Analisis de Caso: EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY: FUNTIME FILM

The problem in this case is concerned with Eastman Kodak losing its market share in film products to lower-priced economy brands. Over the last five years, in addition to being brand-aware, customers have also become price-conscious. This has resulted in the fast paced growth of lower priced segments in which Kodak has no presence.

Kodak is known for providing the quality services, innovative products offering the best quality to customers. It developed competitive advantages and satisfied its customers during many years. Kodak has evolved different strategies in the field of traditional photography where it brought innovations and modification. Kodak has a successful history in the industry. According to the case study, the main reason behind the success of Kodak in the industry is its quality.

The problem in this case is Kodak's steadily eroding market share and shareholder value in the film rolls market. This is especially undesirable given the fact that the market has been growing at a tepid 2% annual rate and the steadily increasing threat from competition. Kodak needs to come up with a strategy for corrective action so as to arrest this decline, regain market share and increase share holder value. Kodak's strategy is to reposition itself by targeting a new segment of price sensitive customers and re-segmenting the super premium customers’ space by including a wider segment of special occasion customers.

(Bellis, 2009) Nevertheless, the main selling point of digital cameras was the convenient way that they could be stored. Every exposure is almost instantly saved to a removable disk drive, which remarkably expired the use of darkroom processing. It was convenient, less time was needed to produce an image, making it particularly appealing to journalism. The photograph has since then become an instant process. Combined with the invention of the Internet, and booming industry of personal computers, the newer technology would expire its predecessor. There are billions of photographs on the Internet, comprising the largest most diverse photo collection ever assembled. We have access to imagery from all over the world, using key words and hash tags to catalogue imagery and content; we can see what is happening without being there. The introduction of digital photography has enabled photographers to record terabits of imagery which can be stored in minute places, meaning the coverage that we have of the modern world is greater than ever. Unlike the formats that Henri Cartier-Bresson used, where each roll of film, or negative slide needed storing in a large physical place, under controlled conditions, an archive of objects. Automation came with digital photography, its combination of digital components allowed the camera to automatically detect light qualities, and

Aumentar el volumen de producción y venta, y crecimiento: Cemex tenía necesidad de expandirse globalmente, dado que su mercado doméstico en México es relativamente pequeño y que en 1989, la empresa ya dominaba 2/3 de la capacidad productiva donde le quedaba poco espacio para crecer . Además, la entrada de Holderbank en México al principio de los 90`s le generaba una fuerte presión competitiva, siendo que esa empresa ya tenía una presencia global importante.

Taking pictures with the Kodak camera was simpler than the earlier camera because first, it did not require a darkroom or chemicals and glass plates. It did not require any of these things because it was not only one person’s job to develop and take the photo. The photographer could send their camera in, and the Eastman Kodak Company would develop the pictures for them. “In the first year, 13,000 people paid $25 for a Kodak; they each took 100 pictures, returned the camera and within ten days, Kodak sent back the prints and camera with film for another 100 pictures,” (Buckland and Lefer 250). This opened up a whole new door for inexperienced photographers. All they had to do was take pictures, and send the camera

When Kodak began making changes to its organizational architecture in 1984, its current architecture did not fit the business environment for the industry. The largest factor that motivated Kodak to make this change was increased competition and decreased market share. Until the early 1980’s, Kodak owned the film production market with very little competition. This suddenly changed when Fuji Corporation and many other generic store brands began producing high quality film as well (Brickley, 2009, p. 358). Another factor in this change was technology advancements. As technology rapidly expanded in the 1980’s, other

In my March 6 memo, I discussed the need for Kodak to revamp its core strategy and regain popularity. Eastman Kodak has been the leader of photography and printing products for nearly 130 years. Over the last few years Kodak has been in distress due to its poor fundamental shift into the digital age. Lack of strategic creativity led Kodak to misunderstand the industry in which it was operating. This lack of strategic creativity was costly for Kodak.

In late March 1996, Ralph Norwood was faced with the task of restructuring Polaroid’s capital structure. In the past, Polaroid had a monopoly in the instant-photography segment. However, with upcoming threats in the emerging digital photography industry and Polaroid experiencing recent losses in their market share due to Kodak’s competition, Gary T. DiCamillo, recently appointed CEO of Polaroid, headed a restructuring plan to stimulate the firm’s performance. The firm’s new plan has goals such as to aggressively exploit the existing Polaroid brand, introduce product extensions, and enter new emerging markets such as Russia in order to secure Polaroid’s future.

While Eastman Kodak has remained an industry leader in the sales of film for photo-imaging, over the past five years Kodak has underestimated the demand for digital cameras. Digital cameras require no film whatsoever and with Kodak’s main line of production being film Kodak has suffered great losses in net profit. Just in 2004 Camera film sales have been falling even than projected. The Photo Marketing Association predicted a six percent drop in film sales and Kodak projected an even more dismal 10-12 percent drop in film sales. The actual drop in sales reached an unforeseen 18%. In 2003 digital camera sales were greater than traditional film camera sales for the first time.

While Kodak has historically been a well-established brand name in the marketplace, it struggled to find a niche when the industry morphed from a film-based market to a digital-based market. Kodak has struggled to successfully evolve its film-based business structure to the new structure of digital-based technology, which has allowed for competitors to enter the market, decreasing Kodak’s market share. Competitors (such as Canon Inc., Fuji Photo Film Co., Hewlett Packard Co., Nikon, and Sony Corp.) have posed major threats to Kodak’s livelihood. Kodak faces a 5% drop in film sales (2001-2003) and a 3% reduction in overall revenues over the same time period. In addition, revenues and net income are expected to be fairly flat (or decrease) in future estimates. Kodak faces much pressure to revitalize their business through digital imaging, a radical innovation, or risk being eaten alive in an industry they thought they controlled.

Background Eastman Kodak Company, headquartered in Rochester New York, was founded in 1889. The corporation, now multinational and focusing on imaging and photographic equipment, posted revenues in excess of $6 billion in 2011. During most of the 20th century Kodak was dominant in the photographic film industry in 1976 it held 90% of the market but began a downward slide once the Internet, digital cameras and computer processing grew. By 2007, Kodak ceased making a profit and in January 2012 filed for bankruptcy protection and ceased making cameras, video cameras and began to focus on the corporate digital imaging market (De La Merced, 2012). In evaluating Kodak's corporate strategy from the mid-1980s onward, we find that there four major management paradigms in place during this transitional period:

El eje central de la comunicación (el qué), o cuál es el mensaje que se va a comunicar a un determinado público objetivo

Consintió igualmente la creación de subequipos dentro del propio equipo; Fester y Link por un lado, haciendo con ello que los demás miembros del equipo se sintieran apartados e inferiores a ellos. A ello contribuyó incluso el propio Knowlton, al convocar una reunión únicamente con Link y Fester para examinar las nuevas teorías que este había desarrollado, en lugar de evaluarlas delante de todo el equipo como se había hecho hasta entonces.

3. Cuál es su opinión con respecto al equipo gestor compuesto por Aravind, Kartik, y los investigadores asociados, y el involucramiento de estos en el negocio?