[OoKU]

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LThUeVdRXGWDBsC5RiuiWA

The former president Noboru Akahane will return to the helm of Ricoh imaging on November 1.

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Last edited by OoKU; 10-27-2021 at 07:53 AM.

[Kunzite]

"This is definitely good news for PENTAX. It has been rumored that Akabane has set up a PENTAX revival team"
Hmm...

[ramseybuckeye]

"This is definitely good news for PENTAX. It has been rumored that Akabane has set up a PENTAX revival team"
Hmm...

Source?

[Kunzite]

It was on the article linked by OoKU.

[beholder3]

"This is definitely good news for PENTAX. It has been rumored that Akabane has set up a PENTAX revival team"
Hmm...

Those types of activitities can mean two opposing things:

a) someone really creates a new positive push with long term perspective
or
b) some dresses up the bride for marrying a new partner (selling it off)

The one thing this kind of rules out is shutting it down.


Let's hope for a). That will depend on the funds he is given.

I think, all recent products were great, all product decisions were very much in line what the market asked for (in Pentax DSLR world), so zero to complain here. They couldn't have done better.

The one thing that has limited everything is the glacial un-speed, which to me seemed like Pentax is only allowed to invest into new product production based on current earnings - once the previous products have made enough money.
While economically understandable, that emans slowly starving things.
We have to accept the more and more digital world with short product lifecycles.

[Kunzite]

Do I have to remember you how Pentax did better this year? With one high-end APS-C camera, one DA* and one D FA Limited? (plus the 3 HD FA Limiteds, of course).

[AfterPentax Mark II]

Question in another thread: why did the name Ricoh disappear from the K-boxes? I noticed something about Ricoh and Pentax on my new K-3 iii - PentaxForums.com Question answered?

[biz-engineer]

"This is definitely good news for PENTAX. It has been rumored that Akabane has set up a PENTAX revival team"

Change of CEO is not always good news. You never know what the CEO agreed to do on behalf of the shareholder to get hired. Maybe the new CEO was elected to close down Pentax because the current CEO refused to do it.

[Pål Jensen]

Change of CEO is not always good news. You never know what the CEO agreed to do on behalf of the shareholder to get hired. Maybe the new CEO was elected to close down Pentax because the current CEO refused to do it.

You mean the Pentax revival team is set up in order to close Pentax down?

[RobG]

You mean the Pentax revival team is set up in order to close Pentax down?

Surely anyone could shut a business down? Why hire someone who has past experience with the brand?

[Pål Jensen]

Yes, shutting down is a very strange interpretation of this news....
But I guess Pentax is doomed anyway....

[Mistral75]

Question in another thread: why did the name Ricoh disappear from the K-boxes? I noticed something about Ricoh and Pentax on my new K-3 iii - PentaxForums.com Question answered?

Let's say that both this change in labelling and Noboru Akahane coming back to take charge of Ricoh Imaging, possibly assisted by a 'revival team', could be interpreted as two preparatory measures taken by Ricoh with a view to divesting Ricoh Imaging.

Other interpretations are of course possible. Let's hope that Akahane-san won't be Ricoh Imaging's Shigemi Sugimoto.

[c.a.m]

Other interpretations are of course possible.

Of course there are various possibilities, including:

- Current President getting ready to retire.
- Current President moving to another position.
- Previous President moved to a temporary position in 2016 and now is returning in accordance with Ricoh's plan.

As for the labeling on the K-3 Mark III box, 'Ricoh' appears on the box, but not prominently. Perhaps Ricoh Imaging wanted to give superior prominence to Pentax, consistent with their promotion of the 'Pentax Principles' and their use of 'Pentax' to indicate both a brand and an entity, as in "Pentax believes in the future of SLR photography" and "PENTAX showed its commitment to the development of the optical viewfinder..."


- Craig

[JPT]

From Ricoh's point of view (I mean the larger Ricoh) this is just shuffling round executives between divisions. Japanese companies do this all the time as a matter of course for non-specialist employees at all levels. Typically after three years staff would not be surprised to be assigned somewhere else. It is a little interesting that previous guy is back. Perhaps there was a feeling that he was better in the job.

I do think that Takahashi-san was a good guy. He appeared at events, spoke personally in the promotion videos and even handed over the first batch of K-3 III models to customers with a complementary bottle of whiskey. I got the sense he was quite engaged and really trying.



?????PENTAX K-3 Mark III?????????????????????????????? - ???? Watch

I don't think it makes any sense to assume this is more than a personnel change.

[TwoUptons]

Let's say that both this change in labelling and Noboru Akahane coming back to take charge of Ricoh Imaging, possibly assisted by a 'revival team', could be interpreted as two preparatory measures taken by Ricoh with a view to divesting Ricoh Imaging.

Other interpretations are of course possible. Let's hope that Akahane-san won't be Ricoh Imaging's Shigemi Sugimoto.

Between this and the prior discussion concerning "finding partners", there are options that would be consistent with that or some level of joint arrangement.

-Eric