We Need Better Tools --Dickeson

None of these, nor any combination of them, is going to tell us how to price a job—reveal a customer's value perception or what competitors will propose.

In 1977 the Graphic Communications Association published a booklet I wrote entitled "Printrol" that argued the case for shifting our model to Contribution Analysis, assuming direct labor was a variable cost. Now, I realize that direct labor is not a variable cost in printing. We just don't (and can't) lay off our technicians to reduce operating expenses. Skilled people are too hard to find and train; we've invested too much in them and, besides, labor's just too scarce these days.