lesson from kodak
brand-as-business bit: Phil Rosenthal‘s analysis of Eastman Kodak’s failure in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune is quite insightful — particularly in its juxtaposition of Kodak and R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., the commercial printing company that’s been shedding its legacy and reinventing itself. Most telling is the quote from Donnelley’s CEO and President Thomas J. Quinlan:
“The real trick is to not get wrapped up in evaluating individual technologies…For us, it’s: Where are the emerging trends, and how is that going to affect communications?”
This points to the importance of having a customer/market orientation vs. a technology one. A successful path forward comes from focusing on what people are going to want to do, instead of which technology is best.