After finishing his basic education in commerce from the Edinburgh College,
Alan went on to acquire a Scottish National Certificate in business studies and
continues to be a member of the Association of Certified Accountants. He joined
Canon Scotland in 1985 as financial director and in 1987 took over as the MD. He
was appointed as MD, Canon India, two years ago. Ever since he has been involved
in changing Canon’s image from a camera company to an IT organization.
Excerpts from the interview.
How has the overall business for Canon been this year?
Our business is constantly growing. Last year we achieved a revenue of Rs 120
crore and this year we are looking at a figure of Rs 160 crore.
What kind of scenario do you foresee for the Indian business in the next
six months?
I feel that India would largely remain insulated from the worldwide
recession. Though its GDP growth may not be as good as China, I believe that
India would record significant growth.
Has there been a change in your sales targets considering the dampened
market sentiments?
No. We haven’t changed out targets at all. We are a growing
organization and we are increasing our market share and bringing in new
products. We are quite confident that we will achieve the figures that we had
set at the beginning of this financial year.
How do you plan to achieve the growth targets that you
have set for yourself?
This will be done by concentrating on three areas. First,
increase our reach and for which we have appointed three regional distributors,
Compuage for West, Wellwin for South and Tech Pacific for the North. Very soon
we will appoint distributors for the Eastern region as well.
Second, we plan to enhance the channel engagement by
increasing the one-to-one interaction between Canon and its distributors and
resellers. This is precisely why we have recruited lots of new people. And
thirdly, we are trying to ensure healthy growth by way of introducing new
products in the market.
There is another important area that we are looking at and
that is the assembler community. I believe assemblers are great influencers as
far as customers’ buying decisions are concerned. So we are also trying and
seeing how well can we create a large mindshare for Canon among assemblers and
thus ensure a healthy growth for us.
While lots of organizations are laying off staff, Canon
has recruited a lot more new people. What is behind this recruitment drive?
It is very clear that to do business in these times you have
to have representatives who can go out and communicate face-to-face with a large
number of resellers, distributors and dealers.
At Canon, we have changed our philosophy from having a small
number of core people to having a larger team, so that we can interact directly
not just at the distributor or wholesaler level, but also at the reseller level
across the country.
What are Canon’s strengths when it comes to selling
through channels?
One of the major strengths of Canon according to me is that
we have people right across the country covering a very wide range of products
not just in the IT peripherals segment but also in the office imaging solutions
(OIP) range.
We are there in all states with a proper sales tax
registration and offer direct support to our channel. We also offer direct
credit to our partners. Though in the OIP segment you can say that we trade
directly with the channel, in the IT peripherals segment we involve the
distribution network.
So Canon has the necessary skills and infrastructure to trade
directly with channel partners. This, according to me, is a strong point for
Canon as far as understanding the needs of the channel is concerned.
What are the essential things that you look for while
appointing a channel partner?
Unquestionably it would be sales targets! We believe that the
Canon brand should be a very important element of the channel partner’s
business. Not that it should be exclusive but Canon should be an extremely
important selling brand to the channel partner. So we are looking at such
partners for whom we are not just another selling brand or a second-choice
product.
What kind of after-sales service and training support do
you offer to your partners?
We are very committed as far as service is concerned. In
fact, this is one of the major reasons that the new range of products were not
launched in India at the same time as the rest of the world. This was because
the necessary infrastructure for support was not in place here.
We have really put in a lot of work towards creating 28 Canon
Care Points across the country. We want to put this into the minds of resellers
that whenever they sell a Canon product to a customer, they (resellers) can
remain
assured about the efficient after-sales service they will receive from Canon.
Channel partners are increasingly complaining about
shrinking margins. What is Canon’s approach to deal with this?
Its a highly competitive business that the channel partners
are dealing in. We want our partners to make good profits on Canon products that
they sell. And that way we are very committed and everything that we do is
directed towards ensuring the same.
It has been noticed that vendors at times tend to
pressurize channels to push their products in spite of an unfavorable business
environment. What is Canon’s ideology in this respect?
Canon has never adopted a strategy to push sales ignoring the
concerns of channel. Pushing sales by way of pressurizing channels, in general,
cannot be a good strategy in the long term. After all, somewhere the supply and
demand has to equate.
However, if you were to ask me whether we would offer
large-volume discounts so as to create a competitive environment, then my answer
would be very clearly–No. We don’t intend to indulge ourselves in such
activities.
We will try to maintain our priceline and ensure that our
channel partners have consistent profits.
What are Canon’s expectations from the newly launched
range of products?
We see India as a bright star in Canon’s business. I am
confident about the success of these products. And what I am talking of is not
just dreams. Things are actually happening for Canon in the Indian market.
Every month figures show that and they are only getting
better. We expect to sell one million units of Canon products by 2005 and we are
already seeing a noticeable growth in the inkjet and laser printer segment. With
our increased product offering, our confidence has only increased.
GOLDIE in Mumbai