Canon Supply Chain Management

The Canon Company was founded in 1933 with the sole intent of producing the world’s best 35mm camera. By the 1960s, the company began to explore the imaging technologies industry and started developing business machines such as printers and calculators. In 1967, the management slogan "cameras in the right hand, business machines in the left" was unveiled and in 1969 the company changed its name from Canon Camera Co., Inc. to Canon Inc. (Canon Inc., 2013) This was a turning point for Canon; it began to spread geographically, opening offices in Europe and the Americas. Canon’s focus on product development led to their eventual overtaking of Xerox in the copying market. Since then, Canon has grown to become one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, while the firm's camera products continue to enjoy a high profile (Birnik, 2012). Fast forwarding to present times Canon has become a leader in the imaging industry. They boast a wide product mix ranging from personal and professional cameras, home and large enterprise printers and copy machines, and sophisticated industrial medical equipment. Canon is celebrating 80 years of business this year at their headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (Canon Inc., 2013). In the beginning Canon was strictly governed by a Japanese management style. This style relied heavily on collaboration of all parties involved, to produce superior quality products and services, as well as lifetime employment, and tremendous employee benefits. However, more recently Fujio Mitarai, president and CEO of Canon has adopted a “fusion of Eastern and Western corporate principles” (Kunii, 2002). The Canon Corporation calls their corporate philosophy ‘Kyosei’, which they define as “All people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future”. The philosophy continues to describe how the company believes they must “foster good relations… with their customers and the community” (Canon Inc., 2013). The

References: Birnik, Andreas (2012). The Branding Challenges of Asian Manufacturing Firms. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from http://www.academia.edu/246620/The_Branding_Challenges_of_Asian_Manufacturing_Firms Canon Inc. (2013). About Us. Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.canon.com/aboutus/ Heizer, J., & Render, B. (2011). Operations management (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Prentice-Hall. Kunii. (2002). How East Meets West at Canon. Businessweek. Retrieved April, 24, 2013 from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2002-09-12/how-east-meets-west-at-canon Mullins. (2013). Marketing Strategies for New and Growing Markets. McGraw Hill. Retrieved April 25, 2013 from http://answers.mheducation.com/marketing/marketing-strategy/marketing-strategies-new-and-growing-markets Tuttle, Mark. (2001). The Position of Canon: A reality Check. Retrieved April 25, 2013 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC116208/pdf/0010298.pdf