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

[ross nolly]

My only rangefinder is an old Yashica GTS so maybe I'm not qualified to comment, but here goes....

 

I'm a photojournalist, and a rangefinder would be perfect for my style of work. At the moment I use a D300, there's no way I can afford (or need a D3).

 

I'd love to try out a M8 but it's way out of my price range, not every pj makes a fortune.... My work is mostly documentary style work, often in low light & I can quite easily work with one lens (a 35mm f1.4 or f2 film equivalent)

 

I feel Leica needs to introduce a mid priced rangefinder at, or about a d300 price. There must be many like me who cannot justify $8,000 (New Zealand $'s) plus lens to trial a camera.

 

Surely Leica can make an introductory RF to introduce newcomers to the system. If Cosina (or Nikon?) can bring out a mid-priced RF with solid construction and a D300 or similar sensor, I'd buy it in a snap!

 

Also i like the idea of an M8 etc. being upgradeable, esp the sensors. If I trialled a mid price an itroductory model and liked it would definately look seriously at an upgradeable M8.

 

The introductory model would be an ideal backup camera to an M8. I need a back up camera for my work (I use my older D200).

 

Just a few ideas.....

[peteradownunder]

Classic case of cultural change required.<p> 1. Cease all manufacture of film bodied cameras - and make this a public announcement - with a commencement date for an all digital platform. <p> This would see existing bodies bought up by collectors and dealers looking to stock up whilst they can.<p>2. The massive increase in cashflow combined with decrease in working capital requirements combined with sacking all personnel associated with film camera only departments will provide company with capital to do two things:<p> a) Bring out a full frame version of the M series camera and;<p>b) a full frame version of the R series camera.<p> 4. Ensure that raw development is handled well by Adobe Apple and anyone else in the raw processing game. Bring out software plugins for C1 and Adobe so that lens vignetting ( for example ) is managed by user NOT by camera processing - thus removing need to have lenses recoded and sent back to Leica for same ..in this way remove double and triple handling of cameras.<p> 5. Provide 25% discount to existing owners for M8 for a second body/third body incorporating the M8 upgrade fixes - and when demand peaks for this stop making the M8 completely and focus all marketing on the full frame M9R10.<p> Simple fix for accompany is to commit to digital world or go out of business.

[Spearhead]

<i>most of these are product plans not business plan</i><p>This comment got ignored, but it's one of the few comments here that is worth reading. All the product ideas in the world aren't going to fix Leica's problems unless they are part of some coherent plan to go forward, based on market dynamics, company strengths and weaknesses, and available resources. All these "they should build this" and "they should build that" comments are useless in the absence of some plan based on business fundamentals and an analysis of what their position is. This isn't rocket science, it's pretty simple.<p>Interestingly enough, this points to the one comment that must have been intended as humor:<p><i>First I'd read this forum.</i><p>So the real question is how does Leica move from an image of luxury that has no appeal to pros and the vast majority of consumers, with a customer base of old guys getting older, and a somewhat unhappy (based on comments here, I have no actual knowledge) dealer network that doesn't include the high volume movers, or doesn't have their attention? Especially given that they have insufficient resources to build a technologically competitive product line outside of lenses and a high cost of design and manufacturing. Once all of these types of issues are enumerated and understood, then maybe there can be a productive business plan. Until then, as the original quote I made points out, it's a bunch of product plans constructed in the absence of any reasonable business plan.

[dimi3]

I wouldn`t launch M digital body and give CV an opportunity to produce digi-m-bodies for connoisseurs of Digital.

As it was mentioned above LEICA is FILM.