Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/25

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Leica USA no longer selling repair parts
From: "Jim Shulman" <garcia@chesco.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 15:50:40 -0400

I have a few comments about Leica's support of antique models.

Within the last several months I've seen two M3s that Leica USA had
serviced.  You could best describe the workmanship as breathtakingly
adequate.  They worked OK, but certainly not up to the standards that a
Leica user really should expect.  I say this because I've also had
cameras that had been serviced by Sherry Krauter, and the difference in
quality couldn't have been greater.  Given a choice, I'd send my cameras
to a technician who really cares about the equipment, such as Sherry, or
DAG, or John Van Stelten, among others.  If I had to depend on Leica to
service my old equipment, I'd dump it all on eBay and get something
entirely different.

What's the point of putting up with a Rolls if it's going to run and
feel like a Chevy?

Leica is not some company that's selling mass production cars, such as
GM or Porsche.  Leica is selling nostalgia--nostalgia for workmanship,
nostalgia for a largely non-automatic technology.  If you want a better
analogy in automobiles, look at Morgan in Malvern, UK.  They decided to
stick with 1936 ash frame technology, with occasional updates of engines
and some other components.  Their production is limited, they have a
group of wildly enthusiastic adherents around the world, and it takes
several years to get a new car from them.  You drive a Morgan because
you want a Morgan, and not a Porsche or BMW.  They have decided to serve
a target market that appreciates what would otherwise be considered an
obsolete product.  

When Leica announces that they will choke off the remaining parts supply
to the network of craftspeople who are keeping the mystique alive,
they're doing incalculable damage to their brand and core group of
customers.  Just as nostalgia for their 1950s and 60s cameras lead to
the MP, the company needs to realize that many buyers also assume that
the organization will be supporting their camera long, long after
everything else had bitten the dust.  If Leica is perceived as just
another camera company, following conventional large business practices,
its products risk becoming (in the eyes of their clientele) mere
cameras--in this instance overpriced, technically backward, and largely
wedded to the rapidly shrinking film marketplace.

WE'RE really the lunatics who are keeping the doors open, merely by
talking up the value of the products, swapping stores, and posting
pictures made each week.  Take away the enthusiasts, and who's going to
influence their friends to buy the stuff?

Jim Shulman
Bryn Mawr, PA


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Gary
Williams
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 3:07 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica USA no longer selling repair parts

Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica USA no longer selling repair parts


> Exactly. Strategy versus tactics. Win the battle and lose the war.
>
> JB
>
> On Friday, July 25, 2003, at 01:56 PM, Clive Moss wrote:
>
> > Leica is simply making another misstep in a long line of missteps.
It
> > has
> > failed to respond competitively to several rounds of "disruptive
> > technologies" in the Clay Christenson sense. What appears to be
> > reasonable
> > tactical management can often be awful strategic management.
> > See e.g. http://www.disruptivetechnologies.com/ccinterview.html
> > Kodak seems to be going down the same path, as did Polaroid.
>
> --
> John Brownlow


As both a newbie to Leica (with no Leica baggage) and as a person with
over
20 years of experience in the business world, I have a slightly
different
take on this topic.

Leica is probably the only company in the world providing active support
of
products that are 25-35-50+ years old.  B.D. a.k.a. "Mr. Sunshine"
compares
the Leica decision about parts sales to individuals to requiring owners
of
new automobiles to get repair service only at dealerships.  This analogy
is
flawed.  Try taking your classic 356 Porsche or '55 Chevy today to a
dealer
to get it repaired.  Not even B.D.'s charm could pull this off.

The real issue here is not some kind of corporate bumbling, or
conspiracy to
squeeze out the independent repair folks, or any other act of
malfeasance by
Leica.  How many years have elapsed since many of these Leica camera
parts
were last produced?  Is Leica willing to retool production to make more
rangefinders for the M3, or shutter assemblies for the SL2?  Or willing
to
contract a third party to manufacture a limited production run?  In a
time
and in an industry driven more than ever by "disruptive technologies"
(to
borrow a phrase) and economic challenges, this is absurd.

The simple fact is Leica is running out of many spare parts after all of
these years of support.  Leica is in a no win situation with this.
Eliminating sales of parts to individuals may not be the result the
Leica
classic user wants in the short term, however, it's the only decision
that
makes any sense from a company perspective.  Eliminating sales of
dwindling
parts inventory to individuals insures that Leica has access to any
remaining stock so that Leica is in a better position to continue its
support of its antique models.

Gary

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