Collin, I agree, those "context switches" weren't easy on them, and roller coaster corporate ride is a good way to describe what it happened (the founder family lost control when Pentax become publicly owned, which allowed Sparx to push Pentax into Hoya's arms, and finally Hoya sold them to Ricoh - every step led to, or allowed another). It was unfortunate that Hoya didn't wanted Pentax Imaging Systems Business (but the medical division), and was unwilling to invest into it; when the hostile takeover took place, they were no savior for the ISB and I wonder if Pentax would've been now in a better shape without them.
But that was in the past. I hope your pessimism will be dispelled soon (think months, up to one year). Alex Sarbu On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Collin Brendemuehl <[email protected]> wrote: > Larry, > > Yes, I have done embedded systems and have also taken products from concept > to market. Been there, done that. > > What I have not done is taken part is the corporate shift that saw Pentax > move from (1) Family Owned, to (2) Public Ownership, to (3) Hoya, to (4) > Ricoh. I think that transition series was rougher on the company than > anything else. If I had to place the cause for the baby steps, in my mind it > would be the roller coaster corporate ride that the company has been on for > -- what is it -- only around 5 years? That's a lot to manage. I do applaud > the company for lasting this long through fiscal storm and even earthquake > (which damaged many Japanese company's processes) without going under. > > Still, I am a bit of a pessimist. After all, as an American I want to see > more production. :-) > > Sincerely, > > Collin Brendemuehl > "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" > -- Jim Elliott -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
