Kensaku Konishi has been leading the Initial surge of Canon in India that began from 2006, A surge he attributes to Major Strategic Realignments and the Aggressive Pursuit of Localised Campaigns. In this Exclusive Discussion with Virat Bahri, He talks about the Company’s long term plans in India and the Recent Key Initiatives being taken to Build on The Initial Momentum.
B&E: What were the major strategic changes you took when you joined Canon India operations?
Kensaku Konishi (KK): When I came here, first of all people’s responsibilities were not clear. They simply liked to do it function by function. When we talked about camera for instance, not one person could tell me the reason why the sales was bad. That is why we changed our organisation from function-based to product-based. We set up separate copier, camera and printer divisions and appointed division heads with authority and responsibility. That also upped their morale. Secondly, we also needed more people as sales is a very local oriented activity. It was about taking care of channel partners and end users. Earlier there were only 400 people, we doubled up to 800. We started the city campaigns as well. The Indian market is very big. Our share was small, so we could not adopt nation wide campaigns. So we launched citywide campaigns. All resources were put into a city, including people money, et al and we also focussed on channel contacts, partner meets, training, et al. Through these activities, we improved market share. In 2009, we had some campaigns like print city campaigns to conduct such activities city by city together. Since the beginning of this year, focus has shifted to tier 2 and 3 cities as well. We use trucks as mobile showrooms carrying all 80 different models and visiting tier 2 and 3 cities. That creates a lot of enthusiasm and noise in the local city.
B&E: What is the significance and rationale behind the recent foray into exclusive retail stores?
KK: Earlier, the home market was just cameras for us. Now we do believe that a lot of homes are using printers. We realised that the home market is getting much bigger than before. We learnt that from our Image Express initiative when we went to tier 2 and 3 cities like Udaipur, Jaipur and Indore. A similar number of printers and cameras are being sold at single spots in these cities. There is definitely a big group of people using printers in their homes. Shopping patterns of new families are also changing. Many people told me, when I came here, that shopping malls are great in India; people go and see but do not buy. Now they’re buying – movies, restaurants, apparel as well as electronic gadgets. Unfortunately, our traditional retail shops sometimes do not have the kind of scale to go to such shopping malls. They are normally satisfied with a growth of 10-15%. That is why we will intentionally open our exclusive stores in such kinds of busy and modern shopping malls or streets to conduct our sales. We now have traditional channel, national retail chains and brand shops. We believe that all these will coexist because of the diversity of the customers, and this brand shop will improve the brand image for the customers and help our channel too.
B&E: What were the major strategic changes you took when you joined Canon India operations?
Kensaku Konishi (KK): When I came here, first of all people’s responsibilities were not clear. They simply liked to do it function by function. When we talked about camera for instance, not one person could tell me the reason why the sales was bad. That is why we changed our organisation from function-based to product-based. We set up separate copier, camera and printer divisions and appointed division heads with authority and responsibility. That also upped their morale. Secondly, we also needed more people as sales is a very local oriented activity. It was about taking care of channel partners and end users. Earlier there were only 400 people, we doubled up to 800. We started the city campaigns as well. The Indian market is very big. Our share was small, so we could not adopt nation wide campaigns. So we launched citywide campaigns. All resources were put into a city, including people money, et al and we also focussed on channel contacts, partner meets, training, et al. Through these activities, we improved market share. In 2009, we had some campaigns like print city campaigns to conduct such activities city by city together. Since the beginning of this year, focus has shifted to tier 2 and 3 cities as well. We use trucks as mobile showrooms carrying all 80 different models and visiting tier 2 and 3 cities. That creates a lot of enthusiasm and noise in the local city.
B&E: What is the significance and rationale behind the recent foray into exclusive retail stores?
KK: Earlier, the home market was just cameras for us. Now we do believe that a lot of homes are using printers. We realised that the home market is getting much bigger than before. We learnt that from our Image Express initiative when we went to tier 2 and 3 cities like Udaipur, Jaipur and Indore. A similar number of printers and cameras are being sold at single spots in these cities. There is definitely a big group of people using printers in their homes. Shopping patterns of new families are also changing. Many people told me, when I came here, that shopping malls are great in India; people go and see but do not buy. Now they’re buying – movies, restaurants, apparel as well as electronic gadgets. Unfortunately, our traditional retail shops sometimes do not have the kind of scale to go to such shopping malls. They are normally satisfied with a growth of 10-15%. That is why we will intentionally open our exclusive stores in such kinds of busy and modern shopping malls or streets to conduct our sales. We now have traditional channel, national retail chains and brand shops. We believe that all these will coexist because of the diversity of the customers, and this brand shop will improve the brand image for the customers and help our channel too.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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