Competition, Color Proofing and Chrome Guide

In those old days ('60-70), we at R& D considered 3M or Enco as our major competition.     On the other hand our sales department friends always reminded us that the real competitions are not these producing products but the local dealers handling them.       We were basically direct sales organization selling only Polychrome produchets.         Local dealers tended to carry more than one line of products so that they did not bad mouth the product or the producer of products they carry.   Since they invariably did not carry Polychrome products and often felt threatened by our aggressive sales force and the pricing, they were quick to point out our deficiencies.        I was shown at one of the customer visits in New York how well 3M was doing with their  Colorkey color proofing film product and we had no product to compete with.        Enco was also starting to experiment with film overlay color proofing system.          So I was determined to come up with an alternative,         My objective was to use the same pigment used in printing ink to simulate actual printed matters.       Unfortunately I did not have enough knowledge of pigment dispersion handling and therefore had difficult time coming up with a product.      I was able to demonstrate an overlay color proofing system using dyes but did not consider it to be a viable product.      It was Simon Chu who said why not test it in the market place, perhaps there are market for it and thus the "Chrome Guide" was born.      By then in addition to 3M Colorkey, Enco was promoting ColorGuide (also with dyes)  so this made the third system in the market and Polychrome direct sales force had something to talk about regarding off press colorproofing.          This product required delicate handling of thin polyester film, dust free coating area and good cosmetic coating appearance.            Unfortunately we did not have coating machine to meet such  requirement so that initially we approached K&E coating facility to toll coat the product.       As the product expanded we found a requirement for various "flat" colors and the toll coating of numerous colors and sizes became unmanageable.         Since the off press color film was limited essentially to 20x24 inch size, we have converted a pilot coater to produce Chrome Guide internally in Yonkers R&D and the production there lasted several years.          I may have spoken too quickly at one of the management meeting to review Chrome Guide to kill the project.       I was concerned that the dry peel apart overlay system announced by Du Pont will kill any wet chemistry system.        I was too naive to think a new and  good  technology will kill the old technology quickly.        It did not and their proofing system died in relatively short time.           In addition, I may have been tired of daily production, quality control, trouble shooting, etc. pressure; I was eager to move on to newer R&D challenge.            If I knew what I know today that the Chrome Guide had a good profit margin and that we only scratched market surface, I could have proposed someone to manage the business outside of R&D and continue the project.         We were, however, small and were more interested in technology than profit then.