HOF 05 Greatness Surrounds Greatness -- Roy Grossman

By Erik Cagle

Senior Editor

A championship sports team, more often than not, boasts a superstar. But the best teams also have a roster of many strong, solid players to complement the centerpiece athlete.

Without a doubt, Sandy Alexander President and CEO Roy Grossman is considered among the finest leaders in the commercial printing industry. He has been front and center on causes aimed at the integrity and sustainability of the printing art, boasts a laundry list of industry association activities, and has won awards for the contributions to his craft and business. Grossman is a man who truly cares about the industry and its people.

But what enhances the effectiveness of the 2005 Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame inductee is the lineup that surrounds him at Sandy Alexander. Their individual areas of expertise help to make for a brain trust that gives the combination web and sheetfed printer an edge in its New York metro marketplace.

"The key to success is surrounding yourself with people who possess more skills than you have," says Grossman. "My job is to provide leadership and guidance—which I think I do very well—only because I have the people who have the talent to execute. There is no single CEO today, in any business, who can possibly know enough to have the final word in all aspects of the business.

"Mostly, I take the recommendations of people that I trust, because they're in a much better position than I am to know if what they're recommending makes sense."

Grossman was born to be a printer. His grandfather founded Laurel Printing in 1917, and the leadership baton was passed along to Bernard Grossman, Roy's father. One of Roy's earliest memories of working at Laurel was as a 9-year-old, banding product for what he thought was Laurel's largest customer. He made $5 for working the entire day and felt pretty good about his contribution—until someone slipped and he learned that the product was actually bound for the dumpster.

When he became a teenager, Grossman was allowed to work in the shipping department at Laurel. "I would do menial tasks, usually in the finishing area, because it was where I could get into the least trouble," he jokes. "But I loved walking around the plant, loved the smell of ink and liked talking to the pressmen."

Grossman earned a BA degree from Bucknell University, where he pledged Phi Kappa Psi, was heavily involved in community service and, for a time, pondered a future in law. College, he believes, is the best time to grow personally and intellectually, as opposed to merely being a vocational vehicle.

Upon leaving Bucknell, Grossman made another healthy decision by going to work for Procter & Gamble, in sales management. His brother, Carl—currently the president and CEO of Applied Printing Technologies in Moonachie, NJ—also opted not to go into the family business after college. Their father felt it best that they get their feet wet elsewhere.

Into the Real World

"I was really dealing with the end product that my family business manufactured, which was essentially sales collateral materials," Grossman says. "While I didn't know anything about printing when I got into the business, I knew a hell of a lot about what happened with the products we did print, which was very useful in helping me build up sales and relate to marketing and purchasing people at prospective customers."

While Grossman enjoyed his Procter & Gamble experience, the lure of an entrepreneurial career with his family was too strong to pass up. From 1977 until 1991, he served as a vice chairman of Laurel Printing. After Laurel merged with another area printer to become Americom, it joined Sandy Alexander—the last of eight family businesses to comprise the printer. Grossman came on board as vice president of sales.

"What makes Sandy (Alexander) so special and unique is that, although the commercial printer reached a pretty significant size, it always maintained a family oriented, entrepreneurial spirit," he points out. "It's unusual that you can have all of those cultures come together and work so well."

The company continued to grow with the acquisition of Modern Graphic Arts in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL, area, part of a quest to widen its scope to the national level. It entailed setting up satellite offices around the country, including in cities such as Dallas, Detroit and Chicago. Today, roughly a third of Sandy Alexander's sales—$45 million worth—comes from clientele outside of the New Jersey/New York area.

Grossman himself has made quite an impact on his customer base. If Charlie Blecker, senior production manager for the marketing services department at Pepsi, could pick one person with which to make a handshake deal, it would be Grossman. When there are "hiccups" with jobs, Blecker notes, Grossman always strives to find a solution.

"Roy definitely delivers on whatever he promises," he remarks. "He's the most professional person I've ever met in the industry and he's a good man."

Blecker recalls a particularly challenging job Sandy Alexander performed for Pepsi back in the mid-1990s, which turned into a marathon print run. Grossman was there to guide the way.

"Roy took everything to heart and would get involved, personally, to pull off such a job," he says.

George Barsa, vice president of corporate purchasing for Estee Lauder, finds Grossman to be a "bright man with a great sense of humor, charismatic, and a warm and friendly person." The pair have known each other for 15 years, but the admiration goes beyond friendship.

"Without question, Roy is good at breaking it down for you and ironing things out," Barsa says.

Grossman feels the industry has forced him to become far more disciplined personally, as the graphic arts business became more sophisticated and alternatives to print became more threatening. And with the billowing cost of technology and growing capital-intensive requirements, Grossman finds himself being very cautious with capex investments—doing his homework, researching the equipment and ensuring that the choices made are wise ones.

Not that Grossman purchased presses and other machinery with impunity in the past, but clearly, the stakes are raised. "Twenty years ago, if you bought a press and it turned out not to be an ideal decision, you were going to survive the mistake," he says. "That's not necessarily the case today. The sale is so much more sophisticated today; we've gone from selling jobs to selling clients and solutions. That's a completely different paradigm than how we grew up in this business."

In the end, however, Grossman feels it is all about dealing with people and creating a positive working atmosphere, one in which Sandy Alexander employees want to come to work every day. Taking care of employees, he feels, is as vital as handling clients properly.

Grossman is a bit of a crusader for printing causes. He is co-chairman of The Print Council—of which Sandy Alexander is a founding member—a national initiative to promote the greater use of print. He's a former director and chairman of the Association of Graphic Communications (AGC), the New York metro PIA/GATF affiliate. His sister, Susie Greenwood, is the current president of AGC.

He was the recipient of the 2005 AGC Power of Communications award for printing and the 2002 Florence B. & Leo H. Joachim Award for outstanding contribution to the printing industry.

"One thing we have to do in our industry is fight for our share, and we haven't done a good job of that," he says. "Our enemy is no longer each other. It's telling the story of print; print has a great story to tell."

Roy and Robin Grossman have been married 25 years and have two children, Eric and Gillian. An avid tennis player, Grossman is also a fine wine connoisseur and loves adding Italian, Spanish and domestic reds to his cellar. And while he enjoys traveling and counts an African safari family vacation as among the most memorable, "I just like to go with the family someplace where we can all veg out together in a nice, quiet spot in the Caribbean."