Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy today. My father-in-law retired from Kodak. It's sad to see such an icon of American industry forced into reorganization that might eventually lead to its demise.
One of the challenges that Kodak faced was the fact that they waited too long to remake their business in the face of changing times. The successful formula that built their empire no longer worked in the new environment. Once digital photography became pervasive, their fate was sealed. They have even lost hold of the instant printing business. It seems that Fuji has taken a great deal of that business away.
What is most ironic is that Kodak actually invented digital photography. Unfortunately, they were too willing to place their trust in the paper and chemicals that earned the lion's share of the profits. One can only wonder if earlier attempts to cannibalize this successful business by channeling it into another model might have been successful.
There are many other examples of giants that could not survive the relentless march of progress. AOL used to be the leading gateway to the Internet. There was a time before Google when Yahoo! was the unquestioned leader in search and portals. Even mighty Microsoft is struggling to find the next big business since their desktop based domination is slowly eroding away.
It's a pitiless world out there. Sometimes you have to destroy your business first before others do it for you.
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