Don’t be Kodak

Daily blog #26

In 1975, Kodak invented the digital camera. Along with a way to view the photos on a screen.

They even had a digital camera patent.

Everything pointed to Kodak being a leader, the leader, in the space.

But there was one problem: the way they made decisions.

The key decision-making metric was profit.

And it turns out that film and printed photos turn a pretty profit.

Until no one wants them anymore, that is.

Kodak still made billions from their digital camera patent. But it wasn’t enough.

After helping to build the boat, they decided not to hop on.

They went bust in 2012, after ignoring an enormous new disruptive market that they could have led in.

Smart businesses learned a fantastic lesson from this: don’t look at your emerging business through the same decision making lens as your core business.

Many companies now split 'core' activities (their film) and their 'new' activities (their digital cameras).

That way, if anyone cannablizes the core business, chances are it’s them.

This is part of a daily blogging expedition I’ve begun. Please do follow along on Medium or Twitter.

Any and all feedback is more than welcome!