King of Memories - RIP

It is vey ironic that my last post was about the primacy of memories and on Jan 18th the legendary photo company Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The company that helped millions of people around the world capture and enjoy their memories is now history.

This moment is a dramatic one, one that Kodak themselves would have called a "Kodak Moment". The company that started out 132 years ago and dominated this industry for over a century is now closing its shutters,no pun intended. Experts and knowledgeable experts worldwide have commented on the digital disruption and the inability of Kodak to adapt to this change. It is very fascinating to study the journey of Kodak from being the innovative industry leader to the yellow dying dinosaur it is now.

To me Kodak was a great company worthy of admiration for over a century but it lost its way in the last 15 -20 years. I think Kodak was obsessed with the film and their superior "color competence" that they missed out on the end consumer emotion they were meeting - saving precious memories. If only Kodak believed its first marketing tagline "just press the button and we will do the rest" and followed through with it's Kodak Moments idea , I am optimistic that they would approached the digital disruption with an open mind. I strongly believe that they failed not because they were not innovative but because of a rigid biased attitude. ( let us not forget that it was Kodak that invented the first digital camera)

Beyond Kodak I think this a wake up call to many more industries and companies. Kodak is not the first and definitely not the last company that did not see change coming or if they did see it coming responded very slowly and ineffectively. One of the industries that is already in the face of disruption is banking. This observation may come as a surprise to many but I am sure that is how Kodak must have reacted a decade ago. The arrogance of immortality of the current business model blinds sensible leaders to the waves of change right in front of their eyes. Not convinced, pause and spend some time thinking about the impact of some these players - Square, Google Wallet, ISIS, Zopa, Bitcoin, Facebook credits, bankSimple, Movenbank,...

Economist had a great article on Kodak, they ended it by saying " market dominance is only a snapshot in time" and I think it so succinctly reminds of the need for humility. For with humility comes the acumen to see the world as is rather than the way we want it to be.