Kodak’s Problem Child - How the blue-chip company was bankrupted by one of its own innovations

A beautiful story about the demise of Kodak that at the same time can be regarded as a clarifying example of the Innovator's Dilemma introduced by Clayton Christensen. The story exemplifies the problems a company faces when a new technology is on the horizon that promises to disrupt all their current products and business models. Knowing this might happen is not enough, trying to hop on the trend by all means might be a wrong choice, just as ignoring the new technology is. Innovation Management as steering between Scylla and Charybdis.

"Rochester, New York — The cold hits me as soon as I leave the Amtrak station, stepping into a swirl of snow eddies that etch the low streets in black and white.

The terminal sits just outside the city center. In the short car ride into town, one building stands out to me from all the others. It is an impressive beaux arts landmark with five large letters, glowing in red, resting at the top:

K-O-D-A-K

George Eastman invented casual photography here in the 1880s, made a fortune, and built a small town into a city. Millions of people around the world “pressed the button” and for more than a hundred years, Kodak “took care of the rest.

Read the remaining of the story about Kodak here