Eastman Kodak Company

Once a Goliath and now a Chapter 11 bankruptcy candidate, Kodak has come a long way. It is one of the classic example of How certain wrong decisions can come back to haunt you. But before we get into what these decisions were and the reason behind these decisions, let us look at the company itself.

Eastman Kodak Company or Kodak as it is commonly called is best known for photographic film products. It dominated most of the 20th century camera and photographic film market.

History

It all began in 1879 and lies in the passion for photography of a certain "George Eastman". George Eastman and Henry A.Strong formed a partnership called the Eastman Dry Plate Company. The company has been called the Eastman Kodak Company since 1892.

                                                            George Eastman

Milestones

1878 – George Eastman demonstrates gelatin dry plates over cumbersome and messy wet plates.

1881 – In January, Eastman and Henry A. Strong formed a partnership known as the Eastman Dry    

             Plate Company. 

1885 - Eastman photographic film was introduced.

1888 – The name “Kodak” was born and the Kodak camera was placed in the market with the slogan “You press the button -  we do the rest”.

1897 -The Pocket Kodak Camera was announced.

1900 – Famous Brownie Cameras were introduced.

1928 - Motion pictures in color became a reality with 16 mm KODA COLOR Film.

1953 – Introduced KODAK Photo Resist – Designed for making photo lithographic printing plates.

1975 – Invented world’s first digital camera

1980 – Turns 100

1984 – Entered the video market with KODAVISON Series.

1995 – Introduced its first website.

2001 – Intorduced the new ad campaign, “Share Moments Share Life”.

2011 – Introduced its first waterproof digital still camera.

Products

DIGITAL CAMERAS : More than 10 series of digital cameras.

DIGITAL FRAMES : Includes the SV-series, W-series, OLED series and PULSE series.

Digital Video Cameras : Four Series of Video Cameras with more than 15 products.

Printers : All-in-One Printers, Printer Docks and Photo Printers.

Worldwide Presence

Kodak is spread throughout the world and has plants in the 

United States, Canada,   Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, 

Switzerland, Netherlands, Israel, Russia, China, India and Nepal

Financial Condition 

The company which once held 90% share in photographic films in the U.S., on Jan 19 2012, filed 

for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. It listed assets of $5.1bn and a debt of $6.8 bn.

The credit deteriorated as the revenue tumbled from traditional films.KODAK has also shut down

its photo sharing site. 

No More the 'Kodak Moment'

The biggest thing about Kodak's bankruptcy is that everyone has been saddened. Almost everyone 

who ever owned a camera throughout the 20th century has a soft corner for the company. After all,

 Kodak is the company which enabled most of us to capture some of our cherished memories. But

 what really went wrong?

Trouble began 20 years ago with the decline of film photography. Kodak invented the digital camera 

in the 1975 but did not market it for the fear of downfall of the photographic film business.Throughout 

the 1990s it spent billions of dollars for developing the technology for taking pictures through mobile 

phones but again, never implemented it in mass market. 

The biggest reason for its failure is its leaders' failure to recognize the huge potential of digital 

camera.

Future Plans 

Though Kodak is down, it is certainly not out! Kodak’s goal is to come out of bankruptcy in 2013. 

The CFO of Kodak has planned to “sell significant assets”. It is a very IP rich company and is 

planning to earn $2.2 bn from the sale of patents. They have also shifted their focus to the printer 

business.

Kodak is a company which over the past 131 years has seen the highest of highs and now the lowest 

of lows. It is the epitome of how managerial decisions can take a company towards self destruction. 

It was the lack of vision or poor judgement, whatever we call it, that has brought it to this stage. Let’s

all hope that Kodak rises from the ashes like a phoenix and gives us a lot more of it Moments. 

References:

www.kodak.com

www.forbes.com

www.reuters.com

Monks United

A 20 min long Chinese silent film made in 1980 by the director A Da, Three Monks teaches virtues which are of paramount importance in today's world, especially in organisations. The greatest thing about this film is that it has lessons for everyone; be it a 5 year old pre-school-er or a 65 year old CEO.

I will not explain what this video is about as I want each and everyone of you to watch it.

Watch 3 Monks


The obvious lesson learned here is:

 TEAMWORK :

Team work, be it in a small task like doing a group assignment or running a multi-billon dollar corporation, is of extreme importance. Almost all corporations today, run on the principle of teamwork.  Whether it is the internal divisions of projects into teams or multiple organisations working together to achieve a common goal.

As the line goes in one of the great songs, 'Hey You' by the legendary band, 'Pink Floyd' :

"Together we stand, Divided we fall".

Organisations today cannot survive only on the individual performances but need to function as a living organism with all its body parts functioning efficiently.


Another important lesson in the film is of:

Synergy :

Synergy in simple terms implies 1+1 =11. It means that the interaction of individuals that when combined produces a total effect that is greater than their mere sum. As the 3 monks worked together they managed to come up with a mechanism which enabled them fill lot more water than the three separately could, and that too with relative ease and minimal time.

"A designed beauty of synergy is that it serves only to add, never subtract.” 
—Barb Rententbach, Synergy (2009)

In modern day organisations, it is the synergy between the individual elements(employees or departments) that matters the most. Employees share ideas, work methodologies and this mere symbiosis leads to efficient work practices and processes. Just like with the three monks, it helps them to innovate.

The greatest thing about synergy is that it makes it necessary for the individual elements to work together as a closely knit band and thereby makes them accountable for the task at hand. This makes the individual elements more responsible and thereby a lot more proactive.


The 3 monks indeed taught us a wise lesson that staying united is the greatest mantra be it a family, an organisation or the world.

Valley Crossing - Lessons in Management

  

Valley crossing is primarily a very interesting puzzle where three men holding a pole over their shoulders have to cross a valley.

This is interesting simply because the three men have to work with the highest amount of coordination and even a small amount of misjudgement could lead to disastrous results.

The Puzzle

The valley is so wide that one cannot cross it in a single step but it requires less than 2 steps.

As they say a picture is worth a thousand words. The above picture is the epitome of this saying. As descriptive a it can get, the predicament of the three men is quite obvious.

The Learning

Teamwork:

  Just like in this puzzle, in real time organizations teamwork is of utmost importance. As most mature organisations are subdivided into departments and each department is divided into teams of various kinds, it is of utmost importance for the organisation that the teams work in harmony. Lack of team-spirit, not only hampers the performance of that particular team but also the entire organisation.

Trust:

Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships of professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

Continuous Communication:

Just like in this puzzle, in real life organisations rapid and continuous flow of information in both directions is of utmost importance. Neither the employees nor the managers should be kept in the dark about new developments, however unsettling they may be.

Co-ordination:

In today’s fast moving world even a delay of few seconds causes major losses. Perfect co-ordination between the numerous chains involved ensures desired results.

Indeed this puzzle in itself is a management lesson of the highest kind.

  

A ‘Khan’tastic Concept.

How often do you see a 3 degree holder from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an MBA from Havard School of Business and a cosy job as hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management, quit his job and focus on teaching. Yes! Welcome to the wonderful world of Mr. Salman Khan.

Salman Khan has done something that most of us won’t even dare to. He created the KHAN ACADEMY – a non-profit organisation, providing high quality education to anyone,anywhere. His website www.khanacademy.org, supplies free online collection of more than 3000 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on  teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and almost any subject under the sky.

It all started in 2004 when Mr. Khan was tutoring his cousin Nadia using Yahoo Doodle pad. When other relatives asked for a similar lecture, Mr. Khan decided to upload Youtube videos and thus it all started. Infact, he is heard saying in one of his videos that his cousins prefer his videos to him teaching them in person.

Innovative Method of Pedagogy

The videos are not the regular mundane lectures that we witness in classrooms. Viewers are taught with the creative insight of the highest kind. Mr.Khan says that one should learn something like derivatives just how one learns how to ride a bicycle.

 The examples used in the videos help even the weakest of the students to grasp the basic concepts with relative ease.

Impact of Khan Academy

In the U.S. some of the schools actually use these videos in their classrooms to explain the learning concepts. The students go through the videos on the previous day and solve exercises in the classroom on the next day.

In case of under privileged children, these videos provide a source of some basic concepts and help them educate themselves. This is particularly important in today’s globalised world where you are what you know.

Support for Khan Academy

The project is funded by donations. It has significant backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and Google. Apart from these there are numerous contributors to this non-profit organisation.

A video from Khan Academy:

Learnings from Khan Academy.

One of the key aspects of Khan Academy is that it is free for all and targets, arguably the most important issue today – Education or rather the lack of it. If we keenly focus on Managerial Approach followed by Mr. Khan, we see that he motivates his target audience as well as his peers alike. These are the traits of Theory Y type of manager.

Another key aspect is that he has focussed on the consumer more than anything else. Being a non-profit organisation with adequate financial backing from corporate big shots, the focus of his organisation is not profit but the welfare of his customers.

Khan academy has created something which has immense potential to grow and succeed. Let’s all hope that we see more people following this ‘Khan’tastic approach.

Think Sell Learn

Date : 20-06-2012

From Another Brick in the Wall to an 18 cube stack, this was no ordinary Wednesday or for that matter no ordinary lecture. But such is the case when Dr. Prasad or Dr. Mandi as he loves to call himself (and so do we) gives a lecture.

All about Socho Becho…

The lecture started off with the inspiring mantra “Socho Becho, Becho Seekho, Seekho Socho”; which captured the imagination of every student in the class. The essence of the line – the best way to learn is by getting one’s hands dirty. Only learning the concepts is futile unless you practice them in the real world and learn from those experiences. Dr. Mandi emphasised the need for ‘out of the box’ thinking even when looking at seemingly simple objects. To illustrate this point he showed us some toys made out of very basic things and asked us to figure out the science behind their working. The point behind the whole exercise – if you can understand the objective of a product, you can sell it effectively. This is the key behind the “Socho Becho” part of the mantra.

An example:

   

The picture above is of a toy which primarily works on Newton’s third law of motion – Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The moment the seller figures this out he/she can target the market strategically, focussing on the learning aspect of the toy.

This was a major lesson from the first lecture which encouraged us to think beyond the usual and then apply those ideas. I am certain we will get numerous opportunities to practise these golden words – Socho Becho, Becho Seekho, Seekho Socho, in events like Mandi, Hamara Dhanda and otherwise.

Cubes for thought…

What are SMARTE goals? What is Theory X- Theory Y? These are some of the basic principles of management which can be understood through a plethora of websites available. But how can they be applied in real world? This is where Dr. Mandi comes in with an innovative game – building a single stack using cubes.

Numerous cubes were distributed and the class was asked to estimate how many of them could they stack on top of each other in a single row – if they were to be blindfolded, using their left hand and were being guided by another person. Sounds tough? Sure it is! This was an excellent exercise in learning how to set SMARTE(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely,Evaluate) goals. A lot of thought had to be put in before putting our finger on a number. The game became even more exciting when three students decided that they could stack 15 cubes after being made to bet actual money.

The whole game was given the resemblance of an organisation; where the blindfolded person stacking the cubes was the worker, the person guiding him was the manager and the third person who had the liberty to intervene whenever he felt necessary was the Top-level manager. Surprisingly this pseudo organisation followed the Theory Y, where the worker was motivated by the manager to achieve his (and the organisation’s) goal. There was no coercion or any other unpleasant means used to achieve the goal as in case of Theory X, as the worker understood his responsibility.

The management was equally helpful in motivating the workforce through the arduous task.

The result – where the goal was to stack the 15 cubes they ended up stacking 18 of them and were looking good for even more.

Such are the achievements when the workforce is motivated in an appropriate manner and the management communicates with it continuously and effectively.

The amount of learning from this task is enormous. Whether it is setting up SMARTE goals or witnessing the application of Theory Y, the task teaches us that only when all aspects of an organisation work efficiently and effectively, only then the goals can be achieved.

The first two lectures by Dr. Mandi have set the mood for the next 2 years in NITIE and have made us realise the number of opportunities we have here to learn new and implement new things. I believe I have already become wiser after just two lectures – looks like we are all in for a real treat.