Can Japanese Firms Compete in Managed Print Service Market?
Historically, Japan has led the imaging industry in developing and manufacturing products that print, copy, scan and fax our ever-growing mass of documents. Japanese firms have had such a strong position in the market, that seven of the top 10 equipment providers are headquartered in Japan, and the Num. 1 brand (HP) even relies on a Japanese firm (Canon) for their laser printer ‘engines.’ Japanese firms have benefited from this strong and highly profitable business, as they have captured a dominant portion of the highly profitable toner and ink supplies being sold into this market.
Japanese firms would seem to be in an enviable position, but this position may soon be challenged. Increasingly, firms are looking to outsource their entire document creation and management architecture under managed print services (MPS) contracts in order to reduce cost, free precious IT resources to focus on mission critical tasks and to implement business process improvements based on document workflow optimization. The challenge is whether Japanese firms will be able to translate the strengths they have had in manufacturing products to competing in a services led business.
While this market transition represents a challenge for all manufacturing firms, Japanese-based firms have traditionally had three unique advantages in the manufacturing business. They have had unique cultures which are governed by a consensus-led management style, geographically dispersed decision making, and a rigorous approach to methodically breaking down product design challenges into engineering development solutions with mathematically-driven precision. While these characteristics have given them strong advantages as PLCs, they may actually inhibit their ability to transition to an SLC.
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