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Why is Entrepreneurship important at Kodak? Consider the 'global company' impact on Kodak Australasia.

Introduction

Established in 1888, Kodak has been a market leader through continual innovation in existing markets and successful establishment in new markets in the very competitive market place of photography. Kodak's success would not be anywhere near what it is today with out the implementation of entrepreneurship in the organisation, the encouraged constant entrepreneurial mindset that its employees posses, and it cutting edge Research and Development team. The entrepreneurial mindset of the employees of Kodak is shown through the many different areas Kodak are pursuing in the market place, and it is what gives Kodak its edge in such a competitive market place.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation within Kodak

The key to entrepreneurship within Kodak come down to two things: 1) Staff

2) R&D Department

Staff have an enormous role in the entrepreneurial side of Kodak, with staff constantly being encouraged to think out side the square. Evidence of this is the fact that over 100 employees have filed at least 20 patents each, with 3 of them having filed over 100, all on behalf of the company. This promotes the employees to take ownership of their ideas, which encourages motivation to follow up ideas and essentially get them up and running and successful. Examples of this are such projects as providing the photography equipment in a robot that went to Mars and the potential implementation of quality cameras into mobile phones.

New Markets:

Kodak is a company, that when it sees an opportunity to advance into a new area where revenue can be made, it not only enters that area, but becomes the field leader. The importance placed on entry and growth in the various new markets has led to Kodak becoming an international giant.

The major new market that Kodak has to deal with at the minute is the implementation of digital electronics. Kodak's fast acting in this area has made it an early market leader. However, market leading in this day and age is a lot harder than ever before, because of the amount of new entrants into the market. But with every up comes a down, and so too, this new market of digital posses a threat to Kodak, because it makes their traditional products obsolete. As the Asian and European markets are moving on to digital, it would seem that it would be the best area to focus on, however, it has to be taken into account that the rest of the world are still only up to using the traditional film! There are many options for the entrepreneurial team at Kodak to weigh up when considering decisions like these, but with over 100 years experience under its belt, this dilemma may just prove to be another brick-in-the-wall. I feel that the Problem could be solved by focusing half their energies on traditional products and half on digital. This would mean that there would be minimum risk for maximum return as they would be spreading there market.

Company Direction:

Although Kodak does have goals in place and plans mapped out for the future, it is very hard to see where the next opportunity is until it is on your doorstep, as in this industry one minute a product is the latest fad, the next they are unwanted and obsolete. This rule helped develop one of Kodak's chief principals. Rather than try to survive in existing markets, and battle obsolescence and try to keep a product in fashion, they simply move into a new market that is still yet to peak.

Another direction that