Memjet: Driven by Passion & Innovation. An interview with CMO Kevin Shimamoto and Arnaud Linquette, Senior Vice President EMEA.

Kevin Shimamoto, CMO, Memjet

Memjet has become a global leader by providing digital inkjet technology that enables simplicity, speed and profitability. And having met both Arnaud and Kevin, you can sense their genuine desire to change the printing industry for the better.

Memjet has been around for close to 20 years but in different iterations of R&D development. Memjet's core tech is thermal inkjet heads, but they also have developed unique printing modules and ink technologies. Together, this offering is unique, particularly for thermal inkjet. To have access to the kind of technology that has traditionally been the domain of only a couple of manufacturers provides OEM partners with the chance to compete with tier 1 providers. Something that was not previously possible has become a real opportunity. 

So read on as I interview Kevin Shimamoto and Arnaud Linquette.

Kevin, Tell us more about your background? 

I studied Managerial Economics at the University of California (Davis) and then went to Penn State for my MBA in International Marketing. During my MBA I was recruited to work for HP.  In 1995 I was working on their first wide-format devices, leveraging HP’s inkjet technology. This role gave me a great opportunity to work with a market leader in inkjet and to gain experiences in product development, business development and marketing; which opened the doors for me to join Kodak’s wide format business in San Diego, California, where I spent over 5 years. Then, in 2007, I leapt at the chance to join Memjet as founding member managing all sales and marketing functions and leading business development efforts.

From my arrival in 2007, we spent a lot of time developing the technology for different market segments and then launching the first tech implementation around 2010.

So in terms of company strategy and structure what is different now compared with 2008?

Today, Memjet is one company that manages everything in terms of R&D, manufacturing, marketing, sales, etc. Since 2007, we have been progressing towards realising this unique business model and value proposition. It has been a process. We are now the only company that has core R&D tech, with ink, data path and modules with support for integration and marketing. This is unique and enables our customers to develop new possibilities with thermal inkjet.

Memjet is still a young company. If you think of it in drupa years, 2020 will only be our fourth drupa. At our first drupa in 2008, we hosted meetings to provide an overview of what we were doing and how we were working on integrating the core tech. In 2012 and 2016, we saw a lot of changes and consolidation of our technology, along with product introductions across several different segments.  

What does this unique offering provide your customers?

This approach has enabled our OEM partners to gain access to tech and market quickly particularly with our services including engineering support and marketing as they gain access to our core technologies. This enables fast development in a short space of time and huge savings for any OEM.

Now, we are at the point where our value proposition and business have crystallised. The other thing we are proud of is that we now have two new tech platforms, DuraLink and DuraFlex 

What is special about the DuraLink?

Memjet has three tech platforms (Versapass®, DuraLink® and DuraFlex™ print systems) that can meet a wide variety of different market needs including commercial print, labels, packaging, wide-format, desktop, and continuously expanding into new markets, like 3D. 

Duralink Printhead Module

The new DuraLink printhead, offers 1600 dpi native resolution, 8.77 inches (222.8mm) width, and 70,400 nozzles. It delivers enhanced durability, remarkable reliability and proven ROI. Added to this, the aqueous pigment inks of this platform made the printhead even more durable, with exceptional output quality, and the head itself has been manufactured so that 5 nozzles address each pixel on the page, allowing a single nozzle-out to go virtually unnoticed in the printed image – providing 5X nozzle redundancy. And this quality is sustainable for 1 billion ejections per nozzle for each CMYK colour. 

How will you bring these new possibilities to market?

Right now Memjet is developing an expansion strategy with a growing presence in a lot of different markets. We are building infrastructure and engineering support for OEMs along with additional marketing support. We are also keen to build a presence in core geographical markets outside the USA. We are committed to expanding in Europe and Asia too.

OEMs are excited about access to our technology as it enables them to compete with established OEMs.  The goal is to get customers excited about the technology and then the option to benefit from our in house marketing support that builds and extends our customers potential to compete with established players.

Memjet democratises the market and enables smaller entrepreneurs to access value quicker and build their business in markets that previously did not permit this due to the high cost of capital equipment and structural market barriers.

For us, at Memjet it is a really exciting mission and an exciting time. 

Arnaud Linquette - Tell us a bit about yourself 

I was born in Versailles, literally only a short distance from the famous palace. I attended Business School in France and I have an MBA in European business.

I started work initially for Xerox and I stayed there for 25 years. I began with 10 years in France in sales, then moved into marketing and held several global leading roles in different locations including Shanghai, China for four years, Stockholm for 5 years and the United Kingdom as GM of the Xerox digital printing Business Group in Europe.  In this latter role is where I began cooperating with Memjet and Kevin.  

During that time Memjet was expanding and growing in Europe and they proposed that I join the company. This was a great opportunity for me to join a growing transformative business. I felt it was the right time to join as a complement to another high tech, R&D driven company, with innovative solutions, plus a driven and passionate business.  Since then I have been enjoying my role as the business is dynamic and disruptive, and leveraging my experience managing big teams. 

Arnaud Linquette, Senior Vice President EMEA, Memjet

During my career, I learned that I preferred to be part of the development of new tech and business. I would describe myself as entrepreneurial and I can see the point of helping OEM’s and customers to leverage the tech of the business.  Most importantly, I’m excited about the challenge of growing Memjet much more in Europe. 

What drew you to the business in terms of the people?

I think it is synergy. All of the team have a background of working within large digital printing companies but we all have the same DNA. We want to develop new possibilities by leveraging this tech for OEMs.

 Explain Memjet’s culture, Kevin  

Our culture is so focused on innovation throughout the business from R&D, OEMs and Marketing. We are keen on creating solutions that do not exist in the market or create new opportunities.

For example, we are developing wide-format tech for new applications in packaging. We have introduced single-pass wide format corrugated package solutions which are priced at the €100,000 range , which is staggering when compared with other solutions priced at closer to €2-3 Million!

We are an innovative partner and we create innovative solutions, which disrupts traditional digital models. If the price point is lower, it makes it easier for people to be innovative and try out new technology, and naturally, people are interested in this. 

How do you disrupt?

We develop solutions across our different tech formats – DuraFlex, DuraLink and VersaPass. We have relationships with a wide number of partners, across a wide region. Giving these customers access to the right tech means they can produce solutions and disrupt quickly.

So we disrupt by giving people the chance to compete in their markets using our technology. With our support, they can do so at a lower cost base plus with significant technical and marketing support from Memjet. Often, we will not exhibit at shows, as we prefer to support our OEM and partners with our technology; but we will be having a booth next year at Drupa, as 2020 is a big year for us.

Kevin, Memjet seems one of the few print tech brands outside of HP to have significant investment in marketing. How does this provide value?

For customers, it means we can support them far more strategically. Because we provide tech and marketing support we can work with a partner who may not have the resources to elevate them quickly to compete with companies that may be far bigger and more established. This democratises the tech and enables the smaller guy to compete with the big companies. This is exciting, I like the transformative power the tech allied to a committed support strategy can achieve. 

Arnaud - what kind of people are the customers?

I enjoy meeting entrepreneurs in the world who are very clever and passionate and they are willing to develop new solutions. I am travelling a lot in Europe, Germany, Italy, Turkey, the UK, France. The common theme is that these people are early adopters. Memjet and our spirit and culture, independently of the technology, attract them!

The kinds of people I’ve met tend to be senior people; CTO, CEO, CMO and they want us to develop strategic technology solutions for them. Yes, you need the relationship to be based on trust and a similar shared vision and objective to be successful for this part of this journey. 

But with the tech itself, we like to differentiate ourselves, so we have launched platforms that are offering technical features that are unique such as the width of the head (324 mm) in our DuraFlex model. This is designed for A4 and A3 printhead in a format specifically for that size of application. 

Durflex Print Heads

The DuraFlex 324mm print head can be used for up to a 1.2-metre width and is therefore very interesting for packaging applications.  As we mentioned earlier this enables new opportunities and it challenges the digital paradigm which has a far higher price point.

The 1600 dpi quality and the speed of 203 linear metres per minute with the high-quality resolution are powerful and popular with customers. Also, the 5x nozzle redundancy of DuraLink is an example of our unique value proposition with thermal Inkjet. 

Kevin, you have both mentioned the word ‘enabling’ a fair bit, explain a little bit more about that here. 

Sure, we enable people to build technology and benefit from the advantages of thermal Inkjet. Of course, Canon and HP have thermal Inkjet, but they rarely let other businesses use their core technology. We have this tech and we think it is more advanced.  We make it available for anyone to benefit from as it is highly advanced for a lot of different market segments. It achieves production possibilities that you cannot do with Piezo, which may not provide the same quality and the speed of a Powered-by-Memjet® solution. And we have the different tech for different applications between desktop to commercial print, corrugated, labels, packaging and this is of value to all stakeholders in the market.

We are growing into new applications all the time and are embracing a wide range of applications at the high end, but we still have solutions for desktop inkjet solutions as well.

Arnaud, what challenges do you experience when selling?

People are saying they either work with analogue or piezo. Or they only work with substrates that are standardised for inkjet requirement for inkjet-coated substrates. But we are getting around this with partners to come out with pre-coated solutions - offset coated material and this lowers the cost too. We see finding the right solution for each market. We are trying to create new markets for tech that doesn’t exist today and whether this is an inkjet solution.

The reality is that this is a modular tech and we are launching numerous OEM solutions at Drupa. You have a print head, print head print supply module, and all other support functions so this is all integrated. This is reducing the time to market for our OEMs. 

We provide all the printing components, the support and guidance to an OEM so they take it on and can customise it.  For instance, you can replace the Memjet® printhead and it is easy to do. The operator can do it quickly in a few minutes.

So we now have 50 litres to 200-litre print head life on DuraLink Color Production platform - all of these ingredients together make it very attractive for early adopters and for tier 1 companies, as they still need to deliver a strong value proposition.

Kevin, what are Memjet’s goals for the future?

Our goal is to ensure the speed, quality and cost level remains unique. Our development of the new platforms, as well as the data path, modules, printhead and inks, means that we can offer customers a rounded service.

Because of this service, we are getting a lot of requests. We need to inform and inspire companies in a wider geographical area and in a broader market spread which is a challenge but one I relish. We are so confident in our strategy and the high quality of our products. 

Driven by a passion for innovation and a desire to change the printing industry. Personally, I think Memjet empowers customers to bring ideas to life more easily and cost-effectively. To this end, I think it is about democratising technology. It’s disruptive in that it is enabling more people and businesses to benefit from such a pivotal technology as thermal inkjet. 

For more information check out the Memjet website.

Contact Arnaud: arnaud.linquette@memjet.com

Contact Kevin: kevin.shimamoto@memjet.com