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That's not what I mean. I thought I wouldn't need to explain, but as far as everyone knows Kodak is no longer a major player in photography[1]. I wanted to im
by logicallee 7y ago
That's not what I mean. I thought I wouldn't need to explain, but as far as everyone knows Kodak is no longer a major player in photography[1]. I wanted to imply that they had a lot of institutional momentum tied up in film, and if they had taken the approach you stated - which you exaggerated as "3 page manual era where every project seems like a kinda reboot of the knowledge when the prior engineers left" - they could have pivoted to the new market (i.e. digital cameras) easily. They were very committed to film, as everyone knows. (I thought this would go without saying.)
So handbooks like this can be seen as a "Kodak moment" of formalizing institutional knowledge. In new markets (which may be the future) there isn't going to be institutional knowledge yet.
Something similar might be the case with extremely serious car manufacturers with many decades of first-rate knowledge in building combustion engine cars.
[1] "January 19, 2012: Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company's stock was delisted from NYSE and moved to OTC exchange. ... Once the digital camera business is phased out, Kodak said its consumer business will focus on printing. It will seek a company to license its EasyShare digital camera brand."
- trm42 7y agoIt kind of still is a major player in the _film photography_ scene at least. Kodak Alaris[1][2] still produces film and development chemicals + other photography related gear and services. It just isn't that kind of big mammoth it was before the bankruptcy. In addition of being still alive in one form or another, their film business is getting better as people end up more and more getting into film photography. They actually announced that they cannot meet the current demand and are raising film prices and investing into new capacity[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Alaris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Alaris [2] https://www.kodakalaris.com/ https://www.kodakalaris.com/ [3] https://kamerastore.com/breaking-news-kodak-to-raise-prices-on-all-film-in-2020-jan-1st/ https://kamerastore.com/breaking-news-kodak-to-raise-prices-...
- logicallee 7y agoI meant that they could have remained a huge player in the transition to digital. The other reply to my comment shows what they did wrong.
- shrubble 7y agoThey actually were trying to move to digital but they thought they would have more time. Kodak invented the first digital camera btw. The switch from film to digital happened a number of years earlier than their internal projections; and they bled cash in the interim.
- logicallee 7y agoAll of this is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote my comment.