Canon growth strategy: reviving camera revenue and share as phones replace cameras

You are a product manager at Canon, the camera manufacturer. Every year the company holds a smaller slice of its market, and the main driver is that ever more people carry a mobile phone and take their pictures with it instead. How would you grow Canon's revenue, and how would you grow its market share? Your answer should address both goals. ```hint Find the jobs the phone cannot do List the moments when a phone photo or video falls short, then the moments when carrying and using a dedicated camera is a hassle. Growth sits where the first list is long and the second list can be fixed. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the scope Canon's camera business only (bodies, lenses, accessories), or also its printers and other imaging products? - Is market share measured within standalone cameras, or against every device people take photos with, phones included? - If the two goals pull apart, which wins: revenue (a premium push) or unit share (a cheaper entry line), and over what time horizon? - Should the answer be global, or focused on regions where phone penetration is still rising fastest? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A diagnosis of which photography jobs phones have absorbed (casual snapshots) and which they still do poorly (telephoto, low light, fast action, shallow depth of field, serious video), plus a clear definition of the market the share target refers to. - Segmentation of camera buyers (professionals, enthusiasts stepping up from phones, video creators, casual memory-keepers) and a reasoned choice of whom to target. - Pain points across the whole camera workflow, including buying, learning, transferring, editing and sharing, not only image quality. - Prioritized growth bets that build on Canon's strengths in optics, sensors and lenses, with explicit revenue logic: units, price, lens and accessory attach, and services. - Success metrics with guardrails, and risks such as cannibalization of higher-end models and phones continuing to improve. ### Follow-up Questions - A phone maker offers to license a Canon-branded camera module for its flagship phone. Would you take the deal, given that one goal is camera market share? - If you could fund only one of your initiatives, which would it be, and what early signal would tell you it is working? - How would you stop a cheaper entry camera from eating into sales of Canon's higher-end bodies?