Kodak is a chemical company, a business giant. Fujifilm is chemical & optical company, a technology giant. Few people know that Fujifilm has the widest lens product lineup in the world, including: camera lenses, med-format camera lenses (made for Hasselblad), complete range of broadcast lenses, and cinema (movie) lenses. Only Canon (no med-format camera lenses), and Zeiss (no broadcast lenses) come close to Fujifilm. Nikon has no video lenses (broadcast & cinema) and no med-format lenses. Fujifilm for sure can survive this digital wave if you look from the viewpoint of an industry insider.
I developed Xrays for my radiologist dad in the late 60s through 1972. Kodak started out as a monopoly in that market, with film, developers, chemicals and accessories. Fuji started comping in as a low cost competitor that offered TERMS instead of cash on delivery. When it takes 30-60 days to get paid by insurance, cash flow is king and Fuji captured most of the independent radiology market within 5 years.
Often Japanese companies go for the long haul not a quick on the short run profit. Toyota is also diversifying into the industrial sector and aquiring high tech industrial warehouse and logistic tech companies outside of the automotive sector. Other Brands like Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba etc.etc became diverse conglomerates. Producing a wide range from satellites for the space program till LNG tankerships. As Japanese protecting culture goes lots of respect to Fujifilm, not forgetting their roots and becomming a torchbearer in the niche analog photography sector.
Western companies have had this mantra of focussing on a specific business since I think the 80's, while Japanese companies have always diversified. Economists said Steve Jobs was crazy for having such a diversified product set, in their eyes he should have concentrated on just one product. Electronics giant Phillips followed contemporary 'wisdom' and proceeded to sell of numerous (profitable) divisions because of just that idea, and is at the moment a faint shadow of what it once was. (the CEO's that drove Phillips in to the ground in the long run were lauded as super savy business men and cashed their bonuses)
@@remko2Shareholdervalue above anything. Form the US legacy car companies only Ford is still a big player all around the world Chrysler is just a brand at Stellantis and GM left Europe and Australia
Fuji made a move to retro with X10 and X100 cameras. This boostedsales as interest in the brand. They backed up with ILC with quality lenses. Fuji is a nice system to own even in 2024 🤠
I remember the day in Rochester when the Fuji blimp showed up and was flying ominously over Kodak Office and Kodak Park...I think that was in the 80s or early 90s
I am kind of disappointed that the video completely neglected the fact that Fijifilm actually transition to digital photography quite well. They are currently one of the key player in the DSLR market when many other camera actually folded.
probably because DSLR wont last long and it's not big profit for FujiFilm. many people are happy with their smartphone capability of taking pictures. DSLR are professional photographers only.
DSLR market is a dead horse now but Fuji has been the leader in mirrorless cameras and they were smart enough to avoid the full frame market dominated by Nikon, Canon and Sony. Instead they created desirable niche cameras in the APS-C market. Once they proved how they could compete in that market they skipped full frame and created the first "affordable" medium format digital cameras. The future looks incredibly bright for Fuji. Kodak invented digital cameras but were too short sighted to capitalize.
@@mikerichardson60they focused their initial mirrorless efforts on APS-C because they knew that without an existing pool of full frame camera lenses like the other camera companies, they cannot afford to fragment their product lineup by falling for the full frame meme. Their reduced starting position within the camera market meant that fighting the other camera companies head on in terms of specs would be suicidal at best. So what Fujifilm do to stand out? Bring back the old ways and focus on handling. Try not to be too crazy with introducing new technology. The only thing technology wise that they did was the X-Trans filter which is a different kind of colour filter. In fact the X-Pro1 camera sensor was the same sensor as that used in the Nikon D7000, a mid-range DSLR, though as a non-mirrorless optimised sensor it made the X-Pro1 not great in focusing speeds (I have heard it being nicknamed the X-Slow1). Fujifilm made many great moves to carve out their niche in the photography space, but I do fear they are starting to lose their way as they are starting to see saturation in their niche.
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Fuji doesn't make any DSLRs so they are definitely not a key player in that market.
You don't even know what you're talking about. Fuji has completely transitioned to Mirrorless ever since. So NO, they never were one of the key players in DSLR space. But that said, Fuji's mirrorless cameras do and still thrive today and not only that, they are very popular as well. No other competitor in the market has yet to put up something to fight against Fuji's film simulations built into the Fujifilm cameras. Lastly, one of the other reasons why people choose Fujifilm cameras over the other brands like Sony, Canon or Nikon is their color science. I've used all these brands but I can tell that JPEGs shot straight out of my Fujifilm camera is better (hard to describe in a way) than even Sony.
Thank you for the video. Eastman Kodak knew change was coming but did not believe it would be worldwide and that it takes decades. They had no plan B on what would happen if change happened sooner. Senior Management and Board Members continue to believe that film and print would have a market on its own. When reality struck, it was too late to adapt and change. On the other side, they knew the inevitable is happening sooner than later, the man and people in the company knew they had to change with the times. Sadly, Times of your Life, a Kodak advert slogan and a song sung by Paul Anka, would remain as a Time of our Life.
yes, I loved the song! I work in dental, used Kodak's film for 30+ yrs, the change to digital was difficult only bc of learning to use the software. I love it- no stinky, poisonous chemicals to deal with and instant pics. Great vid on how the company diversified and re-invented itself. Appreciate the company conduc ting R n D for cancer, Alzheimer, ebola, and other diseases. 🤙
it probably helped they didn't just rush to hire the hot CEO on the market, but instead gave the job to someone that worked there for years and knew the company. Not that is always works obviously but in this case it helped. A good CEO that knew the company
Very good documentary, all about the mindset of the leader and the company: Fuji Film: preserving the culture, and survive Kodak: all about the money, and gone for good
It was 1986 & I can still remember precious films from 3 giants - Fuji (green box), Kodak (yellow box) & Konika (black box). My cousin used to take picture with Yashika camera & very concerned about preserving the films ( I guess saving them from light was a big issue). Taking a picture was a big thing then. Ah! Those were the days.
Japan has the majority of centuries-old businesses in the world, along with the downright oldest(1K+ yrs) ones. They take pride in keeping the name/tradition/skills alive.
Back when color still film was a mass consumer product Fuji tried to beat Kodak, the yellow giant. Their amateur film was over saturated in blue while Kodachrome was oversaturated in green. People who wanted true color bought Ektachrome for which Fuji had no equivalent. It was also very expensive. Kodak with it's giant research budget actually built the 1st digital cameras but did not sell them. When they did start building digital cameras, Kodak didn't market the digital cameras well.
It's an unusual irony. In the 80s and 90s whenever you saw a tourist that walked around with a camera around their necks 9 times out of 10 they were Japanese or Korean. With the turn of the century we managed to create technology that made taking a camera with you not only easier but necessary and now when you see a tourist taking photos 9 times out of 10 it's an American.
What type of arrogance made Kodak to turn down an opportunity to sponsor their "home" Olympics of 1984?? That was absolutely diabolical decision. The Olympics remains even today one of the most photographical events in the world.
Far more nimble than Kodak. From around 2000 to 2005 Fuji and Kodak sold some really good affordable digital cameras but they were up against so many strong competitors - Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax & others. And then from around 2015 Samsung and Apple developed their IP67/68 water resistant smartphones which ate up the sales of the Fuji XP series waterproof cameras. AFAIK Fuji just stopped making those water proof cameras.
Over the last 5 years, there has been a resurgence of film and film cameras. Kodak has been introducing new film stocks and hiring more employees to keep up the production. Kodak now has Ektachrome 100 and Gold 200 for 120 film cameras. Leica has introduced a new M6 35mm film camera, Pentax has introduced the Pentax 17 35mm half frame camera and Mint has introduced a new Rollei 35 AF 35mm camera. They said they can’t keep the Pentax 17 on the shelf. Who knows where all of this will go, but it seems film camera may someday be tied with digital camera sales, which are still less than the number of the smartphone camera users.
Big mistake was Kodak not spinning off Kodachrome off as a separate business as it could have been profitable for another 100 years. It was unique and could have been as big as Ilford film which survived.
As someone who's worked in medical records for near 10 years, it amuses me that the only reason Fuji was able to pivot to healthcare is because the medical industry has adopted digital record keeping at a glacial pace. Electronic medical records and imaging are a very recent trend.
Simple reason: Fujifilm adapts and listens to customers and deliver what they want with digital cameras, even creating film simulations. On the other hand, Kodak...
too bad fuji has given up on film with the exception of instax. their prosumer line is now manufactured by a revitalized kodak, while the professional line is effectively dead.
@@sepg5084 that's sort of the point, right? The documentary paints a picture where Fuji never gave up on the core of their business, but they actually have.
Kodak and Xerox - two Rochester, NY headquartered firms that had horrible myopic vision and hubris. Must be something in the water there - or the educational system - that kills foresight and humility.
Pretty good documentary but it seems to be around a decade old. The subtitles are too small for mobile devices. No mention of Fujifilm or Kodak digital cameras.
@@kuripanguiYour intuition is correct. One of the featured speakers, Sampsa Samila, hasn't worked at the NUS Business School since 2017. He works at the IESE Business School now.
Has the company considered either replacing "Film" in it's name with another word (Fuji Technologies, Labs, Solutions, etc.) or dropping it entirely? I think simply rebranding the company to Fuji with maybe an updated logo and a bit of a relaunch hi-lighting the non-film fields the company is working in could be quite smart.
As an advertising executive I like to watch company failures and success so I can help steer other companies I work with from learning. Fuji is a great example of realizing the future will force them to adapt. Kodak was one who refused..and they died.
The only problem with your narrative is that Kodak hasn't died at all. They continue to make the world's only professional motion picture film, have re-introduced several previously discontinued films, bought back parts of the company that were sold off and have showed increased film sales for the last couple years as they retool retired film-making equipment. Meanwhile Fuji are selling Kodak-manufactured film because Fuji cut their film manufacturing abilities prematurely. The film community is largely against Fuji for cutting so many critical product lines and their business continues to go to Kodak.
@johnclassic738 motion picture film stock is a super niche market. So they make that..they have failed at just about everything else and are 1/100th the size they were 20 years ago.
@@bicyclelife7088you said that Kodak died. You are changing your comment now. Kodak is not dead. Film is a niche market, not a dead one. And for film, Kodak is what professional film photographers and cinematographers use, not Fuji.
@@WesNishithis is inaccurate. Kodak consists of multiple companies and divisions within them. If you are talking about Kodak Rochester, it’s still the same company and location but they are distributed and managed by Kodak Alaris. Please read the facts before posting.
Kodak is the first company to invented digital cameras in the 60s. But old heads in the company didn't believe in technology and kind the shelf it. I bet they are kicking themselves now.
Minolta was on the verge and got bought out. Plenty of japanese companies have ceased to exist but also many just go into other business lines or are taken over.
@@3markaw Minolta merged with Konica, it also sold its camera business to Sony! All this was a strategy done by both management of the two companies. They never completely die out. It only happens in US and Europe. lots of examples including SONY itself. diversification, Panasonic did the same, talk of Nikon in semiconductors, the list is endless. Can't say the same with western companies
@@TuzannyeKyanjaUganda Don't talk like ignorant idiot . The same happens in the west and USA. Companies go into bankruptcy and either they come out and resume business or they merge or sell of the good parts of the business . Even Kodak is still in business making Great film and other products. Using your own words: THEY NEVER COMPLETELY DIE OUT !
I would like to have heard about their mmove into digital cameras They were successful with that while kodak ws not, another diffeence tht could have been Explored but alas, missing in this video !!!
The might Kodak company went bankrupt because their leadership was steeped in the silver halide technology. Even though the person who invented the modern photo sensor as we know it today was Kodak employee, the leadership did not want to obsolete their locks on the silver halide based technology of film. Kodak even tried to blunt the onslaught of the electronic photo sensor by introducing their DX film format. Kodak made a terrible tactical mistake by not embracing the technology they invented, and by the time Kodak leadership realized their mistake, the show was pretty over and everything went downhill from there.
Fuji makes very good cameras and very good lens ,optics , very good expirience too , sad thing for Kodak 😊😅but thats the Market ,its like biological evolution
The same thing is happening again in the automotive industries right now. Those who don't study history would be pushed aside into history themselves. 5 to 10 years from now, there would only be Tesla, BYD and maybe 1 or 2 more legacy automotive manufacturers left.
Because americans are impatient and base every thing on quarterly earnings , short sighted quick buck mentality, the japanese are smart enoght to invest long term and wait for business to develop , were like the queen song ,we want it all and we want it now
Fujifilm still can't made their own professional photo printer, almost all the best seller printer are made by Ricoh or Noritsu, just painted green and rebrand it as Fujifilm....
Their own made printer like Frontier550 flunk,but after rebrand Noritsu Printer, they are survived and of course Fujifilm Silver Halide paper still the market leader....but not the silver halide printer
@@eortizfoto Yah, but unfortunately it has to come to a point where it has become unpredictable and therefore unreliable. You can get away with it if you're only shooting weddings and like. Anything faster moving needs a more reliable AF system.
No "How". American govt has long policy in patronage Japan. Kodak has no real owner since Mr.Kodak had dead. So American govt, bit by bit transfers Kodak tech & all film business giving it free to Japan and finished this Rochester's legacy.
WTF is "Mr. Kodak?" LOL The Kodak film division is owned by the legacy Rochester New York team and Alaris in the UK - Japan nor the United States government have any ownership of Kodak. You're making all of this up.
@@johnclassic738 No matter what you claim. Mr.Kadak Eastman died without heirs. So his company went to public managed. Easy speaking, belongs to government trust, whether it is local or federal. Finally, it becomes like this. Had it had real owner like those semiconductor business which Congress had counter the Japan take over on the business behalve, it would have not ended up like this.
$hout Out to our friends Karla and Carl and the others @ KODAK Flow Line's for Panoramic picture's at Rochester N.Y , it was a GREAT PLACE ! , Mike and Joe from Hi-Bar System's Toronto Canada
