Rick Taylor, President and CEO, Konica Minolta
Rick Taylor will be the first person to tell you that he relishes competition. The president and CEO of Konica Minolta strolled the stage of the cavernous and intimidating Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, reminiscent of Titus holding court in the Roman Colosseum. While Taylor didn’t feed any Christians to the lions, he commanded the stage in a theatrical way. He wanted home field advantage, and he certainly commanded it.
It was easy to get lost in the drama of the opening day presentation for Konica Minolta’s dealer conference, which took place March 4-6, primarily in Newport Beach, CA. In an opening presentation lasting roughly two hours, Taylor traded off with many of the organization’s key executives, who were bathed in spotlight while being perched in various levels of the Segerstrom Center. As a reminder that we’re not in 80 AD times anymore, tall, high-definition screens on either side of the stage projected the speaker’s live image. Periodically, the lights would shine on the front-most rows of the audience, where dealers would stand to provide testimonials to each of the products being hailed to underscore the “Limitless” theme.
Dealer Beware!
Rick Taylor, Konica Minolta (left) and Lord Darth Vader, Galactic Empire
However, as a reminder that Taylor doesn’t always take himself too seriously, the presentation was dotted with cameo appearances of movie villains who acted as cautionary tales for dealers. Between bad puns and face-palming jokes, each villain had a warning for dealers to heed. Darth Vader, for example, represented complacency, and Taylor noted that “It’s easy to get complacent when things are going well.” The Joker of Batman fame talked about the squeeze on profitability, Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame represented fear, and even Ghostbusters’ Mr. Stay Puft waddled on stage to talk about dealers not being big enough…or too big…take your pick. Danger abounds in both extremes, anyway!
In addition to supporting local actors, Taylor gave an overview of the company’s performance, which has escalated since his 2010 arrival. Its operating profit has exploded 74 percent from April through December, with revenue growth of 4 percent during the same period. U.S. print volume is up a shade over 7 percent, while dealer solutions revenue has increased 10 percent. The sale of production print units climbed 36 percent, as dealers are seeing the value beyond the MFP.
Konica Minolta has acquired five companies in the last year that have helped bolster All Covered’s IT offering, along with enterprise content management and enterprise resource planning solutions. The manufacturer has also made several key hires to fortify its subject-matter expert base.
In a vertigo-inducing exchange of speakers, Taylor’s adept executive crew addressed. Kay Du Fernandez, senior vice president of marketing, followed Lord Vader by discussing how technology is changing the way we work, using the company’s OneRate billing program as an example. Sam Errigo, senior vice president, sales and business development, stressed the importance of choosing the right strategy for your business. Laura Blackmer, senior vice president of the dealer channel, provided insight as to how dealers are taking their businesses forward, particularly in light of how MFPs are being commoditized.
Kevin Kern, senior vice president, Business Intelligence Services and Product Planning, followed with a preview of the new iSeries line of A3 and A4 products that will be rolled out over the coming months. Backed by the company’s Bitdefender security suit, the iSeries offers efficiency, security, environmental perks and integration with digital workflows.
Production Print
Stephanie Keating Phillips, AIS
Next up was Dino Pagliarello, vice president, Product Management and Planning, who gave an overview on Konica Minolta’s success in the production printing realm (placements grew 19 percent, for example). He talked about industrial and label solutions, then introduced Stephanie Keating Phillips of Advanced Imaging Solutions, which garnered the distinction of selling the first AccurioWide 160 UV inkjet wide-format printer.
Todd Croteau, All Covered president, and several other execs gave an overview of the managed IT firepower under Konica Minolta’s command, from security considerations (including continuous breach testing) and compliance to automation/AI values for intelligent automation, and managed voice services. Heather Brown, the director of technology solutions for CPI, discussed her dealership’s success in landing one to two deals a month with the All Covered value proposition. Among the new offerings under the All Covered flag is the Managed Services Enablement Program, which backs dealers with services such as deployment, compensation planning, customer engagement support, marketing and lead generation.
Drew Cataldo, vice president of business development, introduced Mary Ellen Franz of Imagine Technology Group, who talked about her company selecting the FORZA ERP solution by MWA (acquired by Konica Minolta) over a competing solution.
WorkPlace Hub
The long-touted WorkPlace Hub, which has debuted in eight countries on two continents, was the tail-end of the product parade, with three executives touting its virtues. The U.S. rollout has been lengthy, but Konica Minolta feels the Hub is the answer for the “91 percent of SMBs (who) want an integrated IT system.” The Hub is an all-in-one IT system that seamlessly integrates hardware, software and services into a multi-vendor, one-stop solution that seamlessly connects people, spaces and devices.
The opening presentation concluded with Taylor and the Konica Minolta executives answering a series of pre-recorded questions from some of the OEM’s dealer partners. Taylor also brought about a chorus of cheers when he related a conversation with DEX Imaging—recently acquired by Staples—in which he vowed not to authorize Konica Minolta products for them on a nationwide basis. Whether Konica Minolta proves to be an outlier, or it’s a sign that many OEMs won’t undercut their dealers by allowing Staples to offer their products on a national level, remains to be seen. Taylor’s pre-emptive striking down of the idea before it can even be broached certainly played well with the audience.
Tune in next week, when we will provide an overview of some of the more interesting and oftentimes esoteric products and services on display in the showcase expo.
