Out of Focus: The story of how Kodak lost its direction [Paperback]

Mr. John J Larish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2012

Over 130 years old, Eastman Kodak Company was headed for trouble for more than the last 50 years. The story, especially of the CEOs who headed the company tells how they steered the company astray. There are lessons to be learned. There is no assurance that Kodak will survive its bankruptcy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Larish has written many articles for popular and technical publications and has appeared as a guest speaker at meetings for many organizations both in the United States and overseas, including the American Management Association, Photo Marketing Association, Electronic Industries Association, Society of Photographic and Science Technology of Japan in Tokyo, Consumer Electronic Association, the IS&T, and others. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Biological Photographers Association, Society for Information and Science Technology, and the Optical Society of America have published his technical papers. He reported for more than a dozen years on business and technology for WXXI-AM radio and was the imaging analyst for YNN (formerly R-News), a television news channel in Rochester, New York. He has regularly appeared on other television and radio talk shows. John was a founding Editor/Publisher of Electronic Photography News, the earliest monthly publication in that field. He is also currently or has been a contributing editor for several publications including Advanced Imaging, Digital Imaging, PTN, International Contact, and Photo Industry Reporter where his Technology Tomorrow column appeared. He has been a contributing writer to a number of other publications such as the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Optics & Photonics News

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 4, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1477581162
• ISBN-13: 978-1477581162
• Product Dimensions: 0.2 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #766,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Of Multi-Faceted Interest July 19, 2012

By Robert John Midyett

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I found this book to be quite interesting! It presented an overview of the Kodak organization over the years (giving an up-close and behind-the-scenes look not otherwise possible without having actually worked there), but was equally a knowledgeable walk through the history and development of key points in traditional photography and digital imaging.

Reading through it we see some of the all-too-familiar mistakes being made by many large corporations today -- mistakes that are painfully obvious to us with the advantage of hind-sight, but also mistakes that should have been avoided by the highly paid executives whose job it was to deal with such situations.

The book is a nice compromise of compact size and a lot of good information -- a perfect read for a busy exec who might recognize their own company in the stumbling events and decisions presented, and perhaps use that to take the initiative to help steady the footing of their own organization to prevent similar results.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible read... September 26, 2012

By I.Baker

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The title is indeed fitting, but not in the way you would think: "Out of Focus" perfectly describes the way the book is written and structured. My biggest complaint: the book lacks cohesiveness and quality of information, presenting an idea and then dropping said idea within a short paragraph or two (I've seen squirrels that had a greater attention to detail). The book goes into details about the products of Kodak, but not into as nearly as much depth into Kodak the company itself. For someone who said that one of the CEOs fell into the trap of focusing on details and not on the bigger picture, it is ironic that the author should mention such a fact. The author also writes that "Trying to cover all the parts of the Kodak story was like trying to put your arms around the heaviest person you have ever met" (p. 7); however, the book is surprisingly short (119 pages). You would have expected a book at least as long as the Harry Potter series; otherwise, I would imagine the heaviest person he must have ever tried to wrap his arms around was a supermodel. Yes, it is about quality rather than quantity, but, as mentioned earlier, the quality was severely lacking.

The book fails to cover a detailed overview of how Kodak truly lost its direction. It glosses over details about lack of employee motivation, Kodak's competitors, etc., but does not tell the story of how Kodak allowed itself to end up in that position in the first place except to blame management's arrogance and lack of direction (yes, we know, but we need more details!). The book enjoys focusing on mundane, irrelevant details about very relevant characters involved in Kodak's beginning and demise.... For example, when talking about Kodak's founder, it jumps from how innovative he was, what Rochester is about, and 5 pages later (those 5 pages being about Rochester, which is the most detail you will ever get on one single topic in this book; funny how Rochester itself comprises of 4.2% of the book), Kodak has already been born--no story on the inspiration of its birth, no struggles about its beginnings...and then suddenly again, fast forward about 100 years. And it was equally relevant to tell us about one of the CEO's thyroid conditions which made him fall asleep a lot.

Most importantly, however, the author fails to substantiate his claims. Instead of presenting factual and relevant evidence that one can follow, you must take what the author says on faith. He also lacks references (so much for the supposed "research" he did). He says that "Arrogance appeared far too often in Kodak's business dealings" (p. 39) and presents only ONE example of such arrogance immediately following this statement--the manager, who was used to his private jet, could not stand flying commercial, vented out his frustration, and reduced his poor travel agent to tears..."you had to wonder what it was like to work for this manager", he writes. As terrible as the person may have been as the author suggests, I would say that this is an equally terrible example. Many companies with such "arrogant" managers who can't stand flying commercial are still around (and it's not only managers that hate flying commercial). Larry Ellison is one of the most arrogant jerks around, as was Steve Jobs (if you had read his biography); but we don't see Oracle kicking the bucket anytime soon, and Apple actually SUFFERED when Steve Jobs was booted out. And Steve Jobs, as incredible of a jerk as he was in both his personal and professional lives, made Apple prosper.

And how does Bill Gates relate to Kodak? Nothing; the author mentions he met Bill Gates at a trade event in Chicago, asked Bill Gates about how he liked the weather in Rochester (where Bill Gates had been the week before), and, a year later, they had a one-on-one conversation, and how pleasant of a person Bill Gates was to speak with. Irrelevant, and not much to brag about. I live in the Silicon Valley, so it's not unusual for a person to have met Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd, Meg Whitman, Mark Zuckerburg, or other big names.

In short, the author's book is the equivalent of a fifth-grader's report on Kodak (albeit, a long report) that you paid $14.95 + tax for. And this report would get a C+ at best for the lack of relevant information, quality, and the poor grammar and syntax. It is analogous to reading a book on the downfall of the Roman Empire with the author focusing about how senators complained about their bunions, frittered away their time in their expensive villas, one example of how they frittered away their time, and then followed by some minor details about technology and the strength of the empire's troops with maybe one or two mentions of some of the Roman Empire's enemies (though I would say, reading about senators' bunions would have been at least more interesting).

Extremely disappointed with the book. I bought it because I had been hoping to learn about specifically what led to Kodak's downfall as a case study. Waste of time and money. Read more ›

1.0 out of 5 stars Needs More June 17, 2013

By Fred

Other reviewers have spoken of weak writing and editing of this book, and they are dead on, thre is so much more that could've and should've been explored. I was anxious to read of real behind the scenes issues, but sadly there were only a few, flow was very awkward and disjointed as well. Kodak - A Story of an Arrogant Corporate Culture - if someone could assemble it - I think would be fascinating. The issues weren't only at the top - the "yes,' mentality that one had to exhibit to ones superiors to survive, and the arrogance that cascaded down through middle management towards vendors, employees and ultimately customers - is a story aside from the miss of Digital. They both go hand in hand. The overall protection that everyone there did to keep their piece of turf was amazing..........it was like rats on a sinking ship at the end. I think gathering it all and ferreting out the drama might be damn near impossible, I mean, something still odd in Rochester re: Kodak, even George Eastman's bio's have always been "fluff."
I'm going to try the other book: Changing Focus.

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the Money... November 5, 2012

By tomNY

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This self published book does have some interesting parts but as a whole I found it lacking in detail, repetitive, and poorly written and edited. There were some sentences that didn't make sense and at least one that was self-contadictory; toward the end of the book there was a paragraph that appeared twice. I think the information in this 119 page book could have been boiled down to an interesting magazine article, there is potential to this story.

4.0 out of 5 stars How the mighty fell September 7, 2012

By SallyWG

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A riveting, I-was-there, behind-the-scenes glimpse in how poor leadership and bad decisions drove a great American enterprise into bankruptcy. It has all the elements of a Greek tragedy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad Ending For Such An Iconic Brand September 7, 2012

By M. Reagan

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Out Of Focus: The Story Of How Kodak Lost Its Direction is a very well-written book. It takes readers back to the earliest days of the Eastman Kodak company and shares how one of America's most iconic brands went from being a global powerhouse, to one that is just a shell of it's former self.

I have to say the more I read this book, the more disgusted I became with the leadership of Kodak. How a company that invented the digital camera manages to still find itself in bankruptcy makes one ill. This is a perfect example of how companies become complacent in thinking they know what their customers will want, then having their customers ignore what they give them.

The best way to sum it up is... Here is an example of a company working harder to get behind the times than most do to get ahead of them.

While I am sure there will be other books written on the subject of Kodak, this one is a good start.