Controversial Kiwi senior managing director of the leading Australian digital supplier has suddenly left the company following an audit by the Singapore HQ.
His departure has cast a shadow over the organisation coming as it does scarcely a year since Whittaker crossed the Tasman, bringing a number of New Zealand executives in his wake.
An official company statement released moments ago confirms the news that set the industry rumour mill alight since this morning. Fuji Xerox Australia announced the departure of Neil Whittaker, Senior Managing Director - Fuji Xerox Australia. Mr Whittaker held the position of Senior Managing Director of Fuji Xerox Australia for 13 months and prior to that was Managing Director of Fuji Xerox New Zealand for 11 years.
Masashi Honda, President - Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Operations will take over as Managing Director of Fuji Xerox Australia until a successor has been appointed. The company’s focus remains on offering their customers world class document management services, software and solutions.
His sudden departure comes following the completion of an audit of the company’s performance. It came as a complete surprise to senior executives throughout the organisation.
Trailing a reputation of three times being awarded the ‘Managing Director of the Year for the Asia Pacific’ region, Whittaker was always determined to leave his mark on the larger Australian market. He made little doubt that he was gunning to win the title for a fourth time by conquering the Australian market.
In an exclusive interview this year with Patrick Howard, publishing editor of Print21, Whitaker emphasized his determination to increase Fuji Xerox Australia’s market share, describing the company’s performance as “weak” in comparison to New Zealand. “I don’t know why the Australian market is so low in terms of price. It’s unsustainable.”
Since then his competitors have reeled at what they describe as uneconomic pricing and deals that were sometimes cut at up to 50% below market value. Despite initially claiming he was not interested in starting a price war, it appears that is what has gripped the Australian digital market over the past year.
“…there’s no value in a price war. It doesn’t help the business, it doesn’t help the customers, and it doesn’t help the market,” he said in the interview.
Theories abound as to how the prices of high-end equipment and some of the deals were arrived at but it seems certain that the tactics proved unacceptable to the senior Fuji Xerox management of Asia Pacific when they were revealed by the audit.
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