Bill Pierce
Well-known
Back after a month on the road. Most of you know I’m a fan of Mike Johnston’s The Online Photographer web site. Here’s a piece that ran almost two weeks ago that touches on a subject that makes me both sad for Kodak and angry at them.
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2015/04/eli-the-mysterious.html
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2015/04/eli-the-mysterious.html
Ronald M
Veteran
I attended a seminar with Midwest Pro photographers a few decades back in the Kodak building in Oak Brook, Illinois. Their presentation was a sub 35 mm film format that surely was going to replace 35 mm. The audience was too polite to boo, but you could tell the invention was not well received.
As far as not doing it themselves, they would have had to eventually kill film, their main business. But they had the capital and should have gone ahead. CEO`s like to show profit, more & more of it, and they do not get paid for forward thinking. This is always the problem and the Japanese don`t have it.
I one took a class given by General Motors to its employees. We were talking finance and I asked a question which I don`t remember, but I remember the answer. Japanese do not hire cost accountants, they hire engineers who just constantly improve things. Think about that, why measure where you are, just keep moving forward.
Almost all the camera companies are Japanese. American business is decimated because they look backward, not forward. Japanese innovation /competition drove the auto companies to better quality. GM staff laughed at the first Toyotas to come here. They are no longer laughing. They even gave Roger Smith, accountant in chief and head officer a bonus after he retired . He ran the company into the ground in pursuit of quarterly profit.
I guess we can say Wall Street has done this plus high corporate taxes and piles of regulation.
As far as not doing it themselves, they would have had to eventually kill film, their main business. But they had the capital and should have gone ahead. CEO`s like to show profit, more & more of it, and they do not get paid for forward thinking. This is always the problem and the Japanese don`t have it.
I one took a class given by General Motors to its employees. We were talking finance and I asked a question which I don`t remember, but I remember the answer. Japanese do not hire cost accountants, they hire engineers who just constantly improve things. Think about that, why measure where you are, just keep moving forward.
Almost all the camera companies are Japanese. American business is decimated because they look backward, not forward. Japanese innovation /competition drove the auto companies to better quality. GM staff laughed at the first Toyotas to come here. They are no longer laughing. They even gave Roger Smith, accountant in chief and head officer a bonus after he retired . He ran the company into the ground in pursuit of quarterly profit.
I guess we can say Wall Street has done this plus high corporate taxes and piles of regulation.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Very cool read, thanks for sharing Bill.
Walt Fallon was the last in a long line of engineers to be at the helm of Kodak, after that, financial dweebs. So many great US companies, no industries have gone the same way, GM, US Steel, Wang Labs, the list goes on and on.
If I remember right, just about all of the 11 big spinoffs that kept Kodak above water for a bit are making good money these days.
It's a sad stage of Capitalism we are in these days that I blame. Money for nothing, your largest competitor is not the guy coming up in your market, it's other companies in the stock market. The largest volume of investors today in the Stock Market are there for ROI. If someone in a different industry has a better outlook for the next year or so they dump your stock and buy theirs. CEO care about quarterly profitability.
How to you tell your investors that you want to take 7.5% of profit and sink it into a disruptive niche that could dry up your market in five years? You don't as there is a guy or gal ready to replace you that will tell the story of how keeping the course, tweaks not changes are all that is needed. More money for the bottom line will save the day.
I'm mad at the market that has evolved over the past 30 to 40 years. I'm sad for all those people who have lost jobs, careers, and more trying to do what was the right thing. I'm sad that Kodak couldn't have spun off their lens technology, many Ektars were rocking lenses.
Sorry about the rant, gotta read more of the site, thanks again.
B2 (;-<<<
Walt Fallon was the last in a long line of engineers to be at the helm of Kodak, after that, financial dweebs. So many great US companies, no industries have gone the same way, GM, US Steel, Wang Labs, the list goes on and on.
If I remember right, just about all of the 11 big spinoffs that kept Kodak above water for a bit are making good money these days.
It's a sad stage of Capitalism we are in these days that I blame. Money for nothing, your largest competitor is not the guy coming up in your market, it's other companies in the stock market. The largest volume of investors today in the Stock Market are there for ROI. If someone in a different industry has a better outlook for the next year or so they dump your stock and buy theirs. CEO care about quarterly profitability.
How to you tell your investors that you want to take 7.5% of profit and sink it into a disruptive niche that could dry up your market in five years? You don't as there is a guy or gal ready to replace you that will tell the story of how keeping the course, tweaks not changes are all that is needed. More money for the bottom line will save the day.
I'm mad at the market that has evolved over the past 30 to 40 years. I'm sad for all those people who have lost jobs, careers, and more trying to do what was the right thing. I'm sad that Kodak couldn't have spun off their lens technology, many Ektars were rocking lenses.
Sorry about the rant, gotta read more of the site, thanks again.
B2 (;-<<<