Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/25

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] 21 mm Leica finder
From: Charles Dunlap <cdunlap@es.UCSC.EDU>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:28:40 -0800

>and Leica is
>still losing money, they must much some amazing inefficiencies in their
>company.

Perhaps, but the factory is in Germany. They operate under entirely
different laws than the factories in other parts of the world that produce
the cheap consumer goods that we enjoy. Leica might be very efficient given
the rules they operate under (such as a 40 day yearly payed holiday for
every employee).

One of the reasons that Asian economies are collapsing is that they ran out
of new markets. Because of incredibly low wages, the domestic markets in
places like Indonesia did not grow. As someone noted in a different post,
Leica has a very strong domestic market. My point is not that Leica can
survive selling cameras only to Germans, but that the German system is
closer to viable than the failed Asian model.

- -Charlie