Do you know the story of Kodak? And what you can learn from it to make your company better?
Kodak was founded in 1888. During most of the 20th century, they held a dominant position in film worldwide. They also manufactured and sold a lot of cameras, like the one I photographed in this photo.
In the late 70’s Kodak was selling 90% of all film and 85% of all cameras in the USA.
In 1975 an engineer at Kodak, Steve Sasson, created the world’s first digital camera. But it was dropped for fear that it will threaten Kodak’s film business.
The digital camera age was born, but Kodak did not adapt to the changes worldwide.
Between 1996 and 1997 the companies net profit dropped from $1.29 Billion to just $5 Million
They started to struggle financially because film sales were declining and they were slow to transition to digital photography.
In January 2012 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company did eventually survive. But they paid a heavy price for not making use of their dominant role in film and cameras and not adapting to new trends.
The question is:
Are you reading the signs of the times in your business?
Are you adapting to the world around you?
People that do the best in business will adapt to changes in their marketplace. If you stay the same you will slowly fade away and eventually, your business will close its doors.
What is necessary and wanted today might not be tomorrow. Big and untouchable today might be a beggar tomorrow.
Read and Think a lot.
Discuss things with other people. Challenge their thinking. Make up your own mind. Be a visionary.
Where are you now?
Where is your industry moving too?
Don’t just take for granted what the leaders in your industry are doing and saying. Be different. It worked out quite well for Apple. Can you still remember how dominant Blackberry and Nokia were when Apple released the first iPhone? Where are they today? Apple is the world’s first Trillion dollar company. And Blackberry and Nokia?
It is simple: “Adapt or die”
“All failure is failure to adapt. All success is successful adaptation” – Max Mc Keown
JC Crafford
