Peter Sheahan - "Rule The White Spaces"

"no, no, no..its THE Death of the Copier..."

Page Coverage.

In our little industry, one can live or die on the difference between 3% and 8%.  

The white spaces between the toner, Fact and Fiction, Vision and Reality.

Between all those Silo's.

I first saw Peter's presentation online,  from the MPS Conference in Barcelona.

My impressions were, "...who the hell is this guy? A shorter version of T. Robbins only from New Zealand?"

I know, its Australia...and everyone is shorter than Anthony Robbins.

I jest!

Peter's conversation was geared toward innovation, technology and miscalculations.  He talked about how our beliefs and more importantly, how our successful past, holds us back.  He talked about the silo's that keep us separated and how the cracks present the best opportunities.

That's cool.

"...listen, I know about the leopard headband, but that guy is good..."

As a presenter at the 2011 Global MPS Conference I was invited to attend the Presenters Breakfast, this is where I first met Peter.

Over coffee, he was going on about how Alaska Air was reducing prints by giving their pilots iPads loaded with all the Pre-flight check lists and manuals - the estimated cost savings is in the millions.

He also mentioned his visit with Apple and how they are changing the definition of 'textbook' - more DeathOfPrint.

Man-crushes aside, the cheeky lad was informative and entertaining;  Innovation, Collaboration, Technology and Change.

He never once mentioned "scan once, print many', not once. There was, however,a reference to the paperless office. It went something like this, "...what, there will never be a paperless office?  Are you blind AND stupid?!.." - wow.

"Greg Walters? He's right over there, mate..."

He told us a story about how the city leaders of London were calculating the number of horses needed, just before the motor car hit; the demise of the Sony WalkMan and Ruling the White Spaces.

The White Spaces -

Look, if you dare, at your organization.

How many times has the "right hand" not known what the "left hand" was doing?

How many times has your sales department made promises for your service department to deliver?

Has A/R every placed one of your customers on hold, for a $125.00 past due toner invoice, just days before your implementation presentation to the executive board ?

Silo's.  That's what you've got.

Now, turn to your clients and prospects - it's the same for them.

Finance, doesn't talk all that much with purchasing, and you know A/P rarely communicates with all departments.

Silos'. That's what they've got.

Peter talked about making money in the "cracks", that's where the juice is. Good for us. We swim in the glue that flows around all those Silo's - information in the form of documents.

Sure, your clients' A/P department may not talk to Sales, but they BOTH move information.  Correct, executive management may never get down to the dock, but shipping documentation is printed almost as often as financial spreadsheets.

Documents, information, CONTENT surrounds all those silo's and nobody knows more about that kind of juice than us.

We sail the white space with your assessment.  From department to department, across the void, you get a bearing on the entire organization from the inside.  A great vantage point.

You see how data and information move within the organization.  The bottlenecks, the redundancies, and the blind spots.  All we need to do is recognize what's right in front of us.

Make money in the cracks?  Bridge the gaps between columns? Yeah, we already do that.

The next step, your big role, is that of Collaborator...

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