Plenty to learn from the Kodak century
Call me contrarian, but I have come not to bury Kodak, but to praise it. It’s tough to be Kodak. It’s been tough for the past five years at least. Ever since some conference speaker or management consultant decided the United States company should be the poster child for (pick as many as you like) poor planning, ignorance, hubris, myopia, inertia or any one of a catalogue of corporate shortcomings.
Kodak’s crime, of course, was to fail to see the opportunity and threat of digital photography; instead focusing on its film-based business even while it owned some of the early patents that led to the digital photography revolution.
Kodak developed one of the first digital cameras and patented it in 1975.
While it did bring a digital camera line to market in 1994, it had by then been overtaken by traditional (FujiFilm) and nontraditional competitors (Sony and a raft of others), and struggled to replicate its film-camera success in the digital world.
Today, Kodak focuses on film products for enthusiasts, instant printers, 3D printing and a growing number of collaborations turning its iconic brand into everything from T shirts to skateboards. It employs 5800 people and while it was declared bankrupt in 2012 is still alive, if not profitable. That’s now. How about then? By any measure, Kodak is one of the most successful businesses the world has ever known.
Kodak was founded in 1888, and lasted 124 years before its bankruptcy.
Film sales didn’t begin to fall until 2001, signalling the beginning of the end of market dominance spanning three centuries (just) and lasting 113 years.
In that time Kodak employed hundreds of thousands of people and supported countless families. It literally invented personal photography, and at last count had filed 76,806 patents (including the ones for digital photography already mentioned).
Add every company in New Zealand together and they’d only have about 35,000 patents in force (2017 data).
In Kodak’s century of success it returned billions to its shareholders. And it allowed everyone from the world’s top photographers to a kid with an Instamatic to capture, preserve and share their memories.
It’s not exactly true – sorry, conference speaker – that Kodak was blind to the potential of digital photography, either.
While it was late to the start line, by 2005 it was the No 1 digital camera brand in the US, with annual sales of US$5.7 billion (NZ$8.4b). Sales and share dwindled from that peak, with the nail in the coffin being our shift away from cameras entirely with the launch of smartphones, in particular the iPhone in 2007.
Much of the digital imaging technology Kodak developed has been sold to other companies, so even if you have never used Kodak’s film, you’ve probably used its smarts.
One hundred and thirty one years in business.
More than 75,000 patents. Technology that’s been used everywhere on this planet, on several parts of the Moon and even Mars.
Books have been written about Kodak’s failings, and more than one conference keynote and graphic have charted its decline. It’s easy to gloat about the Kodak moment. I’d rather learn from the Kodak century.