Printnation.com--Inside, Looking Out

PI: You say the industry will be different in 2005. As someone who has witnessed a great deal of changes in the industry, what do you believe we can expect?

Steinhardt: When I began work with the GCA in the early 1980s, we worked with a wide range of printer and supplier companies. If someone had told me then what is now happening in the industry, I would have said they were crazy. Could anyone have had the foresight to predict the transformation of the supplier community? Witness how once-select giants such as 3M, DuPont and Kodak have given way to the broad spectrum of suppliers and resellers that we have today. Although this shifting of the channel is relatively new to the printing industry, I believe we are about five years behind other industries.