Canon boss boosts revenue with passion

According to Japanese culture, a CEO should be very low-key and serious, just like Canon China's previous CEO Yoroku Adachi.

But Ozawa isn't a typical Japanese CEO. He plays guitar at New Year's parties and sings Take Me Home, Country Road, walks on the catwalk with models during product launches and shares jokes with his employees and business partners.

"That came from my working experience in the United States," he explained.

Ozawa was appointed to Canon US in 1978, when he was only 28. After 12 years in the US, his English became fluent and his personality more open.

"In the US, I learned that on private occasions, people call each other by their first names, which is very different from Japanese culture," he said, adding that he also absorbed Western management concepts after his stint in the US.

Although Ozawa's management style is very Westernized, he maintains a Japanese work ethic - rigorous, meticulous and striving for perfection.

"The first Chinese word I learned from Ozawa was 'pressure'," said Watanabe.

Ozawa was appointed to China in 2005 when Canon had only a small share of the camera market.

Last year, it had a 27.2 percent camera market share, compared with its Japanese rivals Sony Corp's 16.8 percent and Nikon Corp's 15.7 percent, according to domestic research firm CCID Consulting.

When Ozawa arrived in China seven years ago, he was very surprised that Canon wasn't as famous as it was in Japan and the US, even though the brand had been in the Chinese market for 24 years.

In 1989, Canon China set up a wholly-owned company in Dalian, in Liaoning province. However, it didn't expand aggressively until 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization.

At the time, Canon had already penetrated many markets, and its sales revenue reached $1 billion in 2007.

"I decided to promote the brand of Canon in the Chinese market through consumer products, such as digital cameras and professional cameras, first," Ozawa said.

His passion achieved results. From 2005 to 2010, Canon's sales revenue in the Chinese market increased more than 30 percent annually.

During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, while Canon's global net income shrunk by 57.4 percent to $1.5 billion, the company's net income in China increased 20 percent.