A fire captain who can never retire.
Wen 丨 Hua Shang Tao Luo Chen Mengdi
Canon cameras labeled "Made in China" will no longer be produced.
32 years, 1,317 employees, $220 million investment, annual production of one million cameras, tens of millions of lenses, with the closure of Canon's Zhuhai plant, has since become history.
After the board of directors made a decision to close the plant, Chairman Mitsuru Fujio signed a document. It was a compensation scheme for severing employees, who received varying amounts of dismissal depending on the length of service. A 30-year-old employee received the highest amount: 1.5 million yuan.
This caused waves in the hearts of the public, and Canon received a reputation for "malicious compensation". But Mr. Mitsuneshi probably didn't have the energy or bother to pay much attention. Canon, the once giant, has more to do than that.
Importantly, he is 87 years old.
【1】
Mitsuru Fujio has two nicknames, in Canon, he is "Grandpa Miyako", and in all of Japan, he is "Wakao Yoshinori".
The former is an honorific title for His Holiness the Elder, and the latter is a commentary on a business hero—a man who flexibly combines Japanese spirit, Western experience, and personal talent.
But the circulation of these two nicknames actually occurred after Mitsuru Fujio was old. Until the age of 31, his first identity within Canon was that of a "nephew".
Fujio is the nephew of Canon founder Mitsune, and this status has brought him a "rich second generation" exclusive treatment - to go to the most bitter place.
Canon has a custom of selecting new people internally, then sending them to overseas branches for training, and returning home to entrust them with heavy responsibilities. Born in 1935, Mitsuru Hatsumi received an odds in 1966 as a salesman in the U.S. office.
What Fujio is facing is an awkward situation. Canon does not have a direct sales network in the United States and needs to entrust an agency to sell its camera products. To start direct sales, you need a large number of salesmen to visit one by one, but the number of employees in the company is very poor: 13 people.
To make matters worse, Americans in the 60s had two formulas in mind: German cameras = specialized and new + luxury brands, and Japanese cameras = shoddy + economic entry. These two formulas brought countless ridicule to Canon's salesmen.
This is not the worst, because Japan is in the downturn after the Tokyo Olympics, the headquarters is in poor financial condition, and it cannot afford to carry out direct sales for a while, canon is forced to extend the contract with the agency. When Mitsuharu Arrived in the United States, he was semi-unemployed and had to start with accounting.
Fujio's English was now available to learn, and his economy was so tight that in his twilight years he would never forget the high price of goods in the United States: "At that time, 1 dollar was equivalent to 360 yen, and 80 yen a pork chop rice in Japan was 3 US dollars (1000 yen) in the United States." "Take a bite of his heart and it hurts."
Many years later, Mitsuharu Fujio had a subtle expression: "Every day there are new hard experiences of entrepreneurship, and now they have become unforgettable memories." But this sentence in China, there is a direct statement: step by step.
Step by step at the end of a bump, there is a big pit.
In 1966, Canon achieved $3.7 million in sales in the United States, but made a profit of only $6,000. This caught the attention of the IRS: Is Canon evading taxes?
After investigating the matter, the auditor faced Fujio and gave a sincere suggestion: "Go back to Japan." ”
These words stabbed Mitsune fujio, but they also sparked a great discussion in his heart about the standard of truth: Why do you do unprofitable business?
After fully launching the direct sales business, Mitsuru's time allocation is roughly as follows: On weekdays, he travels around in suits and shoes to visit dealers and customers, ask them for experience, and sell products. Because there is no car, I can only rent a car and sleep in a motel for more than a dozen dollars a night at night.
On the weekend, Mitsuru Bemofu began to learn to play golf, entered the circle of professional managers in the United States through golf socialization, and asked americans for advice on business strategies while playing, and this circle was later continuously upgraded, and among his golfers, the name Jack Welch appeared.
In the exchange, he realized that the biggest difference between American companies and Japanese companies is that American companies attach importance to market share and also attach importance to profits, while Japanese companies tend to pursue market share and ignore profits.
The words and deeds of American managers planted a seed in Fujifu's heart, strictly controlling the concept of cost and profit first, and since then it has penetrated deeply into its heart, so that it has profoundly affected Canon's future strategy.
This is also a beginning, with the improvement of Japan's position in the world economy, the spread of The influence of Japanese goods, the growth of Canon's direct sales team, and the inexpensive cameras and photocopiers that have begun to be accepted by American companies and the public. The company's performance has risen year after year.
Fujio Medabashi said: "Canon America is growing rapidly, and I think it is due to the enrichment of the direct sales network of products such as camera direct sales in 1973 and photocopiers in 1974, and the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. ”
Canon Usa is thriving, and Fujio Mitsuru has been promoted from salesman to sales director, vice president and president of Canon USA.
In 1989, Mitsuharu Fujio was transferred back to the Japanese headquarters, and by the time he left, Canon USA was already a regional branch with 6,000 employees, including cameras, copiers, printers, and sales of $3 billion.
【2】
Some people return to the headquarters, which is a high promotion, and some people return to the headquarters, it is a recuperation. When Fujio returned to the headquarters, he stepped into the epidemic area of the big business disease.
At the headquarters, Fujifu's title is vice president. But his seniority had to be recalculated, which made him a back-row player in the seniority queue, and a sign of the back-row players was that the proposal could be rejected at will.
But Fujio waited for his chance. Half of it was because of his talent and seniority, and the other half, it is not clear whether it was lucky or unfortunate - in 1995, the then president, Miseki, died suddenly of an emergency, and Mitsuru Fujio was appointed to become the sixth president of Canon.
Fujio, 60, has two new discoveries. First, his qualifications were old enough and his status high enough that few people could stand up and deny his opinion.
The second discovery was less wonderful. Canon's loan dependency rate is as high as 35%, and a bunch of old debt is snowballing. At the same time, multiple R&D departments are independent, not only factional battles, but also R&D regardless of cost. The canon, which is strong on the surface, has long been strong in the outside world. What is needed most may be a reform.
This did contribute to one of the biggest reforms in Canon's history, and created Fujio's position as a business hero and a soul of foreign talents.
Fujifu's first fire burned into the 40-year-old assembly line operation mode.
Replaced by a "hive team" of 6 people, employees changed from sitting to standing, and productivity increased by 30%. Although the lifetime employment system was not abolished, the annual merit sequence remuneration system was replaced by a salary adjustment with more work and more gains;
The second fire burned to 7 loss-making departments.
Among these loss-making divisions, Canon's PC business lost about 26 billion yen in 1995, and Fujio Mitsuharu specifically approached Toshiba vice president Yasuzo Nishimuro. Nishimuro told him: "PCs must sell 3 million units a year to not lose money. ”
This made Fujifu think all night: "The PC business has been doing business for more than 20 years, and it has sold 800,000 units a year, and compared with the boom-bust line of 3 million units, there is no hope of profitability in any way." ”
Back at Canon, Fujifio put forward a slogan: "Loss is evil", he cut the PC, word processor, memory card, FLCD and other "evil departments", abandoned 35 factories, 20,000 meters of assembly line, a large number of workers transferred and dismissed, canon was thus integrated into the four core departments of photocopiers, printers, cameras and optical equipment.
The third fire burned to the R&D department, which spent a lot of money.
In order to improve the input-output ratio, Canon's R&D department was directly transferred to the management of the President's Office. Fix a few points of revenue as a fund every year, strictly control costs while remaining aggressive. In 2003 alone, Canon registered an average of nine patents per working day.
History has eloquently proved that reforms that touch the interests of any country will always cause great shocks. Then the employees in the "slashed business line" desperately resisted under the banner of painstaking efforts, and Fujifu encountered many obstacles.
Some resistance requires Mitsuru Fujio to communicate with his colleagues for weeks, and some resistance requires him to complete it with a hawkish style and almost cold-blooded determination.
This even nearly caused a split in Canon, where internally, the reformists and the opposition split into two camps.
The rivalry between the two sides is so equal that when Fujifu is unable to reconcile and solve, a compromise organization such as the "Business Review Committee" has to appear, which is limited to 3 years and 5 years respectively, and the business is graded and evaluated, and it has not been profitable and will be eliminated.
However, in the whole reform, despite the easing of means and the rhythm of tactics, the general direction has never wavered, and Fujifu himself's attitude is: "Some things cannot be listened to by employees, and some things must be listened to." ”
For the reform of the camera business, it is a standard case of refinement and sophistication.
Canon, which started out as a camera, became one of the strongest film camera manufacturers in Japan as early as 1954. Since the 1980s, Canon has been developing electronic cameras, but the market response has been poor. After taking office, Mitsuru Fujifu attached great importance to digital cameras, and at that time the market leaders were Fujifilm and Olympus, which accounted for 60% of digital cameras in 1999, while Canon was only 3%.
An important reason is that the products of the two companies have a large number of innovative designs, and users feel very well.
Mitsuru Ordered a chase, demanding that both the lens and the battery be made thinner and smaller, but the picture quality and function only rose and did not fall. So the R&D department wore a star and a moon, one millimeter and one millimeter reduced the thickness of the camera. One employee complained: Are we so difficult because we can't see a millimeter?
Fujio Mitsuru said: "No matter how difficult it is, you can't make any compromises in terms of performance and design. It's a contest of skill and will. ”
In 2000, the small card-type digital camera DIGITAL IXUS was released, the lens was only 1 yuan in the size of a coin, and after the launch, Canon's share in the global digital camera market began to increase steadily.
Immediately after that, the high-quality, small and lightweight Canon EOS 300D was released in 2003, thus beginning the Canon EOS dynasty.
Officially, from 2003 to 2020, Canon's interchangeable lens digital cameras (DSLR and mirrorless) have maintained the first share of the global market for 18 consecutive years.
This reform has created a canon that has been reborn.
In fiscal 1991, Canon's cash flow was negative 53.6 billion yen, and in fiscal year 2000, it reversed to positive cash flow of 133.8 billion yen, and sales and profit in fiscal 2001 reached record highs. In the future, Canon's transformation, mergers and acquisitions, research and development, and the required funds are almost all out of their own hands.
The outside world commented: "He dug a gold mine from inside Canon. ”
However, Fujio Mitsuharu said a sentence with his consistent and indifferent attitude: "Let people realize that profit is the first, and changing the concept of Canon is the biggest achievement since I took over Canon." ”
But only Fujio himself knows that from then on, "never-ending reform and competition" will be his motto throughout his life.
【3】
In Canon's history, Mitsuru Hashimoto has stepped down three times, and in fact, he has always been at the helm of Canon.
Canon's development is closely related to the global macro environment. From 2005 to 2007, the golden three years of Canon's development, global GDP maintained a growth rate of 5%, and Canon became a beneficiary.
In 2006, Mitsuharu Fujio stepped down as president and in the same year was elected president of the Japan Economic Association, a position recognized by society as the "Prime Minister of Japan's Financial and Economic Circles", and the highest honor that Japanese entrepreneurs can obtain.
Under The rule of Fujio Mitsubashi, Canon maintained a decade of steady growth, and the phrase "Fujio boom" began to circulate quietly within the company. But good days always come to an end.
In 2008, the world financial crisis came, and in the wave of bankruptcies, the global digital market was also not immune, and Canon's total operating profit in 2008 fell by 34.4% from the previous year.
Earnings reports are getting uglier every year. In 2009, Group sales decreased by 21.6% year-on-year. In 2010, performance continued to decline, and canon's profit for the full year of 2011 increased by less than 1% due to the double blow of the European debt crisis and the appreciation of the yen, and in 2012, Canon saw the first decline in sales and net profit in three years.
Due to the depression in the European and American markets and the market contraction caused by the adjustment of channel inventory, a large number of employees in the factory left or entered months of vacation.
In 2012, in the face of market pressure, the then president Uchida Hengji took the initiative to resign, and Mitsuru Fujio was put on the battlefield and reinstated as the commander.
His first move was to use the company's strong family accumulated in the golden decade to start a large-scale acquisition of technology companies and look for emerging markets.
For the strategic shift, Fujifu has a clear expression: "Canon will invest in four aspects, first of all, the production and development of medical equipment and medical devices; followed by the development of robots in production automation and unmanned; then from the existing camera technology to film production; and finally, the use of camera and camera technology for security surveillance." ”
This represents a big shift – while maintaining the advantages of the original business, Canon will shift from the 2C to the 2B market.
In 2013, Canon completed the acquisition of the Dutch commercial printing company Osina, in 2014, Canon acquired the world's largest video management software company Maishitong; in 2015, it acquired the Swedish surveillance company Axis, and in 2016, it acquired Toshiba's medical device division...
Behind these drastic acquisitions, in fact, there is a reflection of Fujifu on the industrial pattern, Mitsuru Fujio said: "Economic growth is inseparable from population growth, so I consider the direction of industrial layout according to the trend of population growth." ”
Against the background of such a turn, Canon's basic plate was injected with new vitality little by Mitsuru Fujio.
Starting in 2013, Canon once again resumed both sales and profit growth. In 2016 alone, due to the huge acquisition of Toshiba Medical Division, the turnover declined, but the following year's performance rebounded rapidly, with turnover increasing by 19.9% and net profit increasing by 60.6%, shaking the entire industry.
The new area of business also allows Jia to see the hope of core business transformation. According to Canon's 2015 financial report, the growth rate of industrial, medical and security business was 31.6%, much higher than the growth of traditional business.
In 2016, Mitsuneshi Fujio stepped down as president again, and he is 81 years old, which is a well-nurtured age in East Asian culture.
But is this really possible?
【4】
The outgoing Mitsuneshi Fujio was surprised to find that since he left office, Canon's financial reports began to deteriorate year after year. It may seem like a spell, but the real reason is not one person.
With the rise of smartphones, the Canon camera market continues to shrink. In 2018, Canon Group's turnover decreased slightly by 3.1%.
Canon Group's turnover decreased by 9.1% in 2019. In 2020, the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Canon's performance was hit hard, and turnover fell by 12.1%...
The financial report is a reflection of fundamentals, and this series of figures, which heralds another round of crisis at Canon, has also become the reason for Mitsuharu Fujio to leave the mountain. In 2020, at the age of 85, he became president three times.
After taking office, Mitsuneyoshi Fujio made a statement with his consistent attitude: "The company has reached the edge of the cliff, and if it does not reform, it will wait for death." ”
In Mitsuru's judgment, market demand is accelerating to switch to mirrorless cameras, so production of flagship DSLR cameras will stop within a few years.
On the one hand, Canon began to steadily transfer employees; on the other hand, because there is still a demand for low-end SLR cameras in some markets around the world, Canon still temporarily retains some of its productivity.
Therefore, the closure of the Zhuhai factory seems to have swept in with a huge wave, but in fact it is only part of a new round of reform.
At the same time, Canon will accelerate the transformation of the professional imaging market in the world, mainly including medical imaging, industrial imaging, security imaging, the production of medical scanners, MRI equipment, construction site construction detectors, bridge and tunnel detectors, etc.
Among the many transformational businesses, medical imaging is the one that Canon is most concerned about. Since 2017, this business has been separately counted in the financial report "medical system" turnover, accounting for 10.7% of the total turnover in that year.
In 2020, Canon reorganized its medical business, and Canon's ophthalmic equipment business was reorganized from Canon (China) Co., Ltd. to Canon Medical Systems (China) Co., Ltd. in May 2020, striving to capture the opportunities in the medical device market brought about by national policies such as "Healthy China 2030".
But medical insiders say that whether it is large radiation or ultrasound (diagnostic equipment), Canon is currently unable to reach the first echelon.
Under the leadership of Mitsubashi Fujifu, Canon in 2021 has revealed a glimmer of a turnaround, and its financial report has returned to the magic of growth, with the group's turnover increasing by 11.2% year-on-year and net profit increasing by 157.7%. But would that be a great start?
For decades, Mitsuru Has been playing the role of "fire captain, rescue and save the dead", but in fact, he has never lost his observation of the company and has never left the authority of Canon.
This means that the ups and downs of Canon are always tied to it, and for the crisis of Canon, the outside world has long foreseen.
In the business world, holding on to what is right for too long can become wrong, and holding on to what is wrong for too long can become right. Canon's business is too focused on the pursuit of the ultimate, but also will make the road narrower and narrower.
Fortune magazine commented: "Unlike IBM scientists who ponder the nature of outer space, Canon's engineers are busy designing and redesigning products, so its patents are more concentrated in areas closely related to its own business." ”
Although Canon has tens of thousands of patents and has registered the highest number of patents in the United States for 13 consecutive years, there are few disruptive innovations. All are the original details optimization, only look at the local optimal.
For example, Canon has more than 2,000 types of photosensitive drum patents for digital copiers alone. The pursuit of the ultimate but not the pursuit of cost performance, Canon products, whether cameras or others, for consumers, there is no real irreplaceability.
A Japanese investment analyst once pointed out: "Since the invention of the inkjet printer in the 90s, Canon has not launched a product based entirely on a completely new technology. ”
It's a bit like the plot of the movie The Last Samurai, where Canon is still figuring out how to sharpen cold weapons after entering the era of hot weapons. Many senior Chinese employees were said to shed tears when the Zhuhai plant closed.
It was the tears of an era, but as the helmsman of the canon's big ship, Fujio Mitsuharu obviously had no time to share this sorrow. There was still so much more on the big ship waiting for him to finish.
In a media interview, Mitsuru Saidhushi proudly said, "I've hardly ever been sick." ”
This may be Canon's luck, but it is also Canon's misfortune. According to Fujio's friends, he loved Chinese history since he was a child, familiar with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and his favorite character was Zhuge Liang, who once took "bow down to exhaustion, and after death" as his motto in life. He had always wanted to go to Chengdu Wuhou Temple to have a look, but unfortunately, he never seemed to be able to wait for his retirement plan.
【References】
[1] "Mitsumaru Fujio: Dreams Have Nothing to Do with Age," Business Weekly Keykey
[2] "People: Canon CEO Mitsuru Fujio Treats "Big Business Disease"" by Ccid.com Jin Fan
[3] Canon Sees The Light Again, a talented Jason
——END——
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