I recently had the opportunity to attend the Konica Minolta Dealer Convention in Aspen CO. For me, it was interesting on many levels. First of all, I have never really spent a lot of time studying or writing about Konica Minolta, since the majority of its product line had been devoted to A3 and A4 multifunction machines. However, over the last few years, the company has been rapidly expanding into production press products. In fact, at drupa, Konica Minolta made a pledge to target Commercial and Industrial print markets. So I thought this was a great opportunity to dig deeper into its products and plans. So, in the beautiful surroundings of the Aspen Institute, I got a deeper understanding of the Konica Minolta approach to marketing, sales and futures, along with some welcome distractions.

At the start of the conference, as he did at drupa, KM President and CEO Shoei Yamana pledged a significant growth target of $500M in Commercial and Industrial print products over the next 3-4 years. This is an impressive goal, and one has to wonder whether the company will be able to achieve this with its current and extended product lines, or whether the plan is to achieve it through an additional acquisition beyond the 41% share of MGI Konica Minolta currently holds. Konica Minolta seems to have beaten the odds before. Its rapid push into color light production with the bizhub C8000 in 2010 and its partnership with Komori on the KM-1 (now called the AccurioJet KM-1) come to mind. 

One of the most interesting things I learned at the event is how dedicated KM is to using the dealer channel to grow its business. The concept of a dealer network makes sense, in that dealers provide more feet on the street to sell and support equipment. The difficulty for many companies has always been how to train and support dealers. Konica Minolta is using a deep learning process, partially by using the existing installed base to glean the necessary knowledge and best practices. In the U.S., KM under the US leadership of Rick Taylor, who came out of the dealer channel, has invested significant resources into developing a training and support infrastructure, and sees the dealer network as a real partner. The company expects the dealer channel to not only sell MFP products, but also production and industrial. While it is a big challenge for both KM and the dealers, it has the potential to offer significant opportunity for both as well, and it is a pretty unique approach to the market.