Okay, I just spent an hour on a conference call with a couple very well meaning young men from the top consulting company in the country (at least one with the top brand). They started by talking about their 'major client' who was evaluating suppliers for Purl campaigns ya-da-ya-da. After a while of rather awkward Q and A on both sides it became clear that these guys were trying to go to school without having done much preparatory research on their own to start with. Can't really blame them. It must be nice to have that calling card. And then it occurred to me... if you really want an education on all things print, the trends, the pioneers, the buzz, and the new technology ..all you need to do in order to get up to speed quickly is to grab about 10-15 of the PDF articles on WTT written by Gail Nickel Kailing, Cary Sherburne, or Barb Pellow or ones on their own websites. Save yourself a cool $100K and skip a meeting with the big name consulting groups. What all three of these people have in common is the ability to convey complex issues in a clear manner, they are on top of their industry, on top of their game and willing to share expertise. Perhaps you or your company will hire them someday for their insights and guidance (you should) but in the meantime you can tap into it for simply for the cost of an ink cartridge. And then you'll be able to put together that 'state of the industry' Powerpoint for that prospect (no plagiarizing please) or maybe just talk your way past your sales manager when he wants to know what's new. A round of applause please for these three oracles of print.
