Kodak done?

[Aidan Sciortino]

They could buy just the film portion from Eastman.

I think the coater in building 38 handles coating stuff other than film too, which would make this challenging.

If there are any former Kodak folk on the thread, correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[F4U]

I have always maintained this is the era of the digital apocalypse. A photographic dystopia. Considering the severity of the hit that the film photography took in gut, it's a wonder every day that anybody makes film at all. But it won't last forever. I think we've all known that.

 

[MattKing]

That means that Alaris has a 100% markup or 50% margin on cost of film from Kodak. That's an awful nice profit and explains why Kingswood bought Alaris. It also explains why Kodak film is so expensive at retail.

That is like saying that Eastman Kodak has an x% markup on all the triacetate, polyester, silver, chemicals, etc, etc.
The cost of the film from Eastman Kodak is only a portion - and a fairly small portion at that - of getting film from a small manufacturer in Rochester, New York to wholesalers and other market participants around the world.

 

[MattKing]

I think the coater in building 38 handles coating stuff other than film too, which would make this challenging.

If there are any former Kodak folk on the thread, correct me if I’m wrong.

Eastman Kodak has a steadily growing business incorporating its coating technology in non-photographic products.
In addition, of course, that building 38 production facility is what makes the various products that serve the motion picture film industry - an industry that Kodak Alaris has no capacity to service.

 

[F4U]

I know practically zilch about the demise of Eastman Kodak Co as I always knew it. All I really knew is that the computer and digital came along and everything went to hades practically overnight with Y2K, 9/11, and all the rest of the tumult in those few short years. Apparently from what I know, a company called Alaris, which is nothing but a a private equity firm of bean counting Robert McNamara's came along and cherry picked a building still producing something they could harness for an entry for a shareholder's quarterly bulletin. It's not evil or greedy. It's just business. I get it. Then the 2008 crash was like a stake in the heart. There will come a time, sooner than later, I'm afraid, that this Alaris firm will hire a new young bright McNamara and Kodak film will join the dinosaurs overnight. These people play hardball. Every day we live may be our last, and that's a fact.

 

[koraks]

Sure, there is a balance to be struck between responding to every new shiny object that comes along and staying so welded to the old ways of doing things that you miss the market entirely.

Certainly, I too have seen the bright eyed bushy tailed bean counters come in and see the business entirely through the prism of financials without thinking about the value of market reputation, customer experience, employee retention and any number of other "soft" indicators that are very important.

As an aside, this started when the business schools started preaching the nonsense gospel that you didn't have to be an expert in product, customers, or industry to manage things, you just had to be a an expert manager. That meant all they taught was the one thing common to all businesses: Financials

Historically, the crown jewels of at least American business were run by people who had a passion for their business areas: Henry Ford, George Eastman, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Watson, and more recently Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk are all examples. The we're-smarter-than-everyone bunch in the universities decided that these people were all robber barons by various names, utterly ignored their tremendous contributions to US success. They proceeded to create a class of professional managers who couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

Fortunately, this is starting to change. When businesses have to change at the speed of information, you have to be a domain expert to lead them. I think the pointy headed bunch in the schools are starting to get this.

Full disclosure, I have a Masters in a STEM field and the course work for a Ph.D. in a theoretical STEM area completed. So, I've seen the Academy up close for plenty of years. I thoroughly enjoyed graduate school and learned a bunch. But the folks in the business schools, law schools, and worse still, the fuzzy studies (things ending in "ology" or something "studies") never seemed to me to be learning all that much or demonstrating a lot of passion for the field. Hopefully, this too is changing.

P.S. If it were up to me, every single Bachelor's degree would have the usual 4 year requirement PLUS another 2 years of internship in the field of interest before the degree was granted. Apprenticing has a long and rewarding history in the trades and this should be carried into the university setting.

 

[Agulliver]

Concerning, even though we have been here before more than once. The stone cold fact is that Eastman-Kodak make the only truly high quality colour negative film in the world right now. Everyone else is either out of the game or some years away from getting there...and getting there won't ever be a simple case of buying bits of Kodak knowledge or even buying the contents of Building 38.