2. A Brief History
• With the slogan "you press the button, we do the
rest," George Eastman was the pioneering in the
work of photograph. He put the first simple
camera into the hands of a world consumers in
1888.
• Kodak has been the market leader for many
years in the business of photographic films.
• Began to diversify their business when started in
the late 90s early digital cameras
• Reinventing and developing products that would
maintain its leadership in the photographic
market through acquisitions of technology
companies. One of the initial problems was that
with technology products, margins previously
achieved through the sale of films were no
longer possible.
3. Kodak’s business and its Key Success Factors
(KSFs)
• Pioneering in film rolls (Golden Goose)
• Had to diversify their business when digital
cameras appeared
• Competitors offered technology with better
costs
• How to react? Acquisition and launching
alternative service solution for Kodak (was
not they core business)
4. Road to Bankruptcy
• With new products (TV interface,
photo kiosk...) could not
differentiate themself form others -
Whitmore era. She could not
efficiently execute marketing
strategic
• New CEO, Fisher, brought new
approach with new services.
Culture issues was a challenge to
Fisher that was a tech guy. Fuji
kept selling film rolls and gain
market share
• Carp, another CEO decide to
focus on digital camera, image
manipulation and printing
• Bankruptcy in 2012
5. Kodak’s business and its Key Success Factors
(KSFs)
✓Pioneer company and leader in the photograph film industries.
✓Key success Factors are the access to technology on late 19th century to make
photography an easier task and by doing that to become a reference in the
industry.
✓Understanding that profitability, since that time, was more related to consumables
(films) and not hardware (cameras). With these success factors they have become
leaders in the photograph industry in the 20th century.
6. Key Strategic Resources and Core Competences
• Aways fighting for the quality
products, good relationship with
channels generating loyalty with
their customers and outstanding
manufacturing process that
guarantee low cost products.
• " Nothing is more important than
the value of our name and the
quality it stands for. We must
make quality our fighting
argument"
7. The Industry’s KSFs with Kodak’s Resources and
Core Competences
• At the beginning of 20th century their
success factors and resources
strategy used to make perfect sense.
The case shows that time and digital
cameras these factors did not fit
anymore
8. Level of Uncertainty
• The time described by the case
talks about the challenge Kodak
had to face when Digital Cameras
were invented and how they could
survive without photograph films,
that was always their leading
product. They needed to know how
to maintain leadership in the market
by selling hardware and not
consumer products. They were not
specialists in the technology
required at that moment.
9. Digital Imaging Technology: an Opportunity or a
Threat for Kodak?
It was always a threat to the semi-
monopoly Kodak used to have for many
years. They had to deferential them selves
to keep surviving but did not used this new
era as an opportunity to keep being a
reference in that market, by lack of right
decisions in their strategic planning.
Competitors: Canon Inc., Fuji Photo Film
Co., Hewlett Packard Co., Nikon, Sony
Corp.
