Re: Japan vs. Germany

["Roger L. Beamon" <beamon@primenet.com>]

Interesting dialog between Mssrs. Love and Small, even if not totally Leica
oriented.

I have a concern for Leica's future also, though I strongly suspect that
many have had similar concerns for many years. Leica has managed to, not
only survive, but to survive with a bit of profitability. This leads me to
delineate my concern.

Leica's upcoming IPO, I fear, may be their "Waterloo", unless handled with
extreme skill. Until now, their very size and apparent content to dominate a
niche market has worked to their advantage. Staying out of the mass market
was accomplished both by their need to and their continued pursuit of
manufacturing excellence. 

The infusion of new capital through the IPO will remove the first of the two
factors cited above. An arguable decrease in manufacturing excellence may
now be underway, and, if true, will wipe out the second factor cited. Anyone
examining a III f/g, and an M3 against an M6 must admit that manufacturing
shortcuts are now underway. 

Very persuasive arguments can be advanced for this, but if continued, in
concert with the added capital availability, they will be forced to compete
with Canon/Nikon et al. for a share of the mass market. My fear is that
there may not be enough capital available to ramp up the necessities e.g.
physical plant, engineering, production workers etc. to the extent
necessary, to properly compete, and that they will be left with the
overhead, but not the sales to justify the overhead. This is a formula for
disaster. Leica's position, described by Ward, as a tick in the parent
company's list of holdings, might enhance the perceived necessity to grow
larger.

Please remember that the above is being expressed by a "kid" who could never
find the pony in that room filled with manure at Christmas. Won't someone
please put my mind to rest? A Leicaless [sic] world would not be pleasant
for me!
     --
     Roger Beamon,  Naturalist & Photographer
                               Docent:  Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
                               Leica Historical Society Of America
                               INTERNET:  beamon@primenet.com