Restructuring / Turnaround Strategies Case Study

Konica Minolta: The Restructuring Strategies

Abstract:
On January 19th 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it would withdraw from the global camera and colour film business. It also decided to divest a plant, intellectual property rights and customer service operations of its cameras and other assets of digital SLR cameras to Sony for an undisclosed amount and discontinue production of its compact cameras by March 2006. Konica Minolta decided to focus on areas that did not directly cater to individual consumers but to offices and other organisations, such as digital Multifunction Products (MFPs), laser printers, colour office copiers, liquid crystal display materials, medical equipment and optical devices. These decisions were taken after the company incurred losses to the tune of $543 million in financial year 2005-2006 in its digital camera division.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To understand the reasons that prompted Konica Minolta to close down its global camera and colour film business
• To discuss the restructuring strategies adopted by the company to turn its fortunes around
• To debate whether Konica Minolta would be able to reinvent itself from a highly regarded camera manufacturer to a provider of multifunction products.

Keywords : Konica Minolta; Sony; Digital camera market; Restructuring / Turnaround Strategies Case Study; Commoditisation; Digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras; Growth of camera phones; Prosumer cameras; Minilabs; Revamp of management structure; Restructuring strategies; Digital multi-function products