...KodakEastman Kodak1 Since George Eastman first started the company at the turn of the last century, Eastman Kodak has been one of the most important corporate citizens in the Rochester, New York, community. Over the 1900s, Kodak developed a reputation as one of the leading proponents of welfare capitalism. In fact, the company maintained its reputation for paying high wages and providing lifetime job security into the 1980s. However, during the 1980s, the company embarked on a diversification and acquisition strategy by purchasing Sterling Drug Company and expanding into a wider range of products, such as office copying machinery. Increased competition in its film and camera markets and the subsequent loss of market share led to the replacement of CEO Kay Whitmore with the former CEO of Motorola, George Fisher. Kodak’s case study tells the story of a long-standing company with a reputation for social responsibility earned through its community activities, its implied commitment to lifetime employment, and its high-wage and comprehensive fringe benefit policies. A highly integrated firm, it also performed all of its own R&D, manufacturing, and sales functions. A business press article in 1998 echoed the investment community’s criticism of the company for maintaining this integrated model too long: Many of Kodak’s problems stem from the company’s remarkable success in the century following its founding in 1892. Unfortunately, as the world changed rapidly over the past 20 years,...
Words: 1841 - Pages: 8
...The Rise and Fall of Eastman Kodak, an Emblem of American Business Excellence Executive Summary With the slogan "you press the button, we do the rest," George Eastman put the first simple camera into the hands of a world of consumers in 1888. In doing so, he made a complicated process easy to use and accessible to nearly everyone. Since that time, the Eastman Kodak Company has led the way with an abundance of new products and processes to make photography simpler, more useful and more enjoyable. Its reach increasingly involves the use of technology to combine images and information--creating the potential to profoundly change how people and businesses communicate. Kodak continues to expand the ways images touch people's daily lives. The company ranks as a premier multinational corporation, with a brand recognized in virtually every country around the world’’ (kodak.com). However, despite numerous efforts in acquiring new competences and turn around its business model, Kodak has so far failed to impress consumers and stakeholders alike. Facing stiff competition and shrinking profit margins, Kodak seems not able to find its rightful place in the new digital age. This report will shed some light as to why Eastman Kodak has been struggling for years and how it could overcome the challenges it currently faces. kodak manufacturing plant around 1930 RECENT PAST Kodak being a centennial company, it was necessary to take as much distance as possible when trying to analyze its...
Words: 3700 - Pages: 15
...I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load v I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to load I do not have a paper to...
Words: 273 - Pages: 2
...Eastman Kodak Products External analysis of Eastman Kodak Introduction Kodak is the market leader in providing photographic products and services to consumers and commercial customers around the globe for memories, entertainment and information. The company brings inventive and modern products to the market that allows people to take, make and share pictures and experience the magic of photography (History of Kodak, 2008). As the world leader, Eastman Kodak is always looking for talented people. Kodak has continued to expand the ways and images touch people's daily lives. Kodak is a top supplier of innovative solutions for digital, conventional and blended print production environment (History of Kodak, 2008). Eastman Kodak Company is an American multinational public company which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment. It is known for its extensive variety of pictorial film products. Eastman Kodak is actually concentrating on two major markets; the first is digital photography and the second is digital printing (About Kodak's Graphic Communications Group, 2008). In Rochester and Jamestown New York, Kodak was founded by George Eastman and businessman Henry Strong. George Eastman as president purchased the stock of American Aristotype Company. In the year 1982, the Eastman Kodak Company was founded. The company is incorporated in New Jersey but has its offices in Rochester, New York. The slogan, You press the button; we do the rest, was given by the founder...
Words: 1807 - Pages: 8
...Eastman Kodak Co. 1. Why did Kathy Hudson make such a major change in IS recourses management at Kodak? What factors contribute to her decision to outsource data center, telecommunications, and PC services to IBM, DEC, and BusinessLand? Kathy Hudson was appointed to the newly created CIS unit in 1988 by CEO Colby Chandler with a directive to “overhaul the existing IT organization to promote the use of IT to improve the competive position of Kodak businesses while lowering cost.” At the time of her appointment, Kodak was suffering several serious business setbacks, along with rising competition and a Polaroid lawsuit. Jobs were cut and reorganization attempts did little to alleviate falling profits. Kodak needed an IT overhaul and it was Kathy’s job to see it implemented. Kathy Hudson reviewed recent studies that were conducted by outside vendors which found the organization had separate entities that were managing diverse, redundant IT platforms established under different operating standards. As a result, “The right hand had no idea what the left was doing”, she remarked. It was now time to determine which IT functions were “core” and which “support” functions were. From this determination, Hudson and her team would setup the process for organizational change that would achieve the goals of her and her team. Hudson’s outsourcing decisions were based on this approach of identifying the core and support functions within the organization. 2. Do you agree...
Words: 594 - Pages: 3
...Eastman Kodak At one time, Eastman Kodak dominated the film industry. Unfortunately for them, Eastman Kodak did not respond to the fast paced growth in the tech industry. The innovative staff at Fuji introduced a new product that decreased Eastman Kodak’s market share by a large margin for the first time. Their market share went from $85 per share to $71 per share, which resulted in a 16% decline. Eastman Kodak’s market share continued to decrease while the technology market as a whole was increasing tremendously. The obligatory changing of the organizational architecture for Eastman Kodak was in response to the immediate decline in market share, earnings per share, and lack of response to advances in modern technology. Eastman Kodak realized that they needed to restructure and respond very quickly but they were unsuccessful. Ultimately, Eastman Kodak was left in the dust. Before the distinct advances in technology, Eastman Kodak had a centralized decision method. This requires lower level management decisions to go through top management before any changes could be decided or implemented. Although the top down decision-making can control the company in positive ways, this method requires a tremendous amount of time because of the amount of approvals required. Eastman Kodak realized that they needed more opinions and ideas flowing around the company in order to stay competitive in the tech market, so they...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...Throughout out the second industrial revolution many companies, products and services emerged and through these haze of new ideas and products a single brillant idea blossomed; pictures. George Eastman, an American inventor and philanthropist in the 1880‘s with a passion for photography had a dream.1 At the time photography was a very rare past time that only professionals had the knowledge and equipment to partake in. Eastman’s vision was to provide photography for the everyday consumer at low cost. Eastman accomplished this by starting the Eastman Dry Plate Company, which was a global leader in mass producing dry plates for many years. Within four years of of the commencement of research, negative paper was introduced and would be used for the next century. Film became so efficient and cheap, Eastman invented the first commercial camera called the “Kodak” which revolutionized the “point and shoot” concept as the world know its today. 1 The Kodak camera was so popular that Eastman decided to integrated Kodak into the company name. The newly founded and named Eastman Kodak Company in 1892 became so big they had to expand their facilities to New Jersey for access to new trade routes. This was the beginning of Kodak and the start of photography. Kodak’s history is mainly responsible for making the Kodak name what it is today. The initial products invented by Kodak like the camera and film opened doors and provided a foundation for innovation and success in the photography and developing...
Words: 2126 - Pages: 9
...Report for Eastman Kodak Company Bryan Espichan June 18, 2014 Strayer University: ENG 315 Board of Directors 123 Main St. Rochester, New York 14652 June 4, 2014 Dear Board of Directors: The following report concerns the strategies for Eastman Kodak Company to recover from bankruptcy and improve products. Since 1880, Eastman Kodak has been known for their high quality photography equipment (George Eastman, n,d). However, in 2012, Kodak has filed for bankruptcy due to many reasons including failure to keep up with improvements in technology (Mui, 2012). The Research Department is planning to restore Kodak’s former prestige by improving the company’s ability to adapt to the rapid technological advancements. In order to do this, we were able to agree to present the Board of Directors with two solutions which are: A. Allow the research department to hire five new employees to increase productivity. If we hire younger and enthusiastic minds working together, the research department will be able to work more efficiently. B. Allow the research department to contract four experienced scientists from different companies to assist the research staff. If we have more experienced minds working with our research department, we will be able to work together to invent better products and discover new technology. The two options presented on this letter have been carefully analyzed using five different criteria which will be explained in this report. The research department...
Words: 2030 - Pages: 9
...Harvard Business School 9-594-111 Rev. May 8, 1995 Eastman Kodak Company: Funtime Film On January 25, 1994, George Fisher, Kodak’s recently appointed chief executive officer, met with analysts and investors to set out Kodak’s new strategy for film products. During the past week (between January 17 and January 24), Kodak stock had lost 8% in value on rumors of a price cut on film. While Kodak continued its overwhelming domination of the photo film market, its market share in the United States had eased from about 76% to 70% over the past five years “as competitors like Fuji Photo Film Co. and Konica Corp. wooed consumers with lower-priced versions.”1 Previously, Kodak had attempted to blunt share-gaining attempts by such rivals and private label products by introducing a superpremium brand, Ektar. Now Kodak proposed to introduce a brand at Fuji and Konica’s price level, 20% below the price of Kodak’s flagship Gold Plus brand. The new brand, Funtime, was to be available only in limited quantities during two off-peak selling seasons. While some viewed the move favorably, others were more skeptical. One analyst termed the strategy “seemingly a long step down the slippery slope that ends in private label trial.” The U.S. Photo Film Market In 1993, approximately 16 billion color exposures were made—the equivalent of 670 million 24-exposure rolls. Typically, a consumer paid between $2.50 and $3.50 for a 24 exposure roll. Over the past five years, the market’s...
Words: 2139 - Pages: 9
...Running Head: HIGH-RISK AUDIT CLIENT Assignment 4: Eastman Kodak Sarah Hescox Instructor: Mrs. Ashley Braun Harper, MS, CPA Advanced Auditing 06/16/2013 HIGH-RISK AUDIT CLIENT Current Financial Condition Based on its most recent quarterly report, that was issued April 29, 2013, Eastman Kodak’s current financial position seems strong with a net earnings of 283 million compared to the previous year’s loss of 366 million, however provided additional information, it is actually less than favorable. Kodak’s Short-term borrowings and current portion of long-term debt increased by over 150 million from the previous years, and its goodwill value decreased almost 100 million due to the decreasing value of the patented technology. I think an area of concern that would be a “red flag” for its public accounting firm to consider would be that in future periods, not only will Kodak have to make enough profit to sustain itself, but it also has legal responsibilities to pay back loans under the Junior DIP credit agreement and the Amended and Restated Senior DIP Credit Agreement, however, in Kodak’s quarterly report, they state “There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to meet the requirements under our Amended and Restated Senior DIP Credit Agreement, the Junior DIP Credit Agreement or the emergence credit facility” (Kodak, 2013). Another red flag for auditors to consider would be Kodak’s statement that “Kodak is developing a strategic plan for the ongoing operation...
Words: 1477 - Pages: 6
...George Eastman and Andrew Carnegie were Captains of Industry because they were both innovators and philanthropists. Eastman made the camera affordable to common man. Everyone could get a camera now. Carnegie made steel cheap to make and cheap to sell. Steel could now be mass produced. Eastman reinvented the camera, changing the way it was produced. His new camera was portable and easy to use. Carnegie went almost the same way, reinventing the way to make steel. Steel was bought by everyone, because now most manufacturers could afford it. Before George Eastman, taking one photo was expensive and difficult. Photography is so common nowadays, it’s a hobby for some people. Before Andrew Carnegie, there wasn’t tall skyscrapers. New York City, Chicago,...
Words: 271 - Pages: 2
...Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Eastman Kodak by HCM-540, MBOL5, Health Care Organization Instructor: Saint Leo University Distance Learning November 24, 2013 1) What factors motivated Kodak to change its organizational architecture? There were several factors that persuaded Kodak to make changes to its organizational architecture in 1984. Kodak had come to the conclusion that its present organizational architecture did not fit the current business environment for the industry. The biggest factor that persuaded Kodak to make a change was the growing competition in the industry and losing the dominance it once had in the film market. The emergence of new product being made by Fuji Corporation dwindled away their market share. In the early 1980’s, Kodak saw their share price drop from a high of $85 to a low of $71 in 1984. This was cause for change to its organizational architecture. In order to stop the bleeding, Kodak realized it had to restructure and react quickly. With developing technology, Kodak was losing ground fast and was no longer the conglomerate it once was. 2) What mistakes did Kodak make in changing its architecture? Kodak was faced with trying to regain market share. It needed to quickly make changes to respond to shareholders concerns. There were obvious advances in technology that concerned Kodak. Kodak restructured creating 17 new business units with profit-loss responsibilities. Unit leaders were given increase decision-making...
Words: 687 - Pages: 3
...| Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm | A Tale of two Companies | | | Roosevelt NickelberryAugust 12, 2013 | | | | Introduction Under examination is a tale of two companies; Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm. The ambitious topics under discussion are: the history and core business of each company, the approach to administration that each company has followed in order to grasp improvement, what management variances have impacted their comparative achievements, an evaluation of each business’s method to ethics and social accountability and the bearing those methodologies have had on each company’s cost-effectiveness. Also, there will be a dialogue on the extent to which the administration of both companies adapted to fluctuating market conditions, and personal recommendations any company could adopt in order to build up flexibility to back up its decision-making process in order to adjust to fluctuating market environments. History of Eastman Kodak One of the greatest inventions of the 19th century was the camera. Photography was quickly embraced by the world as it scrambled to accurately record history and family legacies. Before Kodak introduced its roll-film camera design in 1882, photography was decisively recognized as a specialized and commercial activity. When the public gained access to shooting their own photographs, through very astute marketing techniques, Kodak took advantage of the situation by “advertising promoted the roll-film cameras in ads that showed...
Words: 2536 - Pages: 11
...At the beginning of our theme choosing, we all really want to focus on some big corporations which related tightly with our daily life. After filtering through the recent social highlights, we all agreed choosing Kodak as our business model. We wanted to show our respect to this big head who brought us huge fun in the past decades. And we want to use our special way to memorize our colorful “Kodak” childhood and Kodak’s eliminated by the cruel business world. We started preparing for the team presentation very early. I sent the 1st mail to all my group members at 4th March. We all believe that small steps can bring big results. With theme choosing, role distributing, speech drafting, slides preparing, our task finished smoothly. I feel so sorry to not attend the May 12 class due to my competition, or we may bring a better presentation in the end. In evaluating our final show, we think that there were good points, but something could be better performed. Taking the experience from the previous teams, we brought a record in the beginning to wake audience up, and the “CcampTV” logo is showed in nearly all the slides to show the technicality of the program. All the speeches were well organized and most of the speakers chose not to use the script for help. There were also many parts didn’t reach the expectation. In Mengjin’s part we chose to use an ad to show the “time flow back” conception, and Meng really prepared wonderful content which accurately matched the duration of the...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...Objectives To illustrate how financial profitability measures can be used by workers to manage day-to-day operating decisions. Understand how to push down profitability information to empower employees. Know the design and information-processing prerequisites for daily profitability analysis. Appreciate the role of finance staff experts in preparing profitability analysis. Case Background The Texas Eastman case provides an excellent opportunity to discuss how financial measurements can support a company's Total Quality Management program. Occasionally, industrial engineering and operations management types denigrate financial measurements and encourage companies to cut all ties between their direct physical and operational measurements and their company's financial system. In effect, they are saying that quality improvement efforts can only be inhibited by financial measurements. The Texas Eastman case provides a vivid counter-example to such claims. First, the financial measurement system is devised by a chemical engineer department manager, not a finance or accounting person. Second, and more important, the financial system he develops plays a vital role in the success of the quality program. Discussion Q: What kind of financial reporting system is being used to provide feedback on operations? The Period Report is actually a well-designed system. Building from projections and commitments made in the budgeting process, as encapsulated in the Annual...
Words: 3187 - Pages: 13
