hoped to reach in the next two years. Some I reached, some I didn’t, but I can sincerely tell you that I always did the best I possibly could to serve and represent the IADD. I must also not so humbly admit that I am proud of the job I did, but of course you, the members, have the final say on that issue. I created new watchwords for us; “Commit, Unite and Grow.” We used those words to guide us on our path back from some pretty scary territory. We “committed” to work hard, we “united” in our efforts and we eventually started to “grow” again. We are admittedly not fully secure yet, but we have certainly made good progress toward stability in a day and age where trade associations are lucky to survive, let alone grow. My first goal was to put us back on firm financial ground. Thanks to ample reserves from prior administrations and even more importantly, due to excellent work from our board, our pertinent committees and many of our members, we have managed to stem the tide of financial insecurity and have put ourselves in a fairly healthy financial position going forward. This was no small task. My second priority (and first association love) was membership. I began that focus four years ago as President-Elect, instituting several new programs and initiatives. Then when I became President, Bob Pettijohn took over as our first VP of Membership, greatly expanding and improving on my initial efforts. We did not reach, or even approach, my “crazy,” unrealistic presidential goal of 200 new members, but what we did do was to get back many dropped members, obtain many new members to replace the ones who felt they had to leave due to financial strains on their companies and did a very good job of retaining members overall. I obviously set the bar very high, but considering the average association lost about 35% of its members in the past several years, I think we did phenomenally well. I also sought to increase our presence in the international arena. Toward this aim, my wife Aggie and I hosted the IADD booth at the Bobst Open House in Switzerland during my term. With the help of Peter Witzig, our International VP, we have begun inroads into untapped markets such as India. Although it may be more to the credit of incoming President Andrew Carey, we have also recently agreed on Ireland as a destination for an upcoming meeting. We have a long way to go in this area, but we’ve made a start. Another goal I had was to have a totally “Open Door Policy,” gladly and appreciatively listening to any viewpoint or suggestion a member might want to share with me. I felt this goal was successfully reached, and I was happy to see how many people took advantage of this policy. I was even more pleased that some excellent ideas were brought to my attention and in some cases, implemented. I think one of the most important goals I set for myself was to overcome my fears as to whether or not I could be a good president. I had witnessed firsthand Joe Adkison, Ed Mucci Jr., Clint Medlock and Dan Johnson setting such a high standard as past Presidents, that I knew I would be hard-pressed to even approach their efforts and results. It took some time, but I think I also achieved this goal. I actually used their performances as the incentive to push myself to the very best of my abilities. I had some great memories created in the past two years. There was the joy of being able to present awards to four people whom I not only greatly admire, but also am lucky enough to count as friends. There was the infamous Jim Cincinello, the multi-talented Kevin Koelsch, the hard-working Bob Pettijohn, the posthumous Unsung Achievement Award to John Veres’ family, and the winner of our prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, Ed Mucci Sr. I also had the honor of presenting this year’s PEAK Award to Franco Foppa, who I now refer to as Zio Franco (Uncle Frank). I truly enjoyed presenting these deserving people our IADD awards and recognition. I did make one prediction that didn’t come true in my term. I forecasted that Aggie, my lovely bride, was going to be the first “First Lady” to ever be impeached. I still can’t figure out how she behaved so well for two whole years! I must be a good influence on her. One of the greatest memories I have will be how so many of you were kind enough to follow my suggestion (or command) that I be referred to as “The Emperor of the IADD.” Thanks, I really appreciate being worshipped. In fact, I like it so much, I was thinking about possibly staging a coup and staying on for another twenty years or so. But NO—let’s get Andrew in here with some new blood and new ideas. However, if you insist (and you should) you may continue to call me Emperor. I want to thank each of you that made my reign such a pleasure, but I would be remiss if I did not especially thank Cindy Crouse, our CEO. I can sincerely say Cindy helped me immeasurably, especially when I began to feel overwhelmed by a particular task. Without her, my job as president would have been much more difficult than it actually was. I can’t thank you enough, Cindy. I’d also like to especially thank Joe and Andrew for all their expert help and counsel. Another special thanks goes to my bride, who put up with a lot of listening to my speeches and traveling with me to just about every IADD function. And finally, a huge thank you to the management team of my company, National Steel Rule, who made it possible and comfortable for me to use valuable company time in order to fulfill some of my many IADD obligations. It’s been a great ride and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for having me as your President.  Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the October, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, In real estate, it’s “location, location, location.” In a successful trade association, it’s “membership, membership, membership.” Over the past several years, it has been our focus on retaining current members and seeking new members which has been the core reason we have survived in such a difficult time for trade associations. Now, in order to keep growing and thriving, we really need your help in bringing new members to IADD. We’ve developed an exciting, “everybody wins” approach to finding new members, and we’re inviting you to be an important part of this critical effort. This approach also provides you with a nice benefit to offer your customers: To give your customers the many advantages of membership, to bring more of your customers into an association that you yourself obviously believe in and to do it all with a minimal economic impact to your company, your customers and the IADD. Here’s how it works: You simply create a list of your existing or prospective customers whom you think will benefit most from becoming new members and send it (in Excel format, if possible) to IADD headquarters, along with your letterhead and envelopes. Our staff will remove any current members from the list and create personalized letters using our field-tested copy, which you may customize. The letters will bear your signature and include helpful membership information as attachments. The staff will send as many or as few letters at a time as you request, and the whole process is treated with total confidentiality. In essence, the letter notes that you highly value your IADD membership and feel that they too would greatly benefit from joining. It thanks them for their patronage, and explains that you have arranged for them to receive a 25% discount off their first year’s membership fee, a savings of about $112. A week or two after sending the letters, we would ask you to do some very important follow up. You (and/or another representative from your company) would personally call or email to ask your customers if they’d like to take advantage of your offer and, if you choose, also do a bit of “selling IADD.” This would obviously give you the benefit of a valued customer contact, while truly personalizing your offer and maximizing the chances of success. We have found that this type of contact may also be used effectively as a mini-survey to ask your customers some “how are we doing with your company” questions. From our own field testing, we know that this is a critical and necessary element of the program. If you do not have the time or person power to do this aspect of the program, we can have our membership committee assist you in the effort. However, we have found that companies respond best to people they know personally. The cost to you is minimal: You would be responsible for the postage and 10% of the original membership fee for each customer who joins. That means that for about $47, you could bring in a new member and solidify your relationship with that customer. We would limit the number of members you would pay for to five. After five, there would be no further charge to you. If you do bring in five new members, we would also be willing to offer you a 25% discount off your own membership for the upcoming year. If your program were to be very successful and yield 10 or more new members, we would offer you $250 off your own membership. Are you willing to help in this critical project? Combining our efforts, we believe this approach could be extremely successful. Please contact Membership VP Bob Pettijohn or me, and either of us will be happy to provide more details and get you started on this excellent opportunity to demonstrate your support for your customers and for IADD. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the September, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I am running out of things to write about, so I’ve decided to tell you some miscellaneous (and hopefully, interesting) “tidbits” from my 65+ years of life. Coincidence with a capital “C” When I was 22 I had my first “bachelor” apartment in Yonkers, NY, USA and I kept many things in my ’69 Dodge Charger: a pool cue, baseball bat, glove and cleats, two fishing rods, basketball, sneakers and a bowling ball. Imagine my shock and sorrow when I came down one morning to find my car and all those goodies had been stolen. Now fast forward 25 years and I have a family and live in River Vale, NJ about 30 miles from Yonkers. That Christmas, I receive a bowling ball that I proceed to be fitted for. When I go to pick it up, the pro shop had just closed, so I grabbed the first house ball I could find and was surprised to see it fit me pretty well. I was pleased (and surprised) that the first three balls I rolled were strikes. It was only after the third one that I took a good look at the ball. I swear the following is true; it was the same ball that had been stolen, along with my car, some 25 years before. And my initials, though a bit worn, were clearly visible. I wound up bowling a 244, one of the highest scores of my life. I regret to say that I did not ask for the ball and I’m not sure why. Healing with a capital “H” In my 30s, I had asthma so bad I took up to 14 doses of medication a day to keep it under control. Classical medicine was not helping me and I was getting progressively worse. I wound up in the emergency room three times, needing adrenaline. In desperation, I found a three week long healing program called, “Health for Life” at a yoga community called Kripalu, in Lenox, MA, USA Massachusetts. We ate a macrobiotic/vegetarian diet, fasted (drank only tea, water and vegetable broth) for two days, practiced Yoga and meditation daily, did a lot of self-help/self-awareness programs, exercised daily, learned special breathing techniques, Tai Chi, a lot of group support and therapy, saw a Holistic Physician every day and basically lived a very simple, natural and peaceful life. In just a couple of days, I was off all medication. At the end of the three weeks, I was in the best shape I’d been in since playing college basketball, had lost 18 pounds, dropped my blood pressure about 40 points, dropped my cholesterol by over 100 points and could (very) fast walk two miles in a breeze, Just as importantly, I learned a lot about myself, my environment, my overdependence on classical medicine, the strength of human spirit and the wonderful gifts a more natural life could provide. I don’t think I am exaggerating to say this program either saved my life or at least made it a lot more worth living. What an amazing gift, and how I wish I had done a better job of incorporating all I learned there throughout the rest of my life! Stupid with a capital “S” We’ve all done stupid things in our lives, but I especially remember two youthful incidents that I can honestly say I have no idea how I could have been so utterly and hopelessly stupid. Not sure why I’d want to share these with you, but as I said, I’m running out of things to write. Before I had my license, my best friend Jimmy (who had a license) and I used to “borrow” (some might say “steal”) my father’s car a couple times a week from the place he parked it while he commuted into New York City. We thought we were really smart to disconnect the speedometer and always leave the gas at the same level as it was originally. In hindsight, the first stupid part of this criminal activity was that we never stopped to think what would happen if someone else parked in that spot while we were out joyriding. The second stupid part was never thinking that Dad might come home early one day. We got away with this for several months, but then came that fateful day when we returned, found our parking spot vacant as always (God protects drunks and stupid children) and hitchhiked home, confident that we had once again put one over on dear old Dad. I walked into the house, said, “Hi Mom, Hi Dad” ———Dad! What the heck was he doing here and how did he get home? “UHHH Dad, how come you’re home so early?“ “Well, I wasn’t feeling well, so I came home early.” “But, where’s the car?” I said (Gulp, Gulp). “I felt so lousy, I had Mr. Chrysler drive me home.” And then, I may have imaged it, but I swear he winked at me. That’s one of those times that I thought my Dad was a “pretty cool guy,” for a parent. Years later, we finally discussed how he had known from the first week what Jimmy and I were doing, but because he had done something similar when he was a kid, he decided to let us think we were getting away with it. And stupidity #2- My first car was a ’59 Chevy convertible. Wanting to put the top down, but being too lazy to actually get into the car to start it, I simply reached through the open window, turned the key and watched in horror as the car (which was “in gear”) lurched forward and plowed through our closed garage door. OOOOPS! Proud with a capital “P” Of the many things I take pride in, I think one of the best is the knowledge that several products that I have invented and produced have been and/or are being used throughout the world. That’s a pretty nice feeling. And finally, an IADD Tidbit, or... Rocky with a small “r” Many years ago, at an IADD function in California, on an “off” night, I was at a piano bar (non-alcoholic of course) with Rex Williams, Bob Carter and Bob’ s lovely wife Dorothy (God rest her). When Dorothy attempted to throw a tip into the piano player’s tip bowl, it went across the bar and landed in the lap of a very drunk man, who then said something very foul about Dorothy’s inability to throw well and attributed it to her being a “just a woman.” For those of you who knew Dorothy, what followed would not at all surprise you. She waited a couple of minutes, while surreptitiously building the world’s largest spit ball (including some spent lemons) in her lap, which she then proceeded to deposit, with unerring accuracy and some pretty good velocity, into the drunk’s chest. He looked at her as if he’d been shot. She then said, “Well I’m only a little woman now aren’t I?” He then charged around the bar and I, with the bad luck of being closest to him, stood up to try to talk him out of his apparent desire to do Dorothy some physical harm. To make a long story slightly less long, he took a couple of swings at me, which I thankfully ducked, but when he went into a Karate stance, my deep if not inaccurate fear of his having some sort of Black Belt, drunken or not, caused me to finally swing back. Amazingly, I caught him quite flush on his very hard chin and he went tumbling down, at which point Dorothy jumped on his back, a few of his friends joined in and it really got crazy. Soon after, we were all thrown out. I felt pretty good about standing up for Dorothy, but found out the next day that my one punch had managed to break my hand. So much for my new found “hero” role. The next night at the awards banquet, I was good-naturedly awarded a mouth-guard, practice boxing gloves (too late) and the nickname “Rocky of the IADD.” AHHH the Good Old Days! If any of you have a subject you’d like me to write about, please let me know. As you can see, I’m desperate! Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the August, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, Where you grow up often has a great impact on the person you turn out to be. I believe I am no exception. I came into this world on August 13, 1945, at Queens Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, USA. My family lived in the Flatbush section, at 528 East 43rd Street. My father was away in the Army when I was born and he later joked that it was no coincidence that the Japanese surrendered the day after I was born. We lived in totally identical, brick “row” houses, attached to each other. We all had stone porches and the ever famous “stoops,” where people hung out in front of their houses, especially on those frequent sweltering Brooklyn days. Being first born, I had a bedroom all to myself for the first three years of my life, but when my brother and sister entered the picture, we all shared the one small room. I thought everyone lived like that and certainly never felt that we were “poor” in any way. We had a backyard, but that’s a bit of an overstatement, because it took five minutes to mow the whole thing. One of the things I loved best about Brooklyn, was that my grandmother and grandfather (Nonnie and Boppy) lived around the corner. Nonnie was my favorite person in the world. She could make anything better, no matter how bad it might seem to be. It also didn’t hurt that she worked at Ebinger’s, the best bakery in Brooklyn and always brought me my favorite cakes, cookies and pies. My grandfather was a character right out of “Guys and Dolls.” He was a super sharp dresser (he had three tuxedoes and over 300 ties) an obsessive horse player, a pool shark, a very adept card sharp and really enjoyed a drink or two or three. His nickname was “Sir Ashley.” I got a few traits from him. You can guess which ones. You had to grow up fast in Brooklyn, especially if you were the eighth possible player with a group of seven other boys, all of whom were two to three years older than you. They tolerated me because I rounded out the necessary eight boys that were needed to play an even four on four in games such as stickball, street football, stoopball, punchball, Johnny on the Pony, Ringalevio (I really have no idea how to spell that and I don’t remember anything about it but the name) and various types of box ball played against any open wall. Stickball was my favorite and by the end of my urban career as an eleven year old, I could sometimes hit the ball “two sewers.” We hated cars coming down our street because they interrupted our playing. If anyone ever stopped to ask for directions, our standard response was, “Go to the next traffic light and turn green.” We thought we were hysterical. This was the beginning of my love affair with sports. My best friend was Eddie Rechstein, who was two years older than me and a head and a half taller. We may have been the original Mutt and Jeff. Some of my other friends were Junior Durino (who looked a lot like the “Fonz” and was our neighborhood tough guy/hoodlum), Rich Hochhauser (who looked like Howdy Doody) and the brothers Minerva, Tommy and JoJo (runners up in the tough guy department and the ones who convinced me to steal a few of the “balloons” that they assured me all fathers had in their night tables). I loved all those guys and boy did I learn “street smarts” from them, complete with a real Brooklyn accent. For example, the word “earl” was pronounced “oil” and the word “oil” was pronounced “earl.” Figure that one out. If you had a canine pet, you had a “dawg.” The word “water” was pronounced, “wawter.” My street, 43rd Street, was pronounced “foitytoid” street. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but Brooklynese was one ugly language. It took quite some time for me to lose my accent after we moved. My buddies also taught me the very rough and often foul language of the street and I must say I caught some heavy disciplining when I occasionally slipped and used such language in my home (I apparently slipped a lot). Unfortunately, this trait has not totally left me to this day, especially when I get upset for any reason, real or imagined. I have also find that I sometimes slip back to a bit of my Brooklyn accent when I get overly excited, possibly saying something like, “Dat’s ridiculous.” My “block” was my world. Other than to go to school or do some local shopping, one very rarely left the block. Believe it or not, when we eventually moved to the suburbs after I turned 11, I met two cousins at my new school who had lived literally two blocks from me for eight years in Brooklyn, but who I had never set eyes on, as they had gone to private school. The Flatbush section, a little further south of my neighborhood, got pretty rough in my later years there, with a lot of gangs and gang activities. The most notorious of these was “The Baldies,” and as the name implies, they were all totally bald. One of the things they were known for was beating people up and then shaving their heads, when they were done with them. I am pleased to say I had no run-ins with the Baldies. I had my first taste of “dishonesty” when I took a long bike ride to a well-known park. I left my bike for two minutes to get a drink of water and when I returned, it was gone. I was heart-broken, but I had learned another street lesson and from then on I have always protected my possessions very well. I attended a very progressive public school, where I took unique (for that age) classes such as poetry, Spanish and typing in the 6th grade. I had one of my school poems read on a Brooklyn radio station. The poem wasn’t very good, but it got me even more interested in writing because I enjoyed the notoriety that being on the radio gave me. My poetry teacher, Mrs. Wesp, was very young and very good looking, so I may have tried a bit harder in her class compared to others. This experience also taught me that poetry was a good way to impress girls/women, a lesson I used well in later years. So that’s just a small taste of what it was like growing up in Brooklyn. I loved it and the best lessons I learned were all about being “street smart.” I wouldn’t change those lessons for the world and I think today’s kids who don’t get a chance to develop those kinds of smarts are at a disadvantage. I am proud to say that I brought all my Brooklyn “street smarts” to bear in my job as IADD President. Dat’s right, I did. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the July, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This year’s IADD•FSEA Odyssey was a roaring success by almost every method of measurement, especially considering the continuing difficulties of our US economy. A few facts:
If you didn’t make it to Odyssey, we’d like to share with you some of the many wonderful things that happened there, to try to make sure you won’t miss such a great opportunity the next time it comes around. There was a buzz in the air right from the beginning bell sounding the opening of the exhibit hall. Seemingly put aside (at least for a while) was the economic anxiety that’s been plaguing us all for some time now. There was a sense of optimism that hasn’t been seen for quite a while. Attendees seemed almost greedy to absorb all the latest and greatest that our exhibitors proudly displayed. As always, there was the usual cast of IADD characters who never miss an opportunity to learn or teach, but there were many new faces too; a more than welcome addition and as noted, many of these new faces were from all over the world. I personally met people from China, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, and Mexico, just to name a few of the attending countries. For many, the dollars spent on coming to Odyssey were the first such dollars spent in two or more years. Several people relayed to me how their bosses had initially hesitated to send them, but eventually relented, often because of the belief that the money would be well spent and provide a good return on investment. The Techshop™ and the booths both made it possible for many people to see some of the best new equipment being run and explained at length and, as often happens at Odyssey, many pieces of equipment were sold right off the floor, resulting in good deals for the purchasers and reduced freight costs for the sellers—win/win. The presentations/classes were very well attended and the comments I heard from the attendees were extremely complimentary. We have one of the most generous industries I know when it comes to people donating their time to perform educational services for us all. Speaking of people donating their time, I’d like to personally thank my lovely wife Agnes, for agreeing to help out at the IADD booth—even being there on her birthday. Thanks honey! My company goes to Odyssey for many reasons. Among them is how we get to see old friends we might not otherwise see. This is especially true of our international customers, because as much as many people in our company travel all over the world, we could never visit all the people we’d like to in the over 60 countries we do business in. I met several people we’ve done business with for years, but whom I’ve never met in person until this Odyssey. The Awards Dinner was excellent. Together with our good friends from FSEA, we had over 500 people attend. FSEA gave out their industry awards and I had the honor and privilege of presenting our “Lifetime Achievement Award” to the very deserving, Mr. Ed Mucci Sr. A great time was had by all. Everyone also seemed to fully enjoy Nashville, TN, USA, as our hosting city. Good restaurants, fun honky tonks and nightclubs, western shopping (my wife bought cowboy boots) old down-home southern hospitality and even playoff hockey games—what could be better? So I think you can see this was one very worthwhile “Mega Tradeshow.” Once more we’d like to recognize and thank everyone who was involved in making this the best Odyssey ever, but we’d be remiss if we did not specifically thank our following heroes and heroines: Co-chairs Darrel Griffin and Eric Anderson, Cindy Crouse, Sue Corcoran, Joe Adkison, Dan Johnson, Clint Medlock (Odyssey’s “inventor”) Mark Pierce, Tommy McEwen, Jeff Peterson, and Kym Conis. On special projects were: Michael Barkin, Kim Moravec, Jennifer Thoroe, Eddie Mucci Jr., Bob Avent, Andrew Carey and Bob Pettijohn. BLESS YOU ALL! Again, thanks to all of you who made this Odyssey such a huge success. And if you were one of those people who unfortunately missed Odyssey, please make sure you join us next time. I’ll use my closing to solicit any suggestions you may have for additions or improvements to our Odysseys of the future. As always, your input is invited and most welcome. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the June, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, Despite many prior denials on my part, I reluctantly have to admit that I am now a full-fledged senior citizen. Last August, I turned 65. Some of you may recall that in my presidential acceptance speech, I noted that I was by far the oldest president the IADD has ever had and promised you, my esteemed constituency, to do my best not to expire while in office. Now, approaching the backstretch of my term, chances are looking better and better that I will actually be able to keep that promise. For all you younger people out there, who just might like to get a sense of what it’s like to become a senior citizen, allow me to share with you some of the ups and downs of my “golden” years. It seemed to me that as soon as I turned 65, everyone suddenly began calling me “sir.” Even other seniors. Now I appreciate respect, but there seemed to be something in their tone that was really saying, “Sir Grandpa.” Come to think of it, in a recent basketball game that I was dumb enough to get into with a bunch of youngsters I sometimes work with, the name “Grandpa” came up quite a bit. I’ve been pleased to find that I can still play some decent tennis at 65, but now it always takes me 2-3 days to recover from all the aches and pains that occur each time I play. I also find that bending down (like to pick up a ball) is becoming more and more challenging and painful and is often accompanied by some annoying, creaking sounds in my back. I now get into a car by kind of “backing” into the seat and then turning around to sit. It also takes me twice as long as it used to to get out of a car. If someone’s watching, I struggle to enter and exit in a “younger,” more fluid manner. I actually enjoy eating even more as a senior, as that is the only things that I do as well now as I did in my younger years. I have to admit though that acid indigestion is such an extremely common eating reaction now, that I purchase Tums by the bucket. I’ve gained about six pounds in the last year and though I still wear the same size, it sure is getting pretty tight in some of my clothes. My belts are starting to get that senior look- you know when the belt looks like it can’t go straight around your waist anymore but now kind of drops a little below your beer (in my case, wine) belly? I am now on a diet, but must admit that my idea of a diet is having two plates of pasta instead of three. I hate dieting, big time. According to my doctor, my hearing has recently decreased about 20%. Aggie says my ability to “selectively” hear (especially when she’s talking) has increased by 100%. My last physical reported that my height has shrunk a whole inch. I started to lose some of my hair a long time ago and am somewhat pleased that the loss has pretty much slowed down now. As you get older though it’s curious (and a bit disgusting) to see that you have less hair on your head, but much more hair in your nose and your ears. What’s that about? I hate trimming my ear and nose every couple of days. I was also shocked the first time someone told me that my hair was now grey. When did that happen? I truly believed my hair was still kind of a dirtyish blonde. I notice my memory is getting a lot worse. I sometimes take Gingko Biloba, a supplement for improving memory that many people claim yields great results. I can’t really say for sure, as I keep forgetting to take it. Wrinkles! I used to think that anyone who worried about them was incredibly vain. Well I guess you can call me vain then, because I now have so many wrinkles I have begun to name them. My least favorite, most worrisome ones are, “The Grand Canyon” and “The Ancient Iguana.” I’m still sleeping pretty well, but what’s this new thing about getting up once or twice a night to visit the bathroom? So let’s see now—gained six pounds, shrank one inch, creak when I bend, hard to tie my shoes, extra grey hair in my nose and ears, less grey hair on my head, chronic indigestion, major wrinkling, a total hip replacement (and probably one more to come), a shrinking bladder, partially (if not selectively) deaf and one last one that I forgot—oh yeah, lousy memory. Are you kidding me? I’m falling apart, piece by piece. So that’s just a little taste of what it’s like to enter your Golden (?) Years. However, as they always say, while getting older has its problems, it sure beats the heck out of the alternative. No argument there! Now for my connection to IADD. An effective association must wisely blend the benefits and gifts of old and young. Though admittedly your current president may be a bit “long in the tooth,” possibly an experienced, conservative, ancient leader was what we needed in this recent difficult time. In the future, as we hopefully approach some more secure footing, we will enjoy the additional benefits of two relatively younger presidents in Andrew Carey and Darrel Griffin, who will both bring newer, fresher, more creative and more current ideas to IADD to help us continue on our path to success. And, as in any good blend, let’s continue to provide them with the ideas and experience of our wise old senior citizen members too. I promised you the “ups” and downs of senior citizenship didn’t I? Well there may be a lot more downs overall, but a few of the best “ups” that I can think of are: grandchildren (that you can give back at the end of the day), wisdom (when you can remember it), valuable experience, the great respect that many “elders” earn, and lastly, wonderful lifetime memories (again, when you can remember them). I’d love to hear from you—young, old or in the middle. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the May, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, As my term as your President/Emperor begins to wind down, I wanted to share with you some highlights of the work that has been done (or is being done) by many of our current members, IADD staff and your governing body. Most of the following financial information was provided by Natalie Pepper Taylor, our talented, hard-working Treasurer. Financially, we have had a tough couple of years trying to come up with a budget that would allow us to sustain—and even increase—our value to you, our members, while at the same time, dealing with the severe economic downturn most of us had been facing. Despite our best efforts to trim expenses (examples: we reduced staffing by 25%, eliminated underutilized services, and used electronic publishing), and even after securing new sources of revenues, we were forced to project and operate at a loss. We knowingly dipped into our reserves (IADD has historically put aside significant reserves) so that we could continue to provide you with your usual support and services, at a time when we felt they were needed most. Even after this action, we continue to have viable reserves. Your Finance Committee, Board and staff poured over the numbers and spent hours discussing strategy. The good news is that we outperformed our dire projections over the last two years. We have had to closely monitor our budget and have made some dramatic changes along the way, something that we have not encountered before. Our current budget for the year 2011-2012 still projects a loss (much smaller than originally forecast), but we maintain realistic hope to return to profitability by the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2012. The IADD has long been a financially strong, conservative association. We remain cautiously optimistic that we will return to our normal level of financial stability in the near future. As your President, I would further comment that we are in a much better financial position than most other trade associations right now. The Membership Committee, which began under yours truly some 3-1/2 years ago, continues to thrive and grow. For the past 1-1/2 years, Bob Pettijohn has successfully filled the demanding role of Membership Vice President. Among its many responsibilities and duties, the Committee constantly seeks new members, works on further improvement of our retention efforts and persistently follows up on dropped or lapsed members. We also have a very active mentoring program for all new members that ensure these members are made to feel welcome and advises them of how to take full advantage of our association’s many valuable services and opportunities. A special initiative was recently launched to promote selected “regular” members to upgrade to our Patron Membership level. This has proven to be a very successful effort, resulting in quite a few new Patrons and the associated additional income that is naturally produced. Recently, we have more fully involved all our Chapters in the membership effort and have seen signs that this will be another effective tool. Part of this involvement allows each Chapter to “award” a free membership to a carefully chosen company deemed to have excellent potential for the IADD. In addition, after each Chapter meeting, we contact any attendees who are not current members and ask them to consider joining us. Internationally, new members are being sought through efforts in several countries, with specific attention directed toward India, where some excellent potential has been identified. Internet inquiries have also been coming in at a decent rate. We are also working with USSRD and Associated Pacific Machine Company to create unique programs designed to attract new members from those company’s customer bases. If successful, these efforts will act as models for many other member companies who wish to assist in our membership initiative. In all our local Chapters, activities continue at a fever pitch. Leading many of these efforts are Eric Anderson, ably assisted by our ace staff member, Jill May. Including some of the activities mentioned above, Chapters periodically host exciting and informative technical and social meetings that bring members together for education, camaraderie and plain-old-good-times. Recently, in addition to our monthly Chapter Management Newsletters that are sent to Chapter officers, we have introduced bi-monthly Chapter e-Connections Newsletters, which are sent to all local members and prospects. Jill is working on 2 new templates for Chapter presentations. The role of our Chapters has greatly expanded and increased in importance. We have a lot more dependence on them to help us to continue the growth and health of IADD. Every two years, we relive Clint Medlock’s farsighted vision to have IADD present the best and brightest our industry has to offer in a unique, educational tradeshow format, aptly called Odyssey. The 2011 IADD•FSEA Odyssey—our sixth presentation—exceeded all previous achievements and registration goals. It was the best and most international ever, highlighted by super tech workshops, the latest and greatest in equipment and processes and almost all of the industry’s powerhouse players, either attending or exhibiting. As you might imagine, the work entailed in producing Odyssey is amazing. Spearheaded by planning co-chairs Darrel Griffin and Eric Anderson and supported by Sue Corcoran and Cindy Crouse, the task force also included Joe Adkison, Dan Johnson, Clint Medlock, and Mark Pierce, as well as FSEA’s Tommy McEwen, Jeff Peterson, and Kym Conis. Also assisting the group on special projects were Michael Barkin, Kim Moravec, Jennifer Thoroe, Eddie Mucci Jr., Bob Avent, Andrew Carey, and Bob Pettijohn. A huge and heartfelt THANK YOU/BLESS YOU to all those who put their blood, sweat, and tears into this extraordinary undertaking. After many months of research and investigation, we recently decided to partner with Sentry Insurance in order to make available to our U.S. membership worker’s compensation, property and casualty insurance, at competitive pricing. Several of our members were already using Sentry, so some of our abilities to earn a type of commission fee, have had a “jump-start.” This arrangement with Sentry will provide IADD ongoing income (minimum of $1,500 the first year) and an effective means of attracting and retaining new members. Sentry has also committed to aid us in arenas such as sponsorships, support and providing us with safety and other articles for The Cutting Edge. Our Safety Committee has “refreshed” and reinvigorated our Safety Award system to increase participation and opportunities. We are proud to recognize and reward our member companies’ efforts to create and maintain a safe workplace. We have recently formed a Task Force to help generate or attain content for technical articles for The Cutting Edge. Without such articles, The Cutting Edge would lose a great deal of its credibility and value to our members. So far, the committee consists of Kevin Koelsch, Jim Cincinello and yours truly. We could use some more volunteers and welcome any assistance we can get in creating more technical articles. Please contact me or Cindy, if interested. TechTeam™ continues its efforts to even more effectively elicit members’ questions that can challenge our talented panel of industry experts. A good answer to a tough technical question can often completely pay for the annual cost of an IADD membership. We also continue to offer our TechTeam™ services (at a set charge) to other associations (most notably the Gasket Fabricators Association). We have a Task Force in place to develop an IADD video. This will help us to attain the visibility we need to keep growing. Our multi-talented CEO, Cindy Crouse, continues to energetically lead us under the directions set forth in her new Performance Plan (with a hat tip to Andrew Carey), focusing on our top tier goals of Money (making us financially sound), Odyssey (our IADD showcase) and finally, Membership (the very core of IADD). Together, these three critical goals spell out the ever-loved and most revered, “MOM,” which has become Cindy’s mantra going forward. Our Annual Meeting in Chicago was a big success in every way. Diemaker/diecutter participation grew to 46%, (from our prior average of 30%) we had 19 new attendees, 4 alumni members and a nice round total of 90 attendees overall. A good time (and a well-educated time) was had by all. Most importantly, we actually made a small profit. Our co-locating with Graph Expo brought us some increased visibility and reduced our usual worries about room block attrition and other contractual issues. Co-locating will apparently continue to be a viable option for us to better control our meeting costs. Our International Vice President, Peter Witzig, continues to lead a talented group, whose focus is to create more IADD visibility and new members in the international arena. IADD participated in Bobst’s Competence ‘10 and Rick Putch and Sam Vial are giving us some international exposure in India. We are in touch with an international publisher and may work out ways we can share some resources and opportunities. We have considered possible methods to provide reduced dues structures for less developed countries. We are also currently looking for someone with technical experience and the ability to translate some of our articles from English to Spanish. You can clearly see that IADD is a very active and hard-working association. I firmly believe that we must stay that way, if we are to survive and thrive in these very challenging times. If you would like to help in our efforts, please let Cindy or me know. As always, comments and suggestions are invited and welcomed. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the April, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, There have been many times I have had to “stand up” for myself in my everyday business and personal life. I’d like to share some of the more memorable ones. One of the most difficult and most impactful battles I ever had was my “standing up” to the IRS. About 25 years ago, in the heyday of our company, we were making very strong profits almost every year. Being the ultra-conservative my father always was, he chose to put the majority of the profits we were making into our “retained earnings.” In essence, he chose to “save” most of that money for the future, as opposed to annually distributing most of it (and having the recipients be taxed on those distributions) each year, the way Uncle Sam’s rules usually called for. After about five years of our doing this, the IRS hit us with a huge “excess retained earnings penalty.” This penalty was based on the IRS “rule” that under normal circumstances, a company could only retain X% of its actual earnings, and we had retained in excess of that prescribed percentage. If we were to have paid the called-for penalty, it would have represented our losing over 70% of all the funds we had retained over the past five years. Needless to say, I had heard ad nauseam how hard it was to “win” against the IRS, but losing this “battle” would have caused our company possibly irreparable harm, so I spent the next month researching what legitimate exceptions the IRS classically allowed in regard to retaining earnings. I found out that putting aside additional money for such things as paying for possible acquisitions, buying possibly larger facilities and or purchasing or leasing new equipment, could all potentially be “excepted” or added to the normal percentage of what amounts of money that could normally be retained. I then proceeded to specifically document in writing (backed up, for example, by people we had spoken to in regard to possibly acquiring or who we were trying to purchase equipment from) all the ways that we had been putting aside funds for purposes covered by or falling under those types of “excepted” reasons. I sent my data to the IRS and waited on pins and needles for over two months for their verdict. I was eventually very pleased to learn that my “standing up” to the IRS had resulted in their reducing our penalty from about 65% to 10%. At the time, that reduction would have represented almost all of the profits we had made in the last two years. I often wondered what would have happened to the company if we had simply paid the original fee. More recently, I stood up to my local utility company. They had sent me a commercial bill for over $5000 that I had reason to believe should have been about $2000. After 3 futile phone calls to “managers” with absolutely no positive results and no possible admission of error, I decided to call the local Public Utilities Commission. Literally an hour later, I received a call from the Utility’s head of customer service and after a bit of conversation, she agreed to do a full investigation, which eventually led to a revised bill of $1500 and a sincere apology, especially in regard to the fact that my going through normal channels had achieved no results at all. My opinion is that many organizations actually count on most people actually “giving up” when they’re told the first time that they are in the wrong. Last year at Felidia’s, one of the most famous (and usually one of the best) restaurants in New York City, Aggie and I unfortunately had the meal from hell. Soggy salad, spoiled mozzarella cheese, totally overcooked assorted pastas, following by very undercooked, chicken, lamb and pork. I asked to see the manager and proceeded to calmly describe our culinary misadventure. I would have been OK with a sincere apology and maybe a free desert or a couple of after dinner drinks, but after he explained that they had had some major kitchen problems that night, the manager voiced how really appreciative he was for how we had constructively voiced our issues/problems. He refused to give us a bill of any kind and then bought us after-dinner drinks. P.S. We went back a few months later and had a great meal this time. Recently, my stepdaughter Angela turned her leased car in to Ford and was hit with close to $2000 of charges for things like worn out tires, and “dinged” wheels. It was a severely “bloated” number and both Ford and we knew it. With a joint effort of Aggie and I tag teaming the car maker, we were able to get the fee reduced by about 50%. It didn’t hurt when we explained that Aggie had purchased six Ford products previously. My latest “standing up” was with Medicare/Social Security. I estimate that this “battle” entailed 3+ hours on the phone and maybe 10 emails, but the bottom line was, after a great deal of initial frustration and almost just “giving up,” I wound up finding and dealing with the most efficient, responsive and kind civil service employee I have ever encountered. She actually called me and emailed me on her own time more than once, and with her help, I received a big Medicare discount for the future and an $850 credit for overpayments I had already made that four other “managers” had incorrectly insisted had been properly billed. I am a little embarrassed to note that all my “standing up” examples noted here have had a financial impact or result. I do have others that aren’t financial, but we’ll leave it at this for brevity sake. I strongly believe that we all should better recognize that we have a right to stand up for ourselves (maybe even a responsibility to do so, as often our standing up is also helpful to others) when we are not being treated properly. Like many other things in life, it is certainly very important how you go about “standing up” for yourself. I usually found that I got the best results when I was calm, respectful, persistent and had “done my homework” as to what my rights were, or should be. When we do wisely stand up for ourselves, there is a much better chance of our being fairly dealt with in this world that is not always fair. A special thanks to all those who commented on my “Pet Peeves” column. “Good” or “bad,” comments are always welcomed and encouraged. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the March, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, Have you ever heard of a “competiholic?” No? That’s OK; I just recently made it up, and because I think it’s my word, I now get to create the definition. “Competiholic: a person whose life is utterly dominated and defined by the need to successfully compete.” This is not to be confused with someone you might say something like the following things about: “he/she is a real good competitor,” or “competition brings out the best in him/her.” No, those types of statements could be made about someone who may have a healthy, “normal” outlook on the values and possibly the “fun” of simply competing. In my opinion, a competiholic’s view of competition is borderline or outright “obsessive,” and it is often beyond the competiholic’s ability to effectively control it in their everyday life. For me, competing obsessively began at an early age. I don’t necessarily “blame” my father for this trait he passed on to me, but, believe it or not, it was he who started me on this competiholic path. Together, we played games such as cards, board games (like Monopoly) and various athletic competitions. He occasionally “let” me win, but he constantly extolled the wonderful virtues and rewards of “winning,” and even more adamantly, lectured on the pain and the woes of “losing,” often giving examples. In his mind, anything other than winning was losing. There were no points for second or third place with my father. It was simply win and celebrate or lose and feel the extreme pain that entailed! I have a strong feeling that this was what his very Germanic father taught him. There are some potentially positive aspects of my being taught that winning was the only thing worthwhile when competing in life. I found that I:
Now let’s talk about some of the “dark side,” the negative aspects of being a competiholic:
Seeing and beginning to understand a problem is, of course, essential in dealing with it. I am currently trying to accentuate some of the good aspects of being competitive, while dramatically “toning down” my seeming obsession for winning and or excelling. Please wish me luck, I’ll need it. If any of you fellow IADD members have this trait or deal with it in others, please let me know. Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the February, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, PET PEEVES ... ... we all have them, so, in no particular order, I thought you might like to hear a few of mine:
Greg Zimmer, IADD President greg@zimmerind.com |
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This column first appeared in
the January, 2011 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This column is for all you people who tell me (over and over again) how very lucky I am to be married to my lovely bride, Agnes. After much thought and collection of evidence, I am finally willing to freely, publicly, and even in writing, admit that, yes, I am indeed one very lucky man. However, before I just totally give in to all that pressure, I would like to relate (at great risk to my physical and mental well being) to those very same people some of the “balancing factors” that come along with this exquisite little bundle of Italian energy, or as I bravely (or foolishly) like to call it, “Devil or Angel?” So please, take a good look at some of Aggie’s “devilish” side (from my perspective). She:
But to be fair, let’s now take a look at her “angel” side. She:
So it’s time for me to decide: “Devil or Angel?” Hmmmmm. OK, I clearly see that “Angel” wins hands down, and I once again will freely admit that I am one very lucky man. So now, please, all of you who keep telling me that over and over (Aggie by far being the major one), please stop telling me, I know! Finally, in my sometimes futile attempts to make a connection between my columns and IADD, when I asked Aggie how she felt about my possibly being IADD’s President, she said that if it would keep me out of the house more, she was all for it. Please allow me to end with the observation, while IADD may admittedly have a few warts now and then, we (too) are a great deal more like a prince (or emperor) than a frog—more Angel than Devil. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the December, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I guess you could say I’ve had my share of inventing/idea successes in my career, but when I look back on my 45 or so years in business, I am amazed at how many close calls (nice tries) I have had with huge opportunities that somehow just fell short. This is not “sour grapes” (at least I hope it’s not); I just think it might be interesting to you to hear what happened in my near misses: #1. In 1987, I had asked our engineer to make the smallest notch possible in curved rotary steel rule. As he made it smaller and smaller, I eventually asked him if he thought we could remove the notches totally. He said that would create “wrinkles/crinkles” in the rule that might be objectionable. I asked if there was a possible way to eliminate or control that issue and he devised a way. That work resulted in what we believed was the world’s first “No Notch” curved rule, which we patented in 1988. With all due humility, it was a super product, but it had absolutely minimal success in the marketplace for many, many years. Why, I’m not sure, but believe it or not, people would sometimes say things like, “It’s just too different from what I’m used to.” Fast forward to about 2005, when a couple of manufacturers came up with automatic processors that basically REQUIRED a no notch curved rule. Unfortunately for me, 2005 was also the year the patent ran out. Nice Try! #2. In 1993 I patented a way of making “linerless labels” with microperfs. This method could create labels without the usual carrier sheet (the liner) and some very remarkable advantages. Production costs could be lowered 30% to 50%, shipping costs would be greatly reduced, and the usually non-recyclable liners could be eliminated (a big “green” advantage). INTEREST in the process and the patent was phenomenal. Actual use or related sales in the next few years—a basic, big fat ZERO. Nice Try! #3. A couple of years later though, I got the US Post Office to use the above technology to produce two issues of a linerless US postage linerless stamp with 120 teeth per inch Microperf. Now we we’re talking! Can you imagine how many stamps they were producing back then and that I could be getting a small royalty (possibly 2%) on each and every one? My ship was finally coming in. Sure it was! Why they didn’t at all “promote” the stamp, especially in relation to the reduced cost and the “green” advantage, I don’t know, but they just decided to stop production and never explained it to me. In case this had possibly been one of those “ahead of its time” ideas, I did re-contact the US Post Office recently, but was told the linerless idea for stamps did not fit into their plans at this time, even though they could see the excellent advantages that could be achieved. Nice Try! #4. Soon after that fiasco, the CocaCola™ company asked me to develop a label that could be perforated in such a way as to allow it to be readily peeled off the bottle to reveal a contest on the inside of the label. We worked on this project about 10 months and came up with a new family of super fine microperfs (up to 300 TPI) that perfed their label material beautifully and also happened to fall under the linerless label patent. They LOVED it. A plan is made to run an initial test or two in North America and if all goes well, global usage within 2-3 years. OK, now my ship was definitely coming in. Contracts were made up. I’d receive 2% of the price of all labels made this way. A week before the proposed signing date, the six-person corporate marketing team I had been working with was let go en masse. The project was abandoned! Very possibly, that had something to do with Coke’s marketing flop with their “New Coke.” Remember that one? Another—Nice Try! #5, 6 and 7. The last three “Misses/Nice Tries” I can lump together because in some perverse ways, the jury may still be out on one or more of these products, though all of them have been around for over 10 years. They all “tease” me with occasional super reports and temporary sales blips. #5—MicroNik. A pre-microscopically nicked cutting rule, patented in 1996, is a unique product that seemingly had phenomenal potential. Among many excellent reports, one major converter experienced a 60% increase in press speed and a resultant product edge that looked and felt superior to those provided by any conventional nicking method. Yet sales in over 14 years have been dismal. Nice Try! #6—MicroTrak. A waved up and down family of unique flat and rotary crease rules that greatly reduce or eliminate score cracking, increase sheet control, work well on dark heavy ink lay-downs and increase “foldability,” while still maintaining adequate sheet strength, which can lead to faster folder/gluer speeds. Sounds great, huh? Sales—right next to zippo. Nice Try! #7—100 T MicroTrak. A special version of MicroTrak designed to “cold score” all types of plastic. Replaces costly, time consuming RF (Radio Frequency) scoring. Saves significant time and money. Actually this product is currently in successful use around the world—but product sales? Probably haven’t even covered the R & D costs yet. Nice Try! I’d like to think that all these “Nice Tries” I’ve made, at least prove that I don’t give up very easily and that I keep on trying in spite of my seeming “failures.” I sometimes think that the major ingredient you actually need for success, is just some good old-fashioned “blind luck.” Like the time one of my operators made something “up-side down” and I decided to test it. It went on to become one of our best selling, most profitable products ever. Or when a product we developed for plastic film turned out to be the best foam-cutting rule we’d ever seen and is currently sold globally in reasonable volume. The most important lesson here is simply this, Don’t Ever Give Up—KEEP ON TRYING! Hard work and a bit of luck are an unbeatable combination. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the November, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, The topic of this month’s column is “Kindnesses I Have Known.” In my 65-plus years of living, I have experienced many examples of kindness being shown to me. I’d like to share some of the more memorable ones with you. None of the examples are necessarily earth shattering, but truly show that there are some really kind/good people in this world of ours. In this time of negativity and doubt, I believe we need to recognize and salute such people. When I was 21, I decided to take a 3-week trip to Europe on my own. I went to England, Switzerland and Denmark. I had a very good time overall, but I must admit, it got pretty lonely, especially in places where they didn’t speak much English, like Copenhagen. In a nightclub where I was struggling mightily (and with utter futility) to speak to some pretty Danish ladies, I had the good luck to meet Benny Lundager, a 20-year old student, who spoke perfect English. Benny immediately took me under his wing, introduced me to a wonderful lady who also spoke English, and made sure I had a great time. At the end of the night he invited me to stay at his (his parents’) home for a few days (that turned into a week). I gratefully accepted. His parents spoke no English, but still managed to make me feel totally welcome. His mother went so far as to wash and iron all my clothes (2 weeks’ worth) and put them carefully back in my suitcase. One night I insisted on taking them to dinner. We had 2 bottles of a wonderful wine and superb roast beef for all. My “bill” came to about $20. Think Mr. Lundager picked up part of that check? They even invited me to their summer home for a weekend and when I left from there to go the airport for the flight home, they made a special two-hour trip just to see me off. We all cried as we said good-bye. I will never forget their kindness to me. A more recent kindness shown to me was from Sergio Ballester, a former IADD member from Valencia, Spain. You could call Sergio a direct competitor of mine, but when my wife and I told him we’d be in Valencia, he insisted on taking a day off to show us all around his fair city and to take us to a wonderful seaside lunch. He even arranged to ship back to the US some wonderful statues we bought from the LLadro factory where he had arranged a personal tour for us. I will always be grateful for his wonderful kindness and generosity. Just back in September I had a somewhat similar experience provided by fellow IADD member Fabien Seguinet of the Euracier Company in France. I have known Fabien for years, though we do very little business together. Knowing we were coming to Paris, Fabien checked out several hotels before he recommended a super place (with one of the best restaurants in the city and a “bargain” for Paris) only blocks from his home. The night we arrived, he and his equally gracious partner Daniel Bernier, treated us to a meal that can only be described as heavenly. The next day Fabien took off from work and drove us (about 2 hours) to beautiful Normandy, where his parents have a magnificent and historical chateau. He personally guided us through it and then took us to see the beaches and cemeteries of Normandy and then on to a beautiful seaside lunch. His kindness to us was amazing. I’m seeing a trend here. All these examples are from foreign countries, but here’s an example of a US “Good Samaritan.” Xanadu is a professional magician. When someone unexpectedly cancelled from an appearance at our local youth shelter, Xanadu agreed to give us a discount rate for a last minute performance. From then on, he came another four times to entertain and never charged us a dime. Thank you Xanadu, wherever you are today. Here’s a simple but potent example. Some years ago, in Italy, on a train, Aggie asked a lady of about 80 years old how to get a particular train we needed to find. She said it was a little complicated and decided the only sure way would be for her to get off the train with us and personally take us where we needed to go and then go back to get on her train. I was blown away by her kindness. At the IADD meeting in Switzerland some 3-plus years ago, I was recovering from a hip replacement and wasn’t too capable of handling the suitcases Aggie had somehow overpacked. Fellow “IADDer” Peter Witzig got up at 5:00 in the morning to drive us an hour and a half to the airport so I wouldn’t have to struggle with our baggage on the train as originally planned. Thanks, Peter. That’s a kindness I’ll always remember. OK, here’s one I did. On a highway in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, at about 75 MPH, I saw an apparent pile of rags on the edge of the road. It turned out to be a man. I jammed on the brakes, ran back to where he was and pulled him out of harm’s way as a semi-truck was headed for where he would have been. I waited for some help and it arrived shortly, but when I heard someone say, “who was the idiot that moved this man?” I didn’t feel like explaining that I had probably saved the guy’s life, so I just quietly left. I never did find out how he came to be in the road, but I bet he appreciated my “kindness,” and I must admit, it made me feel really good to do what I did. You might want to notice that three of the people cited in this column were IADD members. The intended point of this column is to show that kindness and/or “good samaritanism,”can be a gift that people give to us, or one that we give to them. So please, when you see it or experience it, PASS IT ON! It’s good for everyone. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the October, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, The topic of this month’s column is “customer service.” A great deal of attention is given to this subject, but I strongly feel that it is an area where many (maybe even most) companies could use some vast improvement. Cases in point: How many customer service departments start you off with talking to an automated system? There’s certainly a place and purpose for these systems, and they may save money (?), but they can never replace speaking to a human being. Have you ever dealt with automated phone systems that frustrate you so much, you wind up hanging up? Or even worse, that wind up hanging up on you? “Press this, press that, if you know your party’s extension, waiting time will be approximately 12 minutes, press 200 for an operator (why not just a “0” like most systems use?), we are at lunch right now, Mr. Smith’s mailbox is full…, please try your call again later, enjoy the music while… (for 5 minutes and then your party can never be found) and on and on. It is absolutely infuriating! Or have you often had to talk to customer service people or telephone operators (I consider operators to be the first wave of customer service and a critical one at that) who make it totally clear that they’d rather be doing almost anything else in the world other than “serving” you, their customer? Who often manage to somehow disconnect you (usually after being on hold for several minutes) and when you call them back, don’t even apologize, or just say it was the “other operator’s” fault? Or who give you wrong or misleading information, when you ask simple questions like requesting a price or a delivery date? I am getting “majorly” (a new word) frustrated just writing this stuff down! OK, so ideally, what would I want from a customer service person dealing with me and what would I also require of my own customer service people regarding how they handle customers?
So maybe I should have entitled this column, “Member and Customer Service?” Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the September, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This month’s column is about volunteers. vol·un·teer \Ivä-len-Itir\ noun a person who freely chooses to do something with no promise of compensation. There are various definitions of the word, “volunteer,” but the one above will certainly suit our purposes for this discussion. So now let’s talk about the people who make the IADD function as it does. Cindy Crouse, 15-year CEO and her two dedicated staff members, Jill May and Mike Vanderspool, are paid employees of the association. They do a super job, day in and day out, are invaluable to the running of IADD, and without them, we could not effectively function as a viable trade association. However, as most of you probably know, a large percentage of our association’s overall work is performed by “VOLUNTEERS.” I capitalized the word to graphically emphasize that without our volunteers, we simply could not exist. I’d further add that not only are our volunteers NOT PAID, they themselves are in essence “paying” for the privilege of doing this “free” work. For example, your 22 board members not only donate their significant time and efforts on our behalf, but they often incur travel and other expenses that they or their company willingly pay for. Other IADD volunteers also pay their own expenses when doing tasks such as putting on a local chapter presentation, or helping to staff an IADD booth at various trade shows or open houses around the country (and in the near future, even in Switzerland), or possibly in writing a technical article for The Cutting Edge magazine. Think about that for a moment—our volunteers are people who are, in a sense, paying for the “privilege” of working for the IADD for free. Why would we possibly deserve that kind of dedication and selflessness? I think one of the major reasons may be as simple as our having created an organization that our members really believe in. Some time ago, we set out to become “the definitive resource for diemaking and diecutting in the world,” and I think most of the people in our industry would agree that we have met that lofty goal. Now we must do whatever is necessary to keep that achievement in place and to continually build on it for further growth and success in the future. This can only be accomplished with the continuing, consistent hard work of all our volunteers. I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our past and present volunteers, who have done so very much to help the IADD become the fine association it is today. However, as with many things nowadays, in our ever-changing world and current economy, our volunteer engine understandably could use some present day “tuning up.” I believe that the first thing we need to do is to try to lessen our over dependence on such a relatively small number of “core” volunteers, our “usual cast of characters.” We need to spread the load much more evenly, and we absolutely need a lot more new blood. When I recently heard one of our most dedicated, hardest working, long time “super volunteers” saying that he was ready to significantly scale back on the time he has consistently spent on IADD for so many years, I had two initial thoughts. The first was, “Well, he sure has earned a break from all those efforts he has made on our behalf over the years,” and my second thought was, “Oh no, who is going to be the person to‘step up’ and fill this invaluable person’s role going forward?” Frankly, I think we may need two or three people to equal this person’s prior efforts, but as I said before, spreading the load is a good thing. There will always be reasons for people to eventually cut back on or even stop their volunteer efforts. That’s why we must constantly replenish our volunteer pool and spread the load. Could you be one of our new volunteers? I have often wondered if some people who might otherwise consider volunteering are looking at and judging the huge efforts some very dedicated volunteers heroically put in and saying to themselves, something like, “I couldn’t begin to work as hard or as long or as expertly as that person obviously does, so I guess I won’t volunteer and risk putting myself in a position where I might be embarrassed by my “results” as compared to those of the “super volunteer.” I actually would have put myself in that category when I was considering whether to run for IADD President. I certainly had very serious doubts whether I could do as good a job or spend as much time as many of our previous presidents obviously had. Thankfully, I was convinced by a few people whose opinions I greatly trusted that it was up to me to simply do the best job I could do and not to try to compare myself to anyone else. I’m glad I listened to them and I would invite anyone considering volunteering to take that same good advice given to me. VOLUNTEERS are the backbone of the IADD. If you’re ready to step up to help, please give me a call or send me an Email. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the August, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, As many of you know, at my coronation, uh, I mean inauguration, I made the very reasonable request that I furthermore and forevermore be addressed as “Emperor of the IADD.” Some of you must have thought I was kidding, because I am still being called many less respectful, highly derogatory, and certainly more hurtful names. I hereby make a royal decree that anyone caught showing such disrespect in the future will be summarily deported and heavily fined (proceeds going to my favorite charity—Emperors Are Us). Now, let’s move on more seriously to my first “State of the Association” address. Looking back at my stated goals when I first took office, the following is a synopsis of what I proposed:
Financial As almost everyone else has over the past couple of years, we have struggled financially. As I have said before, IADD is historically a very conservative association, and we have always put funds aside for those proverbial and predictable “rainy days.” The last couple of years have been Monsoon Season and a part of those funds have been put to good use in relation to those difficult times. For example, in the period of April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010 we had initially projected a loss of approximately $140,000. I am pleased to say that our efforts toward reducing our expenditures and increasing our revenues resulted in trimming that potential loss to approximately $70,000. Obviously, this is still a significant loss, but compared to what it was threatening to be, this was a major accomplishment. By co-locating our midyear meeting in New Orleans with our good friends at FSEA, we were able to create a small financial gain, rather than the significant loss that would have been incurred under our old scenario. Most of the steps we took to become more financially sound will continue to aid us in the near and foreseeable future. We’re not yet “out of the woods,” but we are certainly strongly headed in the right direction. Membership Growth, Retention & Participation During my president-elect period, I initially headed up this major effort and was pleased to eventually be able to hand the reins over to our Vice President of Membership, Bob Pettijohn, who is working very diligently with his excellent committee to keep us on the right path. Membership totals continue to be “down,” but compared to the losses other associations have experienced in recent times, our approximate loss of 6% last year is to be applauded. Most trade associations today have lost between 25-35% of their members. In the last six months, we have made over 1,000 phone calls and almost as many emails in reference to prospecting for new members and getting former members to rejoin. We have employed a mentor program for new members, created a chapter initiative for membership and have done studies of how our current members are using and/or appreciating (or not) their IADD experience. We are working on several very promising approaches to have current members help us recruit new members. All in all, I believe our membership efforts have been excellent, and once the world gets back to normal, the positive effects of these efforts will be remarkable. Once again, I call on all of you to talk to people about joining us. PLEASE! International Activities Circumstances beyond our control delayed the start of our international focus, but our Vice President of International Activities, Peter Witzig, and his worldwide cohorts are now ready, willing and able to tackle the difficult task of getting us more involved globally and specifically to help us recruit new members from this relatively under-tapped source. One of the more recent things Peter put in motion is helping IADD to have booth space at “Competence 10” the upcoming Bobst Open House in Lausanne, Switzerland, September 22-28, 2010. My wife, the Empress Agnes, and I are going to staff the booth all day on the 22nd and 23rd. We could use some staffing help here on the other dates and if you’re interested, please let Cindy or me know. Recruiting Converters This noble goal continues to be in our sights and seemingly eluding our best efforts. Any ideas on how we might improve our efforts in this arena would be appreciated. Open Door Policy As Joe did in his presidency, I want you to know that I am totally and always open and willing to listen to what YOU, our members, want and/or need. Phone, email, and fax—I’d love to hear from you. One wish I have for the future is for me to hear more from all of you. When people tell you their thoughts and ideas, you have a much better picture of what they want from their association and potentially what to do about it. It would also make it a lot easier for me to be a great Emperor, which of course is my main goal in life. My Final Grade for the First ¾ of a Year (as voted on by the Empress and me) With a great deal of phony humility, I give myself an A++. Now, what do you think? Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the July, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I was born in Brooklyn and I’ve lived within an hour of New York City all my life. We go there on a regular basis to see shows or go to great restaurants, but we’d never spent a long weekend or visited it as wide-eyed tourists. So when my wife Aggie suggested we do just that for her birthday in May, I said, “why not?” and proceeded to arrange a Saturday through Tuesday mini-vacation. I found a nice hotel centrally located at 37th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, made reservations at several good restaurants, got tickets for two Broadway shows, and formulated a list of fun things we could do. We arrived at Penn Station and walked to the hotel. It wasn’t fancy, but quite nice and for NYC, reasonably priced (though the “good price” got us a not so good view). Our room was small, but clean and modern. I kept the hotel’s highly touted 20th floor rooftop bar for a later surprise. We quickly unpacked and headed out for lunch. Wandering, we discovered a quaint old-fashioned pub called The Ginger Man on 38th. They had over 60 beers on tap and we enjoyed classic NYC hot pastrami sandwiches on rye that were delicious. Aggie ordered a beer called “Delirium Tremens” (their mascot is a pink elephant), while I found a good house wine; now to walk off lunch. We headed uptown on 5th Ave. We window-shopped, watched three young street dancers who were fantastic, posed for pictures with a person dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and heard a couple of good street musicians. We played our tourist roles to the hilt, even occasionally pausing to look up at the skyscrapers. We saw Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Central Park, and much more. We had walked a couple of miles and were rewarded with painful blisters. Back to the hotel, where we changed (especially the shoes) and walked to 46th St. for an early dinner before our first Broadway show. We had a super meal (especially the steak pizziaola) at a place called Lattanzi and started to walk around the corner to “Lend Me a Tenor,” (with Anthony Lapaglia, Justin Bartha and Tony Shalub), knowing that we were early and discovering that the police had cordoned off the end of the street. This is very common in NY, so we weren’t that concerned and set off to walk around the block. We did that and cut through on Shubert’s Alley and entered our theater. Little did we know that about ½ block from where we sat, there was a car filled with explosives. We were about to become two of the many fortunate people that “survived” the fortunately inept “Time Square Bomber.” I’m very sure that all of us are very thankful he failed Bomb-Making 101. As you may have heard, one of this moron’s many errors was setting the bomb’s timer for 7AM instead of 7PM. Soon after we entered the theater, the entire area was “locked down,” and you couldn’t get in or out. The theater was only about one third full, even though it had been a sold out event. The show was delayed 40-minutes, and we didn’t find out until intermission that a suspicious car was causing all this commotion. When the play ended (it was totally hysterical by the way), we were questioned en masse by NYC Detectives (from the stage) and someone from the audience provided them some helpful information about the car. We were then evacuated single file through a very narrow hallway that passed through another theater and out onto an adjoining street, away from the car. Everyone was very cooperative, but obviously a little “stunned and shaken,” because by now we had heard a lot about the attempted bombing and realized what might have happened if the would-be bomber hadn’t been so apparently inept. We went directly from the theater to our hotel’s rooftop bar, which had breathtaking views of the Empire State Building. In a probably vain attempt to “lighten up” about what happened, I will tell you that, “We had a little more than usual to drink that night, but at least we didn’t get bombed!” Ha Ha! Well the rest of our trip was fantastic (if not as exciting or unnerving), and I’m sorry that the most amusing thing that happened was at the beginning of my tale, but that’s the way it was. The rest would take to long to tell about in detail, so let me just highlight it:
A long weekend in NYC is something to remember forever—and trust me, we will! Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the June, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This month I’d like to share with you a sampling of my experiences as a third generation member of a family business. Hopefully there will be some information here that may prove useful or helpful, especially to the many people in our industry who are involved in any way with family businesses. My family and I are very proud of what we have accomplished in our 90 plus years of operation. A little history: My grandfather, Peter, founded our business as a small machine shop in NYC in the early 1900’s. Peter was a driven man with a huge work ethic and an inventive, creative mind. He soon branched out into the distribution of printing equipment and supplies and became a manufacturer of steel rules. He eventually brought in his three sons to the business—Alfred (the oldest), Edwin (my father), and Conrad (the youngest). Peter passed away in 1957. In his will, he left Alfred 40% of the business, Edwin 30%, and Conrad (who had come in later in life than the other two brothers) 25%. He asked that the brothers eventually equalize the shares between them. That request was never acted on. Before his retirement, Peter made sure that the first two sons, who both began working at the company directly after high school, started totally from the “bottom,” learning everything there was to know about the business. Conrad, as an Annapolis graduate, skipped some of the “bottom” steps and quickly specialized in sales. He eventually became a founding member of IADD and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services. Edwin and Al concentrated on the running of the business and were very successful in their efforts. Unfortunately, there was some ongoing and sometimes disruptive friction between the three brothers, and the unequal shares were certainly a major reason. Despite the friction, the business grew and at its peak employed over 50 people and had sales all over the US and in more than 50 foreign countries. As I was growing up, it was ultimately clear and without doubt that I would enter the family business. There were some vain attempts at having me think I actually had a choice, but I knew in my heart it would really hurt my father if I didn’t follow in his footsteps. I had no problem with this, especially when I realized that the only other profession I ever had any level of interest in was law—and I am thankful now that I never became a lawyer. In 1967, having graduated from RIT with a BS degree in Graphic Arts, I began interviewing for a job outside the family business. I thought it would do me good to get a sense of the “real” or “outside” world before I came into the business, but as fate would have it, our business lost three key people in the span of six months (before and after I graduated) and it was decided that I should jump right in. In hindsight, this was probably a major mistake. I started at a salary about 25% lower than the average graduate of my class. I, like my father and oldest uncle, learned everything from the bottom up and while I never felt “above” doing anything, I questioned in my mind why I would have to spend several months being the company janitor. One thing I do know is that the several employees who remained with us for many years (some even to the point of my becoming vice president many years later) would always remember that there was never anything in the company that I hadn’t already done myself and they seemed to “honor” and respect me for that. About two years later, I began in sales and finally had my salary reasonably increased. I was fairly successful and after several years became sales manager. From this position I also learned about the other facets of management at our company and eventually went on to run our steel rule factory and earn a vice presidency. Fast-forward many years to the point where my uncles had been bought out and it was just my father and I. We didn’t always agree and butted heads quite often. However, by combining his financial and management skills with my creative and “outside the box” thinking, we made an excellent team. The business grew very well, and we were able to expand as well to create a very nice amount of savings and investments that we conservatively put aside for “rainy days” (which did come). Thank goodness for our accountant who figured out an excellent way to have the business left to my brother and sister (who had no interest in joining the company—though both were given five years after graduating to decide) and me. He used a method called recapitalization, which in over-simplified terms, assigned the entire initial value of the company to my father in preferred stock. I was then given the common stock, which was worth basically zero, but represented the future growth of the company. When the company “took off,” the entire growth of it was eventually left to me with very little tax impact. (I’m pretty sure the laws have since changed on recapitalization). My brother and sister were left one third each of the original value of the company when my father passed on. Over the years, through many ups and downs, we have provided employment to hundreds of valued employees and have successfully sold our products throughout the world. I am extremely grateful for the wonderful opportunity I was given to grow into the leadership role of our company, and I am very proud to know that, in our own small way, we were able to make a difference in the industry that we served. Family businesses have long been a vital part of this industry, and I believe they will continue to be, far into the future. I would welcome hearing your own family business experiences, especially in regard to what you might have found to be the greatest challenges or rewards you have encountered. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the May, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This month’s column is about “inventing.” I hope you enjoy it. Inventing for dummies (by a dummy) Believe it or not, I have probably invented well over 100 or more products (and/or ideas to use said products) over my 45 years in business, usually in the field of steel rule. Around 60 of these never saw the light of day or never went further than the idea stage, but many of the others, including several current ones, were introduced and are often being sold and used (in greatly varying quantities) all over the world. I love creating and inventing new products. It is challenging, exciting, unique, and occasionally rewarding (financially and otherwise). I tried to devise a clever acronym to help people who might want to try their hand at inventing, but the best I could come up with was SLICKTER.
Luck. To be brutally honest, several of my best inventions were plain and simple blind-luck, though I would give myself credit for recognizing that the lucky occurrence could actually be used to create something very useful. I’ll give some examples later. Imagine. You can’t make anything that you can’t imagine. Truly unleashing your imagination is an absolute must. Create. After you imagine, you can often create. Enhance. Once something’s created, it may often be improved on, modified or enhanced, possibly after. Testing. Whether simple or complex, testing is the process that often tells us if the idea has merit or promise. Revising. Using the data derived from testing, we can then make single or multiple revisions to our product or idea, hopefully creating an effective final product. Back to Lady Luck. Here are some prime examples. I was out in my factory watching an operator struggling with a product set-up. In a sense, he had put some tooling in upside down and was embarrassingly trying to hide his “mistake” from me. I looked at the resultant “up side down” product and somehow liked what I saw. I cut a piece of it off, took it to be tested for cutting ability, and determined it cut with about 30% less pressure than any serrated rule we had ever seen. I had him run a few hundred feet and sent it to a local diemaker for further testing. I named it “Super Cut” and went on to sell many hundreds of thousands of feet. The operator is still trying to claim credit. Blind luck, but I had to know what I was seeing and what to do with it. Another example: I had invented a serrated product for cutting plastic films and I had it on display at a show. A guy comes over with a hunk of foam, picks up my plastic film blade, cuts his foam like a warm knife through butter and asks how long I’ve had this foam cutting blade. I look at my watch and say “Oh about 15 seconds or so.” Luck! And of course, some good marketing. We sell about $250,000 worth of this type blade every year. You might find it interesting how we made our first Microperf. We struggled for months to no avail before we luckily came up with an idea to take a very fine toothed metal file, carefully placed it on top of a standard cutting edge, and found a way to transfer the file edge pattern to the cutting edge of the rule. It worked, not perfectly, because it wasn’t totally consistent in the transfer. Then we began our revising/enhancing efforts and in a week or so, came up with our very effective, successful Invisible Microperf. We have sold several million dollars worth of this product over a 25-year period. Last “lucky” example: When we were asked to make the smallest possible notch in rotary rule, we kept shrinking it and shrinking it, and at one point making such a small notch I asked our engineer, “Do you think we need notches at all in order to effectively curve the rule?” When he said “maybe not,” I set him to eliminating the notches completely, thus creating “NoNotch” curved rule, which is now widely used in most rotary rule processors around the world. Here is a just partial list of the items or ideas I/we have invented here at Zimmer— with and without some luck:
Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the April, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I may have to tuck away my usually hysterical sense of humor for this column, as this is indeed a serious subject. No panic, no histrionics, no exaggerations, but we need to face the cold hard fact that in the past couple of years, the economy has been the major culprit in giving our membership rolls a pretty hard kick in the pants. Despite a great deal of notable and noble efforts on the part of our Membership Committee and our IADD staff, more members than ever have said they are unable to pay dues at this time. Membership dues are our largest single source of revenue. Without a reasonable level of dues income, we cannot continue to operate effectively. It’s really as simple as that. We, your elected officers and board member and our predecessors long before us, have all recognized the importance of maintaining current members and recruiting new ones in order to continue growing and to replace those members who may leave through normal attrition or for other reasons. However, it has only been in the recent past that we have more than “redoubled” (actually more like “re-octupled”) our prior membership efforts and initiatives. Two plus years ago, we gave our then President-Elect (yours truly) the task and opportunity of heading up a permanent, dedicated Membership Committee. I had the privilege to work with many talented, willing individuals, and we set up many excellent procedures and methods designed to help us keep our current members and to recruit new ones and to always keep membership at the absolute forefront of our IADD mission. Since then, your Board also determined that we needed a Membership Vice President to specifically and solely focus on continuing and expanding our membership efforts. Bob Pettijohn of Mark-Maker was duly elected to this difficult role and a few months ago, the hand-off from myself to Bob, as the new head of membership, was a smooth and seamless one. While Bob and I would both be the first to say that the overall results of some very strong efforts have been very disappointing, we also fully recognize that without those efforts that have been made, the results would have been a great deal worse. The bottom line, though, is very simply this: we have to bring in more revenue, we need to re-engage the companies who have left the association, and we have to convince a lot more companies to join. And that’s where you come in! We need your help! So humor me, if you will. PLEASE! Stop right here for a minute and see if you can think of two non-member companies that you know of that could possibly benefit from IADD. JUST TWO! Even consider your biggest arch competitors. Remember when The Godfather said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer?” If you can, write them down (more than two is OK too). Now we’ll give you a choice. The Platinum Choice is for you to then contact Bob, IADD Staff or me (email addresses at the end of the column) and ask us for our new “Membership Kit,” a short series of “emailable” IADD promotional sheets. Then pick up the phone, call these two companies and briefly tell them how you have benefited from IADD and why you think they would benefit from it also. Then send them each the “kit.” In a week or so, follow up. All told, this should take about an hour or less (especially if you’re so good at it that they say “yes” immediately) Or, the Gold Choice is simply to tell Bob, staff or me the company names you have chosen; and we’ll personally be happy to do the follow-ups (hopefully with a personal introduction from you to each prospect). That would take you less than 15 minutes all told. Another thing that would be helpful, if you know anyone who has dropped membership, please keep on telling them how much we’d like to have them back. Everyone loves to feel needed. We annually offer our “IADD Corporate Leadership Program.” This “sponsorship” program is designed to create income for the association and in exchange, it offers various advantages or benefits to the program participants. This year, in light of the difficult economy, we are making some changes to the levels of participation offered and the benefits that accompany each level. For those company members who may be fortunate enough to be able to repeat their prior levels of sponsorship, we would hope that you choose to do just that. If the level needs to be adjusted downward (or upward for that matter), we would certainly understand. For those companies who have not previously participated, we are creating a ground floor level that will allow participation for as little as $100 and look forward to many new participants. Please see page 24 for details about the Leadership Program. Would you be willing to do one or more of the above to help your association? Here are some of the other steps we are currently taking (or will soon take) to help membership:
Again I ask, are you willing to do your part? Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the March, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I'd like to give you a small sampling of what it's been like for a person of mostly German background (that would be me) to be married for almost three years to a person of 100% PURE Italian heritage (my wife Aggie). I try very hard not to "stereotype" any person or nationality, so I'll apologize in advance if some of what I relate seems to be stereotyping in any way. Maybe I can just say that quite a few of the positive traits I have seen in Aggie and her family, I have also seen in many other wonderful Italians I have come to know. OK, you've heard people kiddingly say things like, "there are two kinds of people in the world, Italians and those who wish they were." The "wishers" are sometimes called "wannabees." Aggie always says that, and she's not kidding. She really and totally believes it, especially about me. Well, I have to admit that I love a lot of things about Italians (and being married to one). Here are a few prime examples: First and always, comes the Family, or la Famiglia. No doubt, no hesitation, total and absolute! Some examples: When I see how Aggie and her four sisters take care of their aging parents, I am in awe and amazement. Her Mom has Alzheimer's, and during the week, each daughter takes daily turns looking after her and their Dad, cooking, cleaning and "nursing," with total grace and without a whimper or complaint. Or you can watch any two of the sisters argue so vehemently that you might expect to see some blows and then in five minutes they have forgotten what it is that they argued about. (If my arguments don't last at least a couple of days, I don't think they are worth having.) Or if anyone in the family says something bad about another family member and "you" (meaning mostly me) are stupid enough to repeat that bad thing, they will tell you it's fine for them to say bad things about each other, but don't you dare let them hear anyone else do it. It's amazing how many times I forget this simple but important "Italian Rule." There are many more examples, but I'll end with this simple one. Italian children (I hope including my lovely young stepdaughter, Angela) are often more likely to stay in their parents' homes as they get into their mid-twenties or even thirties. The oversimplified reason? Their families treat them too well for them to want to leave. The second most important thing in most Italians' lives is eating (actually dining). "Mangia Gregorio, mangia," my mother-in-law constantly implores. Dining is a kind of secondary religion and you must be very devout and practice every single day (and I do). Things like sandwiches, hot dogs and fast food are actually seen as mortal sins! Pasta may have originally come from China, but Italians certainly have perfected it. From corkscrews (fusilli) to elephant ears (oricchiette). From A (angel hair) to Z (Ziti). There is a pasta for every occasion and palate. If any of my new Italian family (especially my father-in-law, Pasquale) doesn't get pasta on a daily (or even twice daily) basis, they have serious withdrawal symptoms (and often intense crankiness). In Pasquale's case, he would even consider temporarily disowning any of his five beautiful daughters if they deprived him of pasta for any more than a few hours. The first time I ate dinner in the in-laws' basement (most Italians I know have a full kitchen and a huge dining table in their basements) I sat down to a bowl of pasta and family-style served meatballs, short ribs and sweet and hot sausages. I ate two big bowls, a salad, dunked a few pieces of super Italian bread, drank some great red wine and sat back totally satisfied and incredibly full. Two minutes later, the six other main courses came out. Not to insult anyone, I managed to eat another two plates-full. I am happy to report that I did not (and could not) eat much dessert (il dolce). Yeah, yeah, so I have gained a few pounds since I got married. What do you think you would have done? Actually, I am almost proud to say that I've gained only six pounds total-only two pounds per year. Closely related to their love of eating, is drinking-mostly wine that is. This too should be routinely practiced (and I do). Several of my new family members make their own wine and grappa (grappa is like a mixture of kerosene and Pepto-Bismol). Homemade wine hits you harder than store bought, so you must drink it with extra caution. Pasquale gets just as mad when he doesn't have his wine, as he does when his pasta is missing. Oh my, I just realized something-I am becoming Pasquale. Oh well, I can live with that. Based on all the above, the next time someone asks me if I am a "religious" person, I will say, "Yes, I am a devout and practicing Wannabee." In closing, we at IADD could possibly learn some good lessons from my Italian friends and family. Let us continue and expand on our own love and appreciation of good food and drink (starting at the IADD Midyear Meeting in New Orleans?) and even more importantly, let us commit to consistently practice the love, respect, cooperation and forgiveness that are so often and so beautifully demonstrated in Italian families (like mine). Ciao for now, "Gregorio Wannabee" Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the February, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, This month’s column will tell you a little about a men’s organization I have belonged to for eleven years. It’s called “The ManKind Project” (MKP). It’s over 25 years old and has more than 40,000 members around the world. What I write here is designed to be a simple description of the kind of accomplishments and powerful influences that a dedicated group of motivated, like-minded people can create. I’d also like to draw a possible parallel between MKP and IADD, in showing what amazing things dynamic groups can accomplish. Through a variety of means, highlighted by a weekend training adventure, “the ManKind Project challenges each man to find and develop his own life’s mission and to live that mission fully, with the support of a powerful network of other men…working to change the world for the better” (quoted from the MKP website). That’s what I like most about MKP; it truly does challenge a man to develop a simple, powerful statement of his own mission. Imagine a global organization convincing a huge group of men to deeply think about (and hopefully commit to) their life’s mission on earth. To me that is an unbelievable accomplishment. My personal mission involves working with children. Please don’t take what I will write here as self-serving, or self-praising, as I simply want to share with you something that is very important to me. I have always been blessed with the ability to easily relate to and get along well with children of all ages. My wife Aggie would tell you that this is because I, too, am still a child (read: spoiled, 64 year old child). Possibly so, (OK, definitely so) but once a month, I get to use this ability to interact with “troubled” (often abandoned) young boys in a New Jersey, state-funded home. I bring two or three other men with me and we put on programs such as teaching how to write poetry or songs, playing board games with them, teaching how to apply for a job, reading Martin Luther King’s speeches on his birthday, recording their own songs or raps, putting on a magic show, teaching how to draw “legal” graffiti, or even getting two former NBA players to put on a basketball clinic. Most importantly, each and every month for nine years, we consistently show up and we “model” for the boys what “good” men do and how “good” men act. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing one of these kids “get” the message we are trying to deliver. That message is, “you are cared for, you really do matter.” Just recently, one of the boys said to me that he would like to do what we do when he becomes a man. What a gift that would be! I can honestly say that if it weren’t for MKP, I probably would not have found this life-changing opportunity to work with these wonderful boys. Now, just imagine our small act of service (only two hours a month) multiplied by—say 40,000 times. Wow! Now that’s some pretty powerful stuff! And believe me, the work we do totally pales in comparison to the work of many other MKP men who are also following their life’s missions. If you would like more information on MKP, just enter “mkp.org” in your browser. There is also an MKP affiliated organization for women called “The Woman Within” which you can find on the Internet too. If you’d like a copy of the “Youth Program” that I developed from our work described above, let me know and I’ll be happy to send it to you. We love to help people set up their own similar programs where they live. I recently read an article about trade associations by Ed Rigsbee in Inside Finishing magazine (see page 20 for article). He wrote that all association members need to become evangelists for their association. “You must bellow it from the rooftops—the value you receive from your membership.” Maybe that’s what I’m doing here for MKP—in describing what we/they do and how great the results can be. Rigsbee implores all association members to get more deeply committed, to increase your participation, to consistently and routinely spend time recruiting new members and to take full advantage of what your association provides to you. To me, his suggestions actually call for our watchwords of, “Commit, Unite and Grow,” so in conclusion, let us gratefully acknowledge that IADD, like MKP, is a group of dedicated, talented, and motivated people whose potential to accomplish is almost unlimited. However, we must commit to energetically multiplying our efforts toward making ourselves the best trade association we can possibly be, and we must acknowledge the need for all of us to come together (unite) and to work together, if we are to remain successful and continue to grow. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the January, 2010 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, I’m told that many converters who are “new to IADD” may read this issue. I’d like to immediately advise you new readers of “offers” that I will make near the end of this column and now hope that you’ll actually read your way there. What follows is a mixture of “tongue in cheek” kidding and dead earnestness. I guess the “tongue” part is to show that I don’t actually take myself too seriously (or pretend to be an authority) and the earnest part is that I believe I may actually write some things in this column that you may want to take to heart. You may of course decide which is which. 2010! Now that has a nice round ring to it. I think we should call 2010, “The Year of the Recovery.” There aren’t many financial experts that are ready to announce that the worst of our economic woes are finally behind us. As a complete non-expert, I’m unburdened by such caution or lack of conviction, and feel totally free to announce, that in my opinion, we are about to embark on a very significant and prolonged period of economic recovery and growth. I think there is something to be said for simply being positive and believing that we are on our way and positively acting accordingly. Now that I have opened the floodgates on spouting my un-asked for, un-educated, possibly un-welcome opinions, I will fearlessly continue by suggesting several actions I believe we should all take, as we enter this recovery. Why should you listen to me, you may rightfully ask? Well you elected me your president didn’t you? And some of you even refer to me as your Emperor (OK, so I asked you to call me Emperor). Let’s pretend that we are a really big country instead of a medium sized trade association and simply trust me as your infallible leader to give you some very good advice. OK? A little hint here. The following pieces of advice are mostly in “earnest.”
Now here’s my offer to any non-member converter who has read this far (God Bless You). Send me an email saying how much you enjoyed my column. For that simple white lie, I will send you a code that will entitle you to ask one free question of our super TechTeam™ panel of experts. That could be invaluable to you. Lastly, if any reader joins IADD within the next month and mentions the codeword “Emperor,” I will custom- write 3 Zimmericks (my world famous limericks) for you and 2 people of your choosing. OK 2010—we’re ready—let’s see what you’ve got! Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in
the December, 2009 issue of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, With all the obvious and justifiable concerns being expressed about today’s economy, you may be wondering how the IADD is faring in comparison to other companies and organizations. Well, the “not so good” news is that we, like almost everyone else I know, have suffered our fair share of financial woes in the past year or so. A piece of very good news is that the IADD has historically been a very conservative organization and we firmly believe in the old adage, “always save for a rainy day.” Therefore, we have a reasonable level of financial reserves that our prior leaders had wisely put aside. Please know that your entire leadership body is fully committed to reversing the current trend of dipping into those hard-earned reserves and we assure you that significant, positive progress is being made in that vein. These steps include: naming finance as the number one priority in the recently drafted Performance Plan of our CEO Cindy Crouse, a thorough examination of all of our expenditures, reduction of IADD staff and other staff expenses, several new membership initiatives, new methods to sell our IADD products and services, re-evaluation of all our meetings and their profitability, continued growth of Odyssey and much, much more. However, additional steps still need to be taken. Our CEO, Cindy Crouse, gave a very inspirational address at our recent Annual Meeting in Savannah (see below). The topic was “Why I Love This Recession.” Cindy spoke of many positive things that can and often do occur as a result of difficult, negative times such as these. This was not your “rose colored glasses,” but rather, it showed what often happens when committed, talented people are faced with negative conditions and challenges. When we do come out of this recession, Cindy and I completely agree that we will be an association that is more effective, even better equipped to listen to its members, leaner, more responsive, more aware, more flexible, more imaginative and creative, and lastly, more stable. The various pains we will have gone through to achieve this turnaround will mostly be gone, but the positive results will remain. So, what can you do to help ensure that we will win this battle? To borrow from an old but still valuable idea, if each of you would commit to reaching out to at least five companies that you feel could benefit from IADD membership, we will supply you with brief “sales kits” that will provide the necessary membership information. We think this could result in some serious new increases in our membership. I have found that most companies professionally approached in this manner are actually very appreciative of someone who brings them the opportunity to receive all the benefits IADD provides. I also offer my personal services and or Bob Pettijohn’s services (as current Membership Vice President) to any of you who might like some help to “close” any company you feel just needs a little “push.” Additionally, if you would consider setting up your sales force and or customer service people with IADD membership information to show your accounts or prospects, we are currently field testing a couple of exciting new methods to do this. If you’re interested further in this approach, please contact me about it. Another excellent, simple way you can help your association is to consider making a gift of either our services or our publications and DVDs to your selected customers/prospects. From as little as <$10 for selected technical publications, up to our Training Guide for Bending Steel Rule at $150, these gifts will be greatly appreciated and very useful. Other items we offer include: an annual subscription to our popular 4-color magazine, The Cutting Edge ($49), industry Safety Manual ($98), a listing in our Used Equipment Marketplace ($15-$75), numerous publications ($10-$112) and assorted DVDs ($$40-$60). We can even arrange for your customer to be able to ask a “free” technical question of our famous TechTeam.™ You may recall from my first column, the three new association watchwords of “Commit, Unite, and Grow” that I put forward. Let’s begin simply with the first watchword, “commit.” As your President, I am willing commit to dealing with these difficult times in a diligent and prudent manner, thereby making the IADD an even more stable organization in the future. Right now, YOU are one of the missing ingredients in our recovery formula. Can I count on your assistance in this difficult time? Please call or email me to discuss this further. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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This column first appeared in the November, 2009 issue
of The Cutting Edge Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
| Dear Friends, Commit, Unite and Grow. I’d like to use my first “President’s Message,” to tell you a little about myself, my “cabinet/support staff” and my plans and goals for IADD under my presidency. To those of you who know me, I ask for your indulgence as I “boringly” repeat things that you already know all too well. I also implore you not to expose any possible exaggerations, or embellishments you may think you see here. A brief history of Greg Zimmer:
Weaknesses (far from a complete list):
Seriously, as I begin my presidency, I am well aware of the very high standards that have been set by our last three presidents: Joe Adkison, Dan Johnson and Eddie Mucci Jr. I salute all our past presidents here, but I am more able to particularly recognize the three most recent presidents because I have had the opportunity and pleasure to know them on a personal level and have seen that they have each set a standard of hard work and accomplishment that will be extremely difficult to approach or match. I can only assure you that I will use their high levels of achievement as a target and a goal and a constant challenge to myself. Employing the new watchwords of “Commit, Unite and Grow,” here are some of the major goals I have for my presidency:
I look forward to being your President. Greg Zimmer, IADD President |
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