Evaluate the various managerial but strategic responses that

Evaluate the various managerial but strategic responses that were available to Kodak in the marketplace, and why the resultant shift from B2C to B2B translated into company decline ?

Solution

Kodak was once a global giant in the imaging business. People were associated with Kodak since decades. When they think of camera and film, it is always Kodak. Kodak enjoyed a monotony in the market place and there was no competitors few decades back. There was a major change that Kodak brought to the market. Earlier photography was only confined to photo studios. But Kodak changed the notion and households could buy Kodak camera for their personal use. Kodak holded a special status in the minds of the people.

Kodak\'s management could not foresee the changes in the market place. With the advent of digitalization, Kodak slowly gave away its market share to its competitors. Way back in 1970\'s Kodak\'s employee has invented the first digital camera. Instead of taking it as an opportunity, management did not approve his invention since that was a filmless photography. The inability of the Kodak\'s management to see the digital photography as a disruptive technology cost them a lot later on.

In 1980\'s, Sony introduced its first digital camera. That was a breakthrough in the imaging industry. Kodak could not foresee that the future was with digital technology. A research was conducted, and it produced certain outcomes. Kodak had two options in hand. First was to accept the digital technology since new technology had the ability to sweep away the digital market business from Kodak of it could not change its strategy. Second was since it could not happen over night it had roughly 10 years with it for the transition. It chose the first option of non-transition, and it miserably failed in the race.

Slowly, Kodak understood the equations of the new trade, and they quickly took a decision of changing themselves from a traditional imaging services provider to digital imaging services. Soon Kodak launched Kodak express where the images that are taken by a digital camera are sent to Kodak and image printing was done by Kodak. That was a major success for Kodak. Slowly, Kodak continued with what it was doing, it focused on the digital imaging and digital cameras have been introduced. But, by then the digital market has already got established and there were lot of competitors competing with Kodak in the market place. With a slow and steady approach, Kodak finally failed.

Kodak\'s transformation from B2C to B2B

In the B2C market, Kodak supplied digital cameras, digital photo frames and digital video\'s to its consumers. It also shared a special experience of discovering beauty and spreading happiness to the consumers. In the B2B market, Kodak has introduced digital printing, work flow software and commercial scanner. Kodak occupied a high-end market and provided corporate clients one of the best products and experiences. This helped business flourish.

As the Kodak\'s initial stint was with selling its business to the consumers. People brought their film rolls for changing them to beautiful photographs. Business was at its peak. Kodak has a successful market share, which it almost shared with its competitors. Slowly with the advancements in the technology the mind sets of the people also changed. The consumer market fell. Subsequently with all this establishment, Kodak started incurring loses. It slowly lead to demise of the Kodak.