Nikkei Sees 40% decrease in combined Profits:Canon, Ricoh, Fuji, Konica Minolta

Profits Fade At Top Copier Makers As Toner Sales Thin

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japan's four leading precision machinery makers -- Canon Inc. (7751), Ricoh Co. (7752), Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (4901) and Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (4902) -- are expected to see their combined operating profits sink 40% in fiscal 2009 as sales of toner and other high-margin office supplies languish.

Couple this report with information back in May from Erupoe:

"...British companies selling and leasing Japanese manufactured goods have been forced to up their prices after negative GBP to Euro and Euro to Yen exchange rate trends worsen, forcing­ an ­inc­rea­se in cost prices..."

And...

"Genuine parts?­­­-

The cost price increase inclu­des all genuine parts and toner supplied by the photocopier manufacturers. This means businesses offering leasing of copiers are suddenly seeing substantially increased costs to replace toner and service these devices. Some companies might be tempted to use sub-standard parts and toner to try to keep costs down.

Many of the parts and toners that are not genuine brands are manufactured outside Japan and so do not have the same problems of negative exchange rate trends. These products therefore remain cheap to purchase. However,­ most reputable and reliable photocopier companies would only ever use genuine parts and toner.

Non-genuine parts and toner can not only make the manufacturer's warranty invalid but are often of sub-standard quality meaning that the prints they create are of a poor standard and they may ruin the device or decrease its lifespan.­.."

Managed Print Services Assessments - They Do Not Work, Stop Doing Them

2/2009

My first assessment was for 1,100 units. The next one was for 823. And my third assessment was for 523 devices.

A 25 machines assessment took 30 days.

That was over a year ago.

Insanity.

You would think I would have learned.

An early Photizo study revealed that doing an assessment gave you a 50% chance of closing the engagement.

While at the Managed Print Services Conference in San Antonio I agreed with this statistic and mentioned that I closed 50% of the studies/assessments that I performed.

I neglected to say that after no longer doing Assessments, my closing rate went up to 94%.

Interesting, eh?

With just about everybody pitching MPS and free assessments - one needs to ask how much value can something that is free honestly carry?

And let me tell you this, if I do get into a position to be the "second" one in a deal, I get all the data that the person before me obtained - all of it, the spreadsheet, costs, and everything.

So what to do, what to do...

Ask questions, don't do an "assessment".

Take a tour of the complex, don't perform a "survey".

Install your "Supplies Monitoring" software, not your "Data Collection Agent".

Write your findings down and discuss them with your client, in two pages or less; don't let your software generate a stodgy, canned, boilerplate with spreadsheets. Run from PowerPoint.

Use your brain. Use your mind, not a spreadsheet. Present ideas, not proposals.

Just my 0.020 worth, but after all, it is my blog.

Sell-On!

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D-Day, June 6, 1944 - The Longest Day

Tank Man : Remember this?

What are you complaining about today?

What's your beef?

Cold calls got you down?

Your Sales Manager is an idiot?

No RFP's come in today?

Your demo room is a mess and half the machines don't work?

Your technician is trying to sell your clients Gucci knock-offs from the Philippines?

Still looking/waiting for all that "Hope and Change"?

Is there a tank in your way? Two tanks? A column of tanks?

20 years ago, this one event changed China forever. In theory, Communism combined with Capitalism should be like the old "matter vs anti-matter" argument, the two should implode.

Well, it's officially the Land of Bizzaro, because yesterday, a Chinese manufacturer, not even an automobile manufacturer, bought Hummer from the dying "Generous Motors".

My oh my, "...How are the mighty fallen...!"



Check this pic out of Tank Man from street level - YIKES!





I may lose my Chinese readers with this one.

Fuji Xerox: to take 2-3 yrs for demand to recover

Reuters -

TOKYO, June 3 (Reuters) - Japan's Fuji Xerox Co said it will take several years for global office equipment demand to return to levels seen before the financial crisis, with the sales outlook for industrial nations particularly murky.

Fuji Xerox, a copier and printer joint venture between Fujifilm Holdings (4901.T) and Xerox Corp (XRX.N), said it plans to focus on growth areas such as digital commercial printing operations to drive sales. Digital commercial printers are used to produce such documents as product manuals and direct mail quickly and in large volume, and are a fast-growing segment of the printer market.


Asked how soon the global office machine market is likely to see a full-fledged recovery in demand, Fuji Xerox President Tadahito Yamamoto said: "My answer is 'still uncertain'.

"In Japan and the United States and Europe it's still difficult to tell. I think it will take another two to three years," Yamamoto said at a meeting with reporters on Wednesday.

Parent Fujifilm expects sales by its document solutions section, which shows Fuji Xerox's performance, to fall 7.2 percent in the year to March 2010 to 1 trillion yen ($10.5 billion).

Yamamoto said Fuji Xerox aims to double its revenues from digital commercial printing operations and document-related outsourcing to 400 billion yen by the year to March 2014.

In document-related outsourcing, Fuji Xerox carries out such tasks as brochure and direct mail design, business letter and invoice printing, and hardware maintenance for companies, schools and governments.

Shares in Fujifilm closed up 2 percent at 2,845 yen, outperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which gained 0.4 percent.

Fuji Xerox is owned 75 percent by Fujifilm and 25 percent by Xerox of the United States. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Watson)

Copier Sales People Destroy Managed Print Services Opportunities: Daily

June 2009 -

It will not matter how many "MPS Training Programs" start scrambling out of the darkness.

Hire all the "MPS Experts" in the world, it won't make a difference.

Get the hottest, newest, collection agent that can generate a highly professional appearing yet canned proposal.

Toshiba, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Samsung, Xerox, or Canon MPS training programs are doomed to fail and will result in nothing more than frustration and lost potential.

Why? Because Old dogs abhor change and Dogma flourishes.

I keep going back to this saying, "...at the beginning of the month, we all sell solutions, but in the last week of the month, we move a box..." - is the copier dealer/manufacturer sales manager's mantra.