Episode 321 - From Crash to Clarity
A violent highway pileup changed how a CEO leads—and what he believes about safety, risk, and time. Marcus sits down with Javier Quesada of Kento Digital Printing to unpack how a near-fatal crash became a turning point for his leadership and why he now treats inaction as the most dangerous strategy of all. The conversation moves from personal recovery and gratitude to hard-nosed choices facing corrugated packaging: do you pause and wait out the cycle, or invest in capabilities that create speed, flexibility, and differentiation when the market tightens?
We explore why the corrugated industry’s current downturn is a cycle, not a cliff, and how long-term demand is buoyed by the shift from plastic to paper-based packaging. Javier makes a clear case for digital printing and digital converting as practical tools—shorter runs, rapid changeovers, data-driven workflows—that help plants specialise and stand out when competition is toughest. He shares how to de-risk adoption with small pilots, align teams around purpose, and turn fear into movement. Along the way, we touch on timeless wisdom from Baltasar Gracián: time is the only thing we truly own, so spend it building.
You’ll hear a grounded outlook toward 2026, a fresh take on resilience that avoids empty slogans, and concrete steps leaders can take now: map bottlenecks, integrate MIS with scheduling, tidy prepress, set clear quality gates, and invest in people. If you work in print, packaging, or manufacturing strategy, this story-driven chat will help you weigh caution against momentum and reframe uncertainty as a lever for progress.
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