6-2 Final Project Milestone 1 Profile of Struggling Company PDF

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Final project about Kodak and why they struggled and what they could have done differently to be successful...

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OL-215-J4142: Project 2 Milestone One Profile of Kodak Corporation Jamie Behr Southern New Hampshire University

Kodak which was once a leader in the film industry ultimately ended up filing for bankruptcy because of poor planning by their management. They failed by not aggressively pursuing a viable digital camera option that had the right price point and capabilities to complete with its competitors. They also put too much emphasis and time into developing a strategy to acquire a platform to share photos while still encouraging the users to print them. People were no longer wanting to print their photos. They wanted to create things with them and share them easily and quickly with friends and family. While Kodak did make an attempt to get a piece of this market their focus was still askew and they missed their opportunity to capitalize on the digital trend that was developing. They also exercised poor leadership and let their workforce down with their lack of ingenuity. (Anthony, 2016) The idea of printing photos wasn’t completely lost on consumers and if Kodak and compiled a better plan to introduce new products that was simplified and quick for the digital user they may have been able to experience some success as well. When you evaluate the management of this company and their overall ability to be effective in planning for the future they definitely failed. They were too focused on hanging onto a dying technology that the future passed them by. The negative effects have also been felt by the former employees of Kodak.

Retirees of the Kodak corporation are still feeling the effects of the poor choices made by company leadership. They have not been the beneficiaries of the things that were promised to them when they joined the company. Kodak always communicated they would treat their employees fairly and with respect. After their bankruptcy those same employees were stripped of their pensions as well health benefits as part of the restructuring. (Prenatt et al., 2015) Another area that contributed to the downfall was the resistance of Kodak employees to embrace change.

This was mostly due to ineffective communication and direction. There was no collective understanding of what Kodak should be doing to move the company into a new direction to survive. Because of the lack of communication and clear direction employees were not on board with transitioning to new technologies. They didn’t understand why a change needed to be made or how it was going to happen. Had Kodak disregarded the “groupthink” mentality and inspired their employees to put forth creative ideas they could have possibly started making changes before it was too late. Instead, their staff was unmotivated and complacent. It became easier to just agree with upper-level management because they were unaware of what was really happening with the company.

Communication between upper-level management and employees was strained or almost nonexistent in the Kodak Corporation leading up to their bankruptcy proceedings. They had employees and outside sources trying to warn them about the problems that were coming as the race for digital technology was heating up and they chose not act. Their business strategy as it related to what was being communicated to them became one of complacency versus action. Even as they were presented with new ideas, they just chose to ignore them. This lack of action on their part led to their demise. They were being outperformed and out developed by other in the film industry such as Fuji who was taking quick steps to put digital technology in place to compete in the ever-changing market. (Kotter, 2012) This is a company that was invented on innovation that couldn’t get out of its own way to do what was necessary to remain competitive.

References Anthony, Scott (2017, April 24). Kodak's Downfall Wasn't About Technology. Retrieved April 06, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2016/07/kodaks-downfall-wasnt-about-technology Prenatt, D., Ondracek, J., Saeed, M., & Bertsch, A. (2015). How Underdeveloped Decision Making and Poor Leadership Choices Led Kodak Into Bankruptcy. Inspira- Journal of Modern Management & Entrepreneurship, 5(1), 9-10. Kotter, J. (2013, August 20). Barriers to change: The real reason behind the kodak downfall. Retrieved April 06, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/05/02/barriers-to-change-the-real-reasonbehind-the-kodak-downfall/?sh=6707a30569ef...