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INTERVIEW
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Lexmark by Apex Technology and
Samsung’s printer business by HP, some
have wondered whether Sharp’s printer
business will be next?
Sykes is quick to allay such concerns,
explaining that Sharp gives Foxconn a new
and important route to market.
"Sharp gives Foxconn added market
potential. With Foxconn's support, we
want Document Solutions to sell more;
both companies share the same ambitions
for Sharp to grow aggressively in the next
three to five years. That’s very exciting,”
he said.
“One of the concepts we can now
look at is ‘the smart office’, what we call
‘connected technologies’. We want to
be the one-stop customers go to when
they want to kit out an office or school.
Sharp could do the network cabling and
infrastructure; the IT equipment – servers
and laptops; the MFPs and displays;
the furniture of the future, which will
have technology built in; and even the
telephony. Because Foxconn is helping us
put that wider portfolio in place, all the
pieces will integrate and talk to each other.
That idea of the smart office is something
we want to pursue.”
Sykes adds that, short-term, Sharp is
already benefiting from the relationship.
“Foxconn has invested a lot of money in
some new A4 products, which has always
been one of the weaker parts of Sharp’s
offering. That’s underway now and we will
see new products coming to us within the
next 12 months. We also have a new Visual
Solutions range that we will be launching
at ISE next February. This will broaden
our reach with different functionalities,
different price points and some products
that are slightly different to anything else
on the market. That’s a real benefit – being
able to fill the gaps in our offering.”
4
Listening to our dealers
The final strand in Sharp’s growth strategy
is to listen closely to dealers to see what
Sharp can do to help them prosper, exploit
emerging opportunities and find new
annuity streams.
To this end, Sharp is setting up half a
dozen steering groups addressing specific
technologies and market areas, including
SMEs, enterprise, visual solutions, EPOS, IT
services and education.
“Steering groups will be made up of
key stakeholders from all areas of our
business – direct teams, indirect teams,
product marketing teams etc.. We are
saying ‘come and join us – let’s look at all
this potential, at the marketplace and you
tell us how we can help you’. We want
dealers to be involved in these steering
teams, so we can decide what’s most
important and how we can get there in
two, three or five years,” Sykes explained.
One of the main tasks of the steering
groups will be to establish how integrated
Sharp solutions can be packaged and
delivered to channel partners in a way that
makes it easy for sales people to sell and
implement them within Sharp’s broader
connected technologies concept.
Choppy waters
In the meantime, Sharp, like all
manufacturers, must deal with the
day-to-day challenges presented by an
increasingly uncertain economic and
political outlook. In negotiating difficulties
like Brexit and the weak pound, Sykes
says he aims always to put the interests of
dealers first.
“The pound was in a really good
position 18 months ago. Since then,
there has been a drop of about 15-18%.
Because we buy everything from Europe,
our costs have gone up by 15-18%.
That can obviously do nothing but hurt.
We have talked to our dealers and on
November 1 put through price increases
In negotiating
difficulties like
Brexit and the
weak pound,
Sykes says he
aims always
to put the
interests of
dealers first
of about 5%. We take the long-term view
that we don’t want to damage our dealers
who might find it hard to pass price
increases on to the market. The idea is that
when the pound eventually improves we
still have a strong channel and dealers who
remain in a good position. We don’t want
to make knee-jerk decisions that damage
our dealers,” he said.
And, of course, where there is
disruption, there is also opportunity. By
strengthening its channel engagement,
Sharp is likely to be an increasingly
attractive option for dealers affected by
market consolidation.
“Some major dealers in the UK dual
source HP and Samsung. They do this
for lots of reasons, but mainly to have
a stronger product line and to play
manufacturers off against each other. The
fact that those two product lines have
come together as one business could make
dealers look for another supplier so that
they are not beholden to one manufacturer
and have more options and choices. We
think this is an opportunity for us to talk to
dealers and get them to consider Sharp,”
explained Sykes.
Even in Sharp’s darkest hours, Sharp’s
global Document Solutions Business was
one of the company’s bright spots. Now,
with the backing of Foxconn and freed
from the financial constraints of recent
years, it has the opportunity to live up to
its potential.
