Booster dose for a fresh printing life

Watching the gardener doing his thing that morning, water gushing out of the hose as he gave the plants the daily needed hydration, various form of insect flying out under the water in a bit of choreographed motion as though they were all trying to attack this intruder who honestly was trying to ensure those plants keep living. Even humans no longer understand fully what’s needed to keep life going, to better put it, if some disruption in the ecosystem comes in there is a panic that some lives will be lost before we can even figure out how to survive… Panic is real and has become a taker of life.

So, apart from the plants a host of inhabitants take solace in various place of their habitation, which has become if you like a place of safety and comfort for them. The other day at home I heard an unusual sound from the submersible pump, in this difficult season my first inner thought was “nothing should spoil o, money no dey”, then the engineer in me opened the lid, very involuntarily thought to inspect what was causing the sound, I was jolted by this ugly looking frog that jumped out. Indeed there seems to be life in very unusual places. So really anywhere we turn to there is a tendency that life exists. Be it in the forest, grassland, tundra or desert, animals, humans, plants and even the micro organisms that we can’t see with our naked eye, in fact there are evidence of a wide range of other organisms all termed living things because they answer to an Ecosystem – that is, a geographic area where all this organisms as well as their landscaping and weather all work together to form a bubble of life. The link of the various components are through a wide range of nutrient cycle and flow of energy. This is the secret behind any industry that strives, they have developed a business ecosystem, my aim is to use biology to jolt us back to the realization that all of the printing value chain must be in sync with the right attitude and environment for their individual and interdependent growth.

I always like to use the movie industry as an example when I talk about the printing industry because they are both powered by the photosynthesis of an energy flow of creativity, the more creative we get in both industries the more business life we can easily and affordably generate.

The environment is an important factor, by regulation government does a lot in making sure the water ways, the land and atmosphere (which are the 3 major environments in an ecosystem) are kept pollution free and protected. Government will do this by enforcing regulations like; planting trees, don’t cut trees indiscriminately, reduce or gradually stopping the use of plastic as they end up on our waters and affect aquatic life negatively, we all need the energy flow of vitamin A, B, D as well as omega 3 fatty acids that comes from sea foods. We can never under play the role of government, structure and regulation in any industry ecosystem and the printing industry must not be left out. In our case however we need government to do more in providing infrastructures (electricity, good road and rail system for a super flow of raw materials, goods and services), on our part in the meantime we must make regulations easier by complying and extensive knowledge of how to remain professional.

All ecosystems require energy from an external source, in our case our ecosystem also requires the energy of major funding and investors to jump start and power our business and how to consistently sustain this external source must be uppermost in our to do list. The printer then feeds on this energy inputs to get started as the producer to roll out various end products (magazine, newspaper, fabric, signage’s, labels or packaging, wall or interior decoration, and so on and so forth). To the loop is the consumer of the product and the ecosystem must ensure constant consumption otherwise what’s the use of producing when there is no one to consume?

After the products are consumed to make up the ecosystem we must think of how to strengthen the decomposer. The decomposer in our case are recyclers, they can turn our waste products to money. Meanwhile, this is a big part that we are not yet focusing on. The world trend is sustainability and the use of plastic and not easy to decompose products are being discouraged. This will be a story for another day.

Then we complete the cycle by considering and ensuring the availability of inorganic matter, in an ecosystem this are things like air, water, rock, metal and soil, simile to printing this are raw materials – paper, inks, consumables, technology – machinery, support etc and all what producers use to get their job done effectively.

It is our responsibility however to ensure a continuation of life and one of the ways is to reduce our corporate stress by putting organizing in place, imagine we jump out of a train station, you are trying to get the next means of transportation with 1,999 other people and taxis, buses, underground trains, pick up areas are not properly assigned and marked, I know it’s the confusion that ends up building tremendous stress on each one in this kind of scenario. So the importance of landscaping, properly defining the various sector in our own case, by so doing there will be enough for everyone and in a structured manner.

It was like a story that will interest the poets, on that sunny day when the drama of two ironical scenarios played itself before me, pushing a baby on her trolley, she walked majestically in front of a gentle guy that was also pushing an elderly woman that obviously looks like his mum, because of the resemblance, she was on a wheelchair. All that came to your humble observer mind was that “Those who have energy now will work to sustain those who don’t because life has a way of reversing this trend such that those who have energy now will depend on other’s energy later on in life”. This point is to stress and emphasize the importance of building a whole new generation, this enhances and insulates our printing ecosystem and brings a form of adaptability that comes with the spirit of the new age. One generation drove analogue, and another will drive digital, meanwhile another or a combination of generations will together drive hybrid, yet a new generation will emerge to drive what we even don’t know that is coming…

God forbid that we extinguish a specie that gives spice, beauty and difference to
the ecosystem only because we don’t care for the vulnerable among us.

A generation is indeed gasping for life!