Canon India was a Rs. 290 Cr Company in India in 2005. We are now a Rs. 1700 Cr company. This is 6 times in 6 years. There are several reasons for this massive growth in India but one factor that has been consistently adding momentum is the motivation levels of our young 600 sales & service staff as well as 400 channel partners. Management’s biggest challenge has been providing compelling performance impacting motivational rewards.

There are 3 levels of such ‘steroids’ that have been helping us namely ‘Performance impacting earnings’, ‘Performance impacting awards’ and The third level is the pure celebration ‘feel’ that Canon has been able to provide to good performers thru’ the ‘Trips & travel related incentive programs’ particularly foreign trips. We call them the ‘PIT-stops’ which stands for ‘Performance impacting trips’. We have been using these incentive travel programs for 6 years regularly and we find them very powerful. Today, we have converted these into standard ‘properties’ for the company.

There are 6 such travel categories. The smallest being destinations in ASEAN with a trip for 3 days and the biggest one is a 6 days Cruise with top 100 partners with their spouses in Europe. We have given names to them like Canon summit Club, Canon Leadership summit, Canon Wings of Glory, Canon Elite Club etc.

Naturally to make these effective, a good agency is must. Canon uses LA VACANZA team as its PIT-Stop partner.This Team anticipates & plans well and understands the needs and expectations of Indian group. From food to stay, from travel to sightseeing, it always gives an impression as if our own people designed it. I find LA VACANZA quite complete.

As I look forward and Canon puts a blue print of becoming $1 Billion (Rs 4600 Cr) company in India by 2015, I can visualize enormous contribution coming from our PIT-stops with LA VACANZA firmly behind it.