The case of Polaroid in 1996.

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.

Polaroid’s overall growth strategy was to be the number one and only instant photography company through the invention of it’s own technology in its own laboratories. “Growth objectives are a key part of an organization’s overall strategic plan. Almost all strategic plans deal with the size the company wishes to be in the future” (Human Resource Management pg. 110). One of the ways in which Polaroid planned to be the only instant photography company—in turn would also make it the greatest—was through 533 patents. “Polaroid is still characterized by many as a company that hold too tight a grip on its patents” (Human Resource Management pg. 130). Polaroid’s strategic plan was always to stick with their one invention, improve on it’s technology, and target the sole market. This affected HR planning and strategy because Edwin H. Land did not want to enter other markets; Land wanted Polaroid to be about instant photography. The decision to stay in only one market affected HR from doing what they are suppose to do. It prevented them from being creative or innovative.

The company’s products are not selling in the market even after making several changes and reforms in the operation process i.e. experiencing difficulty in gaining traction in the market.

It was Kodak’s’ strategy to sell the cameras at low prices, and it used to earn revenue from the films; this strategy is called the razor-blade strategy. This model for photography became flop when Sony introduced a camera with floppy disk inside, in which there wasn’t any use of films. As a result of Sony’s introduction of the Mavica in 1981, Kodak took it as a threat and started investing in the digital photography. For this purpose, it has conducted a huge research on the digital photography. As exposed by Fisher in 1997, Kodak’s respond wasn’t appropriate for the digital world: “One of the mistakes we [Kodak] have made is that we [Kodak]’ve tried to do it all. We [Kodak] do not have to pursue all aspects of the digital opportunity and service side.”

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.

Considering the conducted research and analysis, it can be clearly seen that the international strategy is not effective, that is why, needs to be fixed. Moreover, the company has a success in the local market, so it may be reasonable to put the efforts to promote inside the country.

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.

Fujifilm was able to being exporting film and optical products after World War II ended, they primarily focused on South American and Asia. There was a great demand

Polaroid Corporation, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a company marketed a wide variety of instant photographic products for consumers and industries. After the deregulation of US motor industry consolidation of the warehouses in US took place, which resulted in an improved service level and reduced costs. Overwhelmed by the consolidation results, the management wanted to consolidate the subsidiaries’ warehouses in the Europe to a direct distribution.

Rajat Singh, a managing director at Hudson Bancorp, needs to find a way to rejuvenate the paper check corporation. One main part that needs to be calculated is the appropriate mixture of debt and equity for the firm. The company needs to determine the correct mixture so that they can both minimize the cost of capital and increase the shareholders value. I will analyze the current and future situation of the company, trying to find the correct credit rating to use that will increase income. With the new credit rating, I will be able to recommend a certain amount of debt for the company to take on and be profitable.

* The Russian economy is discouraging foreign investments, but the producers needed that money to update technology, modernize infrastructure, develop marketing and packaging solutions, develop dealer and distributor networks and so on.

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.

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