More on Kodak

As I wrote in an earlier post, our industry stands on the edge of the demise of the Great Yellow Father in Rochester. Eastman Kodak Corp. arguably did more to create our industry (at least in its current form) than any other single company, and it’s current state is a sad but true comment on the nature of tech firms. For, just as products have cycles, so do companies, and this one is no different.

One of the things that my first post failed to mention, however, was that companies with this kind of industry-sweeping influence DO live on in the industries and businesses that their demise seeds, as this article in USA Today points out:

As Kodak declines, small tech firms rise in Rochester
http://usat.ly/zalrjq

We have seen this, over and over within our business. A leading firm outlives either the technologies it creates or the market it serves, and smaller companies, younger and more nimble, spring forth from its remains. While we may be witnessing the end of an era, we will at that moment also witness the birth of a new one.

JRR