Brother focuses on ‘Transform for the Future’
BROTHER has announced a three-year strategy under the concept “Transform for the Future”, with the focus on sustainable development, the business-to-business (B2B) market and human resources.
Tomoyuki Fujimoto, managing director of Brother Commercial (Thailand), said the strategy for the 2016-2018 period was aimed at increasing competitiveness and stability for the future, as well as the skills of the Japanese printing-tech giant’s personnel.
By offering a variety of business solutions, Brother hopes to expand its market among corporate clients, he said.
Under the “Transform for the Future” direction towards 2018, the group’s business plan concerns transformational change in three areas.
The first is business transformation, where the purpose is to expand the business and tap into the B2B and corporate market.
The second is operational transformation, which emphasises internal improvements or changes within the organisation to achieve higher efficiency and flexibility.
Last but not least, talent transformation will assist the organisation in training personnel to be prepared for new developments and to acquire skills and knowledge in order to attain better performance, Fujimoto explained.
Teerawut Supphapinyo, director of sales and marketing at Brother Commercial (Thailand), said the company’s business strategy for its next fiscal year, which commences in April, would specifically focus on each product category by offering, first of all, training to Brother’s business partners so that they understand how to present different solutions to corresponding markets.
Secondly, there will be research for consumer insight to understand the nature of each customer group, in order to provide the right solutions.
The third element will be to expand distribution channels of the labelling-machine category to the industrial and electronic segments, he said.
The company will also expand the market for scanners by partnering with software leaders to enhance each product’s ability, create new solutions, and serve customer needs better.
Lastly, Brother will collaborate with business partners in the area of sewing machines for further activities in promoting sewing and embroidery machinery, he added.
Teerawut said Brother’s Thai business had experienced growth in all categories last year, when an estimated 5-per-cent expansion was achieved.
Some 50 per cent was from the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) market, 30 per cent from the consumer market, and 20 per cent from the corporate and government market.
“We have a large variety of products to manage in order to meet the needs of customers in all market segments, and marketing is the main factor to help the company grow steadily. Nevertheless, apart from that, we always come up with new products, such as high-end laser printers and multi-function machines, to approach new targets. Building on our unbroken string of success stories, we will continue to expand our customer base,” Teerawut stressed.
Brother has six offices in Asean – in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Business generated by Brother Commercial (Thailand) makes the Kingdom the largest Asean market for the Japanese maker, accounting for around 38 per cent of the group’s regional sales this fiscal year.
Thai sales revenue is expected to grow by a further 5 per cent during the next fiscal year, the sales and marketing director added.
