A Pleasant Conversation with Toshiyuki Yamada, President of Konica Minolta Turkey

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Konica Minolta Turkey President Toshiyuki Yamada about his professional experience in the sector, the products the company has offered to the industry, and the Turkish market.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

I studied at Sophia University in Japan and graduated from the Department of Economics. I joined Konica Minolta in 1999 as a specialist in the Order Management and Logistics Department. Later, I worked in the Overseas Sales Department and handled the Asia-Pacific Middle East region. Before coming to Turkey, I worked in Germany from 2007 to 2012. I came to Turkey in 2012 as Vice President and have been serving as President of Konica Minolta Turkey since 2013. Could you outline the development process of your company from its establishment to today? Konica Minolta was founded in 1873 and is an established company with a long history. Since its founding, it has expanded its business areas by serving many different sectors including office equipment, optical systems for industrial use, and diagnostic imaging systems. Konica Minolta currently operates in 9 different business divisions. Konica Minolta Sensing, which serves the paints and coatings sector, provides optical technology that enables precise color and light measurements. Users can more easily reach their desired quality and operational targets. Through solutions obtained with Sensing devices, they can achieve more accurate and precise results.

Could you provide information about Konica Minolta's organization in Turkey?

Konica Minolta Business Technologies opened its head office in Istanbul in 2012. Before that, it provided services through distributors in Turkey. However, in 2012, the company decided to open its own office directly and began operations by opening offices in Ankara, Antalya and Bursa in addition to the Istanbul center. Currently, we serve in Turkey both through our own offices and through our dealers. We now have the capacity to serve throughout Anatolia with over 130 Konica Minolta employees directly and through a network of over 20 dealers. Could you provide information about your product groups and the sectors you serve? As I mentioned, Konica Minolta serves in 9 different sectors. These are: Business Technologies, Measurement Devices, Medical, Optics, Industrial Inkjet, OLED Lighting, Performance Materials, and Planetarium. While we have been present in Turkey as Business Technologies since 2012, Konica Minolta Sensing Measurement Solutions began service in 2016. The Business Technologies unit covers photocopiers, printers and documentation solutions, while Sensing devices produce solutions for the plastics, automotive and paints and coatings industries.

Could you tell us about your research and development activities and investments?

The Konica Minolta Group, as a result of years of research and development on imaging technologies, which is our core business, developed a series of advanced patented technologies and continued this in the fields of office equipment, optical components, medical imaging products and measurement devices. As Konica Minolta, while on one hand pursuing initiatives to enter new business areas by utilizing the advantages of our core technology to achieve greater growth, we are simultaneously working to expand our existing business areas and operations. The Konica Minolta Group's technological strategy is based on three fundamental policies: creating new value by integrating and advancing our core technologies, promoting technological advancement to reach Medium-Term Environmental Plan targets, and raising our research and development capacity to the world's highest quality standards. Along with our technological strategy across the Group, we have identified 12 core technologies in four business areas: materials, optics, nano-manufacturing and imaging. We create new value by developing and subsequently combining and integrating these core technologies. In particular, thanks to our organic substance synthesis technology developed through our long-standing experience in photosynthetic materials, lens production and film manufacturing, as well as our optical design technology and film production and coating technologies, we are developing the world's first organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting through coating.

How do you follow global printing trends?

Konica Minolta is one of the world's most important and globally leading manufacturers in printing technologies. As a brand of this scale, we are not just following trends; we are one of the brands that actually determine those trends. Why do you think companies prefer your company? For us, the key phrase is "Quality comes before quantity." This is our core value. The biggest distinguishing feature that sets us apart from our competitors is this value. We continuously invest in the quality of our total service. At the same time, we approach our customers not only as a vendor but also as a consultant. We work with our customers to determine how they can grow their businesses.

Could you discuss your company's working principles and vision?

Our vision is in line with our global vision. To be a significant brand on a global scale, your company's messages must shape ideas. We have 6 working principles: open and honest, customer-focused, innovative, passionate, inclusive, collaborative and accountable. Our aim is to shape ideas that will contribute to a better future for everyone, understand our customers' needs from our perspective, and know what they are thinking in advance in order to create solutions to the challenges they face in their businesses.

Could you provide information about Konica Minolta's environmental policy and sustainability approach?

Konica Minolta's Environmental Policy is built on integrating environmental, economic and social perspectives into business strategies. Konica Minolta has established a vision called Eco Vision 2050 as its long-term environmental vision. This vision properly directs Konica Minolta toward achieving its future goals while contributing to a sustainable world and society. Eco Vision 2050 has set concrete targets such as reducing CO2 emissions by 80 percent throughout the product lifecycle by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Konica Minolta also created the Medium-Term Environmental Plan 2016 to be able to reach the targets outlined in the Eco Vision 2050 vision. At Konica Minolta, protecting the environment is an important part of our daily work routine. As one of the leading brands in the Business Technologies field, we feel responsible. "Creating new value" is an integral part of our management philosophy.

Could we get information about your employee profile? What kind of efforts do you have in place to provide better service to your customers and meet their expectations?

We are a service-oriented company, therefore the quality of our employees is of vital importance to us. We currently have over 130 employees and I trust each colleague in their area of expertise. For our employees to properly understand our customers' needs, we place equal importance on their communication skills as we do on their expertise. On the other hand, as a Japanese, I would like to state that we have achieved successful working harmony with our Turkish employees. Could you summarize your expectations and targets for 2017? In 2017, we aim to grow by uniting all Konica Minolta units and creating value for Turkish society.