Always Reinventing Yourself

This past week Hewlett-Packard and Kodak announced major restructurings and job cuts of 14,500 and 10,000 respectively. This follows previous cuts that have occurred in the past several years of tens of thousands of jobs. How could two corporate icons lose their way, resulting in massive layoffs like this? Are there lessons for agurbs® here?

Both companies were known for their innovation and as great places at which to work. Both of their stocks were considered “Nifty Fifty” stocks, a group of 50 stocks that you could buy and just put away. But both companies lost their way, are struggling mightily and might not survive as independent companies.

I was in Rochester, NY last year to give a talk and tour the town. Rochester was the corporate headquarters for Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb. During the past twenty years each of these corporate giants has suffered and Rochester has been hit badly.

Kodak was of particular interest when my tour guide related to me that Kodak’s VP of Technology was a neighbor. He had relayed to him at a party that Kodak had developed digital technology at least 10 years before everyone else, but decided not to pursue it because they felt that it would cannibalize their very lucrative film business.

What would have happened if Kodak had developed this “leapfrog” technology, instead of letting other companies like Cannon and Sony take the lead? Instead of their current 20% market share, they probably would have the market locked up and be adding new employees rather than laying them off.

The lessons for the agurbs®? You can’t sit on your laurels. You’ve got to constantly be reinventing yourself and looking at how you can innovate as a town to continue moving your community forward.