2010-06-28 09:59

Hideki Ozawa, president of Canon’s business in China, said sales were a kind of art for which a good performer needs great passion.

Head of Canon China

Ozawa's achievement in Hong Kong paved his way for him to play a bigger role in Canon. In 2005, he was appointed to be president of Canon China. 

In 2004, sales revenues of Canon in China amounted to just 450 million yuan, accounting for less than 2 percent of the company's total revenues. When Ozawa took the job, his first year goal was to increase sales revenues by one third.

That year, China started to allow foreign products manufactured in China to be sold in the domestic market, as part of its obligations for being allowed to enter the World Trade Organization. That enabled many foreign firms such as Canon to sell their China-made products through distributors instead of expansive agents that often reacted slowly to market demands.

Over the next few years, Canon quickly expanded its sales team across China and established after-sales offices. That boosted Canon China's revenue by 38 percent in 2005.

Sales an 'art'

However, Ozawa said rather than the restructuring of its sales channel, the major change in Canon China was the employees' passion to serve customers.

"When I worked in Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing, I discovered that our employees were very shy, and some didn't even show any response when I said hello to them," he said during an industrial forum in 2007.

CURRICULUM VITAE OF HIDEK OZAWA Hideki Ozawa is in c of Canon’s operations the Chinese mainland the company’s marke in Asian countries out Japan and South Kor used to be the preside and chief executive oi of Canon Hong Kong Canon Singapore. He been the president an of Canon China and C Asia Marketing Group 2005. Hideki Ozawa e Canon Sales Co Inc in after graduating from department of Law at University. He was bo Japan in 1950. Positions: • 1973: Entered Canon Sales Co Inc (renamed Cano Marketing Japan Inc) • 1999: Vice-president of Canon Hong Kong Co Ltd • 2000: Vice-president of Canon Hong Kong Co Ltd, president and CEO of Canon Marketing (Hong Kong) Co Ltd • 2003: President and CE of Canon Hong Kong Co Ltd • 2004: President and CE of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd • Since 2005: President and CEO of Canon (China) C Ltd and Canon Asia Market- ing Group • Since 2007: Director of the board of Canon Inc

In order to change the company culture, Ozawa ordered all Canon China employees to wear red on Mondays (red ties for the men and red suits for the women). He also launched a campaign that encouraged employees to say hello to their colleagues every day.

"I think sales is a kind of art, in which a good performer needs great passion," Ozawa said. These measures helped China to become the company's fastest growing region in 2006 and 2007.

Financial crisis

Despite maintaining rapid growth, the financial crisis has greatly impacted on Canon's business across the world. In 2008, Canon's net profit declined by 37 percent. In some factories, business orders plunged by as much as 50 percent, according to Makoto Murano, head of a Canon's factory in Oita, Japan.

Shrinking profit margins, a stronger yen and plunging demand in mature markets have certainly not helped the world's largest camera maker.

"Among all the countries, China played a vital role in our recovery from the global crisis as its economy still maintained undisturbed growth," said Tsuneji Uchidapresident of Canon. He added the company planned to move more factories to China to reduce costs and would aggressively expand in the country over the next few years. "We want to be number one in all market sectors in which we have products," he said.

Since 2008, Canon has indeed aggressively expanded its printer business in China and aims for a 150 to 200 percent growth in shipments in China this year and next year. If it achieves this, it is expected to make Canon the biggest printer vendor in China this year, surpassing Hewlett-Packard.

Last year, it also started to promote heavily its medical equipment, mainly a digital radiography system, in major Chinese hospitals, in an effort to ride the boom of the Chinese government's healthcare reforms, which are expected to trigger an 850 billion yuan investment.

Ozawa said Canon's strategy to boost the China market worked quite well in the first quarter of this year, in which the company's sales value rose 35 percent - more than twice that of the company's average growth in the global market.

He said of Canon China's goal to boost sales to $10 billion in 2017: "We hope to achieve that target earlier because of the strong economic recovery in China."