Kodak Case

If I were responsible for solving the problem, in addition to Kodak’s repositioning strategy, I would do the following:

Multiple alternatives have surfaced for Kootenay including facility expansion, financing and channel distribution. These opportunities can assist Kootenay to address the growing demand in Canada and North American for high-quality customized frame bicycle market.

George Eastman invented roll film and an easy to operate camera that made photography easier for anyone to experience photography. He founded the Eastman Kodak Company to manufacture cameras and photographic supplies, making the art of photography available to the masses. This talks about his life and how he came about the inventions that made photography easier for people to use and produce their own photographs.

1. Evaluate Kodak's strategy in traditional photography. Why has the company been so successful throughout the history of the industry?

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.

a. How does Polaroid’s distribution needs vary by subsidiary in Europe? What are the implications of these differences? You must consider the cultural diversity of the countries in Europe where Polaroid operates.

The founder of Kodak, George Eastman, was a photography enthusiast and wanted to simplify the process of creating photos. Eastman established what was to evolve into the Kodak Company in 1880. The Kodak Company was built on four basic

* Introduces the construction and use of statistical process control (SPC) charts and an understanding of the relationship between SPC and conformance quality.

He started his business of photography in 1881, advertising dry photographic plates. He moved on to patenting his film in 1884, and then in 1889 he patented a roll film. He introduced his first camera, the Kodak camera (shown in picture two) in 1888 (Carlisle 247.) This is when the magic and joy of photography first began. “He called it a Kodak because he liked the strength of the letter K and reckoned it was a word that would be pronounced the same in every language,” (Buckland and Lefer 250). In 1889, Eastman fit his Kodak cameras with transparent nitrocellulose film. This was a major breakthrough in the photography industry because it allowed easier processing and developing of a photo (Buckland and Lefer 250).

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

The option can revamp its line of attack to surpass current expectations. Though this option has a high level of risk, if successful, would implement a drastic change to Kodak’s strategy and overall performance for the good of company leaders, employees, and stakeholders. The new CEO will be evaluated after one year by leaders, employees, and stakeholders.

What I feel about Kodak’s move was that they are trying to make a space for themselves in an already crowded market. Kodak is trying to carve out a niche for them by offering inks for low prices. But, they have forgotten the abilities of the competitors. They have probably underestimated them. HP and Canon are big names in the printing industry and because of their continued rollout of good quality products; customers trust them more than they trust Kodak. It is also observed that Kodak had forgotten that if HP lowers their price to almost the same level like Kodak, Kodak won’t stand a chance. The only way that Kodak can hope to make some profit is by hoping that their competitors won’t reduce the price of the inks as it is the only source of revenue in the printing industry. But I am pretty sure that marketing research people of Kodak has made a blunder by opting for this. The major fact is that they have forgotten cartridge refilling industry which is cheap too and people have started to use that as they are comparatively cheaper to the original printing inks. I sincerely feel that Kodak has taken the wrong path to get out of their troubles.

In 1888, George Eastman made the first light and portable camera under the company name Kodak (Graham 28). These cameras gave people the ability to take a photo almost anywhere. The cameras had to be sent back to the factory so the photographs could be printed. Twenty years after Kodak’s first camera, they produced an improved camera, called “Brownie”. The Brownie was simple to use, making the art of photography boom. Flash cameras did not appear until the 1930s, letting people take pictures in areas with dim or little lighting. In 1947, Edwin Land invented the instant camera. Land got the idea after his daughter asked to see her picture after he took her photo. The next step in improving the camera was by making it digital, which was done in 1975 by a Kodak employee. As the camera gets smaller and simpler to use, the quality of the photographs it produces gets better.

To account for their miscalculation in film sales, Kodak is undergoing a massive digitally based shift. Kodak plans on building a stronger base in its consumer, medical, and profession imaging products. However, this shift does not come without a price tag. Kodak’s projected spending could reach as much as $3 billion in future investments to aid the shift. With these investments Kodak claims a tremendous turnaround in revenue. Kodak anticipates reaching $16 billion in revenue by 2006 and $20 billion by 2010. To pay

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.