Kodak and Fujifilm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Kodak and Fujifilm - Essay Example In 1965, Fujifilm descended into the US, establishing its quarters in New York, in 1966 it set itself up in Dusseldorf to manage business in Europe, in 1987 it introduced itself to Germany, and so on until it had its industries scattered across the globe, from Japan, to the Middle East, to North America (Fujifilm Global, Corporate History). According to Shigetaka Komori and Shegehiro Nakajima, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer respectively, of Fujifilm, "Once, our overwhelming core business was photographic film, but we have now evolved into a company which is continually growing in a number of new strong business fields." These "new" fields that Fujifilm is expanding into include studying the "fine chemistry which controls elaborate chemical reactions, mechatronics, optics, electronics, software and a wide array of manufacturing technologies." Fujifilm is not just a photofilm industry that deals with only camera related products, rather, as Komori and Nakajima cont end, Fujifilm even caters to producing "highly functional materials such as LCD materials; medical/life sciences such as pharmaceuticals, functional skin care cosmetics and nutritional supplements; graphic arts such as printing materials and equipment; optical devices such as camera phone lens units; digital imaging such as digital cameras, digital printing, and Photobook." For Fujifilm, the ultimate goal is to "make a broad contribution to society through products and services using our leading-edge, proprietary technologies," and "aim to be a company which can respond to any changes with corporate excellence on a global scale," (Fujifilm Global, Message from the Chairman and President). Moving onto Kodak, American inventor George Eastman founded his photofilm company in Rochester, New York in 1982 (Sparkes, Kodak: 130 years of history). In 1900, Kodak launched its Brownie camera, bringing the camera into the hands of the masses of society, and in 1969, the Appollo 11 mission even made use of Kodak film. Sparkes also mentions that in 1975, Kodak was the first to build a digital camera and in 2005 it was "the largest seller of digital cameras in the US, with revenue reaching $5.7bn." Kodak's plan was to "make photography as convenient as the pencil," and the official US Kodak website further states that Kodak is "known not only for photography, but also for images used in a variety of leisure, commercial, entertainment and scientific applications. Its reach increasingly involves the use of technology to combine images and information--creating the potential to profoundly change how people and businesses communicate." Rupert Neate in his "Kodak falls in the 'creative destruction of the digital age," makes a very poignat statement that now "it is the end of the "Kodak moment." Michael Krigsman in his piece on "Goodbye Kodak, Hello Fujifilm," also makes a similar comment that "After 131 years great American photographic icon, Eastman Kodak, filed for bankruptcy w hile Japanese FujiFilm rises toward greatness." Clearly, there has been a sharp decline in the success of Kodak despite