It’s that time of year when I seem to spend every waking hour with my nose buried in a giant spreadsheet.

Yes, the PrintWeek Top 500 is imminent. Its compilation involves mixed emotions, as well as eye strain.

It’s exciting to see the progress being made by some of the industry’s best-run companies, of all shapes and sizes.

It’s alarming, when looking at some of the numbers in brackets for those firms where things are either not going to plan, or they simply have the wrong plan.

It’s saddening, to go through the process of striking off some of the industry’s failures.

It’s also illuminating.

If there is one key takeaway from this project it is that print bosses must, must, MUST make sure that either they, or a trusted FD or equivalent, have an absolute handle on the numbers.

And with that, I must return to my spreadsheet.