Doug Albregts
It’s been six months since Doug Albregts took over the reins at Sharp as the new president, replacing Ed McLaughlin. Somewhat of a surprise choice to many industry observers, Albregts’ background is mostly from outside the industry, but if one drills deeper down below the surface, his background is well suited to an industry that’s undergoing a tremendous amount of change. Throughout the course of his career Albregts has spent time in the IT space and had short stints in consumer package goods and financial services as well as managing MFP and IT products at Samsung.
What do you think of the industry after six months, do you feel settled?
Albregts: I do feel settled. I think the industry is going through a definite shift not only from a manufacturer perspective but from a dealer perspective. You see a lot of companies acquiring other dealers and from a manufacturer perspective you see companies acquiring IT VARs. And the dealer community is looking to expand their business into IT services as well.
We’re at an interesting point where we’re seeing a land grab between IT and the traditional copier space. In terms specific to printing a lot of companies are looking at ways to save money whether it’s MPS or in-sourcing printing services, being able to print on demand, and those types of things. Plus having the ability to capture that demand internally is another big trend which is paving the way for production products and higher end products, which is ultimately good for us.
It seems to be mighty quiet on the Sharp front although I’m sure it’s not. What have you been focused on for the past six months?
Albregts: One of the things I’ve done is examine where our business is today in light of where our business was and where the market is heading. I spent a lot of time trying to understand our model and what that model should be. First and foremost I’ll talk about product. We feel for the most part, from the product side, that we are about to enter into every category we need to be extremely competitive, not just in features, advantages, and benefits, but at all ends of the spectrum.
The most challenging part is what role we want to play in this industry. When you look at that, competitively speaking, a lot of manufacturers have taken an aggressive stance in not only competing with their dealers from a direct operation but in IT. Part of that is because they think the grass is greener, but they also think this is a revenue and profit opportunity. As a result, what has been lost in the whole equation from a manufacturer perspective is a focus on the partner.
When you go to our dealer meeting in July part of our theme and our intellectual property, if you will, is becoming an ‘irresistible partner.’ We think there’s an opportunity in that. It sounds a little clichéd, but becoming a good partner goes beyond better communication with dealers. It’s looking at things like how can we help improve their working capital for instance. At the end of halves and quarters manufacturers have become very aggressive in trying to incent dealers to load up on inventory and make bad business decisions. We’re looking at the entire equation and how we improve our delivery times and how we improve our dealers’ working capital that transform the business that’s not only good for the dealer but even better for the manufacturer as margins start to erode. We’re going to detail a lot of those things at our meeting in July. It’s that whole idea around ‘irresistible partner’ and how we change the way we do business. That’s the challenge we see today.
Looking at acquisitions where is Sharp on the acquisition front today?
Albregts: It will remain quiet. If you look at our history we took a defensive mode around acquisitions and tried to protect a large base of Sharp business so if a competitor came along we wouldn’t lose it. I want to make this clear, we’ve been defensive and it’s never been our intention to expand and create a big, robust direct business. It’s been to protect an existing business base.
We’re focusing all of our efforts at this point in time on our strategic opportunities in the partner community. Again, we think from a manufacturer standpoint they’ve been overlooked to some point. If you look at the direct operations of other manufacturers, they’re quite large and that has a lot of dealers concerned. Not only do we think we can leverage that opportunity to become a better dealer partner, we think we’re going to continue to see growth there because the dealers are the hands-on touch point from a relationship standpoint to end users. We’re investing in national account programs and programs that will drive greater synergies across a larger base of dealers so that dealer base can work together and facilitate business across the country. You’re going to see a lot of that dealer development I’m talking about at our meeting in July.
Are you looking to increase the number of Sharp dealers?
Albregts: We think our dealer base is about where we need it to be at this point in time. The old 80/20 rule where you have your top 20 dealers doing over 80 percent of your business—that’s not necessarily the case with us. We want to work to grow and expand those dealers who show initiatives and commitment to adapt to these new opportunities.
Single-line dealers vs. dual-line dealers is a better business proposition for us, but we have to earn that business. We have to earn that by putting together programs that drive a value proposition for the dealer. In terms of expansion we’re willing to expand where we can find that mutual value proposition and do our due diligence to make sure there’s enough in it for the dealer and Sharp.
From a product standpoint we have this message around ‘this is my copier,’ but this message is around customization. Without a doubt, customization is one of Sharp’s strongest capabilities when it comes to MFP products. From a company and an individual user with unique needs or preference when working with copiers, our philosophy supports this. We’re delivering an intuitive personal experience and that’s key, especially with Sharp OSA technology. That allows developers to customize applications and other types of software to a user’s needs. That’s become ever more important as companies look to save money and in-source more of those services.
What do you hear consistently when talking to dealers?
Albregts: They’re asking us when we’re moving deeper into the production space and completing our product portfolio. We’re going to have a very good answer for them shortly with the introduction of a new series of high speed, high volume products. Now Sharp dealers will have access to a complete product portfolio from desktop to CRD and they will be able to capitalize on the shift to in-sourcing their printing needs.
We continue to innovate by integrating distinctive and unique features into this product category. Features such as a triple-air feed system, a technology typically available only on the highest production devices which provides unprecedented precision and accuracy. We continue to enhance our second generation micro-fine toner technology which provides unparalleled color fidelity.
And they’re asking us how will we continue to lead with technology and when will we have a full product line? We will continue to lead with customization and integration technology and with the addition of the new high speed high volume products as I previously mentioned. Sharp will have a complete product line that is second to none.
With everybody emphasizing solutions, managed print services, managed services, where does Sharp fit into that discussion?
Albregts: It’s an interesting industry when it comes to managed services because managed services is different to everyone. Managed services means customer savings in the customer’s eyes. In the dealer community and manufacturer community it means some profit. But there really hasn’t been, in my opinion, a standardized method of MPS or anything at this point. We’ve taken an agnostic approach, but we do offer Sharp RemoteFleet which was awarded a Buyers Lab 2012 “Pick” award for “Outstanding MPS Solution.” Depending on which dealer or manufacturer you talk to they all have their own message. Our stance has been customization around specific products or around specific applications; we offer specific MPS programs and we also allow those programs to be customized. We also provide greater flexibility on the programs we offer specific to the dealers. We’re seeing all sides to it and we don’t think it’s prudent to take a specific stance, but to provide flexibility around our products and programs whether it’s specific to services or hardware.
What’s going on with the display products side, will there still be an emphasis on this within Sharp channel?
Albregts: One of the reasons I’m excited to be here is we have some product lines that expand beyond the document imaging space. The same thing you’re customizing on a user interface for a copier, which is something that can be stored in the cloud, which is something that can be used on our interactive whiteboard product, our AQUOS BOARD. And we have a 60, 70-, 80-inch product line and have done well with that. When you think about the office space and how it’s defined, there’s mobile computing and there’s interactive display type products and we’ve taken a minimalist approach—now we have the document imaging space taken care of and we have the interactive display space taken care of, whether it’s for digital signage or presentations and that’s key and one of the things that lured me here.
Your question is have we made that an emphasis for the dealer community and the answer is yes. It’s providing an avenue for dealers to grow revenues and expand into IT with the products that Sharp offers, but it’s also providing them an opportunity from a profit standpoint and to create stickiness with the customer. That’s something we don’t see a lot of our competitors doing or have the capability to do in the business space.
Do you get the sense it’s been an ongoing challenge to get the guys who have been out there selling copiers forever excited about this product segment?
Albregts: Every dealer is different, but the dealers overall are savvy business people and have done an exceptional job of managing their businesses and are seeing clearly where the business is going. We’re not asking them to sell solar panels, but they have made a very good transition to representing our entire product portfolio. We’re seeing a tremendous amount of traction. When I started six months ago there was a little bit of resistance, but I think through education we’ve been able to evolve that mindset and we look for that to be a viable channel as we take our display products and whiteboard products to the market.
I know the meeting is coming up in July and I’m looking forward to it, any hints as to what I’ll be seeing or hearing?
Albregts: I’ve hinted at most of that but there will be a heavy focus on the higher-end production products. That really rounds out our line, but we’re going to underscore that with our theme of being an ‘irresistible partner’. We’ll have some very interesting and fascinating things to talk about. It will definitely be different than before and you’ll find it informative. That’s all I can give you.
What’s been the best part of being part of Sharp for you?
Albregts: It’s a very dynamic environment. The company has made some very good strategic investments and we’ve got some great technology on the display side. I like what I see with the technology we have in A3 and we’re looking at many unique design elements moving forward in the A4 space that I think will take the market by storm that we haven’t released yet.
I think we’re a much more progressive company than we’ve been given credit for in the past as we push forward in the next 6-12 months.
What will Sharp look like 12 months from now?
Albregts: If you look at our current market share we’re a mid-tier to lower-tier player. The market isn’t growing by leaps and bounds by any stretch of the imagination, but what you’re going to see through our strategies, new products, and other things we’re doing, and what you’ll hear about at our July meeting is that we’re going to increase our market share and that will turn some heads.
