Kodak invents Instagram: the alternate history
Remember Kodak? the company that we associate with the color yellow. At least that’s what comes to my mind when I think about it. The childhood memories of taking out the films, waiting at the Kodak center to develop the pictures and place them inside photo-book.
What Kodak thought it was doing was working with chemicals and engineering to help us take better photos. But what they were actually doing was helping us preserve our memories, share the moments with those who couldn’t be with us when it happened. The problem is, they didn’t know that. Assuming they know this, given their status probably they might have come up with an app where we could share photos, call it Kodagram.
What could they have probably done to get there? Listened to our stories, asking us what is it that we do have after taking photos. They assumed customer satisfaction ends at print-developing the photographs, I wish they leaned forward a bit more and listened to the stories of what we do after that. Maybe then, they would have extended their support and services helping us not just take good pictures but also share them with our friends and family.
Business writers say Kodak lost its status quo to technology, but I think they had the power to engineer anything but lost in customer obsession. Raise your hand if you agree.
Consumers move forward faster than large businesses to react. That is precisely why small start-ups, a couple of co-founders who got the time to listen to stories, solve problems bottom-up, end up disrupting the space. That’s always been the case.
So, tell me how exactly you think you can make your customers talk? A full-page survey?
[I think] you have to give people the freedom to talk, and they will. Not just to you, but with-in themselves, exchanging ideas, stories, and pearls of wisdom. And you just gotta kindle and observe these conversations. Build your community and disrupt
What do you think?
Interesting take. Kodak could have been Instagram, but Walmart once tried to be Netflix with Vudu and it didn't work.
Better question is how did Instagram eclipse Flickr? Why didn't Snapfish or CVS photo get better at digital photo sharing when they were selling CDs? Why didn't high school year book publishers develop their own Facebook.
Every startup struggles to succeed and while we hear of the wins, the failures go home without anything. If you ran a company that was trying to ride the wave on the next big thing, you'd probably have to develop an in house incubator and accept a certain level of failure. Google has tried it and even they have shut down their moonshot programs in favor of profits.
The startup ecosystem has externalities and costs that are absorbed by individuals who fail. The winners take all. A company like Kodak didn't have to invent Instagram, they just needed management that could integrate winning products into their ecosystem, like Instagram.
@Afhouston I agree that things could have gone any-way but what I think is that if they had listened to their customer stories better they would have figured out something.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
+1 many didn't think it this way back then but the ones who did continues to exist.
A funny (or sad) story is that Kodak actually invented the digital camera in the 1970's (!!!)
But they have killed it because they didn't see the potential. Digital photography is one of the major reasons they have eventually died.
So it's not enough to listen to your customers, because they don't really know what they want when it comes to innovation.
Like Ford once said, if you'd ask them, they'll just say they want faster horses.
Nice post, though 👌
@Danbars Yes, I read about this. They did have the engineering capacity to do things, they were a pioneer. But the story went down the same as Blockbuster vs Netflix.
They tried as early as 2001 when they acquired Ofoto and renamed it EasyShare, which they grew to over 60 million users by 2008.
I like @Afhouston s reply, "We only hear about the wins."
We don't even remember the competitors they had to defeat, it seems.
+1. I am going to dig more into this.