Dussera 2011 @ Grafica celebrated with festivity

Everyone waits for Dussera as a day to be celebrated with lot of festivity. But I eagerly wait for Dussera to present my company’s progress report to all my employees. I make my presentation one day before Dussera because it’s the day DMI institute was inaugurated. So this makes me remember that big day of my life every year.

On the auspicious occasion of Dussera all employees of my company were in their festive mood to celebrate with lot of enthusiasm on October 5, 2011. The celebration involved performing poojas and prayers in the factory and offices.

As the day neared to Dussera, I sat down to prepare my company’s progress report and pictorial presentation covering various activities, events, exhibitions, new developments, innovations, achievements, etc. highlighting the performance and activities of the company during the year.

Before starting my presentation, I welcomed all the newly joined employees. Also in my two-hour long address, I underlined the philosophy of the company which helps those newly joined employees to understand our aims and objectives. I always believe that its not just the product which sells but it also depends on how one deals with customers and satisfy with prompt after sales.

The focus of my presentation was on: innovation, quality, productivity, customer satisfaction which I consider as the strong foundation of Grafica. I think by being transparent with your employees we can inject a sense of belongingness and confidence in their minds. I make sure that right from Security, Housekeeping, Canteen Staff to Top Level Management and my Core Team are all present during my address.

The motto of the company was made very clear to the employees. I want Grafica to be No.1 Company in the screen printing machinery business. For me No. 1 does not only mean in terms of sales volume only but No. 1 in terms of customer satisfaction. I want Grafica to be the best company in the world as far as customer satisfaction is concerned by providing quality products and technical support.

I dwelled upon my company’s real strengths and opportunities in the market; quick measures required to overcome the various weaknesses and threats in view of the stiff competition in the market. I also revealed about Grafica presence in the market.

Every year we have broken our own records by launching innovative products in screen printing. Last year NANO-PRINT, NANO-SCREEN MAKER 5-in-1 & NANO-SHARPENER and NPL Package. This year we celebrated the success of NANO-PRINT plus and NPL plus Package. Following this we also had two more products to announce NANO-UV 18″ & 24″.

 

Just before Dussera, I was felicitated by BMPA for DMI’s efforts and success in the field of education in screen printing. I felt the award belonged to entire team at DMI. Hence I handed over the memento to DMI team while the entire Grafica family cheered them.

Since Grafica has already started its export to US & EUROPEAN countries it was also important for me to highlight that MADE IN INDIA products are well accepted in the global market.

 

I explained how to be productive and become quality conscious in all areas of operations. I also drew special attention of the employees on specific areas which I feel is more important for every company such as energy saving, minimize use of paper and plastics even in their personal life and the most important aspect was to maintain CLEANLINESS whether its home, factory or public places.

Investing on Education has alway been on the TOP of my list. The proof is DMI… As this is our 6th year and I am proud to announce that we almost trained more than 1200 printing professional through DMI Workshops.

Beginning this year, as a corporate social responsibility, we have also started offering educational support to all our employees’ children by donating complete educational materials comprising of note books, stationery, school bags, uniforms etc. This activity is taken care by Yashomati Dhirubhai Mistry Foundation an initiative of Grafica Flextronica, in memory of my beloved mother. In order to encourage our employees’ children we have also taken initiative by offering financial assistance and scholarships to deserving students. I feel education is an important component next to health.

After education Healthcare of our employees and their family is also been my most important priority, hence we have covered most of our employees under medical insurance.

Because if anyone want to achieve growth make sure that your employees and staff are taken care of their basic needs including their transportation. This also means the company should be responsible to create better and hygienic working environment because don’t forget that large part of our life is spent at our workplace. I don’t hesitate to write that the condition of TOILET & WORKPLACE reflects your companies image.

I also revealed various future plans and developments envisaged for the next financial year 2011-12. At the end, I expressed my gratitude to all team leaders and their team members for taking Grafica to greater heights. While thanking all employees, I emphasized that each and every member of Grafica and DMI family is important and part of company’s growth.

After my presentation there were rewards for best performers from various departments in three groups 5 years and above, 10 years and above and 15 years and above.

My presentation followed by a delicious lunch and enthralling entertainment program which lasted till 6.30 pm.

The entertainment show with over two dozen performances was a big hit and beyond my expectation. I told the employees this was the real reality show wherein employees got a chance to prove his/her hidden skills by performing on stage – be it singing, drama, dance, poetry, drawing, instrumental music, etc. There were huge cash rewards for the most entertaining group and individuals.

         

           

When employees were given a chance to perform on the stage they excelled in their artistic skills. I believe in the same way they can perform extraordinarily if they were given a chance to perform with new responsibility to engage more on innovation and creativity.

I end this note by thanking all my customers, suppliers, friends and well wishers without whom Grafica could not have reached to this success.

Finally, I also have to say good bye as I will be flying to New Orleans for SGIA show as Grafica would display its range of products at Booth No. 2901 with all DMI creative samples. I would be updating on this event with photos so stay connect to my blog to see what’s going around in SGIA 2011.

Just after my return from SGIA, I will have to rush to New Delhi for PAMEX 2011. So if you are visiting Pamex 2011 at Pragati Maidan New Delhi then make sure we meet at Hall No. 3, Stall No. 3072.

Good Luck,

Bhargav

Thanks BMPA for recognising DMI’s efforts and success in screen printing education

Thank you BMPA for recognising DMI’s “efforts” and “success” in screen printing education

At the recent High Point 2011, an annual function of Bombay Master Printers’ Association (BMPA) held on September 30, 2011, I was taken by surprise when I was called on the stage to receive a trophy on behalf of DMI for its “efforts and success” in screen printing education and training.

As the invite sent to me had clearly stated that at this function BMPA would felicitate my friend Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath, for being honored with this year’s ‘Education Award of Excellence’ from Printing Industries of America (PIA). By receiving this honor in US he has not only made India proud but proved that nothing is impossible if you have the will and courage. This man is not only dedicated and devoted but also gifted to our printing industry. If you ever get chance to listen to his lectures or talks do not miss I am sure you will be highly inspired by him…

I felt greatly honored when this award was presented to me from this legend (Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath) who is not only my close friend but also a well wisher of DMI.

I remember well that day when I called him up with the request to inaugurate DMI in 2006, he willingly accepted my invitation without any excuses. Since then I have been more closely associated with him and on several occasions we shared same stage at various industry forums.

When he was at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), as head of the Printing Technology Department, he had invited me to make presentation on advanced screen printing technology which was great honor and I willing accepted and we had a great time in Manipal together for couple of days.

Whenever he visits any printing exhibition he makes it a point to visit my stall and he always spends time to see DMI’s creative print finishing samples. That’s because he is an intelligent academician who knows the importance of each and every printing process. I very well remember what he said after visiting our stall at Print Pack 2011 in New Delhi: “Bhargav, screen printing today is not what it was 6-7 years ago. With the kind of experiments that you are making at your DMI, it appears to me that it has emerged as a printing process to be reckoned with.”

I think this award is also a tribute to my father, late Shri Dhirubhai Mistry, the founder of Grafica group of companies. As a genius in printing technology, he himself was a student of Sir JJ Schools of Applied Arts, Mumbai. It was his vision to set up an institute like DMI to provide full fledged education and training to students in screen printing and make them finest screen printing technologists rather than machine operators. Grafica took up the initiative to make his dream a reality and I will continue with his mission.

Have a nice weekend…

Bhargav

I will miss you Steve

I will miss the genius Steve Jobs.

He changed the game of mobile computing and personal computer.

Although he died with Virus in him but his devices never carried any Viruses as long as he was alive and I am sure his philosophy and ideas will continue in Apple Computers to offer more and more creative hardware and software.

I believe that as far as Apple continues to grow and offer better products Steve Jobs will never die.

To me he is still alive because I use all his products the MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, iPod and all the Softwares

The industry will never get such a visionary man like Steve Jobs for ever.

I can never forget him because I have learn lots of good thing from him

October, 6th 2011 is noted in my diary

Bhargav

Looking forward to see you at SGIA 2011 New Orleans USA

Hi Guys,

Back again after a long gap due to many new and important project that are underway to surprise the screen printing industry shortly. Hhhmmm….

After returning from the FESPA’s General Assembly 2011 which was held this time in Budapest, Hungary I again got chance to meet my Guru Michel Caza and many other industry friends. We had good time exchanging ideas and sharing experiences about screen printing industry scenario.

Budapest is really beautiful city worth visiting. Here are some of the photos of this wonderful place.

Generally when ever I visit anywhere I have a habit to take my Pro DSLR Camera but this time for some reason I could not. So all these photos were taken from my iPhone 4. But when I saw them on my computer screen I was really amazed with its quality even in low light conditions.

PHOTO GALLERY OF BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Ok so now let me now pen down my blog covering some of the past events.

PrintWeek India Awards 2011 update!

And the awards go to… Screen Printer of the Year – Eswara Screen, Chennai

And the Special Award – Grafica’s Nano-Print – goes to an emerging screen printer
Mirror Image, Ahmedabad

My company was exclusive sponsor of the screen printing category. I appreciate all printers who had submitted their entries with a spirit of healthy competition.

SPAI-FESPA Cross Country Table Top Exhibition:

We had successfully participated in a series of SPAI-FESPA Cross-Country Table Top exhibitions (CCTTEs) at various places, recent being in Ahmedabad, Morbi and Rajkot in Gujarat. Earlier, we had earlier participated in similar show at Aurangabad, Pune, Nashik, Surat, Vapi and Baroda. I personally feel that this kind of road shows at regional level will definitely boost the screen printing industry and it will also help local screen printers to learn new ideas and advance technology in screen printing. With the help of this road show my people were able to meet and interact with many screen printers who have still not visited any exhibitions so far. So I personally believe that these kind of regional road shows is a great initiative from SPAI & FESPA. Not only it’s good for printers but also economical for exhibitors to display their products conveniently.

Actually our main focus in all these shows is to educate screen printers about new trends, technologies and applications in screen printing which can help them to get new ideas so that they can implement it in their process and offer creative ideas to their customers locally. Frankly, almost all visitors were thrilled to see our innovative ideas which we demonstrated in print finishing and other packaging products 100% screen printed.

Till now we completed only 9 road shows out of 63 and in each event we distributed 100′s of creative samples which were screen printed in DMI. In fact the total cost of these 9 shows were peanuts if I consider the sampling cost which we distributed every where to all visitors. Each show was planned for 3 to 4 hours and in such short time there were around 150 to 300 foot steps in various regions, according to my team Ahmedabad and Rajkot was better in terms of visitors counts compare to others.

Since it was difficult for me to visit all places so when this show was scheduled in Pune I thought its better to visit and come back in a day since it was close to Mumbai.

Interestingly Ramu of PrintWeek also wanted to visit and have a look so he also joined me from Mumbai and we had a nice time together exchanging ideas of various printing industry. Since his knowledge and information in broadly focused on various printing industry so I got a better chance to interact with him about the Indian printing industry.

PHOTO GALLERY – SPAI_FESPA CROSS COUNTRY TABLE TOP EXHIBITION

Now Over to DMI Workshops:

It makes me really feel happy, charged and proud to conduct houseful workshops repeatedly. This time we have amazing group of creative printers from all over India and few from abroad. Here is the group photo of my July Workshop.

As you see in the photo below I had presented them exclusive 3D Screen Printed Certificates. Participant were overwhelm by receiving this certificate from me.

I am yet to prepare my write about my recent DMI workshop concluded on 22-23-24 September were we screen printed creative table matts and coster on MDF (Wood). I shall reveal all what we did in this workshop. So please bear with me few more days…

The next DMI workshop is now scheduled on 1-2-3 December, so go ahead and register soon. In this workshop there are big news, great surprise and many more exciting offers coming up… So log on to our website regularly and stay updated.

Now Some Exciting News:

SGIA 2011, New Orleans, USA

I feel proud to announce that we might be the first Indian screen printing machine manufacturers to show case wide range of products live at forth coming SGIA Expo 2011 in New Orleans, USA on October 19-21, 2011. If by any chance you are planning to visit this exhibition make sure to meet me at Booth No. 2901.

We shall also display an array of creative print finishing samples and many more UV special effects which were screen printed during my Workshop in DMI.

After exploring our DMI’s creativity in India through various workshops now it’s time I shall explore this idea even in US and the European market.

I also look forward to meet my colleagues at ASPT (Academy of Screen Printing Technology) annual general meeting which is scheduled during SGIA 2011 Expo.

PAMEX 2011: 1-4 November 2011:

There is mega exposition in New Delhi – PAMEX 2011. The event will take place at Pragati Maidain during 1-4 November 2011. My team is busy in fine turning the plans.

Grafica’s will display a wide range of screen printing machines and allied products at stall no.3072, hall no.3. These include: Cylinder Press, a fully automatic screen printing machine with inline UV; Camshell, a heavy duty semi automatic screen printing machine; Nano-Print plus and Nano-Print, UV curing machine along with NPL & NPL plus.

Do not miss to touch and feel large collection of creative print finishing samples produced during various workshops at DMI. So just after my return from US I will have to immediately rush to New Delhi for Pamex. So I really expect to meet all of you soon at Pamex 2011.

3rd Indo-German Conference on Packaging Printing in Mumbai

My friend, Kiran Prayagi informed me that 3rd Indo-German Conference on Packaging Printing is scheduled to be held in Mumbai on 22nd and 23rd November 2011. So i thought it would be great if any one who is really interested to know more about packaging and printing technology should definitely register and learn many great ideas from worlds renowned speakers.

Organised by pmIndia, a joint venture of Institute for Print and Media Technology and Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany and Graphic Arts Technology and Education (GATE), the conference will be addressed by experts from the European and Indian printing industry on the science and technology involved in special applications.

You may contact him directly for more details:
Kiran Prayagi, email: officemumbai@pm-india.in
Or register your seats online CLICK HERE

Grafica @FESPA Mexico 2011



Grafica’s recent participation in FESPA MEXICO (18-19-20 August 2011) turned out to be a great success. So Grafica now makes its presence in MEXICO.

Now signing off at 2.45 at midnight. But before I say good bye. I would like to wish you and your family HAPPY DASERA…

Have a cheerful Navratri weekend…

Bhargav