Company Overview
Eastman Kodak Company, better known as Kodak, specializes in the production of high quality film and printing products. Found by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak’s success began in 1888, when the company introduced the first simple camera to the consumer market. Kodak would continue to create innovations which revolutionized film and photography. In the late 1800’s Kodak developed the first daylight loading camera and marketed the first film used to make motion pictures. By 1900 the company introduced their famous Brownie Camera. The Brownie camera presented an affordable method for hobbyists and general consumers interested in photography. Additionally, Kodak’s Developing Machine allowed users to process film without a
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This in turn gains great exposure for their brand and pushes their competitors to look other places to push their products in front of consumers. They also have a strong presence in the online photo storage technology market competing with companies like Shutterfly. With everything moving towards cloud storage for consumers and businesses, this places them to be competitive in the market to come. Within many stores like Rite Aid and Walgreens you will find Kodak’s digital mini photo labs. This being another strength of theirs, they have been able to solidify exclusive agreements with the companies listed previously as well as many other large chain retailers. Another stronghold for Kodak falls within the 11,000 patents they hold, including but not limited to digital imaging and film processes. They are in current litigations with companies like HTC and Apple, in attempt to generate revenues due to the infringement on patents.
Weaknesses
Kodak is known for many of its strengths, but it has many weaknesses as well. Kodak has serious weaknesses to consider such as the following: poor communication, weak real estate portfolio, diseconomies of scale, poor supply chain, and over leveraged financial position. However these are just some of the weaknesses. Kodak’s other weaknesses to focus on would be the weakness in the management team as well as a
If I were responsible for solving the problem, in addition to Kodak’s repositioning strategy, I would do the following:
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.
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.
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
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
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 general, Kodak has done well in the innovation implementation. This paper mainly discusses the innovation system within the group also influence the innovation
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.
At your request, I have compiled information on Eastman Kodak Co., so that you may come to an investment decision. The report will consider the company’s background (including Kodak’s areas of production), a past obstacle Kodak has had to face and overcome, and a financial snapshot of Kodak over the past five years.
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:
Eastman Kodak Company, commonly known as Kodak is an American multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquartered in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1889. Kodak is best known for photographic film products. During most of the 20th century Kodak held a dominant position in this sector. In fact, Eastman Kodak Co. is one of the dominant market share holders within the camera and other photography-related industries. Kodak pioneered amateur photography and is often credited for the invention of roll film and the first camera. The markets for color film and color photofinishing in 1954 were controlled by Kodak. It had over 90% of the amateur color
According to What is SWOT Anlysis (2011), SWOT analysis is an analysis used to identify the internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) of the company as well as external factors (opportunities and threats) of the company.