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MHC INTERVIEW
Positioned for Growth: How Print Service Providers Win in a Changing Market

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MHC Host
Sharon Jones Malloch, Head of Content Marketing at MHC

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Guests
Lois Ritarossi, President, High Rock Strategies 

July 28th, 2025

Print and mail organizations are facing real pressure — from labor shortages and rising risk to growing expectations around speed and scalability. At the same time, AI and workflow automation are opening new opportunities to work smarter. The question isn’t whether to change, but where to focus first.

In this Expert Insights conversation, Lois Riterossi, President of High Rock Strategies, shares practical advice on assessing gaps, aligning teams, choosing the right investments, and putting governance around AI. She explains why what worked in the past won’t be enough for the next three to five years — and why disciplined execution matters more than one-time initiatives.

Whether evaluating workflow changes, exploring AI, or refining how teams support customers, the decisions providers make today will shape their competitive position tomorrow. Future readiness is built through disciplined execution — not one-time initiatives.

In this video, you’ll learn: 

  • The top operational pressures impacting print service providers today 
  • How workflow optimization supports scalability and risk mitigation 
  • The importance of governance and AI 
  • Why internal alignment and strategic planning are critical before investing in new technology

Key Takeaways

  • Market expectations are shifting — print service providers must evolve proactively.
  • Labor, risk, and workforce constraints are reshaping operational priorities.
  • Workflow automation enables scalability while reducing production risk.
  • Internal assessment should guide where to invest and why.
  • AI adoption must be intentional, with governance and clear direction.
  • Strategic alignment — internally and with partners — enables sustainable growth.

Meet the Host and Guests

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HOST
Sharon Jones Malloch
MHC Head of Content Marketing

Sharon leads content marketing at MHC, overseeing strategies that fuel sales and demand generation. With more than a decade of experience in customer communications, Sharon brings deep insight into customer pain points, industry trends, and the critical role of solutions in managing regulatory communications. Before joining MHC, she honed her marketing expertise at Doxim, Messagepoint, and OpenText.

GUEST
Lois Ritarossi
President, High Rock Strategies 

Lois Ritarossi is a certified management consultant, and the President of High Rock Strategies, an independent management consulting firm focused on sales and marketing strategies, and business growth for firms in the print, mail, communications and B2B sectors. Lois brings her clients a cross functional skill set and strategic thinking, with disciplines in business strategy, sales process, sales training, marketing, software implementation, inkjet transformation and workflow optimization.

Want to Read Instead of Watching the Video?

Below is the complete transcript from this Expert Insights session. Use the accordion sections to expand and explore the discussion in detail. 

Introduction

Sharon: Hi everyone. I’m Sharon Malloch from MHC and I’m here with Lois Ritarossi, the President of High Rock Strategies, which is a management consulting firm specializing in print, mail and publishing.

Lois, thank you for being here today and sharing your expert insights on the CCM market. I know you’ve worked in the industry for over 30 years helping clients large and small improve how they sell, how they operate, how they adopt and optimize technology in their operations. And I know this experience gives you a unique perspective on today’s challenges, which I’m eager to hear.

So why don’t you begin by telling us about your journey and what led you to your current role at High Rock Strategies?

Lois: Great. Thanks Sharon. Yes, I’d be happy to.

I started my career in magazine publishing and quickly moved into roles at financial services companies in the Boston area, working both in marketing and operations. That led me into sales, which I feel is my passion.

I’ve been in many different types of sales roles in my career. I sold direct marketing and fulfillment services, and I worked for a large transactional service bureau when digital print technologies were really changing and evolving, and the CCM space was really changing how brand and marketing people looked at communications.

From there, I actually owned a database marketing company, and my clients were large financial services companies. We did very complex publishing with both traditional offset and digital technologies. I sold my interest in that company in 2005 and jumped into consulting. As technologies were changing in both workflow and print technologies, I’ve leveraged my cross-functional skill set to really help my clients look at strategies for growth, whether sales, marketing, or operational in nature. I’ve been on the consulting side for 20 years.

Lois:

My passion is making a difference for my clients, and my focus is really to help clients figure out strategic paths for growth. Whether its what they need to look at from a technology perspective or creating alignment around their teams — what has gotten them to success in 2025 is not going to be the same things that will require success in the next 3 to 5 years.

So I’m passionate about really helping teams see the why they need to change and what are effective strategies to get there.

Lois:

So I think the top three issues are really around labor and hiring, risk mitigation in their company — risk comes from lots of sources — and leveraging AI so that they can make better decisions. So those are the three top areas.

Workflow automation is a strong consideration in terms of making the right investments that allow them to deal with labor, scalability, and mitigating risk in their production environments. We are seeing that leveraging AI is the topic of the year, both last year and this year, and AI is really impacting so many areas of business. Companies need to figure out how they can make better decisions and where to take advantage of the different types of AI tools.

Lois:

My recommendations usually come in three big categories. First is to do an internal assessment to figure out where you have gaps, where there might be threats. Second is to make the right investments and align around a strategic plan. So you need both internal alignment and alignment with strategic partners.

I often make recommendations to my clients across all categories to really look at their strategic partners and figure out what new technologies will allow them to achieve their goals and allow their teams to be more effective.

In terms of AI, the big thing is governance. How can your teams define paths — technical, HR, sales, marketing, and production? AI is impacting all of those various areas of business, and having governance and defined rules so that employees can really be effective and leverage data to make more and better decisions that really impact their organizations.

There was a great quote from a Harvard Business School professor who said “AI won’t replace humans but humans who use AI will replace those who don’t”. And I see large organizations that really need to figure out the correct and appropriate strategies around protecting data and protecting employees but leveraging tools that can allow them to be more effective in their communications and in their business.

Lois:

One comment that has stuck with me is a comment by Gina Armada, the CEO of MHC, who I met at a conference last fall. In one of her sessions around AI and AI enablement, she shared: think big, start small, and act now.

And I have embraced that as a concept and I’ve shared it with other clients who may seem overwhelmed in these dynamic times we’re all living in. The reality is companies need to change and adapt and we really do need to leverage AI so that we can see the path forward and get to better opportunities for growth.

Sharon: Yes, and I know High Rock Strategies is here to help. MHC is here to help. Thank you again Lois for your insights. It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today.

Lois: Thank you.

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