There are few corporate blunders as staggering as Kodak’s missed

opportunities in digital photography, a technology that it invented. This

strategic failure was the direct cause of Kodak’s decade’s long decline

as digital photography destroyed its film based business model.

Steve Sasson, the Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera in

1975, characterized the initial corporate response to his invention this way:

“But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘that’s cute—but don’t tell anyone about it.”

Kodak management’s inability to see digital photography as a

disruptive technology, even as its researchers extended the

boundaries of the technology, would continue for decades. As late as

2007, a Kodak marketing video felt the need to trumpet that “Kodak is

back “ and that Kodak “wasn’t going to play around anymore” with

digital.

In 1981, Kodak conducted a very extensive research effort that looked

at the core technologies and likely adoption curves around film versus

digital photography. The results of the study produced both “bad” and

“good” news. The “bad” news was that digital photography had the

potential capability to replace Kodak’s established film based business.

The “good” news was that it would take some time for that to occur

and that Kodak had roughly ten years to prepare for the transition.

The conclusion of the research was that adoption of digital

photography would be minimal and nonthreatening for a time. History

proved the study’s conclusions to be remarkably accurate, both in the

short and long term.

Kodak, rather than prepare for the time when digital photography

would replace film, chose to use digital to improve the quality of film.

“Kodak regarded digital photography as the enemy, an evil juggernaut that would kill the chemical-based film and paper business that fueled Kodak’s sales and profits for decades.”

Kodak’s management not only presided over the technological

breakthroughs but was also presented with an accurate business

research about the risks and opportunities of such capabilities. Yet

Kodak failed in making the right strategic choices.

WHY CONDUCT BUSINESS RESEARCH?

Business organizations must be able to move ahead quickly to stay

competitive in a technological, changing, global economy. They must

be proactive in finding and implementing new information about

resources that will improve their marketing techniques and business

strategies to ensure their products and services will reach their

customers.

SMART COMPANIES KNOW THAT RESEARCH:

• Provides accurate information to answer questions, provide

ideas or expand interests.

• Allows compiling and analyzing the latest available information

in support of various concepts or ideas before it is communicated

to others, or prior to marketing new products and services.

• Expands a company’s knowledge base and builds upon

previous knowledge.

Research is the source of the “who, what, when, where, why, and

how” to conduct business; providing new strategies and pathways to

bringing products and services to the marketplace. It provides business

organizations, professionals

and students with accurate information about best practices, new

trends, competitive markets, public opinion and legal issues in

business and in the sciences, the arts and other important areas

impacting the economy.

• Technology provides the access to an overwhelming

abundance of available information, but one must carefully

evaluate that information to ensure that it is accurate, timely,

and reliable. The information produced by your research either

supports or disqualifies your hypothesis, and how you use it is a

reflection on you, your organization, and the image you want to

portray.