SLOGAN OF KODAK

"You press the button, we do the rest"

Management Lesson From Kodak

“The knowledge needed to run one company does not always travel well” this is the
lesson George M.C. Fisher, the highly regarded former CEO of Motorola Inc. who has
headed Eastman Kodak Co. since 1993, is learning. In an era when more boards are
looking to top-level recruits to shake up stagnating organizations, even the best outsider
arrives with baggage. He lacks institutional acumen, personal contacts, and a feel for a
company's culture. That can make it tough for even a superstar to do the job.

Fisher arrived at Kodak with a mandate for radical change. That should have been an
opportunity. But though Fisher trimmed 29,000 jobs by exiting the health-care and most
of the copier business, he tried to get by without making the tough calls to cut jobs and
costs in Kodak's ongoing units. Indeed, rather than paring the payroll in the core imaging
units, he has upped it. At the end of last year, Kodak employees in continuing operations
numbered 94,800--3,000 more than in 1994. And operating costs as a percentage of sales
are still 27.6%, about what they've been throughout Fisher's tenure.

Deep cuts would have reduced overhead, allowing Kodak to be more aggressive against
Fuji. Moreover, aggressive cost cutting helps to rid a corporation of the most egregious
manifestations of bureaucracy: worthless paperwork, excessive reports, and decision
paralysis. And although downsizing saps morale in the short term, the environment of
crisis can galvanize survivors.

Sadly, Fisher's stumble may be the result of wanting to be Mr. Nice Guy. But the
unfortunate lesson for every outsider who arrives at an ailing, bureaucratic company is to
quickly dispense the hard-to-swallow medicine to ensure a speedy and lasting recovery.

What the experts say Fisher needs to do:

FILM
Protect market share from Fuji, with smarter promotions, cross-marketing in the U.S.,
and stepped-up overseas expansion

DIGITAL IMAGING
Narrow the focus to simpler products for consumers

ADVERTISING
Forget the warm-and-fuzzy Kodak moment for new products. New campaign due shortly
needs to give reasons to choose Kodak
ACQUISITIONS
Buy a brand-name consumer-electronics company to help smooth the transition to digital

COSTS
Costs remain higher than rivals'. Wall Street wants layoffs of up to 20,000, though Fisher
may announce less than half that

MANUFACTURING
Spin off marginal businesses such as microfiche and microfilm and outsource production
where possible

CORPORATE CULTURE
Instill a sense of urgency and mission and slash the bureaucracy
 Henry Mintzberg Roles

The Canadian academic, Henry Mintzberg who had trained as a mechanical engineer,
wrote his PhD thesis at the MIT Sloan School of Management analyzing the actual work
habits and time management of chief executive officers (CEOs). In 1973, Mintzberg's
thesis on the nature of managerial work was adopted as a study and published for a wider
audience.

Mintzberg's empirical research involved observing and analyzing the activities of the
CEOs of five private and semi-public organizations.

To describe the work life of a CEO, Mintzberg first identified six characteristics of
the job:

 Manager’s process large, open-ended workloads under tight time pressure - a

manager's job is never done.

 Managerial activities are relatively short in duration, varied and fragmented and
often self-initiated.

 CEOs prefer action and action driven activities and dislike mail and paperwork.

 They prefer verbal communication through meetings and phone conversations.

 They maintain relationships primarily with their subordinates and external parties
and least with their superiors.

 Their involvement in the execution of the work is limited although they initiate
many of the decisions.

Mintzberg then identified ten separate roles in managerial work, each role defined as an
organized collection of behaviors belonging to an identifiable function or position. He
separated these roles into three subcategories:

INTERPERSONAL CONTACT {IT link all managerial work together}

Figurehead: the manager performs ceremonial and symbolic duties as head of the
organization.
Leader: fosters a proper work atmosphere and motivates and develops subordinates.
Liaison: develops and maintains a network of external contacts to gather information.
INFORMATION PROCESSING {IT ensure that information is provided}

Monitor: gathers internal and external information relevant to the organization.

Disseminator: transmits factual and value based information to subordinates.
Spokesperson: communicates to the outside world on performance and policies.

DECISION MAKING {IT make significant use of the information}

entrepreneur: designs and initiates change in the organization.

Disturbance handler: deals with unexpected events and operational breakdowns.
Resource allocator: controls and authorizes the use of organizational resources.
Negotiator: participates in negotiation activities with other organizations and individuals.
Vision: -
Fisher thought a vision of the company as a global digital imaging leader. With digital
imaging technology it will eventually be possible for consumers to take pictures, crop
them, print them, and send them electronically.

Management Planning: -

Fisher considered expansion in international business to be particularly important. He

wants the company to do better in the fast growing economies of Asia, where Kodak
trails its archrival Fuji Film. He planned to make company global. He wants to expand
internationally as well.

Organization: -

Fisher had set up a new digital division composed of various digital resources that had
been spread throughout the company.

Leading: -

Fisher had also hired an executive from Digital Equipment Corporation to lead it. The
company has also announced several product and services alliances with companies like
IBM, Microsoft and Sprint.

Controlling: -

Fisher took meetings with the managers to set realistic goals, but he make it clear the he
expect them to track their progress and meet the goals. Compensation systems are being
adjusted to reward managers who meet their performance goals. He is particularly
concerned with the cycle time, the time it takes to do things like introducing new
products.
Fisher activities according Mintzeburg’s role: -

Entrepreneur “because he was planning to turnaround Kodak”

Monitor “because he visit offices of research to obtain information and talk with
employees.”
Not Disseminator “because he didn’t provide factual information to employee”
Not Spokesperson “because he didn’t make a public speech”
Not Figurehead “because he has real authorities.”
Not Liaison “because he didn’t maintain a network”
Not Negotiator “because he didn’t talk with other companies”
Not Disturbance handler
Not Resource allocator
Not Leader

Technical Skills: -
Fisher had a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics, and he was CEO of Motorola.

Human Skills: -
He broke through rigid bureaucracy and conveys his message throughout the
organization, he had made himself more accessible than Kodak CEOs of recent past. He
frequently visits the offices and talk with employees in the cafeteria. He invites employee
to send email messages and usually answer within a day with handwritten notes on the
message his secretary prints out.

Conceptual Skills: -

From my belief whatever the technical skills Fisher had were not sufficient for the
turnaround of Kodak. “The knowledge needed to run one company does not always
travel well”. He lacks personal contacts, and a feel for a company's culture, as he was
from a different company that works completely different from Kodak.
Yes he tried to break through rigid bureaucracy but in a different manner, as mintzberg
proposed, “CEOs prefer action and action driven activities and dislike mail and
paperwork” but he likes emails & reply them by hand written notes.

Conclusion: -
If he wants to fulfill his vision of digital photography then first he should have done
market research, because according to market research * consumers are not ready for such
a product. But he still wants to continue with his vision he should start this on small scale
that is he is not supposed to sell Kodak health and home product division for paying
debits. A Manager should prefer the face to face communication then emails or by other
mediums but what fisher did is just opposite he preferred the emails and reply them with
hand written notes.