Taylor talks about plans for Toshiba

Office World News, Sep 1998 by Cullen, Scott

Office World News talks to the newly named vice president and general manager of TAIS.

In news that took much of the office equipment industry by surprise, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS) announced at the end of July that Brian Merriman, senior vice president of TAIS's Electronic Imaging Group (EIG), was leaving the company after four years to join Danka Business Systems PLC as president of U.S. operations. His position at Toshiba will be filled by Richard Taylor who was named vice president and general manager of the company's Electronic Imaging Division (EID) and Dennis Eversole, who takes over as acting group executive to EIG and CEO for TOPAC, the company's network of fax and copier dealers.

Merriman joined Toshiba in 1994 as vice president and general manager of EID after leaving Savin Corp., was instrumental in bringing profitability and respectability to Toshiba's EID. Under his guidance, the company saw annual sales increase at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 20% between 1994 and 1996.The company is growing at a similar pace today. Merriman's accomplishments have been recognized by the Business Technology Association (BTA), which honored Toshiba as Copier and Fax Manufacturer of the Year for three consecutive years. Merriman is also a six-time winner of Marketing Research Consultants' Office Equipment Executive of the Year award. At Danka, Merriman will likely be instrumental in trying to rejuvenate the former Kodak high-end copier business, purchased by Danka in 1997, and which the company has had difficulty assimilating into its operations.

Taylor, a 20-year industry veteran and former office equipment dealer, who joined Toshiba in 1995, previously served as vice-president of marketing for EID and was responsible for developing marketing strategy for the company's fax and copier divisions. As general manager, Taylor will oversee sales, service and marketing for EID's fax and copier machines sold throughout the United States and Latin America. Recently, Office World News had an opportunity to speak with Taylor about his new position, Merriman's legacy and Toshiba's strategic direction.

OWN: What does this announcement mean for Toshiba?

Taylor: There's a change and a loss in Brian's leadership that he's provided over the last four years. There's no doubt about that. But on a day-to-day basis within EID and to our customers there's not really a dramatic change. One of the things that Brian did well was develop a team of managers and allow them the latitude to manage their functional groups and to develop the strategies and the implementations and run their businesses. That team that our dealer customers or end-user customers have been working with for a long time remains in place and intact and is a known quantity. And I believe that the programs and the products that are in place will continue to drive the same kind of results we've had in the past. It's certainly a change at the top, but the rest of the people who are on this team are here and functioning as they have been.

OWN: What do you see as the biggest challenges for Toshiba during this transition?

Taylor: Our biggest challenge is to continue in the same uninterrupted fashion of tremendous growth and profitability and not miss a beat as we move forward. The likelihood of that happening with the management team that's intact and myself-- a pretty known entity to our dealer customers-should be pretty high.

OWN: Why are the EID, EIG and TOPAC responsibilities being divided between you and Dennis Eversole?

Taylor: Brian was promoted about six months ago to a job that had expanded responsibilities after four divisions within Toshiba became part of a group. So Brian, who was operating in the job that I was appointed to, continued to act in that job as well as his new senior vice president position. I believe that the end result of the transition that was taking place from separate divisions to a group, would have been the naming of a general manager for the EID division. Brian's departure just accelerated that change. Previously it would have been Brian in that senior vice president job and possibly myself in the general manager's job. What we have done is put back the continued focus from a general manager's level on the division business, which is good from a communication's standpoint for dealer end-user customers. And we're going to move forward in that manner. So Dennis has really picked up the additional responsibilities that Brian picked up some six months ago.

OWN: What is your vision for EID?

Taylor: The big advantage that Toshiba has that we're always cognizant of is the great dominance in the computer side of the business and the laptop business. Now that business has launched a line of desktop products as well as server products. When you look at being able to leverage resources and going in and selling a complete solution to a customer, we have a great advantage there. And the value of our brand name to MIS managers and IT managers really gives us an advantage coming in the door. The programs that we've put into place, the guarantees that we've got, the ability, for instance in our major account program to sell a variety of products-imaging products, output devices as well as document creation devices-the computers that we sell, are a unique advantage that our dealers have that others will have a hard time replicating. We're going to look for ways to try and leverage our strengths. And that's where the challenges of leadership and coordination come into play.