Disruptive Technologies Were The Focus Of A KMBS Dealer Event In Los Angeles

By Bob Neubauer

Embracing the disruption that is reshaping our industry was the driving motivation behind a supercharged three-day event last month in Los Angeles hosted by Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Called the "Art of Disruption," the business conference brought together more than 1,000 Konica Minolta dealers for an intensive education and inspirational experience.

Company executives fired up the crowd, showing them glimpses of cutting-edge technologies like iris scanning and robots, as well as new Konica Minolta offerings, such as 3D printing and tactile varnish.

"The riskiest thing we can do is play it safe," declared Rick Taylor, KMBS president and COO, who took to the stage wearing a bizarre headpiece bedecked with a phone, calculator, clock, dictionary, a weather vane and more—wearable technology that he jokingly dubbed the "Taylor 2000." He noted that the company's substantial growth has come from "disruptive innovation," thus the "Art of Disruption" theme.

"I think disruption is actually the creation of new value," remarked Kevin Kern, senior vice president of marketing, who pointed to the way Konica Minolta disrupted office printing by driving the transformation to color.

President and CEO Shoei Yamana pointed out the company's 7 percent increase in net sales and 23 percent rise in production print sales for the nine months between April and December 2014, and touted KMBS's "customer-centric approach," which involves attaining a deep understanding of customers' businesses and needs.

The event featured an exhibition floor with more than 70 stations—the largest showcase Konica Minolta has ever held. Attendees lined up for 3D-printed action figures bearing their own likeness, watched demos of iris scanning technology destined to make passwords obsolete, and dodged Savioke delivery robots. They also checked out new wide-format printers—the result of an expanded EFI partnership allowing KMBS to sell EFI wide-format LED and UV inkjet printers like the 65˝ EFI H1625 LED printer—a tabletop label printing device—the IntoPrint EDGE 850—secure mobile printing displays, Midnight print management software, PageDNA Web-to-Print software, and much more.

After entering the 3D printing business last June with two high-end 3D printers, Konica announced it would begin selling an entry-level product next month called the Cube 3D printer. Kern explained that the company saw the need for a less-expensive 3D product for the K-12 and higher-ed markets.

In addition to product launches, trend forecasting and reports on company growth, the KMBS conference featured keynotes from entrepreneur Robert Herjavec from ABC's Shark Tank and David Feherty, golf champion and star of the Golf Channel's Feherty. There were also numerous educational sessions covering topics like Cloud technology, technology trends in education, selling with social media, leading change in your organization and mastering the new rules of sales and service.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.

Konica Minolta Disrupts LA