How Konica Minolta is Disrupting the Digital Workplace

October 31, 2017

Earlier this year I attended a program at the Connecticut Forum entitled “Disruption! Innovators in business, media and culture,” and was reminded that disruption is happening in all industries in diverse ways. The Forum’s preface suggested that the disruption that we have heard about is connected to “disruptive innovation,” a term coined by Clayton M. Christensen to mean “when a small company with fewer resources can successfully challenge incumbent businesses.” Facebook, Netflix and Amazon were cited as examples. Basically, it’s a new idea that prompts a shift in an industry, giving us a new way to operate.

While the panelists cited their experiences, I could see how the changes from these entrepreneurs were reshaping their industries and how they operate. Like journalist Ezra Klein and his vox.com business. He promotes himself and his business as new purveyors of information. Culinary mogul Danny Meyer noted the different ways he has set standards at his restaurants (like no tipping!). And attorney Anjali Kumar shared her experiences working at two great industry disruptors, Warby Parker and Google.

How is Konica Minolta disrupting the workplace? In multiple ways, actually. In the industrial printing production arena, we’re introducing long-established print shops to new digital features like hot foil finishing with our MGI Meteor printer series that increases their product offerings, increases their rate of return business and elevates their shops to “the next level,” as one client told us. Digital disruption has allowed these types of traditional businesses to see what their future workplaces can look like and how it can help them reap great benefits. Konica Minolta calls it “getting FutuREady.”

For many markets, our forthcoming Workplace Hub is truly a disruptor as it simplifies IT management needs for businesses of all sizes. This cutting-edge new product will provide them with just one vendor for all of their IT needs. It combines leading hardware, software, security, and a full suite of IT management solutions in one very smart platform.

In the information management services world – which has become increasingly more difficult in organizations with more unstructured data – we’ve seen great success with our Dispatcher Phoenix ECM. This innovative product provides the enterprise-level tools needed to reduce paper consumption and efficiently manage data of all types. And with digital assets to manage along with paper-based files, the task is daunting. So we’re really looking at a few key points:

  • Handling/storing/securing the structured and unstructured data
  • Finding information within the data stored
  • Using that data efficiently – with automated workflow solutions
  • Establishing a content management system or replacing an outdated legacy system
  • Consolidating to one-platform for ease and integration

For the visionaries running the business – large or small – they probably know that if they have not adopted a digital strategy they are quickly falling behind. In fact, they’re losing out on what digitization can do for their businesses. CEOs can continue along the same manual operations path for their processing, use paper, route approvals without the benefit of automation and patch an old system. But they will suffer in the long run. Chances are management probably has more innovative technologies in force at home. It only makes sense to bring that innovation to the office and reap the benefits a digital strategy can provide for the entire operation.

In one of its podcasts, McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm, discussed this very topic.

“A solid, industry-specific digital strategy and cutting-edge execution can set the stage for increased revenue growth and a better return on investment.”

McKinsey & Company
“Facing up to digital disruption:
Reinventing the core with bold business strategy”
March 2017

Will it flip the business on its head?  McKinsey indicates that “going digital is now a core strategy for many organizations around the world.” I call this the Operational Imperative for Digital Transformation (I also call it Achieving Digital Nirvana.) Depending on the industry, digitization could mean e-commerce or better deployment of a business’s offerings through a more robust website, but I’m referring to the workings of the business itself.  McKinsey calls this “digitization of processes” — replacing labor with software.

What can businesses do? Every business should assess its needs, its problems to identify the best solution. Embracing the benefits of digitization and building a strategy to implement the change for industry-specific business operations truly is imperative today. I’m proud that Konica Minolta can assist businesses in many vertical markets accomplish this.

As McKinsey says, just because you’re running quickly, “if you’re running in the wrong direction, it’s actually worse than standing still.” Make a strategic plan to help move your company in the right direction. Embrace digitization within your business model. Don’t be left behind. Be FutuREady.

Joanne Novak
Category Marketing Manager - DX

Joanne recently added digital transformation (DX) product responsibilities to her work as Product Marketing Manager-DX, with a renewed focus on VSS and Workplace Solutions. She provides strategic insight and SME direction, working closely with corporate marketing as well as providing a focus on the needs of the DX product portfolio. Previously, as a Program Manager, she was responsible for program development with Konica Minolta’s Business Intelligence (BIS) groups (e.g., Intelligent Information Management, Video Security Solutions (VSS)) building sales and customer-facing educational and thought-leadership insights as well as strategic initiatives. Prior to Konica Minolta, Joanne worked in a marketing and product management capacity in various industries including financial software, employee benefits, marketing consulting, footwear and textiles. She graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Economics, and earned an MBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan. Joanne is an avid rail-trail cyclist and looks forward to yoga classes each week.