Sad: Eastman Kodak is subject of ill-conceived AI slop

In an age of AI slop, few things are as sloppy as engagement farming using trite business cases. High-profile failures, like Eastman Kodak Co.’s 2012 bankruptcy, have become fodder for self-embellishment.

In recent weeks, LinkedIn and YouTube have been swarmed with AI-enhanced “think pieces” from attention-seeking consultants and MBA students who think they could have managed Kodak’s digital transition without incident.

Case in point, from LinkedIn:

“(Kodak) didn’t go bankrupt because they lacked innovation. They went bankrupt because they suffered from a multi-billion-dollar psychological and structural fear of self-disruption.”

What an incredible insight. No one thought of that before.  (Shout out, by the way, to Ken Parulski, a former Kodak chief scientist, who regularly debunks these LinkedIn posts. Parulski’s own post on the topic is here and well worth reading.)

As former Eastman Kodak executive Michel Lacaille stated on one post:

Every time I see a poor analysis of the company starting with the film vs digital… I shiver. Eastman Kodak was once, a lot more than a film company, the future was prepared without film, under smart managers, including [Walter] Fallon was in bio-tech,pharmaceutical, Health, Chemicals and more… the demise came from Wall Street imposing outsider managers, some ex-Motorola who did not have long-term vision capabilities.

For a student of high level finance, the Film Digital story should NEVER be the final hypothesis. It should be about how financial mismanagement by a weak board can by offering high management reward for short term short gain profit. HOW BLIND financial impact of Strategies can destroy shareholders value.

The sales of most assets, intellectual and physical is what destroyed Eastman Kodak. “Check all the product portfolios of the Eastman Kodak” and imagine their dynamism in today’s perspective. Do your research well, in deep, the real story is caused by financial blindness

This trend also extends to YouTube, where lazy AI-enhanced presentations, complete with robotic voiceovers, are posted. For example: 

or

Or even:

There’s no question that the Eastman Kodak Co. executives made some mistakes that led to the business downturn that resulted in bankruptcy in 2012. But it was not because Kodak “missed out” on the digital revolution, as many of these posts allege. As Parulski and many others point out in the LinkedIn comments, Kodak was the engine of the early digital camera industry… and today the basic technology the company developed is still in use today.

For a balanced and realistic look back at how Kodak handled the digital transition, The Dead Pixels Society Podcast talked with four former Eastman Kodak Co. executives – Ben Gibson, Bill Jackson, Mike McDougall, and Craig McGowan – who were there on the front lines of early consumer digital imaging. Listen on one of your favorite podcast channels here or through the YouTube link below.

This panel discussion traverses the winding path from film to digital, dissecting the trials and triumphs that marked this monumental shift. The panel describes the challenges faced by the evolution of Kodak’s business units and the challenges they faced. The panel elaborates on Kodak’s entry into consumer electronics and its strategic partnerships with Japanese manufacturers.

Finally, we retrospectively analyze Kodak’s digital legacy, where the panel shares candid views on Kodak’s strategic choices, branding hurdles, and enduring technologies that continue to influence today’s market.