Comments on: An American Fail: The Eastman Kodak Tragedy

By: Former Kodaker

Former Kodaker — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:52:25 +0000

As a former Kodak employee of 22+ years, the demise of EK saddens me greatly. As others here have said, Kodak was special. The inside culture was one of excellence, amazing innovation, pride...and uncompromising ethics. The superority of Kodak film products is well-known. The list of Kodak inventions is staggering. As for ethics, let me illustrate: at the end of WW1, George Eastman asked his chief accountant to tally the profits made on government war contracts. The total was $14 million. When informed of the figure, Eastman instructed his treasurer to write the U. S. Government a check for the entire amount, saying he did not wish to make money from war! Can you imagine ANY company doing that today? The really sad part of the sorry state in which Kodak finds itself is that it can be directly attributed to Kodak management. Those running Kodak's film busineses failed to recognize that analog, chemical-based photography would one day be replaced by digital. I personally attended meeting after meeting after meeting in which Kodak managers stated emphatically that digital photography would never rival or surpass analog in terms of quality! No one at top levels in Kodak could be convinced that Moore's Law would one day apply to photography. In fact, most Kodak managers had never even heard of Moore's Law! Kodak's current attempt to market home ink jet photo printers is truly a "hail Mary" pass. For the sake of those remaining Kodak employees, I hope it works. Frankly though, I don't hold out much hope. As for Kodak's other business, the Graphics Communications Group, the earnings from which from which Kodak hoped to use to finance it's foray into consumer ink jet printers, this Division too is suffering a rapid and messy decline at the hands of incompetent and uninformed management. Having used the majority of profits from graphics consumables to finance the sale of graphics imaging hardware, GCG is doing little more than treading water at this point. In December of 2009, Kodak will close the plant and lay off the individuals who were reponsible for the invention and development of the Kodak digital thermal printing plate...a product that quite literally revolutionized the worldwide graphic arts industry and generated 100s of millions of dollars in earnings over the past 15 years. Over 40 R&D scientists and manufacturing engineers from this plant have received their walking papers so far. More layoffs of individuals with critical skills are to come. Given such actions, it is a mystery how Kodak expects to compete with Fuji's 300+ member graphics R&D group? Given all this, I have no hope that Kodak will survive as an intact organization. Sad times indeed.

By: A Kodak snapshot « Harmon Drive

A Kodak snapshot « Harmon Drive — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:23:52 +0000

[...] A Kodak snapshot Jump to Comments Check out this timeline on the history of Kodak. Here is another story, I find it depressing. Click here. [...]

By: hello?mcfly?

hello?mcfly? — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:50:59 +0000

the digital age snuck up on them??

By: Aldebert

Aldebert — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:15:31 +0000

I just returned from "Meliora Weekend", a unique annual 3-day education/music/arts event, at George Eastman's other major legacy - the University of Rochester. At least I have confidence that this great institution is thriving and will endure.

By: Nimo

Nimo — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:44:38 +0000

that intro was riveting..and hilarious..and eerily enough reminded me of how badly i wanted a digital camera a few years ago and rejoiced when Kodak decided to fill the low-end digital camera supplier shoes. It was a C series and lasted me all of 4 months..I didn't even attempt to send it in for repair.

If it's not failing management, its financial ruin..what's happening to the legends?

By: RB

RB — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:18:48 +0000

The Bayer filter array used on digital camera sensors today itself was invented by a Kodak engineer in 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

By: Jay @marketfolly

Jay @marketfolly — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:26:37 +0000

Ya know I was looking at this a few weeks back and was amazed at the chart. They got completely sideswiped by the digital movement and it's hard to think how they were so dominant and then lost. They have huge brand equity so it's a shame. Had seen a few hedge funds pick up puts on them past few quarters, but stock has been ripping as of late (along with rest of market).

Jay
@marketfolly

TRB: The photo sharing is worth something, public company comp would be shutterfly i suppose. the brand name is probably worth more than that. but you look at the interest rates on the debt and its sickening. I'm a spectator on this one.