The world according to Cram.

• Author: Stewart, William B.
• Position: George F. Cram Company of Indianapolis

Despite their devastating fury, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other destructive natural phenomena have made only minor scratches in the Earth's 57.29 million square miles of land during the past quarter century. But keeping pace with worldly changes wrought by the hand of man--and the whims of a fluctuating market for cartographic products--has been an earth-shaking experience for the George F. Cram Company of Indianapolis.

"Virtually everything has changed," says Cram President William L. Douthit of his 25 years in the mapmaking business. In 1963, Cram sold more than 85 percent of its products to schools. Today, commercial sales represent almost half of the company's business. But the sales force, which calls on 140,000 schools throughout the United States and Canada, has almost doubled during the same period. Cram's total business has tripled since 1983, and Douthit says last year's sales were nearly 30 percent higher than in 1987.

"Our growth has really been dramatic during the past several years," he says. "The school market has been especially strong, and 1989 will be another good year."

Douthit calls Cram's major new product introduction of 1988--a primary map that blends landscape and activity panels--the "fastest-selling new idea we ever had." An anticipated 18-month supply of the new maps produced last October already has been depleted, and the company is hurriedly printing more to meet demand.

Corporations and consumers also have shown renewed interest in cartographic products recently, spurring the growth of Cram's commercial division. "Globes have becom much more of a staple in the retail market," Douthit says. Newer specialty stores have joined traditional retailers in selling globes and maps. (During a recent visit to a major Indianapolis shopping center, Douthit found nine stores that stocked globes.) Increasing use of the company's products in corporate gift and bonus programs also has fueled its growth in the lucrative premium and incentive market.

Cram's redoubling prosperity follows a period in which the raison d'etre of its products dramatically fell out of favor with the company's principal customers. During the 1960s and '70s, geography lost its status as a core subject in many schools. In some instances, it was reduced to one-seventh of the social studies curriculum. On the heels of a generation accused of not being able to read, there was another that couldn't distinguish between south-of-the-border Brazil and...