Last week we received an email from Jim D’Emidio of Konica Minolta that deeply saddened me. He advised us that he was leaving Konica Minolta at the end of March. We have known Jim for more than three decades and always found him to be a softspoken respected leader of Muratec and Konica Minolta. Here is what Jim had to say.
“Tomorrow will be my last day (March 31st) at Konica Minolta. I just wanted to express my gratitude and thanks for everything The Cannata Report has done. The Cannata Report and Muratec America have had a great relationship for 30+ years. Although this is a farewell, I hope it’s not a goodbye. I’m looking to do something in the industry if only part-time. I hope to still be invited to the wonderful Cannata dinners in the future. Once again thank you for everything that you help me with.”
We have already assured Jim that he is already on our Awards Dinner invite list.
Through the years we attended many Muratec dealer events and visited Jim annually to get caught up in what was happening in the facsimile, A4 MFP environment he operated in, and more recently a line of label printers. No matter what the product, the dealer’s reaction was always the same. “We wish all our manufacturers were more like Muratec,” said John Kuchta of Solution One in Lincoln, Nebraska, now All Copy Products, when facsimile was all the rage in the late eighties and early nineties.
Paul and Bob Shields of Copytronics in Jacksonville, Florida, echoed a similar refrain. Yes, that was a long time ago but how the dealers felt about Jim did not change. When Konica Minolta acquired Muratec we do know he had some expectations that were not met but being the professional Jim is he said he was not at all that unhappy with how he was treated by Konica Minolta. We do not know what led to Jim leaving, we just hate to see a talented executive leave with years left to serve.
It has been my great good fortune to have known many outstanding American and Japanese executives who knew how to manage and led manufacturers who relied on their dealers. They all fully understood just how much revenue dealers contributed to their profitability. Of greater significance was their sense of decency, respect for others, and willingness to listen. They gained the trust of others by the integrity they exhibited when making very difficult decisions.
In our book, the following are among the best, Joe Castrianni Saxon/Sharp, Haruo Murase, Canon, Kirk Yoshida, Ricoh, Ann Mulcahy, Xerox as well as Ursula Burns who embraced the dealer model when they acquired Global. Ed McLaughlin, Canon/Sharp, Sam Kusumoto Minolta, and Jun Haraguchi, Konica Minolta. We must add Scott Maccabe, Toshiba to that list because he was that good.
Jim D’Emidio is in their class. We will never forget when Jim invited us to attend his first dealer meeting as President of Muratec. He led off the meeting by saying “Thank you all for being here and what you are doing for Muratec.” He quickly added, “You don’t need us, we need you.”
Jim was the consummate professional and someone we could always count on to tell us the truth. That may seem like a small thing but for those of us who are charged with telling an accurate story, it means a great deal. Jim always knew that if he was truthful with us, we would do all we could to make sure his message to the dealers was fully understood and supported by us.
Our fondest wish is that some other company appreciates what he has to offer. It would be a terrible waste if Jim is allowed to walk off into the sunset while he still has so much to give.
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