Canon Marketing Philippines’ new boss is not the typical president and CEO of a technology company. In his first meeting with members of the press and blogging community recently, Lim Kok Hin neither talked about Canon’s latest product roadmap nor revenues and market share.
Lim, a Malaysian who has worked with Canon for 32 years, focused his discussion on two things: relationship with customers and the work-life balance of the company’s employees.
“Filipino consumers are becoming more matured. They not only want a new model but want to build relationships,” said Lim. “I want Canon to build an end-to-end lifetime relationship with customers so we’re moving from being a transaction-based business to a relationship-oriented business,” said Lim.
Lim Kok Hin, President and CEO, Canon Marketing
Lim explained that if a camera, for example, has 50 features, he wants the customer to use all the features so they can fully appreciate the product. To make the customer aware of the camera’s features, Canon will be offering photography classes from entry to advanced levels. He also revealed plans of a photography tour for users of Canon’s cameras to give them “a total experience.”
“The shining box is becoming less and less appealing to the consumers,” said Lim. “They want to move beyond the box and around the box.”
Other measures Lim intends to take to bust what he calls as “box fatigue” is to match the requirements of customers and make Canon’s website more interactive.
Asked if this shift to an end-to-end relationship with customers will come at a price, Lim answered: “nothing good is totally free.”
Do more, work less
After talking about customer relationship, Lim shifted to discussing about the work-life balance of Canon’s employees. “I want them to do more and work less [hours]. For example, if they typically work until 5:30pm, they can go home at 4:30pm.”
Lim explained that if an employee goes home early, he or she will be able to spend more time with his or her family. And if the employee has spent more time with the family, he or she would be able to work productively the next day.
To enable employees to work more efficiently and productively, the company will be identifying processes that staff could do and should not do. Processes employees don’t need to do will be outsourced while processes that staff could do would entail skills development of the employees through further training.
“I am also empowering staff to say ‘no’ to their bosses; and don’t do things that are not necessary,” said Lim.
Known for its printers and cameras, Canon’s printer business has grown over 15 percent for the first half of 2014, while its cameras business has risen 26 percent, revealed a press release from Canon.
Canon’s total inkjet printer business has a 34 percent market share while its laser single-function printer has 35 percent. As for their cameras, the Canon EOS Digital SLR continues to be number one as it leads with over 59 percent market share.
