The Ricoh Forecast:
Steady growth – On Course – In Living Color
By Arthur Medina and David Garcia

On December 23, 2009, Business Puerto Rico magazine interviewed Mickey Carrero, Country Manager for Ricoh in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. During that interview, current and future plans of Ricoh – locally and worldwide – were discussed. The questions (Q) are supplied by Business Puerto Rico magazine; the answers by Mickey Carrero:

Q: How does Ricoh in Puerto Rico rate, compared to Ricoh in other parts of the world?

A: We are the number one operation in Latin America, let’s start there. We’re the biggest direct operation in Latin America.

Q: How does Ricoh in Puerto Rico rate compared to the United States?

A: If you rate Ricoh in Puerto Rico against the states individually, I have to check the number, but we should be among the top 10.

Q: Why is Ricoh growing?

A: We are growing because our philosophy stays on what the customer needs.  Customers are looking for 5 things: lowering operational costs, wanting to be more competitive, the need to digitalize documents, environmental responsibility and information security. Customers need a company that is a one-stop shop for them.  Instead of selling them the printer, the scanner, the copier…we work the document process with them completely, and we give them those 5 things that they are looking for:  cost effectiveness, competitive advantage, and turn-key solutions, information security and environmental responsibility.

Q: What do you mean by competitive advantage?

A: What I mean by that is that we see the type of environment in which the customer operates; we see their competition, and we see what their competition has and doesn’t have.  For example: With a banking customer, we know that it typically takes 2 or 3 days to handle a loan application, between filling it out and sending it to the underwriter.  We try to make it so the bank can handle it in the same day.  So, here’s my bank handling the application in one day, and the competition is taking 3 days.  Which bank will provide a better service for the customer?  The bank that is using Ricoh will provide a better service.