West McDonald, Print Audit
It is almost all an office equipment dealership can handle in tending to the day-to-day operations—dealing with staff, customers, vendors, suppliers…doing everything that’s necessary to keep the lights on and the venture profitable. After all, how many of us have the time, patience and foresight to plot out a vision of what the future may hold, especially when the violent tides of technological change can quickly wash away many a well-intended five-year business plan?
Fortunately, our industry boasts a small cadre of forward-thinkers who invest a considerable amount of their time and energies in staying ahead of the business trends and devising tomorrow’s tools for growth. One would be hard-pressed to find a more relevant example than West McDonald, the vice president of business development for Print Audit.
McDonald relishes devising strategies that can enable dealers to make money in new and more profitable ways, especially as printing usage continues to decline with each passing year, making the sole reliance on page revenues a dicey proposition. His near-future strategies for growth are intended to produce a meaningful impact on dealers’ bottom lines within a two- to five-year period.
“I’ve been lucky enough to get ahead of some of the trends affecting our industry and I love nothing more than finding ways to monetize them,” McDonald observed. “My customers, the dealers in the office equipment industry, have to worry about the day-to-day of running their businesses and that can make it hard for them to steer the ship in new directions, even if it’s essential. My approach is to build the business models and required ecosystems that they’ll need to evolve as well as doing the hard work with dealers to make it all a reality. When I see that the status quo isn’t working anymore, it motivates me to take action.”
McDonald has first-hand experience on status quo erosion. He had been working in the internet and data center world when the dotcom bubble burst (or “dot-BOMB” as he calls it), and the explosion left him in search of other tech-related career paths. The office equipment industry, as career opportunities go, didn’t exactly scream “high tech.”
“The office equipment industry was the furthest thing from my mind,” McDonald admitted. “Toner and printers? How pedestrian! Or so I thought. Once I found out there was a software angle and saw the concept of managed print…well, the rest is history.”
McDonald has been fortunate to cultivate a pair of office technology senseis: John MacInnes of Print Audit and his seat based billing (SBB) partner in crime, Luke Goldberg of Clover Imaging Group. He characterizes them as born entrepreneurs and fearless business leaders. MacInnes has provided a holistic, top-down perspective on the art of managed print assessments and MPS sales. During the last four years, MacInnes has taught McDonald a great deal about strategic planning and tying it to real business outcomes, and has encouraged McDonald’s “save the office industry” initiatives.
McDonald and Goldberg, of course, are inextricably linked to the SBB movement, often teamed as speakers at industry events, including the SBB Road Show. “Luke looked at the business case for the model and moved quickly to provide an essential wholesale element to the SBB ecosystem,” McDonald said. “I’ve known Luke for many years and he has taught me that when an idea is right, when the time is right, you move forward with no excuses.”
McDonald abides by the mantra that it’s not the things you do in life that will haunt you in old age, but rather the things you failed to do at all. Suffice to say, he has lived by that philosophy, and SBB is an example of an idea that has the traction to make dealers more successful. He’s heartened by the emails and phone calls from clients who have embraced the model and enjoyed success with SBB. Creation is an incredible thing, he says, but it wouldn’t be possible without the belief and commitment of the dealer community.
Emboldened by Print Audit’s acquisition of NeoStream Technologies, McDonald promises a push in 2018 toward helping dealers monetize documents, regardless of whether they’re printed. Another powder keg idea revolves around the launch of a new user management platform, slated for next year.
“2017 was a good year for seeing the SBB model lead to new business for dealers,” he said. “In 2018, I’ll need to roll up my sleeves and do the hard work of making those early successes scale.”
When it comes to his professional endeavors, McDonald is elated to have a supportive and enthusiastic champion in his wife, Lesley. She’s encouraged him to be happy first and successful second, which has been a catalyst for many of his initiatives, which come with equal parts of risk and reward. The McDonalds and their children enjoy life on Lake Erie, where he gets to indulge in fishing for bass, walleye and perch.
“There are many mornings in the summer when I put my kayak in the water at 5 a.m. and come home by 7 a.m. with fish for dinner,” McDonald said. “As lifestyles go, I’m not complaining.”
The McDonalds can also be found attending Comic-cons, where they all dress up as a character. McDonald dons the claws and plays Wolverine, which is only natural given his uncanny resemblance to the X-Men character.
“The family that geeks together, stays together,” McDonald joked.
