What Strategic Errors Did Kodak Make in the Period Since 1990?
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Question 1: What strategic errors did Kodak make in the period since 1990?
According to Christensen (1997), survival of many large organizations is seen to depend on how well they are able to negotiate the technological currents in their environments. Technological advancement is caused by improvement in communication and new designing capabilities with an organization. Kodaks status as an iconic brand was threatened by the technological shift away from its vastly successful business of traditional film and film processing. The photography industry was changing from a traditional industry to a much more technically advanced industry. This expansion in the field of technology for the photograph equipment industry opens the door for other industries (computer industry, software, printers, etc.) to step in and broaden their product line and offers huge potential for market growth.
The first digital camera invented by Kodak, you can not say that Kodak did not grasp the core technology. I think that the problem is strategic positioning. Due to concerns about its roll film sales are affected, Kodak has not dared to develop digital business, also focus on the traditional analog camera film business, and focus on how to prevent the film sales decline. So Kodak missed the best period of strategic opportunities. That you want to maximize access to the market interests of the film, they should pay attention to the digital technology, timely inclined to digital technology. Kodak is only concerned about the former, ignoring the latter. The lack of innovation, of course, does not refer to the technical innovation in digital imaging technology; Kodak is still very powerful, but not able to convert it into a sustainable business model, not the real market. Indifferent to the changes in market demand trends, resulting in slow product updates. We know that only those successful transformation of the company in order to better reflect the competitive differentiation, continuing to create profits and lock loyal customers, and business transformation based on product innovation and customer needs is a thing of the Kodak imminent.
Reference List:
Christensen, C. 1997 The innovators dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.