[Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market - now Kodak staying in film

[bruce at ralgo.nl (bruce)]

Hear, hear Nathan!

B.

On 24-jan-2006, at 21:00, Nathan Wajsman wrote:

> I know I am jumping into this a few days late, but what the heck...
> I am sometimes amused about the way people here talk about Kodak,  
> Fuji, Agfa etc. One could get the impression that we expect those  
> entities to be charitable foundations dedicated to the preservation  
> of traditional (i.e. chemical) photography and that their decisions  
> to discontinue this or that product are all part of some sinister  
> conspiracy directed at the photography community.
>
> As Seth points out, Kodak is a commercial enterprise, as are the  
> other companies. As such, it has to make money to stay in business.  
> Kodak's management is responsible to shareholders, employees,  
> customers and perhaps the larger community of Rochester. I am sure  
> they would have loved to continue Kodachrome 25 and all those other  
> wonderful products from the past. But the harsh reality is that the  
> point came where sales had sunk so low that even variable costs of  
> production were no longer covered by the revenues. Kodak's  
> situation is made more difficult by the fact that it, like other  
> large US old-line companies, is supporting legions of retirees and  
> probably paying for their health care too. At the end of the day it  
> is this kind of financial imperatives and not sentiments of product  
> managers or a small minority of customers that must guide a  
> company's decisions.
>
> On a much smaller scale, I am the general manager of a small  
> company with about 40 employees. My biggest responsibility is to  
> make sure that those 40 people get paid every month. Emotional  
> attachment has little relevance in that environment.
>
> Nathan
>
>
> Seth Rosner wrote:
>
>> Don Dory wrote:
>> "Kodak is run largely by a group of executives that grew up when  
>> Kodak did control the market and they can not seem to break out of  
>> that mindset."
>> Don, you could not be more wrong. Kodak today is run by Chairman  
>> and Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez who came to Kodak as  
>> Chief Operating Officer almost three years ago from a 25 year  
>> career with Hewlett Packard. His entire background is digital.
>> Perez' immediate predecessor as CEO was Daniel Carp who joined  
>> Kodak in that capacity in 1999. From Motorola, if memory serves me  
>> well. Robert Brust, Chief Financial Officer, came to Kodak six  
>> years ago from Unisys Corporation, a global information service &  
>> technology company and before that was a lifer at General Electric.
>> Inasmuch as over seven years ago the Kodak Board had already  
>> identified the impending shift to digital and an inevitable  
>> decline in world-wide film sales, Carp was hired precisely to  
>> carry out the implementation of an enormous effort to expand  
>> Kodak's digital and other businesses (e.g. health and dental care)  
>> to a point where digital and other business sales would compensate  
>> for the silver halide decline.
>> Having served as a deck offficer on U.S.S. Intrepid and stood  
>> thousands of hours on watch as an OOD underway, I know first hand  
>> about kinetic inertia and the energy required and the slow  
>> reaction time to turn an aircraft carrier. Turning a goliath like  
>> Kodak in a new direction without capsizing the ship - i.e. going  
>> bankrupt - is analagous.
>> At my request Kodak sent representatives to the last two LHSA  
>> annual meetings ('04 & '05). Both made very thorough, interesting  
>> and persuasive presentations describing Kodak's efforts and plans  
>> in digital and film technology. Of course they acknowledged the  
>> decline in film sales but emphasized that Kodak was not leaving  
>> the film business and, in fact, showed newly developed film  
>> emulsions. They also donated five rolls of film, two color (slide  
>> and negative), two b+w (Tri-X and 400TCN - not sure I have the  
>> current nomenclature but yuou know which I mean) and a roll of  
>> infra-red film, for each LHSA member attending. That's 750 rolls  
>> of film. And please don't tell me they gave it away because they  
>> can't sell it!   ;-)
>> Is Kodak going digital? Of course. They want the Company to stay  
>> in business. Are they quitting film. In my jaundiced opinion, not  
>> in your lifetime, may it be long and full of health.
>> It may be convenient and even feel good to beat up on the old  
>> yellow box. But get the facts straight and stop indulging in myth.  
>> Interested Luggers should take a look at Kodak's website, click on  
>> corporate/investor center/executive biographies and see the actual  
>> backgrounds of the people who are running Kodak today. Including  
>> how many are responsible for film as well as digital.
>> Respectfully,
>> Seth
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
> -- 
> Nathan Wajsman
> Almere, The Netherlands
>
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