01732 759725 INTERVIEW 20 In 2023, PrintIT Reseller is celebrating ten years in print. In a series of exclusive interviews over the next year, we’re inviting industry veterans to share their experiences over the past decade, what they’ve learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry. Here, Mark Ash, CRO at Konica Minolta shares his thoughts A decade in print potential to turn Samsung Print from a consumer business in the UK, to a leading B2B player. PITR: And the low point? MA: Having the journey cut short with Samsung’s B2B division after the print division was divested. PITR: What (or who) has had the greatest impact in the sector in the last 10 years? MA: The inclusion of mobile and tabletbased technology into the sector has been a game changer and literally transformed every aspect of how we submit content and receive it from devices – from playing Angry Birds whilst waiting for a print job, from using the tablet display as a PC availability finder in a University, to remote fault diagnosis and instant accurate high definition selfhelp videos. PITR: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? MA: Nothing. Everything happens for a reason, even if you don’t know what that reason is, and your reality is determined by your perception of it. PITR: What has been your proudest moment of the past 10 years? MA: Our MPS team winning our first mega deal with one of the Big 4 Financial and Professional Services companies. That was after being told by a fellow Director that ‘I was deluded and needed to stop playing charades’ if I thought a big company would take us seriously and the incumbent supplier’s CEO telling the end-user we would damage their brand equity. (We didn’t and won supplier of the year, delivering excellence and the start of many more flagship contracts across every vertical). PITR: Sum up the decade in three words. MA: It’s been emotional. www.konicaminolta.co.uk PrintIT Reseller (PITR): You’ve been working in the print and IT industry for more than ten years. What led you to enter the sector? Mark Ash (MA): I entered the sector by chance, taking a day job working in a Xerox Facilities Management contract at Virgin Atlantic to escape the lottery of working as a temp - it was a blessed relief working in a state of the art employee centric office after working nights in a freezing cold parcel depot! PITR: What was your first job? MA: I started doing basic break-fix on the office fleet and loading the devices with paper – rock and roll! PITR: What has been the high point of the decade? MA: Highest point for me in the last decade was watching a highly committed and dedicated team triumph over adversity and deliver on their Mark Ash
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