Kodak's Failure to Adapt to Technological Change
Kodak was a prosperous business in the motion picture sector. However, the business eventually failed because it didn't recognize a shift in market patterns. Selling movies was the company's main line of business. It was unaware of the shift in technology from film to digital cameras, which later vanished in favor of smart phones. Instead of adopting a digital system, it squandered its investment in digital cameras (Anthony, 2017).
Lack of Recognition of Unfulfilled Needs
Kodak didn't recognize unfulfilled needs. Failure was not acknowledged or respected. The company failed as a result of selling the film division to Fuji (Berkeleyexeced, 2016). Kodak could have embraced change to deal with advancement in technology. The company should have customised its products to meet the market trends and changing customer needs. The company should have put in place success measures so that when the company started falling, it would have been easy to recognise and take necessary action. Selling the film business to Fuji was not a good idea. The company would have accepted that the corporation was facing challenges and focused on innovations of integrating the business with market demands.
The Importance of Leadership in Embracing Change
According to Klettner, Clarke, and Boersmaand (2013) and Campbell and Göritz (2013), the leadership of an organisation is essential in setting up ethics and embracing a culture that allows for organisational change to achieve the company’s social responsibility as argued by Babalola Stouten, and Euwema (2016).
The Failure of Kodak's Leadership and Ethics
Organisational leadership, ethics, culture, and change as hypothesised by Klettner, Clarke, and Boersmaand (2013), at Kodak failed to meet its corporate social responsibility of addressing the needs of its customers. The failure of Kodak if majorly attributed to its inability to acknowledge and adopt technological change (Campbell and Göritz, 2013). When cameras changed from to digital and later cell phone cameras, Kodak misused funds in digital cameras instead of embracing digital simplicity. According to Babalola Stouten, and Euwema (2016), ethics, leadership, and culture of a company should be strong enough to deal with change. Instead, they decided to sell the film business to Fuji. Change is inevitable, and any successful company should be flexible to change its operations to meet changing trends.
Activity 5
References
Anthony, S., 2017. Kodak’s downfall wasn’t about technology. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/07/kodaks-downfall-wasnt-about-technology [Accessed September 21, 2017].
Babalola, M.T., Stouten, J., and Euwema, M., 2016. Frequent change and turnover intention: the moderating role of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(2), pp.311–322.
berkeleyexeced, 2016. Failure to see unmet needs (Kodak) | UC Berkeley executive education. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Xod5pK3Uk [Accessed September 21, 2017].
Campbell, J.-L. and Göritz, A.S., 2013. Culture corrupts! A qualitative study of organizational culture in corrupt organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(3), pp.291–311.
Jacobs, G., and Keegan, A., 2016. Ethical considerations and change recipients’ reactions: ‘It’s not all about me’. Journal of Business Ethics, pp. 1-18.
Keltner, D., 2016. Don’t let power corrupt you. Harvard Business Review, pp.108–111.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T., and Boersma, M., 2013. The governance of corporate sustainability: empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(1), pp.145–165.
Lorsch, J. W., and McTague, E., 2016. Culture is not the culprit. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/04/culture-is-not-the-culprit [Accessed September 21, 2017].
Newton, R., 2016. HR can’t change company culture by itself. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/11/hr-cant-change-company-culture-by-itself [Accessed September 21, 2017].
