Nobuyoshi Gokyu, president and chief executive officer of Nikon Inc., has a long international history with Nikon Corporation.
He began his career at Nikon in 1979 and has held a number of positions within the company. In the 1980s, he was in charge of research and product planning, including the planning of the first Nikon zoom compacts, low-end compacts and tele-wide compacts, as well as Nikon’s first VR compact camera. Following this, he moved to the sales side, responsible for the U.S. and Canadian markets, and in 1995 he joined Nikon Singapore, Nikon’s regional headquarters for Asia. Then, after a short stay at Nikon headquarters in Japan as manager of Communications, he joined Nikon Hong Kong in 2003, as director of sales and marketing. During this time, he was doing a feasibility study for Nikon China, and in 2005 went on to Nikon China as managing director and president. After spending a few years in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Nobuyoshi Gokyu was asked to take over as president of Nikon Inc.
I sat down with Gokyu to talk about the challenges he sees in the imaging industry and Nikon’s strategy for moving forward.
JG: I last spoke with you a little over two years ago, when you assumed the presidency of Nikon Inc. What changes have you seen over that time?
NG: There have been many changes, both in the photo category as well as in our product line. Since I’ve been here, we’ve seen significant growth in the advanced camera segment and with the interchangeable-lens market. We’ve introduced the Nikon 1, a completely new product that expanded that market. We’ve introduced HD video functions across many cameras in our line. One of our latest Coolpix cameras is built on the Android operating system. And we’ve introduced more affordable full-frame cameras. We’ve also seen connectivity become an important selling point in the market.
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