The OEM presented its vision of the company’s future at a retreat in Aspen.
The theme of the conference was “inspiration, ideation [and] innovation” reported Printing Impressions, and was opened by Rick Taylor, President and CEO for Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, who hi-lighted some of the company’s achievements. These included the company being named as best large employers from the Forbes 2016 list and being named by ‘Brand Keys’ as number one in customer loyalty in the ‘MFP’ category.
He also said that the company “enjoys the highest revenue per dealer” according to “the Cannata Report” and that there was a “21 percent increase in operating profit April-August 2016 versus the same period 2015”.
Taylor said that he was “particularly proud of the employee satisfaction ratings because happy employees equal happy customers” and that for a future workforce to be great the industry needs to understand the “psychology of millennials” as they will make up “75 percent of the workforce by 2025” and that although millennials may not “get excited about selling MFPs” they will find the company’s “aspirational Office of the Future and IT Services initiatives compelling”.
Outlining the major opportunities for the company, Shoei Yamana said that “a drive to digitisation into the global commercial and industrial printing spaces” are currently “only four percent and 2.7 percent respectively” and that these markets “represent” ¥90 million (€796,986/$896,396) in annual economic activity.