Canon compensation program is too generous, was rumored to be "malicious compensation"
Canon compensation program is too generous, was rumored to be "malicious compensation", along with the development of smart phones, the market size of small digital cameras has been different from before. The impact of the epidemic and chip shortages, but also let Canon Zhuhai factory operations unsustainable. Canon compensation program is too generous, rumored to be "malicious compensation".
Canon's compensation package is too generous, rumored to be "malicious compensation "1
Some time ago, Canon announced the closure of its Zhuhai plant, which has been in operation for 32 years, triggering concern on the Internet. What attracted more attention was the very generous economic compensation for employees of Canon Zhuhai.
According to Canon Zhuhai's announcement, the compensation is divided into five parts: financial compensation, special consolation money, employment support, remembering bonus and Chinese New Year condolences.
Regarding the economic compensation for the termination of labor contracts by enterprises, the Labor Contract Law stipulates that the calculation standard is that if the average monthly salary of an employee is higher than three times the average local social salary, the three times amount will be calculated as the upper limit, and the maximum number of years for calculating the number of years of service will be 12 years, but the upper limit is not set for this preferential program of Canon Zhuhai.
This compensation harvested a lot of praise, some netizens commented on the "breakup happy" model. However, there are also different voices, said this is "malicious compensation", deliberately pulling up the compensation standards of domestic enterprises, "disturbing" the market environment, it seems that Canon does not have good intentions. For a time, the "malicious compensation" argument is widely spread, but this argument against common sense is clearly untenable.
In a market economy, it is normal for companies to rise and fall. Because of the impact of smartphones on the card camera market, Canon chose to close the Zhuhai plant, which is based on the choice of the market and business conditions, and generous compensation, Canon voluntarily chose to "leave with dignity".
Canon's compensation standard may be higher than the legal standard, but it is not difficult to understand. What the law provides is the bottom line, and the reasons for companies to raise themselves above this standard may be diverse, either because of corporate culture, or financial strength, or, of course, utilitarianism, but also because of the long-term rewards to be gained by shaping the reputation of the company and its corporate image.
But in any case, it's encouraging to see companies treating their employees more generously, and both sides parting ways peacefully. And it's clearly inappropriate to judge Canon's severance package in a heartbreaking way. If you are substituting yourself as an employee who is about to leave, who doesn't want to be fully compensated for his or her labor, who doesn't want to have a sense of security?
Objectively, Canon's compensation standards are indeed higher than those of its peers, which may cause some "pressure" on other companies. But there is no need to worry, Canon voluntary, but will not and can not force other companies to "copy homework".
In fact, China's laws and regulations on the economic compensation of workers is very detailed, the calculation of the amount of money is not low, a lot of provisions are biased in favor of the protection of the rights and interests of workers.
For example, when employees leave the unit, "more than six months less than a year, according to the calculation of a year; less than six months, to pay half a month's salary to the workers of the economic compensation" and so on, are more favorable to the workers.
If the enterprise can be in accordance with the provisions of the law in full compensation, even if it is not as generous as Canon, it is also the responsibility of the enterprise, the same is decent.
Therefore, the public should be happy to see Canon's performance, and vilification is clearly not an appropriate judgmental posture. At the same time, the incident is also a reminder, Canon compensation than the legal requirements, not to require different conditions, financial strength of different enterprises are on the standard of ultra-high standards, but more should focus on the "legal requirements" four words. These four words, that is, enterprises must not break through the bottom line requirements.
Canon's compensation package is too generous, rumored to be "malicious compensation. "2"We didn't do anything wrong, but somehow we lost." This quote from former Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila is regarded as a classic, and is always mentioned whenever a company is reduced to "tears of the times".
In 2012, Kodak went bankrupt; today, ten years later, history repeats itself, with news of Canon's Zhuhai plant shutting down. They didn't lose to anyone, they probably just lost to the times that rolled on.
Now, Kodak, with its chemical strengths, into medicine; Canon and Sony, intend to rely on the lens to grab opportunities in the body of the self-driving car. Will there be a bright future for all of them, who once framed eternity?
The first iteration
The story of framing eternity begins more than 100 years ago, when Eastman Kodak was born in 1889, in the wake of a trend toward gelatin dry plates replacing wet-plate photography.
Kodak has taken every step since, from the Browning box camera to the foolproof camera to Krome film. Founder George Eastman proudly said, "All you have to do is push a button, and we'll do the rest."
The last two decades of the 20th century were Kodak's high-water mark, and in 1996, Kodak's annual turnover reached $16 billion, with a net profit of more than $2.5 billion, making it the fourth most valuable brand in the world.
By 2002, even after a hundred years, Kodak was still head over heels with the title of film king, still with a global turnover of $12.8 billion, and a total workforce of about 70,000 people.
But ten years later, it was no more.
In the new century, digital cameras to replace the film trend, Kodak went to the last step. 2012 January 19, the United States, New York, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection under the Bankruptcy Code. At that time, the document shows that Kodak's existing assets of 5.1 billion dollars, but the debt is 6.8 billion dollars.
The same year that Kodak went bankrupt, Canon's turnover reached 3,479.7 billion yen, which at the time translated into about 40 billion dollars, and ranked 224th in the 2012 Global Fortune 500. The backdrop at the time was still the global economic downturn following the European debt crisis, which led to Canon's first drop in sales and profits in three years.
At that time, the era of . Light already belonged to the company founded in 1937. With its 35mm lens shutter and 35mm SLR camera Canonflex, Canon came to prominence only in the mid-to-late 20th century.
Responding to the tide of mechanical engineering and electronic technology, in the mid-1980s, Canon brought to market high-grade AF SLR cameras with their own distinctive features, and the EOS system ushered in a new era of SLR cameras.
In 1989, 100 years after Kodak's birth, Canon still focused on film, but Canon had already launched the top of the line EOS series, the EOS-1 series, with high image quality, high speed focus, and continuous shooting capabilities, which were well received by professional photographers.
Years of accumulation, finally broke out at the beginning of the new century, in 2006, in the U.S. camera market, Canon's shipments reached 6.069 million units, officially surpassed Kodak, with a market share of 20% to become the new dominant.
At the end of the first decade, global digital camera sales peaked with over 120 million units sold annually.
Decade after decade
The changing of the times spares no company, and ten years later, it was Canon's turn.
January 15, 2022, was supposed to be the 32nd anniversary of Canon Zhuhai Ltd. But before that, the announcement circulated on the Internet showed that Canon Zhuhai Limited on January 12, 2022 officially announced that it would terminate the company's production, and proposed a compensation package for employees.
From the statutory economic compensation to the special consolation money, Canon Zhuhai to give a generous compensation package in the social media platform was rumored, was teased "good get together and good riddance".
Moving is still there, but the market is ruthless.
As an important production base of Canon in China, Canon Zhuhai Ltd. is the first Fortune 500 company to enter Zhuhai, and its production of card digital cameras had accounted for half of Canon's global card digital camera sales, with an annual production capacity of up to 20 million units.
It's all in the past. 2020, Canon Zhuhai actually produced 12.29 million lenses, 1.029 million digital cameras, 94,000 digital camcorders.
Canon's retreat in Zhuhai is just a microcosm of the decadence that showed its head a few years ago.In 2017-2019, the turnover realized by imaging system products centered on cameras, lenses, and imaging equipment was ￥1099.13 billion, ￥970.44 billion, and ￥807.41 billion, respectively. By 2020, this figure is only 541.31 billion yen, or about 30.1 billion yuan.
For the reason of the shutdown, Canon's side of the statement given to the public is that along with the development of smartphones, the market size of small digital cameras is different from before. The impact of the epidemic and chip shortages also made the operation of the Zhuhai factory unsustainable. Consumption upgrade and industrial upgrading, Canon needs to make adjustments according to market changes.
Canon defeated Kodak, and what defeated Canon, we all know. 2017, Nikon Optical Instruments (China) Limited digital cameras, as well as the production of digital camera accessories announced the end. For the reason, Nikon said that due to the rise of smartphones, the compact digital camera market is shrinking rapidly, and the start rate has dropped significantly, and sustained operations have become difficult.
The data is even more direct and brutal. Data from market researcher Counterpoint Research shows that in 2011, global smartphone shipments were 521 million units, and by 2020, the figure is 1.331 billion units. And in the same year, less than 10 million digital cameras were shipped globally, and 2.37 million DSLRs were shipped, a drop of 47%, signaling enough.
The big ship turns around
A decade of turnover, the rise and fall of the new hegemon.
For the collapse of the giant, public opinion is always sighing. For example, Nokia fell, some people say it is obsessed with Symbian, rejected the Android; Kodak fell, some people say it is afraid of the left and right hand fighting each other, rejected the digital camera. In the final analysis, they all missed the new offer handed over by the times.
The lesson is not far away, in the summer after the world. As for Canon and Nikon, contraction and transformation is a must. Canon Chairman and CEO Fujio Mikado has long said that Canon digital camera production will be halved in the next two years, and gradually shifted to the professional-grade market after production reached the bottom.
Office supplies, medical imaging, Canon's focus has been changing. 2021 three quarter, Canon's turnover of 833.3 billion yen, of which, the printing business of 459.2 billion yen, accounting for about 55%, imaging business of 153.8 billion yen, accounting for about 18%, medical business, industrial equipment and other product business areas in the turnover of more than 100 billion yen.
The latest news shows Canon trying to get a piece of the autopilot. After the closure of the Zhuhai plant, it was reported that Canon recently announced that it had signed a memorandum of cooperation with automated driving company Tier IV to ****together develop and research L4-level automated driving technology as well as related on-board camera products, which will be loaded onto Tier IV's automated driving vehicles for testing.
L4 is already a level of autonomous driving where the driver can take both hands off the wheel.
Making similar choices was Nikon, which in 2018 invested $25 million in Velodyne, a lidar company, to work with it on sensing elements and scanners, with the prospect of getting into self-driving cars. By last year, Nikon's circle of friends added perception system manufacturer Aeva, which had received an investment from Porsche and worked with automotive companies such as Tucson Future.
While the need for transformation is not as strong as it is for Canon and Nikon, Sony, also a former camera giant, has its eye on the self-driving track. Just at CES 2022 (International Consumer Electronics Show) in early January, Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced that Sony will set up Sony Mobility, a division in charge of pure electric vehicles, this spring.
At the show, Sony also brought a new all-electric SUV, the VISION-S 02 concept, to vote.
As for Kodak, which has been out of fashion for a long time, it seems to have found its own new direction. In July 2020, Kodak received a $765 million loan from the US federal government to produce a number of APIs, including one to combat the new coronavirus. At the time, Kodak CEO Jim Continenza said the new division was expected to create hundreds of jobs within the U.S., and that the production of pharmaceutical ingredients was expected to account for 30-40 percent of Kodak's business in the future.
Kodak's old rival, Fujifilm, transitioned even earlier. As early as 2009, Fuji acquired Motoyama Chemical and Pharmaceuticals, which developed the influenza drug "Fapiravir", and during the epidemic, Fapiravir once became a popular anti-epidemic drugs.
Film or digital cameras, in the new era of the wind mouth change more and more quickly, nothing will be eternal, even if fixed, but also just once. As Kodak and Canon, as long as they find themselves again, they are not completely lost to the times.
Canon's compensation program is too generous, was rumored to be "malicious compensation "3Previously, Canon closed part of the Zhuhai plant production line of the thing on the Internet has received a lot of attention. According to Canon, due to the sharp decline in the global camera market in recent years, the company's operating difficulties, so the plan to close the digital camera production line. After this production line is shut down, there is no doubt that some workers will be laid off. For this reason, Canon announced a "N+1" compensation program, with no upper limit. This compensation package has received a lot of favorable comments, but at the same time, there are also different voices.
Canon has been vilified for intentionally raising compensation standards for domestic companies
Some people say that Canon is "maliciously compensating" for intentionally raising compensation standards for domestic companies, "disturbing" the market environment, and seemingly not wanting to "disrupt" the market. For a while, the "malicious compensation" argument spread widely.
According to Canon's compensation program, compensation **** is divided into five parts, respectively: economic compensation N +1 (no ceiling on the length of service); special consolation gold; employment support gold; sense of mindfulness of the bonus; Spring Festival condolences: 1000 yuan to visit relatives, Spring Festival red packets of 1000 yuan, very generous. Some media said that Canon "ill-intentioned" argument obviously does not stand, but objectively, Canon's compensation standards are higher than peers, which may cause a certain amount of "pressure" on other companies.
Canon compensation program
Canon Zhuhai was founded in 1990, has been operating for 32 years, the product mainly includes lenses, digital cameras, digital camcorders and so on. Since its establishment, Canon Zhuhai Co., Ltd. has been awarded the "AEO" certification by the Customs and the "Golden Fisherwoman" award for the 30th anniversary of the Zhuhai Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.