The corporate philosophy of the Canon company is defined with one word: kyosei. It summarizes, in Japanese, its approach so that all the people who are part of it, regardless of their race, culture, customs or language, work together “for the common good.” The enthusiastic corporate creed of the Japanese group has a much broader and more philosophical development, and revolves around what Fujio Mitarai, its CEO, mentioned: in the last presentation of results: “Change is progress.”
Canon has had to change its skin several times. Born as a optical instrument laboratory in 1933, its first 35-millimeter camera (called Kwanon) was introduced three years later. Over time they would range from X-ray machines to television cameras, film cameras, calculators, photocopiers, glasses, voice recorders and even personal computers. Eight decades later, the company is focused, to put it simply, on digital document management and chip manufacturing, but it has not lost sight of his lucrative business of cameras and printers. It has a turnover of about 28.5 billion euros in the world, employs 180,000 people and earns 1.7 billion, according to its latest report from 2023. A quarter of all that business comes from Europe, and a small part – the company does not detail it, but the accounts in 2022 they talk about 151 million euros—from Spain and Portugal.
Javier Tabernero, president and CEO of Canon in the peninsula, remembers that today “Canon is the product of a lot of patents, innovation, but also of company purchases.” Between 2018 and 2022 it was one of the top five companies by number of patents in the US, only behind firms such as Samsung, IBM, Tsmc or Huawei. Spurred by e-commerce and more sophisticated communication needs in photography and video around the world, it is growing especially in its area of equipment sales to companies. It also leads the home printing segment. But what is really driving their bottom line is “the digital management of documents and processes,” explains Tabernero.
Until 2022, their sales in Spain were accounted for by the commissions they received from the European parent company domiciled in the Netherlands, that is, they did not record in their accounting neither the total sales nor the risks or obligations associated with them. The system changed from 2023, so that the accounts will now reflect what Canon distributes in Spain and Portugal through shops, the professional channel or distributors and wholesalers. “In the world, sales growth has been 3.7%. In Spain we have been above it,” Tabernero contextualizes without providing more data on the year. “Digital transformation offers us a relevant role. We have grown in some of these areas by over 30%. In the traditional printing world, the office market is declining and we are growing.” Traditional forms of offset printing (aluminum plate on steel machines) are being replaced by new digital technology that allows for greater savings.
At the center of this transformation is the mother of all battles: the manufacturing of chips, without which artificial intelligence, the internet of things or robotics would not be possible. Canon wants to break ASML’s dominant position to meet the demand for semiconductor manufacturing systems at lower prices. This year it has promised to bring cutting-edge nanoimprint lithography manufacturing technology to market in order to be able to commercialize it soon. If you succeed, you could Reduce costs and save energy in the mass manufacturing of ultrathin semiconductors (technically they will be two nanometers in size, smaller than those available now). The Japanese believe they have a competitive advantage because they developed their first semiconductor lithography equipment in 1970 and are now used to produce essential semiconductors, such as logic and memory chips, 5G devices or power devices for cars. “Almost 10% of our global sales They are from machines that manufacture semiconductors. We have that competitive advantage, we are capable of creating more efficient chips, smaller, cheaper machines, to be able to manufacture those chips, and with this we try to compensate for the tendency towards inflation in general,” says Tabernero. They also have a large business area in the production of LCD and Oled screens for televisions, smartphones or tablets.
Different applications
The Spanish executive talks about how the tools they already have and those that are on the way give them very important leadership in technology with many applications. “From capturing reality through medical equipment (CT, MRIs, ultrasounds) to optics in photography and video. All this information processing is based on microprocessors, which are key.” The documents, photos, videos or metadata that are generated every minute require a filing system, a history of modifications and privacy and security guarantees. The Japanese company is dedicating 8% of its turnover to R&D, with nine centers in Europe and software companies that are part of the group, such as Milestone in Denmark, NT-ware in Germany or Briefcam in Israel. “The digital management environment is one of the areas where we are showing strong leadership, both organically with hiring and purchasing companies. The other part is that all that digital information must be transferred to physical reality, and that is the printing part.” Regarding the dangers of generative AI, he gives the Japanese management model as an example. “In companies we have codes of conduct, AI management committees, and we seek to make it robust, explainable. We seek to ensure that there are responsible people behind the use of these technologies and that they are applied for the common good.”
Darwin said that the species that survive are those that adapt best. “I add to that that they are the companies ‘that adapt the fastest’. This is what we contribute at Canon,” concludes Tabernero.
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