Page 41 - Print21 magazine Sep-Oct 2022

Print People
Back to cutting edge
Once again he was experiencing the cutting edge of disruptive technology in the shift from analogue to digital proofing, from Cromalin chemical proofs to mainly Epson inkjet. DES became the power player in the sector, experiencing unprecedented expansion and growth.
“The saying at the time was digital proofing would only be good enough when pigs flew. Well, they flew. We did a lot of good business.”
At the height of the proofing transition DES was servicing 800- 900 customers across Australia. It was a very good business. At times there was a five-fold increase year on year. Ongoing consumables, ink and substrates, were a lucrative ‘tail’.
People matter
In those years Cavenagh found
travel for work to be the hardest
part of the job. He had 20 plus sales people across the country and in NZ, managing them, meeting targets
and making sure the right people were in the right position. Here he realised another of his skills is in people management. “There was a lot of travel and a lot of work, probably the hardest I’ve worked in some respects. When you’ve got 20 sales people that means 20 different types of egos. With sales people, you have
to mentor them, because it’s not just a numbers business.
At this time he also refined the ethical business philosophy that
has since determined his career. He says, “I like to think that in pressure situations my pulse goes down, not up. I’m pretty level headed and I guess that’s experience. None of us are getting out of here alive and I’d rather do ethical business. I don’t want a situation where I get to the end of my working career and think
I shafted everyone I worked with.
I'd rather think I did a lot of good business that benefited me, and benefited the people I worked with whether they’re clients or employees.”
In 2016, Starleaton bought
DES and unknowingly triggered Cavenagh’s next move. He is philosophical about the reasons
for having to leave. He says, “They were both successful businesses in two different sectors – signage and graphic arts, and I greatly respect what they [Starleaton] were trying to achieve. But sometimes, when there’s a major structural change, you have to evaluate your options and take the path that feels right for you.”
Enter Cavenagh-‘San’
He worked out his contract for three months with Starleaton then left, taking a European holiday with his family. On his return to Sydney, he joined Mutoh Australia as general manager. Mutoh is a first rank Japanese technology manufacturer, specialising in wide format printers, and proud that all its products are still hand built in Japan in its own factories. Intensely focused on engineering quality, its products have a reputation of reliability. Its technologies include eco-solvent, dye-sublimation and UV LED printers that reach across many sectors, from signage, fabric printing and promotional products.
Two years after joining, Cavenagh was appointed as the first non- Japanese managing director of
the company, a rare opportunity
in the local industry, and a sure sign of trust and acceptance from headquarters in Tokyo.
“It’s a question of the company trusting that they’ve got the right structures in place for honest, ethical, business. Japanese companies operate with what they call the ‘window person’. And that person is the window to all the parts within the business. It’s understandable, because you don’t want to be dealing
with five different people with different levels of interpretation.
Timing is everything. Cavenagh stepped into the managing director’s role three months before the market and the world came crashing down with Covid-19 at the end of 2019. It was a situation that required all his experience in change management.
“I inherited a collapsing market
and had to get the chainsaw out to make sure everything was OK. It
was like stepping off a precipice. We kept all the staff. I focused on the expense budget because revenue just evaporated, as it did for most people. There’s an old saying it’s easy to run a business that’s growing but when your revenue evaporates, it’s hard to get your expenses down quickly enough.”
At the time he joined, it’s fair to say, Mutoh, which enjoys a number one ranking in many sectors around the world, had failed to develop
a significant profile in the local market, but now he’s in a position to tick off the success achieved.
“We’re now in the top two to four in every sector where we compete. When I joined, what I saw was a quality product that had been under represented. The strength I could bring was to represent the product better, develop the dealer channel, and bring my years of experience.
“We expected it to be a slow process, but within 12 months, pretty much everything coming in the door was digital.”
“Channel structure is really important to us. You want engaged channel partners. With channel partners you have to stand beside them. You can’t just push and pull; you have to be in the game together. There are issues that arise from time to time and they have to be resolved. And if they get resolved quickly and customers are happy, then the channel partners will
want to continue doing business with you. If they sell your product, make a reasonable return and their customers are happy, they’ll want to do it again.
“To me, business is pretty straight forward. There is no magic bullet. Keep it simple. You give them what they want, when they want it, at
the price they agreed to. There is no more magic to it than that.”
For Russell Cavenagh that seemingly simple business philosophy is the result of a lifetime of experience. 21
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