Team Zebra : how 1500 partners revitalized Eastman Kodak's black & white film-making flow

[Helge]

I found this book pretty interesting, in many ways. Thought I'd share:

https://archive.org/details/teamzebrahow150000fran/page/223/mode/1up

 

[AgX]

Well, as you read it would be a good idea to tell the other folks about it, as the "preview would not make anyone wiser.

 

[AgX]

Here the book's advertizing text:

"A riveting account of a failing business division and the people who engineered its turnaround. Within one year, Kodak's black & white film department was converted into an empowered team-based organization. Employees became genuine partners in making decisions from initiating revolutionary improvements in manufacturing to dramatically reducing costs, waste, and refining the commercialization of new products. As manager, Frangos explains how his department achieved these stunning results."


Basically it is about Kodak's effort in 1989 to compete with strong decline in earnings, partially to Fuji getting a stronghold on the US market, by internal changes. However, beyond that book, written by a Kodak employee, this effort has not been discussed elsewhere.

 

[AgX]

To put things into perspective:

Kodak USA expected incentives from their employees. The same time, even year, they had an anti-union stand. Let alone having installed employees-codetermination, or even having employee members amongst the members of a supervisory council (board of directors), as elsewhere.

 

[Helge]

Well, as you read it would be a good idea to tell the other folks about it, as the "preview would not make anyone wiser.

It is free and easy to create an account and login and borrow the book.
I suggest people interested in the topic do that.

To me it’s all the small details and side stories, that are perhaps more interesting than the main streak and “story” of the book.

 

[AgX]

It is free and easy to create an account and login and borrow the book.

That something is free, in the meaning of not having to pay for, does not mean that it is free to access. I would not go into a waiting ling for a book, of what in advance I only can read unrevealing parts of its content-page.

 

[Helge]

That something is free, in the meaning of not having to pay for, does not mean that it is free to access. I would not go into a waiting ling for a book, of what in advance I only can read unrevealing parts of its content-page.

It’s absolutely free to check out for an hour, or you can use some monthly free credit to check it out for two weeks.
The rest of the philosophy you’ll have to deal with yourself.

 

[jvo]

the title is certainly captivating... the table of contents and index, less so.

thanks for highlighting.

 

[Helge]

Something that is interesting is a more in-depth and contemporary explanation and description of the situation and the moras the Polaroid trial had got them into, and also the increased competition from Fuji.

The internal rationalization and hand waving at the slow erosion (frog getting slowly boiled alive) of former Kodak strongholds like good cameras and cameras in general, ability to push new formats into the industry, 8mm and 16mm getting wiped out almost overnight etc. is also interesting.

Hardware might be an initial money loser. But if you want to steer the market you need to have a firm grip on the hardware. Blank media alone never moved any industry that consumed it.
The Kodak was hardware. The Brownies made photography ubiquitous. The Retina was the first modern cartridge camera. The later Retinas was revolutionary in a number of ways. The Instamatics and Disc was rather successful attempts at a mid century Brownie.

It was only recently at that point when the book was written that Kodak had given up on hardware, apart from one time use cameras.

It kind of explains and sets the scene for how and why Kodak was Ill equipped to deal with digi-geddon about twenty years later.