Articles on basic management methods ~ ~

Canon has gone through 60 years from 1937 to 1997. Now Canon has become the fastest growing company among the top five companies in the world ranked by Happiness magazine. According to the available figures, during the period of 1996, Canon's total sales reached $22,053.68 million, its profit was $8,865,438 +0.87 million, and its total assets reached $225,765,438 +0.53 million. Now Canon has been composed of six powerful and balanced core business groups: image office equipment, peripheral equipment, bubble inkjet products, cameras, chemicals and optical products. On the one hand, in the past 60 years, science and technology have played the most important role in the development of Canon. From cameras to office equipment to teaching equipment, Canon constantly emphasizes innovation and always strives to introduce new ideas to the market and provide higher quality and more convenient products. On the other hand, Canon's glory today has its unique corporate purpose, which is "symbiosis".

Looking back on the 60 years since Canon was founded, Mr. mitarai, president of Canon Company, divided it into two 30 years. Canon, founded in August 1937, began to manufacture high-quality cameras. The first 30 years are the stage of technological breakthrough and strengthening globalization, but this has brought the world's attention to Canon and won good praise for its product quality and technological innovation.

Canon's second 30 years began at 1967. At that time, Fuji of mitarai announced that Canon would become a "two-handed" company, "grasping the camera with the right hand and office equipment with the left hand." With this declaration, several subsequent presidents successfully introduced Canon's second basic strategy: diversification. In the following 30 years, with the diversified business model of Canon, new technologies were developed in the fields of office equipment, electronics, magnetic recording, electronic instruments, raw materials and so on. With the continuous expansion of product range, Canon's powerful business network all over the world extends its customer base to offices, industries and even consumers. In addition, since 1955 Canon set up its first overseas office in the United States, Canon has also accelerated its globalization strategy. In 1970s, Canon expanded its global sales network, then completed the globalization of production in 1980s, and established R&D institutions in Europe, America and Australia in 1990s.

The fundamental reason for Canon's extraordinary development lies in its own development mode, namely "symbiosis". The philosophy of "symbiosis" was formally put forward by Mr. Saburo, the old president of Canon, at 1988 to face the challenge of globalization. The goal of "symbiosis" is to work and live together for the benefit of the public, to promote mutual understanding and harmony between people, between people and society, and between people and nature, so that everyone on earth can enjoy the gift of the earth. From this perspective, only those companies that have undertaken all social responsibilities in their respective fields are considered global companies. Such companies do their best to promote mutual respect between the country and the people, and at the same time urge people everywhere to pay attention to environmental awareness.

It is out of the concept of "symbiosis" that Canon has become a pioneer in protecting the ecology of the world's manufacturing industry. Canon gradually increased the remanufacturing of photocopiers and the recycling of ink cartridges. By March of 1997, Canon had recovered 20 million used ink cartridges. The factories in the United States and Dalian, China will carry out the ink cartridge recycling business this year. Canon's environmental management system in more than 20 factories around the world has already won international recognition and obtained international environmental protection certification. In addition, Canon also launched solar panels last year and conducted the first biological soil improvement experiment. It is out of the concept of "symbiosis" that Canon's branches around the world have realized the localization of management and employees. Today, many non-Japanese employees hold senior management positions in Canon enterprises all over the world. Soon, there will be non-Japanese directors on Canon's board of directors. In China, Canon invested in nine enterprises to localize the production of Canon products. At present, only 94 of Canon's 74,465,438+0 employees in China are Japanese. In the future, this proportion will decline.

It is out of the concept of "symbiosis" that Canon has also made remarkable achievements in the China market. In the China market, from 1993 to 1997, Canon products have grown from scratch and become the dominant market for inkjet printers in China for several years. During this period, whether it is the concept of "happy printing", the hotline center, the maintenance center, the counters in shopping malls or the technical journey, all of them shine with the wisdom and brilliance of "symbiosis". People can't help asking, what will happen in Canon's second 60 years, or the third 30 years?

The commemorative logo designed by Canon to celebrate the 60th anniversary is actually a wonderful answer to this question. "GO" not only represents the past 60 years, but also represents "Go for it", which is exactly what Canon will do in the next 60 years. "As the beginning of the third era," mitarai said, "Canon is striving to become a leader in the field of multimedia. During this period, we will diversify our activities in the semiconductor industry and open up new environmental and medical equipment businesses. "

Canon's future global goal is to become one of the top global 10 industrial enterprises ranked by Happiness magazine. Mitarai said, "This means competing with the biggest and best companies in the world. If we firmly grasp this goal and keep moving towards diversification and globalization, I believe our goal will turn from ideal to reality within 30 years. "

As we all know, Japan achieved amazing economic success in the post-war era, not because it acquired land, but because it acquired and applied modern technology. In recent decades, the most important technology is information technology. It is also the fierce competition and great attention to the world information technology market that makes Japan occupy a leading position in household appliances, office equipment and production equipment. Especially the office equipment industry is one of the biggest competitive industries in modern Japan. Recently, in the ranks of the world's largest computing technology companies, including office equipment companies, Canon Japan became the sixth highest-paid computer and office equipment company in the world. This achievement further demonstrates Canon's leading position in the field of information technology. It is reported that Canon always allocates 10% of its annual sales to the cost of developing original technology. From 199 1 to 1995, Canon ranks among the top ten companies in the United States in terms of the number of patent registrations, which is the same as IBM. In the past 60 years, technology may be the most important factor in the development of Canon. Canon has been innovating from cameras to office equipment to digital equipment.

In the mid-1980s, the sales volume of fax machines doubled every year in Europe, and jumped from 56,000 in 198 1 to 206,000 in 1986, 465,000 in 1987 and about 800,000 in the United States. 1989, more than 1 10,000 fax machines changed hands in the United States, with a total installed capacity of 3.4 million. For this reason, Happiness magazine once asserted that "the appearance of fax machine is the most important event since the appearance of personal computer". Up to now, this line has been completely monopolized by Japanese companies. Japanese companies have won a great victory in the fax machine market, first of all, because they already have superb technology related to their industries, among which Canon's camera industry and office equipment industry have played a certain role. Canon is the first company in the world to launch a digital full-color plain paper copier. Due to the use of large-diameter photosensitive drums and micro-laser spots, the color copy levels provided by these copiers are difficult to distinguish from printed manuscripts; Its digital copier uses electronic principle to scan files and displays images on the roller with laser beam, so it has very advanced image processing function.

Canon's leading position in the field of information technology also focuses on its inkjet/laser printer technology. Since 1987, Canon has been at the forefront of inkjet printer technology. Its "high speed, quiet, high quality, full color" products are very popular in the world and China market. Up to now, Canon has produced more than 6.5438+million BJ series inkjet printers. Canon's inkjet technology can best represent "photo printing". This printing technology mainly emphasizes the printer's special ability to process photos. Canon's photo printing realizes the gradual display of multi-layer colors, which makes the printing effect very delicate and the photo quality very good, and the photo printing also inherits Canon's multimedia printing function.

Canon's brilliance in inkjet technology may have somewhat concealed its achievements in laser printer technology. In fact, the first laser printer in the world is Canon's laser printer, which you may not know.

In recent years, due to the rapid development of electronics, computers and other technologies, photography technology is also brewing a digital revolution. According to the survey, during the period of 1997, 2 million digital cameras and 25 million computers were sold. Digital photography technology is rapidly becoming the mainstream technology. To this end, as a pioneer in the field of imaging technology, Canon lost no time in launching its own digital camera. The introduction of digital camera makes Canon's photography and ink-jet printing combine perfectly, providing users with a perfect solution.

Canon research and development co., ltd. Implement the management system of product department. Project echelon is not only used for new product development, but also for solving many management problems of Canon. The management activities and business activities of the project echelon are closely combined, which realizes both management efficiency and innovation effectiveness. The close cooperation between functional departments and branches has played an important role in improving Canon's innovation ability.

Since its establishment, the company has always emphasized respect for personal traditions and made every effort to recognize and reward personal achievements. In order to cultivate individual enthusiasm, cohesion and creativity, the company tries its best to create an inspiring working environment at every level of the enterprise. Canon's policy towards researchers can be summarized as: self-motivation, self-awareness and self-trust. It is emphasized that researchers should be aware of their responsibility for the basic goals of enterprises. Canon people's firm self-awareness, enthusiastic attitude and responsible behavior are the keys to good results. There are six striking Chinese characters hanging at the main entrance of Canon Research Center: "Self-improvement, self-confidence and self-reliance".

There is a passage in Canon's goal: "We will create the best products with leading technology, and we have this responsibility and obligation. In order to achieve this goal, we will be in R&; D. Work together in product planning, marketing and other fields with an enterprising attitude. " This concept permeates all departments of the company, research and development and sales. D (research and development) runs through Canon's overall strategic thinking and becomes the center of Canon's behavior and management mode. The medium-term management plan of each product division is formulated by the development center of the company's product department, and then this three-year product development plan is submitted to the international seminar on product strategy held every autumn. Canon research and development co., ltd. D personnel believe that their work is crucial to the development of Canon.

Kodak-everyone can use it.

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1886, George? Hysmans developed the first automatic camera and named it "Kodak", and Kodak Company was born.

From 65438 to 0930, Kodak accounted for 75% of the world photographic equipment market, and its profits accounted for 90% of this market;

1964, automatic cameras went on the market immediately, and 7.5 million cameras were sold that year, setting a world record for camera sales;

1966 overseas sales reached $21500,000, ranking 34th in Fortune magazine, and net profit was 10. At that time, the sales volume of Aikefa, the second in the photosensitive industry, was only that of 1/6.

1990, 1996, ranked fourth among the 10 brands ranked by brand consulting companies, and it is a well-deserved overlord in the photosensitive industry.

First, the product: "Everyone will use it"

/kloc-invented the camera in 0/877, but the photographic equipment at that time was extremely complicated, including a big black tent, a water tank and a container with thick glass plates ... taking it out for a trip is like taking a laboratory and hiring a horse to carry it. This simple and complicated is the operation. Without specialized knowledge and technology, no one can control this behemoth.

Kodak founder George? Hysmans, when I first came into contact with the camera, I couldn't help thinking: Can the camera be smaller? Can photography be as simple as writing with a pencil? These great questions and Hysmans's persistent pursuit finally brought an epoch-making revolution to the photosensitive industry. 1886, a small and portable "everyone can use" camera was born. Hysmans gave it a resounding name with only a few letters: "Kodak". 1888, Kodak made its first advertisement, with a Kodak camera in one hand and Heismann's confident and proud promise in the other: "Press the button and leave the rest to me." Kodak went public and succeeded in one fell swoop.

Since then, the concept of "everyone can use it" has run through Kodak's business process, and how to facilitate consumers to use cameras has always been Kodak's goal. 1964, after 10 years of research, Kodak introduced the "immediate automatic" camera, which is simpler, lighter and easier to carry. Simple operation, clear photos can be obtained without ranging and aiming: the film is convenient and safe to load and unload. This "suitable for all ages" camera sold 7.5 million units at the beginning of its launch, setting a world record for camera sales in one fell swoop. In the same year, when the "immediate automatic" hot sale, Kodak realized that the electronic flash equipment was not perfect enough, and a light bulb had to be changed every time a photo was taken, so it introduced a convenient square four-flashing magnesium light device at 1965. 1970, Kodak further introduced the "novel X series flash lamp" to make up for the defect that the square four-flashing magnesium lamp can not be separated from the battery. 1973, the ultra-small box Kodak camera was born. This kind of camera is convenient to put in a pocket or handbag, and the photos taken are very clear. Only three months after its launch, this camera sold more than 654.38+00000000 in the United States and 654.38+00000000 in the world. In Taiwan Province Province, the household penetration rate of Kodak cameras has soared to 40%. People call it a "stupid camera" with their own eyes.

Second, pricing: "sacrifice" strategy.

Kodak adopted a unique "sacrifice" strategy in pricing and achieved great success. The so-called "sacrifice" is to take a product as a pioneer in expanding the market, gain a foothold in the market with high quality and low price, and make up for the losses caused by the price drop of pioneer products by expanding the sales of related products.

1964, after Kodak introduced the "immediate automatic" camera, the price was quite low, the lowest was 13 dollars, and half of the eight models were below 50 dollars. What is even more surprising is that when Kodak cameras became popular and sales soared, Kodak announced: "Kodak cameras can be copied by everyone." Kodak made the research results of 10 public, which is puzzling. However, people soon understood and were impressed by Kodak's shrewdness. It turns out that Kodak has long considered that with the increase in camera sales, the demand for film printing services will definitely be great. So when everyone is scrambling to produce "instant automatic" cameras, Kodak has concentrated its production capacity on film production and printing. Sure enough, Kodak's film sales soared, and at the same time almost monopolized the entire printing market. After the "mini" camera went on the market, Kodak lowered the price in the same way, making it "affordable for everyone". As a result, Kodak's sales of film, cameras and related equipment have soared. Although Eco made great efforts to use the old method of intensive supply, Fuji and KINOMOTO SAKURA didn't cut prices by borrowing blood, but they were still not as good as Kodak's film sales.

Third, the brand: name value dry gold

Kodak's success is inseparable from its powerful brand "Kodak". Hysmans chose this name when Kodak camera was born. He thinks "K" is a lucky letter, and more importantly, this letter is pronounced the same in any country in the world. Today, "Kodak", together with its red symbol on a yellow background, has become a household name all over the world, which not only proves Hysmans's judgment, but also is inseparable from Kodak's continuous efforts to establish brand loyalty.

One of Kodak's efforts to build brand loyalty is to often hold or sponsor some photo competitions or cultural and sports activities. 1897, Kodak held an amateur photography contest with 25,000 participants. 1904, Kodak launched another Kodak photo exhibition, showing 4 1 photos. 192O, Kodak erected road signs with the words "scenery ahead" on the scenic spots on both sides of many American highways to remind motorists to pay attention to safety. 1984 before the los Angeles Olympic games, Kodak had monopolized the exclusive film sales rights of world sports competitions.

Another key point of Kodak brand loyalty is to establish a clear and powerful brand image. Kodak's brand identity can be summarized in two words: simplicity (mainly for product characteristics) and family (mainly through marketing communication and visual image). At the beginning of the 20th century, Kodak introduced two important figures to represent its products, namely, boy Brownie and girl Kodak. These two figures not only represent the simple operation of the product (because even children can operate it), but also relate to children and families. Kodak's early advertisements mostly show family scenes of children, dogs and friends, and most of them are easy to shoot around us. In 1930s, people often heard the special program "Kodak Moments" on the radio, which mainly talked about some family photo albums. 1967 An advertisement of Kodak won an award. The content of the advertisement is: a couple in their sixties found some old photos when they were tidying up the attic, some of them were in their twenties, just in their youth; Some are photos of marriage, honeymoon, giving birth to the first child, and some are photos of attending the son's graduation ceremony. Finally, it was this woman, an old woman to be exact, who took pictures of her newborn grandson with an automatic camera. Kodak touched the hearts of consumers by promoting this unforgettable moment. "This is Kodak's moment, don't let it slip away" and "Kodak strings up every moment". In the moving scene, these slogans deeply entered the minds of consumers, making consumers naturally associate enjoying happy time with the name Kodak.

Consumers' loyalty to Kodak also comes from Kodak putting consumers' interests first in adversity. For example, 1964 Kodak's "immediate automatic" camera occupied13 of the automatic camera market only one year after it entered the market, but Polaroid company obtained the patent right first and warned Kodak to quit the market. This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Kodak, but Kodak has not forgotten the interests of consumers while suffering greatly. It announced that consumers were invited to return instant automatic cameras, and each returned camera could be exchanged for a Kodak disc camera and film, another Kodak product worth $50, or a Kodak stock. In this way, Kodak has strengthened its contact with consumers while promoting optical disk cameras and consolidated consumers' loyalty to Kodak.

Fourth, competition: at all costs.

Since the 1950s, brands such as Fuji, Sakura and Aikefa have risen one after another and launched a fierce attack on Kodak. In the face of these attacks, Kodak did not fight back at all costs, so that the throne of the overlord would not be taken away.

Fuji has always been Kodak's strongest rival. On the eve of the 23rd Los Angeles Olympic Games, while Kodak bargained with the organizers of the Olympic Committee for sponsorship fee, Fuji applied for sponsorship voluntarily, and even increased the sponsorship fee from $4 million to $7 million, which made Fuji make a splash in the Olympic Games and its sales surged, which dealt a heavy blow to Kodak. In addition, in the China market, the Japanese took the lead in adapting to China culture, and printed Chinese descriptions and the Temple of Heaven, a famous scenic spot in Beijing, on the film packaging, which was more impressive to China consumers than Kodak film with all English packaging. These activities once made Kodak always lag behind Fuji, and it was in a passive and unfavorable situation.

In the face of competition, one of Kodak's practices is: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. After losing the Los Angeles Olympic Games, Kodak decided to deal with a man as he deals with you, and entered the other side's den. 1In August, 1984, Mr. Seeger, the planning director of Kodak, flew to Tokyo to study how to compete with Fuji in this "photo studio". At that time, the Japanese photographic film and paper market was as high as $2.2 billion, while Kodak only accounted for 65,438+00%. The crux of the matter is that although Kodak has been doing business in Japan for four years, it has never had a long-term business plan. The company has no direct sales network, production place and resident manager in Japan. The 25 employees in Tokyo are totally dependent on dealers from all over the world. After careful planning, Siegel began to attack. 1984, Kodak invested $500 million to set up its headquarters in Tokyo and set up a research and development laboratory near Nagoya, expanding its Japanese staff from 12 to 4,500. Results In six years, Kodak's sales in Japan increased sixfold, reaching 1990 USD. At the same time, Fuji's sales in Japan began to decline, so that Fuji had to withdraw some of the most capable foreign personnel to Tokyo to resist Kodak's attack. Kodak's success in Japan depends entirely on breaking the American-style distribution concept and model, making Kodak a "Japanese company" like Fuji in Japan, rather than a foreign company in Japan.

Another way for Kodak to succeed is to learn from its competitors. William, General Manager of Kodak Manufacturing Department? f？ In Fobl's office, there is a huge painting of a magnificent, rich and snow-covered mountain peak. Fobl said: "It constantly reminds me to pay attention to competition." In Kodak's laboratory, researchers systematically analyzed fujifilm. A researcher said: "This is called plagiarism. How can Fuji improve? We'll make it like this. We are crazy about Fuji. " Over the years, the films sold by Fuji Company have bright colors. At first, Kodak researchers thought their colors were distorted, but they soon found that customers liked fujifilm, so Kodak introduced a series of "VR-G" films, which were as bright as fujifilm.

In addition, advertising is also an important means for Kodak to compete. Kodak invested a lot of money in advertising in order to compete with fertile soil. When Fuji was ready to invest a lot of money to promote overseas sales, Kodak invested three times as much money as Fuji in advertising in Japan. Kodak set up the tallest giant road sign in Japan at that time in many big cities in Japan without borrowing a lot of money, with a value of $ 654.38+0 million. Not only that, Kodak also sponsored the Japanese delegation to participate in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games to avenge the shame of 1984 Los Angeles. At the same time, Kodak also paid $8 million in advance and was allowed to use the Olympic rings to repel Fuji's attacks on rapidly expanding markets such as India, China and Taiwan Province Province. In order to completely defeat Fuji, Kodak spent 1 1,000 dollars to buy an airship decorated with the striking Kodak logo, which flew over Japanese cities for three years and circled back and forth over Fuji's Tokyo headquarters in a particularly provocative way, causing Japanese media to accuse Fuji of losing the face of the Japanese. In order to save the influence, Fuji had to pay twice the price of Kodak, specially transferred the airship from Europe and flew over Tokyo for two months.

Verb (short for verb) Future: Meet the challenge

The ever-changing market and rapid development of science and technology make every enterprise face challenges, and Kodak is no exception.

The first is the fierce price competition from the market. Self-branding (or retailer brand) has reduced the price of Kodak products by 40%. fujifilm is also competing with Kodak in price, and plans to build a new factory worth $250 million in South Carolina to produce photographic paper. The construction of this factory will make the already oversupply of photographic paper even more rampant. In the markets of Eastern Europe and developing countries, cheap film also poses a great threat to Kodak, because low-income people pay more attention to price than brand and quality. In response to this price war, Kodak has introduced films of different brands, different quality and different prices to different market segments through market segmentation: "Royal Gold" (aristocratic gold film), which is specially supplied for some particularly important occasions and activities, with high quality and good price; "Cold-added" (super-gold film) is a kind of ordinary film used in daily life, with medium quality and price; Happy hour (happy event) is a low-priced film aimed at consumers who are price-sensitive and love to bargain. Kodak's price counter-attack strategy has played a role to some extent, but it still can't completely eliminate the bad influence brought by the price war.

Another challenge facing Kodak comes from the impact of digital imaging technology on traditional imaging technology. Under the traditional photography technology, the images are shot by the camera, saved on the negative, and finally printed on photographic paper. This process is from George? Hysmans founded Kodak Company 100 years ago, and there has been no big change. However, the shortcomings of traditional photography technology are also quite obvious: high cost, heavy equipment and serious pollution are difficult to solve in the production and printing of negatives and photographic papers, and they are also inconvenient for people to use because of their large size, inability to preserve permanently and difficulty in finding them. With the emergence of digital imaging technology, photography may bid farewell to negatives and photographic paper. The new digital camera can convert the light signal of the object to digital signal and store it directly on the optical disk. A palm-sized CD can store hundreds of millions of bits of information, and it can store thousands of photos instead of negatives; Then, the photos can be printed directly by a computer printer ... In short, the day when digital images completely replace negatives and photographic paper is just around the corner. As the leader of photosensitive technology, Kodak will certainly not borrow huge sums of money to develop this new technical field. However, the popularity of digital imaging technology means that cameras will be faster and more convenient, which also means that Kodak will lose the rich profits brought by film and photographic paper. How to actively become a promoter and leader of new technologies without affecting the rich profits of existing traditional technologies, how to adapt to brand-new technology products and establish a brand-new image are all urgent problems for Kodak. Can Kodak add another wonderful stroke after countless brilliant moments in the past 100 years?

Business management is practical. You should learn and summarize your progress through continuous study and practice. Only in this way can we have a big harvest. I hope it helps you.