Not a Kodak Moment

This post was written by Jacob McNulty

My father used to say that you could always tell where a company was struggling by watching their commercials.  Many years later that still rings true as I watch companies try to shape their public percpetion with carefully crafted ads that seem targeted from focus groups and customer surveys. 

With that in mind, what perception do you think Kodak is trying to overcome with this internal commercial?

To me it looks, feels and sounds like an internal PR campaign from a company that has grossly missed the turning point in their industry.  Instead of spotting the trend many years ago, now they’re forced to announce their entrance into the digital world via a mea culpa that would have you think that they’ve been developing some of the best digital technology the world will ever see during their absence from the field.  I’m not convinced.

I saw a brief blurb on the news that Kodak’s workforce is half of what is was three years ago.  Here is what a local Rochester station said last month.

I will not claim that a learning culture at Kodak would have prevented this - but hey…I’m biased and I do think that instilling the elements of a learning organization would have strongly contributed to a different story for Kodak’s recent years. 

A learning organization is one that learns from its mistakes and successes, spots trends in the market and acts on them by being nimble enough to do so.  A culture of learning rewards knowledge sharing which reduces the chances that you’ll be blindsided by something like digital in 2007.

Kodak could have presented themselves as a picture company many years ago - whether those pictures are on film or in a file it shouldn’t matter.  Part of making that transition would require a company that is ready to learn and develop.  For those in Rochester that are now getting their close-up as a result of the press attributed to their drastically late entrance into the market.  Say…cheese?

Tags: business training, corporate training, development, learning, learning organization, learning strategies, Organizational Culture, organizational learning, professional development, workforce development