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If you were the CEO of Leica what would be your Business Plan?


Allen Herbert

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Well, if I were the CEO I'd be introducing:

 

1. A FULL FRAME M8-2 that uses SDHC cards.

 

2. A digital back for the M3 body on up.

 

3. A wide FILM M body for 21, 25, 28, 35, 40, and 50mm lenses.

 

4. A black IIIg body with an M mount & Leicavit.

 

5. I would make a run of 21mm, 25mm, 28mm, 35mm f/2, 50mm f/2.8 f/2 and f/1.4, and 90mm lenses in screw mount (both crome and black).

 

6. An entry barebones Leicaflex SLR body made by Cosina.

 

7. Make the Leciaflex lenses in Nikon F and Canon EOS mounts.

 

8. Set up an upgrade program where a custoimer can have their Leica screwmount bodies converted to M-Mount.

 

That will keep them busy for awhile.

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Leica's (Leitz) reputation and forte was built on outstanding optics. Not on camera bodies.

 

The company could, like Zeiss, manufacture manual focus lenses with Nikon F, and Pentax mounts for those cameras.

 

Then, when it realises that you can indeed build autofocus lenses to very high tolerances (i.e.Contax 645 standard)could manufacture such lenses for many camera bodies. Leica could become the "new standard" of independent lens manufacturers.

 

Just think, no matter what you shoot with, you could always shoot through a Leica lens!

 

Personally, if such an option were available, I would mount these lenses on my Pentax and Contax bodies tomorrow.

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Buy a plane ticket to Cupertino California and have several lunches with its most famous

resident to discuss how to change a small, struggling, respected company into a profitable

respected company. Then I'd rethink my partnership with Panasonic and design not only

cameras but devices that integrated the camera with the computer, Mac and PC. Leica

desperately needs a brilliant device to help pay for the rangefinder business, which must

somehow continue to survive. My suggestion is two-fold; an M9 film rangefinder with a

21mm viewfinder to compete price-wise with the Zeiss Ikon, plus a metal high-end point-

and-shoot digital, all under the Leica name but designed in conjunction with Panasonic or

Canon. The brilliant and popular device would be a digital wallet/image viewer done right.

Most are clunky and ugly. Reality? They will likely fold within the next 2 years.

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I would make a whole new camera with the sensor used in the Nikon D300, with a useable

ISO of 3200. Put an IR filter over the sensor instead of making lame excuses to cover up a

f**kup. Make the rangefinder an electronic autofocusing affair with an optical viewfinder with

accurate projected frame lines that account for the focusing distance. Allow for manual

focusing using electronic feedback in the viewfinder. Create 4 new 1.4 lenses to put on it for

a 35mm equivalent focal length range of 28/35/50/90. Make it the same size as the original

Leica IIIf. Watch them fly out the door.

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You have to get new people interested in the brand.

 

I would take the next 100 M8s that come off the production line and give them to up and coming photographers. Also give them a lens of choice.

 

I would then have a traveling exhibit of their photos shown in major cities around the world. You could entice people with a free 8 x 10 print of their choice.

 

I would also see about events such as the Oscars to give out M8s with the gift baskets. Have you seen the entertainment shows discussing what is in the gift bags? You are giving them to a client謥 that, for better or worse, sets the trends.

 

Small companies with high priced items have to have cachet. People with money have to talk about the product. People without money have to dream about having the product.

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Most Italian and French high end silk scarves are MADE IN CHINA, despite what the rich women think. The bulk of the work is done in China and someone in Italy "touches it up" to give it a Made in Italy label. Read about it in the Wall Street Journal archives. It was the lead story on the front page a while ago. That's the current business model.

 

China makes the best "value for money" stuff today, bar none. People on this forum pooh pooh Chinese goods, but for a day, stop using anything that has Made in China components, and the only thing you will be able to use is your outhouse, that you will have to manufacture yourself asap.

 

Leica needs to get hold of high quality suppliers who can build their gear cheaply. They already do this with the M film cameras and with their binos. Zeiss does it too. With the binos, you have to turn them inside out to see the Made in Ukraine label.

 

Nobody fussed much when they found out that R8, M6TTL and newer, etc. bodies were made in Portugal. There seems to be a racist attitude towards anything made in China. I would buy anything made in China, over the same thing made in most other countries (including the US), for their quality control is superb. Those who scoff at Chinese products are living in the past. Get real. If Chinese products weren't good, nobody would buy them. Our trade deficit with China grows everyday. Who is buying this stuff. Not people on this forum, but the rest of the US is, and happily so. We can't seem to produce anything here that is good, at a reasonable cost. We excell at pushing "services" and spa products. A mirage. Yes, that's what we love, money for nothing.

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1. I'd hire a very smart President.

2. I'd find the next "Steve Jobs digital engineering geek" and hire him.

3. I'd promote the brand much more. Probably thru schools as much as possible.

4. I like the lens idea above, but they would have to lower their price points.

5. I would try and lower prices in the camera end and try to pickup new optical business in any field.

6. I'd promote the company repair/refurbishment idea noted above but take it further.

7. I'd move the company green with alternative energies to cut energy cost.

8. I'm sure wages are high in Germany. Maybe they should bring some manufacturing operations to the USA? Worked for Toyota.

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Orville - "Buy a plane ticket to Cupertino California and have several lunches with its most

famous resident to discuss how to change a small, struggling, respected company into a

profitable respected company."

 

Wayne - "2. I'd find the next "Steve Jobs digital engineering geek" and hire him."

 

I'd just sell the company to Apple. New ad campaign "iLeica, to make pictures".

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Orville - "Buy a plane ticket to Cupertino California and have several lunches with its most famous resident to discuss how to change a small, struggling, respected company into a profitable respected company."

 

Wayne - "2. I'd find the next "Steve Jobs digital engineering geek" and hire him."

 

While here, Leica could meet me, but wouldn't have the money to hire me. ;-)))))

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1) outsource all "consumer" lens manufacturing to India or China

2) stop making cameras

3) focus on making "consumer" lenses for panasonic

4) focus on making "pro" lenses that mount to Canon and Nikon DSLR gear (what pros actually use)

 

leica has never designed a sensor. as such, they will always be playing catchup when it comes to digital cameras..they can never be "the best" again in that area.

 

nobody denies Leica's optics. the market for leica lenses on Canon and Nikon gear may well exceed the market for leica glass on leica equipment.

 

the "low end" consumer lenses on the panny cameras may well bring in more revenue than the M8 has/does....

 

it would be interesting to actually see what Leica's cost are, and where their revenue comes from...

 

as with any business...cut costs, increase revenue and market share to survive...

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Make AF-SLR primes for the Canon EOS mount. 24/2, 28/2, 35/1.4, 50/14, 60mm Macro,

85/1.4, 105/1.8.

 

Canon should be interested in this, as it gives them a partner against Zeiss, with their

Nikon and Pentax lenses. And, against Sony, with their Zeiss glass. Canon may need to

defend its position against Sony, with their 24MP 'flagship.'

 

Reduce the price of the M8 to under $3000. Bring the full-frame M9, without IR issues, at

under $4000. Figure out a way to make lenses that don't cost more than $2000. ANY way

at all. There shouldn't be a 400% price increase for a 2% performance increase versus a

Cosina or Zeiss lens.

 

FIX THE CUSTOMER SERVICE NETWORK.

 

Exhibit vintage and contemporary Leica-'branded' images at places other than Leica

Galleries. Sell the LFI magazine at magazine stands ? not just by subscription. Other

people need to see it, not just current Leica users.

 

Drop the luxury/snob appeal marketing. The current website campaign is an

embarrassment. They can still appeal to the snob contingent with a more targeted, less

obvious (and cheeseball) approach.

 

Make a compact digital, like the Canon G9, but with a big, glorious optical viewfinder.

 

Make a smaller CM II, same lens, but with a viewfinder like the Rollei 35. No LCD screen on

the back.

 

Start thinking like Innovators, instead of trying to kludge new, slightly late, technology

onto legacy products. The original Leica was an innovative product. How long can they rest

on that?

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Leica glass is the envy of most other camera users. Admit it and harness it. Make your lenses compatible with the most common camera bodies on the market via an adapter where possible. Make your new lenses lighter and compatible, as above.

 

Pride can be good thing, but is a double-edged sword. Swallow it and survive. Wallow in it and get left behind.

 

Sensors are the modern equivalent of film. Outsource them, as has always been the case.

 

Camera bodies are a means to an end. Keep them simple, there are too many choices already to start competing now. Focus on your strengths and future...glass and inter-system compatibility.

 

Get everybody on the same page.

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Come up with a marriage of Leica Camera and Zeiss. Zeiss has the Asian contacts that can manufacture exemplary lenses and bodies to exacting standards. Leica has the mystique - - and the engineers to design superlative lenses.

 

Apple computers and HP printers are manufactured in China, Toyotas and BMWs are manufactured in the US. Precision watches come from Switzerland.

 

Let's get off this kick that only Germans in Solms are capable and competent to produce Leica lenses. Why are BMWs sand Toyotas manufactured in the US such good machines?? It's because German and Japanese quality control standards are enforced, with Japanese and German technicians watching the process. The same can be true in camera land.

 

The real fight isn't about whose camera and lenses will survive. The Long term fight is whether film, per se, will survive as an archival medium.

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If the M8 produced excellent images in a silent way, as in days of old, I know a great many photojournalists (of all ages) who would find a way to buy one (just as they find the means to the 1D, 1DS, D3, and so on). As it is, though, the M8, with its loud shutter cock, IR contamination, and history of quality control issues, is just way over-priced. The bottom line is that its issues prevent it being a practical instrument for professionals, while its price prevents it, for most people, from being an affordable extravagance. If Leica can't or won't lower the price, they need to greatly improve the camera - in the direction of being a serious instrument. And they need to do it while not letting the price rise any more.<p>

 

Leica at this point is a luxury badge with a storied history. Besides that and a loud, expensive, digital rangefinder, they have in their basket a bunch of second-rate point-and-shoots made by someone else, Ukrainian binoculars, and great, expensive lenses that fit only on the rangefinder. Oh, and a couple of film cameras that, I imagine, very few indeed are buying. Not a pretty picture, is it?<p>

 

If I were the owner of Leica, here's what I would do. I would carry out the promise to take back the Leitz name. I would put a plant in China, staff it with home-country supervisors and equipment, and train a labor force. I wouldn't build my M8 or its lenses there, though (the world isn't ready for that and it might dilute the brand). Instead, I would build a series of <i>Leitz</i> pocket cameras along the lines of the Sigma DP-1. There would be at least three such cameras, one featuring a wide lens (24mm or so), one a standard lens (50mm), and one a portrait-type length (75 or 90mm). Each would feature an optical, high-eyepoint viewfinder with a single brightline frame, a near-silent shutter (with, if need be, manual shutter cocking), and a large, cutting-edge sensor with 14 or 16-bit A/D conversion.<p>

 

These cameras would be serious instruments available at a reachable price. Since I am building them in China (where my labor cost is maybe a tenth of what it is in Germany), I could keep the retail price under $2000 and still increase my margin (especially given the economies of scale I might achieve).<p>

 

The second thing I would do is partner with Tokina or Tamron or some other such third party manufacturer to make leica caliber autofocus lenses in popular mounts. I would have these made in China as well, in order to keep the price in the $1500-$2500 range.<p>

 

And the third thing I would do is to come out with version two of the M8 (while adding it to the a la carte program). This version would be quieter and eliminate, out of the box and by some means, the IR issue. Maybe that's easier said than done, but that's what needs to happen.<p>

 

Lastly, I might give some thought to working with my partner, Panasonic, to improve the image quality in the point-and-shoots.<p>

 

If Leica can do these things, or even some of them, they might have some new history to add to the old.

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The best rangefinder camera in existence. The only (AFAIK) rangefinder digital. But the company is struggling. Why?

 

IMHO two reasons:

 

1. They can't sell their overly expensive digital rangefinder to people like me - their best bet. I've got the lenses already, I'd like to move to digital, I respect Leica. But I'm not going to pay $6000+ AUS for the M8. That's not because I think it is flawed - far from it. It's because the price:value calculation doesn't work for me. If it was $3.5k AUS then it'd be a certainty. At $4k AUS highly likely. At $4.5k AUS still likely. But at $5k AUS you are losing me. Next when I spend whatever I spend I want to know that it has some future. That means the company/product line has to have a visible future. Not like my Konica-Minolta film scanner.

 

2. They're stuck in a closed cycle. What proportion of their body sales each year are to people who have no other Leica bodies? I would guess that it is a very small percentage. So how can the company grow or even maintain its turnover? It can't.

 

I respect the comments above about how to make cameras and lenses at a better price point. However I think that isn't rocket science. It's just common knowledge.

 

The problem is that you need a strategy that drives those decisions. As far as I can see Leica has been a strategy free zone - at least to any decent effect - for a very long time.

 

Strategy -> Effective Execution.

 

Leica appears to have neither.

 

If they can't sell me an M8 then they're completely stuffed.

 

Mike

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Were I the CEO, my priorities would be:

 

1) Do not make my company's problems the consumer's problems.

 

2) Fix the service issue: tighten up QC of manufacture where the issues are caused and in turn are overwhelming the service department ... plus beef up the service dept. Set up pro criteria express service for owners that can prove their professional status (LLC, Corp, website, etc.) When it works, the M8 produces excellent images that compete

with anyone while preserving the Leica rangefinder experience.

 

3) Refine the M8 via firmware: HCSD compatibility, better higher ISO performance, fluttering menu, etc. Work with Adobe to get better RAW processing via PS and LR, the most ubiquitous processing engines on the planet and inventor of the DNG file format ( if Kyocera had worked with Adobe out of the box, the Contax N Digital may have been a

different story since IT was the first full frame DSLR and sported Zeiss AF optics ... failing almost completely because of poor firmware and software.)

 

4) Extend every currently valid M8 warranty one or two years to signal a renewed confidence in the abilities of the company's after sale support. Provide free IR filters with any new lens purchase to owners with registered M8s.

 

5) Offer 2 versions of the M8: the current one, and one with the more silent 1/4000th shutter. I personally would have bought one of each for my work. Produce a M7 with the 1/4000th shutter. Should be relatively easy if the M8 shutter is compatible. If not, forget it.

 

6) Review the R10 closely. Don't worry about the other big players, optimize the R lens line up with a sensor that gets the most from what the lenses can do ... which does NOT mean meg count ... concentrate on quality of pixels not just quantity. The 12 meg full frame 5D was a landmark camera because of image qualities and no other reason. The

Nikon D3 followed that model and is a breakthrough for Nikon image performance. The Canon 22 meg camera is living proof that just meg count isn't necessarily progress.

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