Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 18/2/01 10:36 AM, Martin Howard at howard.390@osu.edu wrote: > Da-Jie Lin jotted down the following: > >> If I were the boss of Leica (or the biggest share holder), I would still make >> it even at a slower rate like 5 pieces a month and even I had to lose money. > > I think that if you made it at a loss, you probably wouldn't stay the boss > of Leica for very long. Which is true of any business. They are, after > all, a equipment manufacturing company, not an optical charity. > > M. That depends very much on the policy of the company. We have been the distributor for Matsushita Electrics (manufacturing company for Panasonic, National and Technics) for over thirty years, and I can assure you that some of their products are loss making. However, they stay in production because of the prestige and image of these models represent, and in the long term, they believe the experience and know-how gained from manufacturing these models will be beneficial. For example, money is lost on every plasma TV sold at the moment, despite their lofty retail prices. But if none is made, nothing is learned and we will still be watching CRT TVs in fifty years time. I can come up with a long list of examples, and in short, this is the difference between the long term strategy and a myopic view taken by a company. As I am also a businessman myself I do not believe every item I sell has to be profitable. As long as the business on the whole stays in the black, it is perfectly OK if some items are unprofitable but are valuable to customers. If every item had to be profitable, I guess we would all be paying $30 for a Leica strap and $15 for a Leica lens cap! Just my 2 cents..... Joseph