Kodak

  

            Kodak was the biggest name in the photograph industry. In the early days, Kodak camera was used to take pictures using Kodak film, and Kodak technology.  Although Kodak was the absolute leader in the photograph industry the company declared bankruptcy in 2012 (He, 2012).

            In the late 1800s, the company Kodak was founded by two people, George Eastman and Henry Strong.  Originally, Kodak was the name of Eastman’s camera, and later he decided to name his company after his name. Henry Ford was an investor in the film industry. George Eastman was the inventor of the technology behind photography used by Kodak.

            Eastman made photography generally available to the public by making the camera available for sale along with the film, which was used to take the pictures. Once a consumer takes the picture, they would send the films back to the company where it would be developed. The company sold the film at the cost of processing or developing the firm for customers.

            In 1976, Kodak had an 85% market share in cameras and a 90% market share in the film. They had a great marketing message to their customers; Kodak Moments, which refers to any moments that worth taking pictures in someone’s life (Tsurumi & Tsurumi, 1999).

            Kodak’s business performance starts to decline in 2003. In 2003, Kodak “seemed to have missed the enormity of the changes to their business that were being brought about by the switch from film to digital photography” (Kodak gets back in the picture, 2005, para 4). Although digital cameras came to light in early 1994, the same digital camera started to take over Kodak’s market share starting from 2005. Declining sales of Kodak products (camera and films) in its retail distribution network resulted in a big challenge for the company to hold onto shelf space became harder (Shih, 2016).

Kodak the need for an innovative product, digital camera, which became the way of the future in the film industry.  Unlike other companies such as Cannon, although Kodak was the first inventor of the digital camera, the company did not focus on this new technology enough to market its product.

        According to Walker (2017), in 1975, “Steven Sasson - a young engineer at Eastman Kodak -invented the first digital camera” (para. 2). However, Kodak treated the innovative digital camera business as a side project than the way of the future.  Kodak was not motivated about digital cameras because they were the expert in films. They had over 100 years of experience in producing cameras and films that were sold at the lowest prices. They made money from selling films. In some cases, Kodak would give free cameras for consumers to buy films and prints. In digital cameras there is no firm and, in some cases, there is no printing of photos. Kodak’s decision ignoring digital cameras as the industry standard. The result of digital disruption, the “environmental turbulence induced by digital innovation that leads to the erosion of boundaries and approaches that previously served as foundations for organizing the production and capture of value” (Skog, Wilmelius, & Sandberg, 2018, p.431), results in Kodak’s profitable business to its knees in the present business environment.

References

He, H. (2012). The strategy research of the technology innovation and consumption of the experience under the electronic-economic business affairs - the enlightenment of the development of fuji and Kodiak. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 268-270, 1993.

Kodak gets back in the picture. (2005). Strategic Direction, 21(3), 24-26.

Shih, W. (2016). The real lessons from Kodak's decline. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(4), 11-13.

Skog, D. A., Wimelius, H., & Sandberg, J. (2018). Digital disruption. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 60(5), 431-437.

Walker, A. (2017). Positive disruption. Building Surveying Journal,  16-17. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/positive-disruption/docview/2190959735/se-2?accountid=35812

Tsurumi, Y., & Tsurumi, H. (1999). Fujifilm-Kodiak duopolistic competition in japan and the united states. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(4), 813-830.