Eastman Kodak Case Study

3. What advice would you give Hudson concerning long-term management of Kodak’s “networked” IS organization?

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.

Thomas Sowell discussed that Kodak was a leading film maker in 20th century, but was suppressed by the sales of digital camera three year after the year 2000. The new innovation of digital camera technology caused Kodak to become bankrupt. Although, even if the bankruptcy of Kodak caused losses like lay-offs, and smaller production of goods at a lower quality, there are benefits to bankruptcies. One benefit of bankruptcy is the government can shut down a business when the business cannot pay off its debt, which stops the use of resources that is not benefiting the economy. For example, when digital camera innovations made Kodak cameras obsolete, Kodak sales dropped and the company acquired debt. This

Though Kodak had flaws with decision making by its senior management, they have acted upon not making hierarchical structure as their organization’s framework. Another article called “Lessons from the past by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps on “Turning Hierarchy on its Side” explains the famous “Pizza” organization of Eastman Kodak. This structure encourages that company to communicate horizontally and not vertically. There is no up or down chain of command, instead it is a cross-sectional approach. Though it maintains hierarchy, the CEO’s role is more central in the structure rather than

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

Kodak Corporation is one of the film organizations that have obtained a bigger piece of the overall industry in the United States. It is prestigious for the generation of

Question 6: It was reported that Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection on January 2012. Please provide your comments on the failure of Kodak. If you were CEO of this company, what would you transform and reorganize in the company

In the recent years, however, Kodak tried to realign its management strategy in embracing innovation. First was its approach to move from the one-company-one-town scenario to the realistic competitive world. The previous model in which the company got feedback was insufficient to acknowledge the preferences of global consumers. The shift to delocalize research and collect data helped Kodak gather more consumer preferences in order to keep at par with innovation.

Kodak’s response to Sony’s introduction of the Mavica in 1981 was one of trepidation as well as acceptance. Kodak clearly realized that the Mavica had the potential to greatly alter the landscape of its industry. Kodak acknowledged this occurrence as a major paradigm shift; however, due to the escalating commitment and its deep roots in traditional photography, Kodak failed to react accordingly. Kodak’s CEO at the time, Colby Chandler, outwardly recognized the public’s affinity for color prints – the product that made Kodak a household name. Yet, others at Kodak went as far as to make doomsday predictions. Some managers within Kodak felt that the inception of the Mavica would be the death of traditional photography. It is apparent that Kodak should have invested in research and development as traditional film was reaching its natural limit, thus causing the referenced paradigm shift. Without Kodak’s willingness to outwardly adapt to the change, whether it be through R&D or other channels, Kodak’s ability to

The Sustainable Business Network (SBN) is a Not For Profit organization set in Auckland, New Zealand, with the aim to accommodate a forum for those businesses interested in sustainable development practice (Roper, 2004). SBN defines sustainable business as the “integration of economic growth, social equity and environmental management” (Fosters, 2010). Members of this social enterprise are offered support and resources to help minimize their environmental impact, as well as networking opportunities, training and sustainability assessments.

It not only requires investments in green product and manufacturing technologies, employee skills, organizational competencies, formal management systems and procedures, but also in the reconfiguration of the strategic planning process. To date, existing approaches are still so fragmented and disconnected from business strategy in such a way as to obscure many of the greatest opportunities for companies to benefit society via such an approach (Porter and Kramer, 2006). Yet, it has been suggested that if corporations would analyze their prospects for environmental responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover that environmental management can be much more than a cost or a constraint; it could, in essence, be a source of opportunity, innovation, and competitive advantage (Porter and Kramer, 2006).

What causes a company to declare bankruptcy? This is what most business entrepreneurs fear the most something they work so hard for to fail. There are ways to mitigate the risk of starting a business and ways to save one that is failing. Eastman Kodak Company is a large multinational company that has recently filed for bankruptcy. Exploring what has gone wrong with their business plan and how their competitor Fuji Films has gotten that equation right can help larger corporations like them in the future. We can evaluate their performance by looking at all aspects of these companies from their history, approach to management in order to embrace innovation, management aspects that have differed within each corporation,

After conducting a thorough analysis of Kodak’s financial statement, it is evident that the assets owned by Kodak are not being used in an effective nor efficient manner (Refer to Appendix A). This is evident after taking a close look at the company’s returns on investment which were recorded between 1998 through 2000. This was recorded at just fewer than 10 percent. Another significant aspect that can be pointed out is reflected in 2003 with about 2 percent. This is indeed a rapid decrease which can be due in part to the technological changes and Kodak’s slow implementation of strategies. The company’s constant declining profit margins hint that there needs to be a drastic and effective improvement on

Kodak decided to implement a plan for the digital vision for the company between 2003 and 2007 (Parnell, 2014). Within the first year of implementing the digital vision, Kodak’s revenue from digital technology went up 40%. During this four year span, Kodak appointed a new CEO, Antonio M. Perez. They also changed the name of their online photo-sharing site and closed a deal with Motorola to use the Kodak sensors to make mobile camera phones. The digital revenue continued to increase in 2006 with 54% of total sales. Kodak laid off over 8,000 employees when they sold their healthcare imaging division in 2007 in spite of the increased revenue. Kodak partnered with Best Buy in April 2007 to allow online customers to use the Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

In order to achieve that, after the restructuring of its organizational structure, it is advisable for Kodak to review the organization’s strategies using the Strategize-Implement-Operate (S-I-O) model (Figure 2). Firstly to re-identify its core business that is nothing but an image printing company not a film or camera manufacturer, getting the best employee for the best fit in different functions and correct tools to innovate so as to fulfill the expectations of their customers and to be always ahead of