[pure-silver] Re: Amusing Kodak commercial

  • From: "Edward C. Zimmermann" <edz@xxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 14:05:50 +0100

Quoting afterswift@xxxxxxx:


>  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.

This is completely wrong. Kodak was more enterprising then any of today's
"technology darlings" like Google, Red Hat, Oracle or whatever they are called.
Kodak INVENTED what is today called digital photography. Sure we had
digital capture and image processing--- I do recall the Evans and Sutherland
machine and did even work with a friend developing a graphics machine
on micro hardware (early 1970s!)--- but Kodak was quite early in the game
looking to turn stuff from the lab into consumer products. 


> They reworked traditional technology instead of improving it. They were good

Kodak improved it. Kodak improved silver halide technology. Kodak improved
and worked on technology to take trends in the lab and try to explore to see
if they could become a product. Kodak too pushed a lot of silly cameras like
the disc but that was about selling.. and Kodak did well too at selling..
part of the Kodak concept was to create demand for new concepts and technology
and not to just have people use their 30 year old cameras..

> 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. 

No. The root of Kodak's problems is American culture and especially finance
culture where a company without a viable business can get valued at 4 billion
USD (Netscape)--- being the market leader is free browsers is not a business.
Or Yahoo.. or .. Over 1 billion for a file sharing site (YouTube)? The
stock market rewarded Google with what is clearly tossing money out the window..
But hey.. as one guy told me many years ago "You don't understand.. Its the
new economy".

Its nothing about truth or business but what a bunch of blind guys think
they are following..

>  
>  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

IBM? Again.. I recall meeting in the mid 1980s with a guy from McKinsey
who was working desperately with Siemens to help them reach their goal of
making a 2 MB RAM. Siemens spent large scale money on the project but only
in joint venture with Toshiba were they able to finally announce that they
were the first to make 2 MB RAMs.. Funny thing.. IBM did not tell anyone
and while Siemens made the announcement IBM PCs were.. you guessed it.. being
delivered with 2 MB RAM chips.. but IBM did not tell anyone.

Shall we recall that IBM was in an anti-trust suit that came very close to
breaking them up?

You think IBM has no technology? There is NO computer program or computer that
does not probably infringe a bunch of IBM patents. Do you have any idea about
what IBM is funding in research and development?

IBM's major fault is that a lot of the public started to believe the self
preservation propaganda that IBM missed the boat...

Can you name a single computer company with more intellectual property or
know how than IBM? (not even HP which really is in deep trouble). Sure IBM
sold off PCs and hard disk production.. It was the right thing to do..
 
Being a leader at a moment selling PCs means nothing other than that you
have failure biting at your rear.. I used to work with GRiD systems which
got taken over my Tandy Corp (Radio Shack). They bought Victor Technologies
(Sweden) and took over the PC production of Matsushita making them the 2nd
largest PC producer in the world.. They sold it then to AST putting them at
the top spot and then.. swooooooosh. Chapter 7. Remember Compaq..
All gone the way of Osborne and KayPro :-)

> 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. 

No.. but guys who think that PCs are high tech! :-)
So the problem with Kodak is that they are spending big DOT.COM style
(paying top price for companies just over their Apex) and trimming their
own R&D.. 


>  Bob
>   
>  
>   
> ________________________________________________________________________
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-- 
-- 
Edward C. Zimmermann, Basis Systeme netzwerk, Munich
http://www.nonmonotonic.net
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