Manabu Yamazaki, the new president and CEO of Canon India Photo Canon India
On 5 April 2021, Canon India announced Manabu Yamazaki’s appointment as its new president and CEO effective 1 April 2021. Yamazaki takes over from Kazutada Kobayashi, who led Canon India for the past nine years.
In his new role, Yamazaki will be spearheading Canon’s business strategy and operations in India. His previous posting was as the chief regional officer for Canon in Eastern China, which also entailed overseeing various APAC region functions. He has been associated with Canon since 1989 and acknowledged by the company as a contributor to its business management across the European, Middle Eastern, Russian, and African markets.
Commenting on his appointment, Yamazaki said, “I am delighted and excited to join Canon India and to work closely with a team of highly skilled professionals here. As a vibrant nation, India is brimming with entrepreneurship and holds vast potential for exploring newer creative avenues. We, at Canon, are fully committed to the Indian market, and I am looking forward to building on Canon’s track record of success and innovation and continuing to deliver value and delight to all stakeholders. Considering the vast reach and diversity, we will continue with our endeavor of expanding product propositions and presence across different parts of the country.”
Yamazaki, who has worn multiple hats throughout his career, will oversee the strategic operations of Canon India. He is expected to strengthen the existing core businesses and bolster its imaging expertise in newer areas.
Canon adapted to changing customer needs during the pandemic and took its customer service to the next level. The company’s press release asserts that it successfully weathered the storm caused by the pandemic. It states that the company has constantly been adding new products to its portfolio and has expanded its regional outlets in the past year.
The Canon group employs somewhere near 200,000 employees across the world. (The press release gives a figure of 197776 employees as of 31 December 2017.) Canon India Pvt Ltd, set up in 1997, is a 100% subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pvt Ltd that markets over 200 digital products. Canon India has offices and warehouses in 14 cities with 1,000 employees and 850 channel partners. It also operates 250 retails stores for its camera products.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
