[pure-silver] Re: Amusing Kodak commercial
- From: afterswift@xxxxxxx
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 06:03:10 -0500
About 20 years ago Kodak lost a court case with Polaroid for stealing
Polaroid's patents when Kodak produced their version of the instant print
camera. Since then both litigants have been outrun by digital and those patents
aren't worth very much to either party. Dr. Land's company doesn't exist
anymore. Polaroid's remaining business is in the hands of other outfits,
producing components of the original line as part of the bankruptcy
settlements.
But Kodak isn't a one-product outfit as was Polaroid. Kodak is into many
different fields, some of them industrial. But the Polaroid case does reveal
that Kodak no longer had an enterprising corporate culture even in the 1980s.
They reworked traditional technology instead of improving it. They were good at
marketing as the leader in an oligopoly. Kodak lost that niche when the economy
really went global and new cyber technology changed the nature of photography.
Then new competitors became independent of Kodak patents and influence.
The decline of Kodak had it roots in a corporate culture that was slow to
change. Reminds me of IBM during the rise of the PC. They had no idea of where
the market was or how large it could become. And didn't really care. The big
oil outfits are headed for the same cold shower.
The Kodak CEO is merely a chip off the old blockheads who ran Kodak in the
recent past.
Bob
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