At the beginning of October, in Mumbai, Ramu Ramanathan interviewed Venkat Purushotham, general manager and vice president of digital printing, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG). There was a follow-up via email.

Puru, as he is popularly known, started his career as a young entrepreneur in the imaging industry. In Bangalore no less! In the last decade he has headed the project that was originally a joint venture between Kodak and Heidelberg to develop the NexPress digital printing press. A couple of years ago Kodak bought Heidelberg’s 50 per cent share of the project. Still the boss of Nexpress in a somewhat reorganised company, Puru is recognised as one of the premier Asian American business executives in the United States. In 2006, the Asian–American Business Development Center cited Venkat Purushotham as one of its outstanding 50 Asian–Americans in Business.

Ramu Ramanathan : When you read a business magazine, besides half tones and colour reproduction you look for...?

Venkat Purushotham : … insights on the economic trends and how others are coping. As a businessman, I am always interested in global and local economic trends and their implications to my business, my customers’ businesses and my customers’ customers’ businesses.  I also look for best practices in other industries and among other business leaders.

RR : How do you plan your day?

VP : First and foremost, customers always come first in my day-to-day priorities. My days are fairly structured and planned by my assistant as driven by the needs of my business operations. So, in a way my time is largely controlled by the dynamics of my business operations and my customer demands. In this context, I consider my employees as one of my customers.

RR : Marketing Myopia or Marketing Imagination! . . . What is the print industry inclined towards?

VP : The print industry is huge and it is difficult to offer a single characterisation in this regard. I believe that as in all industries there are some who are successful and others that are challenged. Successful printers are driven by Marketing Vision that enables them to transform their printing business into a Marketing Services business with higher growth and profitability.  Printers who are trapped in ‘Marketing Myopia’ are likely to regard this business more as a manufacturing and commodity business, with little or no growth and low profitability.

RR : One person with whom you would like to share your daily drive to office!  Why?

VP : If I have the opportunity I would like to share my daily drive with a customer. Every engagement I have with a customer I learn. Customers help shape my long term vision as well as keep me grounded to today’s reality.

RR : Differentiation is the essence of most things.  What is the best example of differentiation you’ve seen?

VP : Indeed differentiation is key to success especially in business. There are several examples — one of my most favourites is Starbucks coffee. It is very impressive to watch how they transformed the age-old concept of a simple coffee shop into an internationally recognized brand with a cult-like customer loyalty. One not only goes into a Starbucks as if it is their religion, but also pay premium for what is essentially a commodity. Obviously, customers feel that they are getting more than just a hot cup of coffee when they go to Starbucks. It is the total experience, predictability, safety, consistency and to some the image itself. That is ultimate differentiation.

RR : How frequently do you interact with technical product teams at Nexpress / Versamark?  What do you discuss, commonly?

VP : I interact with these teams on a regular basis, of course.  Most of my focus in these interactions is on ‘driving innovation’ to make print process more productive, user-friendly and efficient; to continue to drive the adoption of  NexPress and/or Versamark technologies across a wider range of applications, to improve price/performance ratios and to accelerate our ‘time to market’ speed.

RR : With the fierce competition, high cost of entry and above all — the increasing threat from other media, do you find that traditional ink-on-paper is facing a serious threat to its survival?

VP : Not at all! For centuries ‘ink on paper’ media has been the dominant medium of communication and quite frankly I see this trend continuing for a very long time. However, unlike in the past, print media will need to adapt to today’s ‘internet era.’ To this end print media will continue to evolve to be a more dynamic and effective complement to internet and other electronic media.

RR : Which press does the best printing — according to you?  And why?

VP : That is obvious indeed. It is Kodak NexPress of course.  

RR : No, seriously.

VP : Jokes apart, I honestly believe that several digital presses do a pretty good job of printing. But, what the commercial printer and professional service bureaus need is an integrated digital print solution that consistently produces high quality, on a wide range of paper substrates, with high reliability and uptime. This is where I believe Kodak NexPress and Versamark printing solutions are ‘Best in Class’ by far that offer a blend of quality, versatility and reliability. 

RR : What according to you should be the new tactics in a responsive society?

VP : Speed.  Act with a sense of urgency; offer complete solutions to your customers.  Be aware of instant gratification phenomenon. Consumers are becoming very demanding.

RR : For a working lunch if you meet Johannes Gutenberg, what would you talk to him about?

VP : I would be curious to know, when he invented moveable type if he had visions of dramatically altering human history by democratising the spread of information and knowledge.  I would talk to him about parallels between ‘moveable type’ and the ‘internet’ in the context of mass communications, dissemination of knowledge and levelling the playing field through easy and at times even free information access.

RR : Thank you for your time.