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by kjellsbells 312 days ago
Kodak's failure to capitalize on their invention of the digital camera is so often cited as the cause of their downfall that it has taken on the air of truth. Whether it really was the cause of their demise or not, I'm not so sure. Suppose theyd come out with a line of digital cameras. Would that have saved them? That seems unlikely.

Looking around at similar companies, Nikon and Zeiss became specialist lens makers, for (eg) medical devices, specialist optics like binoculars, and yes, phones. Fuji got into medical imaging, x rays etc. Its almost like they all realized they were in the image business but in different ways.

One peer I find especially interesting is Corning as they were a similar one-trick pony (glass) in upstate New York. But Corning survived, and Kodak didnt. Gorilla glass for phones, fiber optics, etc are a million miles away from pyrex and labware. Why were Corning able to pivot and thrive, and not Kodak?

1 comments

One important point I think is that Kodak, at its core, was a huge company specialized in photography related chemistry.

Not easy to turn a company around when the knowledge/qualifications/experience of most of your employees becomes almost worthless.

Thats also what made it easier for others (like Corning) to pivot (presumably).

Kodak spun off the chemical business as Eastman Chemical Company in 1994, seven years before the main film business went into permanent decline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Chemical_Company

Eastman Chemical Company is still doing fine.

Fujifilm recognized that they were a chemistry company and partially pivoted to cosmetics.
There's a good, short 2012 Economist piece on how Fuji recognized its underlying strengths (chemistry company) better than Kodak, and made that part of their strategy since they recognized digital photography would not last.

https://archive.is/20250424104926/https://www.economist.com/...

They also make cell culture material for bio labs: https://fujifilmbiosciences.fujifilm.com/us