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  • Summer 2016
  • Article
  • MIT Sloan Management Review

The Real Lessons From Kodak's Decline

By: Willy C. Shih
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Abstract

Eastman Kodak is often mischaracterized as a company whose managers didn't recognize soon enough that digital technology would decimate its traditional business. However, what really happened at Kodak is much more complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a technology transition in which it lost the benefits of a learning curve to a general-purpose technology platform where there were no entry barriers. It also suffered from difficulty in scaling down its traditional business as well as partners in its ecosystem whose interests were not aligned.

Keywords

Technological Change; Disruption; Ecosystem; Semiconductors; Photography; Scaling-up; Scaling; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Product; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Citation

Shih, Willy C. "The Real Lessons From Kodak's Decline." MIT Sloan Management Review 57, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 11–13.
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About The Author

Willy C. Shih

Technology and Operations Management
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