gotta say though, they did it to themselves...
Posted on 09/10/2012 4:30:41 PM PDT by BfloGuy
Bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co said it will cut 1,000 additional jobs by the end of this year and may cut more as it focuses on its commercial packaging and printing business.
Kodak, which invented the digital camera but had trouble adjusting to the digital age, was betting on an auction of its 1,100 patents to raise funds to repay money borrowed to finance its bankruptcy.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
In the '80's, friends of mine from Rochester felt pretty superior to us poor folks from Buffalo. The steel plants had closed down and Buffalo was reeling, while "high-tech" Rochester (home to Kodak and Xerox) was booming.
But in the last decade, both Kodak and Xerox made themselves the steel industry of the 21st century. I'm not at all gloating over it; it's a shame. Business is tough. You can't rest for a minute.
I am surprised these announcements are coming before the election
Not if they want to sell their employee votes to Obama for rescue bucks.
gotta say though, they did it to themselves...
Hopefully this next layoff is at the manufacturing plants that Kodak built in China.
I lived in Syracuse for the same period and there was a certian “attitude” about Rocha-cha-cha.
It’s the 585’er mentality.
Yet, I came to Kodak in the mid 2000’s to try and resurrect a former giant. Things were too entrenched from the “glory days” and they simply would not yield in the manner in which they conducted business to the new world they were operating in. They we also deeply committed to “diversity”.
Back then, Forbes would have assigned 9 figures to the value of the "Kodak" name and trade dress. Kind of telling how even that "capital" can disappear.
For as much as we denigrate California here on FR, they continue to produce new companies from nothing. Some from left wing connection, but many or most from a fairly level playing field.
Sure, they end up outsourcing much of their operations to the other states and overseas, but alot of money is still made here.
I know what you mean. As a vendor I met with senior execs in their Canadian operation with a proposal for them to match the incentives that Fuji and Konica were offering retailers. Marketing and Finance loved the concept but the discussion was shut down by the IT manager who asserted that their systems could not accommodate it (my proposal was a way to MAKE their systems handle it).
In the executive suites they simply had a “don’t rock the boat” mentality. Many of the senior managment simply wanted to get through their final years and then it wouldn’t be their problem.
The old boys had no clue as to how fast the digital technology was moving. They simp0ly could not see a PC going from $4000 for a 386-8MHZ with 1 Mb of RAM and 320 Mb HDD to 15 years later you could buy a 3GHz P4 dual core with 4 Gb of RAM, and 160Gb HDD for $500.
A decision was made to sell off the core businesses (Eastman Chemical), copiers to Danka, and blood anayzers to J&J, Aerospace to ITT, and Health to Onyx.
What’s left....Digital Cameras? Yes they had the best image processing and took the best pictures, but mechanically they were crap. Personal Printers? Nice ink, but mechanically they were crap. Commercial Printing? HP and Pitney Bowes are burying them in the commercial billing printing market.
Film? Yes the EKTAR 100 Film is the best yet for film photography but I may take two or three rolls of film per year in my Canon F-1n. The camera in my iPhone takes acceptable pictures for 99.999% of the time I want to take a photo.
Antonio Perez is a “closer”....His job it to dispose of the assets, minimize the liabilities, and turn out the lights.
I was at Kodak when the decision was made to resist the switch to consumer digital imaging because retailers threatened to drop Kodak products if they did. Drugstores etc relied on the 3-visit model (customer came to store to buy film, to drop off film, then to pick up prints). Kodak lost sight of who the customer was, and so lost the opportunity in the sudden transition to digital. I suggested the ultimate implementation of Eastmans’s “you push the button, we do the rest” line (auto transmit digital image by integrated cell phone, prints get mailed to customer) but as a mere peon was ignored.
Typical 315er.... Rocha cha was 716 in the 80’s 8-)
With the rapid decline in film sales due to digital photography, I wonder why Obama hasn’t tried to bail out Kodak.
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