Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company [Hardcover]

Alecia Swasy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0788169955 | ISBN-13: 978-0788169953 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Ever since George Eastman brought photography to the masses in the late 19th century, Kodak has been a household name. With annual sales over $14 billion, Kodak is one of the world's largest companies. But years of easy success fostered complacency, bureaucracy, & overspending until Kodak lost its edge by the '90s. Threatened by Fuji & other competitors & plagued with debt, it became one of the first major U.S. businesses to be downsized. A new CEO is leading a turn-around effort. Swasey vividly recounts Kodak's roller-coaster history & considers whether the new, leaner Kodak can handle the grueling competitive battles that lie ahead.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like a Coca-Cola bottle and a McDonald's arch, Kodak's yellow packaging has become a 20-century business icon. As the company prepares for the 21st century, however, all is not going smoothly. In much the way she chronicled the changing times at Proctor & Gamble in her previous book, Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Proctor & Gamble business editor Alecia Swasy now examines the film company's struggles in Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Those little yellow boxes of film made Eastman Kodak a classic American success story through much of this century. Swasy, business editor for the St. Petersburg Times, chronicles how the film made Eastman Kodak and nearly destroyed it as well. Once Kodak became rich and powerful, it also became arrogant and "took its success for granted." This, along with the increased global competition (notably from Fuji), chronically bad management decisions, and serious financial losses, led to its undoing. Swasy puts her reportorial skills to good use here in interviews with workers and family members and shows how they weathered the layoffs. To her credit, she portrays individuals who are neither good guys nor bad guys. An exceptionally well-written book that resonates for anyone who follows the American corporate landscape. Recommended for larger nonfiction collections in public libraries.?Richard Drezen, Washington Post News Research Ctr., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788169955
• ISBN-13: 978-0788169953
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Missed The Drama, July 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company (Hardcover)

Changing Focus could have been a compelling and dramatic story about the challenges still facing the Eastman Kodak Company. Sadly, it lacked focus, and more importantly, it was weak on drama.

Fiction or non-fiction, the story needs to be a 'page turner.' For example, the author glossed over the aborted attempt to move marketing headquarters from Rochester to D.C. The dramatic moment was a semi, drapped with a protest message by local merchants, parked in front of Kodak Headquarters during a board of directors meeting. The board freaked and the move was over in a Kodak moment. The author destroys CEO Kay Whitmore's financial judgement, but omitted an infamous memo by Jack Thomas, Whitmore's president, to all employees to reduce everything from postage stamps to toilet paper to achieve fourth quarter earnings. Wall Street howled and the stock went down with the stamps.

Without the real drama, Ms. Swasy dabbles in a variety of mundane opinions by employeees, insiders and the community. The Class of '93, a group of layoff victims, revisited often in the book, was not generally a sympathetic group. This is especially true of the Coutures, a yuppie couple impacted by layoffs, who sang, 'The world owes me a living,' throughout the book.

Swasy's biggest challenge is that the Kodak story is far from being complete. The battle with Fuji, the shift to digital, and the change in culture may one day yield a dramatic business case and drama. 'Changing Focus' is a blurred attempt, which falls short.