{"id":1450,"date":"2011-11-28T13:22:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T13:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2011-11-28T13:22:37","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T13:22:37","slug":"kma-dealer-council-meeting-signals-a-new-dawn-for-kma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2011\/11\/kma-dealer-council-meeting-signals-a-new-dawn-for-kma\/","title":{"rendered":"KMA Dealer Council Meeting Signals a New Dawn for KMA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Reed Melnick<\/p><\/div>\n

Early last month, Norihiki Ina, the new President & CEO of Kyocera Mita America met with the KMA Dealer Council for the first time since taking over the position. By all accounts, and more specifically the account of KMA Dealer Council President Reed Melnick, the meeting was the most productive he ever attended.<\/p>\n

In past years Melnick reports the meeting was attended by KMA\u2019s President along with KMA representatives from inventory, sales, service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were seldom people from Japan and it was more, \u2018We hear you, we\u2019ll try to make these changes, but we still need approval,\u2019\u201d recalls Melnick.<\/p>\n

He and other members of the Council knew something was different from the moment they walked into the meeting and saw a room filled with key executives from KMA as well as key personnel from the R&D Division in Japan, including Keiji Itsukushima, senior general manager, Corporate R&D Division and Chisato Hatakeyama, senior manager, MFP R&D Division who had come to support Mr. Ina and hear feedback from the Dealer Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magnitude of the support that Mr. Ina received was unbelievable,\u201d states Melnick. \u201cIt was clear that the new KMA under Mr. Ina\u2019s guidance will be a more well-oiled machine than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The representatives from Japan were particularly interested in how the new products were doing, and the comments from the Dealer Council were particularly insightful to those involved in product development. Apparently, Itsukushima and Hatakeyama had never spoken with the U.S. dealer community before and were interested in hearing what KMA dealers need to be successful in their marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came here to see how our marketplace works, to see how our customers perceive the products, and how they can support the dealers in this environment,\u201d reports Melnick. \u201cAgain, for us it was amazing because we thought it was going to be a meeting where instead of moving 10 feet we would just move another foot or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds this was a major stride in almost bringing together the dealers and customers into Kyocera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt as if we were coming together globally to bond and have success. I have never seen anything like that in my 30-year history. I don\u2019t know of any other manufacturer that pulls so many people in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He feels Mr. Ina\u2019s presence, whose career spans 25 years with the company, will bridge whatever gap may have existed previously between the U.S. organization and Japan, and from now on he expects it will be much easier to move initiatives forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Ina is directly connected and they want him to succeed and they\u2019re giving him every tool and every possible way to win,\u201d notes Melnick. \u201cIn turn the customers and the dealers win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although one KMA Dealer Council meeting may not exactly change the world, Melnick remains jazzed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we walked out of the meeting we thought it was pretty good, but not until the next morning did I really understand the magnitude of individuals who were in that room. This was changing the look of KMA. If you hear another view and it becomes a part of your overall view, it\u2019s going to change the way you feel and the way you think. That\u2019s what I believe happened in that meeting. I believe Kyocera with the great products they have now, and the next piece coming in play, they\u2019re going to be a force to be reckoned with. And the dealers are going to be the ones to truly win based on a great amount of input and a different frame of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he expects to see going forward that will validate those comments Melnick responds, \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing from Mr. Ina being in place things move a lot faster and a focus on the things we push out that we\u2019d like to see improved improving. Going forward I think we\u2019re going to see more collaboration between the U.S. dealers and R&D in Japan, focusing on what we\u2019re seeing with end users because it seems to me the people who are high up in the Japanese manufacturing world don\u2019t see what the end user does with their product. I think we\u2019re going to see more of that so they have a better understanding of the big picture instead of just the world of designing a product and not knowing the end result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another expected change is that more products currently under development will be beta tested through the dealer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be more along the lines of real world testing where it comes in off the truck, goes out on our delivery truck, gets installed in a customer environment by our people, and is monitored by [the product development people from Japan]. That way it\u2019s really done right.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early last month, Norihiki Ina, the new President & CEO of Kyocera Mita America met with the KMA Dealer Council for the first time since taking over the position. By all accounts, and more specifically the account of KMA Dealer Council President Reed Melnick, the meeting was the most productive he ever attended. In past years Melnick reports the meeting was attended by KMA\u2019s President along with KMA representatives from inventory, sales, service. \u201cThere were seldom people from Japan and it was more, \u2018We hear you, we\u2019ll try to make these changes, but we still need approval,\u2019\u201d recalls Melnick. He and other members of the Council knew something was different from the moment they walked into the meeting and saw a room filled with key executives from KMA as well as key personnel from the R&D Division in Japan, including Keiji Itsukushima, senior general manager, Corporate R&D Division and Chisato Hatakeyama, senior manager, MFP R&D Division who had come to support Mr. Ina and hear feedback from the Dealer Council. \u201cThe magnitude of the support that Mr. Ina received was unbelievable,\u201d states Melnick. \u201cIt was clear that the new KMA under Mr. Ina\u2019s guidance will be a more well-oiled machine than ever before.\u201d The representatives from Japan were particularly interested in how the new products were doing, and the comments from the Dealer Council were particularly insightful to those involved in product development. Apparently, Itsukushima and Hatakeyama had never spoken with the U.S. dealer community before and were interested in hearing what KMA dealers need to be successful in their marketplace. \u201cThey came here to see how our marketplace works, to see how our customers perceive the products, and how they can support the dealers in this environment,\u201d reports Melnick. \u201cAgain, for us it was amazing because we thought it was going to be a meeting where instead of moving 10 feet we would just move another foot or so.\u201d He adds this was a major stride in almost bringing together the dealers and customers into Kyocera. \u201cIt felt as if we were coming together globally to bond and have success. I have never seen anything like that in my 30-year history. I don\u2019t know of any other manufacturer that pulls so many people in.\u201d He feels Mr. Ina\u2019s presence, whose career spans 25 years with the company, will bridge whatever gap may have existed previously between the U.S. organization and Japan, and from now on he expects it will be much easier to move initiatives forward. \u201cMr. Ina is directly connected and they want him to succeed and they\u2019re giving him every tool and every possible way to win,\u201d notes Melnick. \u201cIn turn the customers and the dealers win.\u201d Although one KMA Dealer Council meeting may not exactly change the world, Melnick remains jazzed. \u201cWhen we walked out of the meeting we thought it was pretty good, but not until the next morning did I really understand the magnitude of individuals who were in that room. This was changing the look of KMA. If you hear another view and it becomes a part of your overall view, it\u2019s going to change the way you feel and the way you think. That\u2019s what I believe happened in that meeting. I believe Kyocera with the great products they have now, and the next piece coming in play, they\u2019re going to be a force to be reckoned with. And the dealers are going to be the ones to truly win based on a great amount of input and a different frame of mind.\u201d Asked what he expects to see going forward that will validate those comments Melnick responds, \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing from Mr. Ina being in place things move a lot faster and a focus on the things we push out that we\u2019d like to see improved improving. Going forward I think we\u2019re going to see more collaboration between the U.S. dealers and R&D in Japan, focusing on what we\u2019re seeing with end users because it seems to me the people who are high up in the Japanese manufacturing world don\u2019t see what the end user does with their product. I think we\u2019re going to see more of that so they have a better understanding of the big picture instead of just the world of designing a product and not knowing the end result.\u201d Another expected change is that more products currently under development will be beta tested through the dealer. \u201cIt will be more along the lines of real world testing where it comes in off the truck, goes out on our delivery truck, gets installed in a customer environment by our people, and is monitored by [the product development people from Japan]. That way it\u2019s really done right.\u201d    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}