Laura Renee Baxter
Management 302
Milton Lawler, Ph.D.
Strayer University
January 23,2013
Abstract
Both Kodak and Fujifilm are companies that focused on photography and imaging as their core businesses. Despite Kodak having an upper hand of starting earlier than Fujifilm, 1888 compared to 1934, Fujifilm adapted more to market changes and currently still has a force to reckon. Kodak is currently in bankruptcy protection since January 2012 under Chapter 11 with a bid to try and reconfigure its business strategies.
The difference in management strategies plays a key role in the way the two companies embraced innovation. Complacency and slow adaptation dominated in Kodak Company while Fujifilm embraced innovation spirit and diversified in all aspects to ensure market relevance.
Each of the company’s approach to ethics and social responsibility clearly reflects in both company’s profitability. With an aim to give back to the community and exercise ethical practices, production standards were maintained that satisfied consumers on both ends. A possible change of decision-making process that could embrace flexibility would be the best way to ensure diversity and innovation in any organization.
History and core business of each company
Kodak
Kodak, formerly known as Eastman Kodak Company, was started back in 1888 by George Eastman. The company’s advent could be defined by the launch of the pioneer camera that George Eastman first put into the market. The ease of photography brought by the devise with only a simple click, simplifying the whole sophisticated procedures in the background, formed a strong foundation for Kodak (Kodak, n.d).
Headquartered in Rochester, New York, Kodak’s main focus in its early days was photography and imaging. Its wide range of products spread from photography equipment and photography consumables that included paper, color chemicals and its giant product, film. The huge market share Kodak