How could a century-old leader in film photography miss the digital film revolution?
Everyone knows the digital camera killed Kodak. Not everyone knows quite how this came about, though, and it’s instructive. In 1975, the digital camera’s invention ushered in what would become a new era in photography, the era we’re still in today.
From 1975 on, Kodak kept its corporate nose to the grindstone, meticulously refining its film products and continuing to market traditional film with a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. This made sense; after all, Kodak was nearly 100 years old at this point, and they were the clear leader in the industry worldwide. They knew traditional film better than anyone.
The company's microscopic focus on its existing industry, however, blinded it to the tidal wave of digital photography on the horizon. While they continued perfecting the nuances of film processing, the world around them was rapidly shifting. Their competitors, sensing the strategic change in consumer preferences, pivoted to digital, leaving Kodak in the shadows of obsolescence. This failure to balance tactical precision with strategic foresight led to their infamous downfall.
Oh! I maybe forgot to mention who invented the digital camera in 1975. It was a company called Kodak.
While Kodak's oversight was no laughing matter, it’s no wonder that strategic missteps have often been the subject of humor and satire.
Strategery
In 2000, SNL did a skit where they made fun of George W Bush’s propensity to mispronounce words.
Thus, “strategery” was born. Funnily enough, this term was actually embraced by the Bush White House, and even became jargon used by staff.
If the goal is to cut a path through the jungle, strategy determines where the path should go and what jungle you should be cutting in the first place. Tactics determine how the individual trees are hacked (machetes or bigger machetes?).
Strategy is a compass. It tells you your “true north” in a situation.
Tactics tell you how best to get there, at least with an individual challenge.
Strategy asks what and why. Tactics tell us how and when.
Both concepts need to be employed together, sometimes zooming out 30,000 feet so you can see the big picture, and sometimes zooming in to the micro level, so you can see whether the individual tactics are supporting the strategy, or providing useful data so that you might reconsider the strategy.
While “strategery” was a funny twist on the term, real-life strategic blunders, such as Kodak's, highlight the dire consequences of neglecting long-term vision.
Kodak failed to zoom out, but failing to zoom in can be just as detrimental.
Napoleon’s Buttons
Take Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance. You might have heard of him: he was really good at eating ice cream:
He also led the Grand Armée, one of the most formidable military forces ever assembled, in his 1812 invasion of Russia. Strategy was Napoleon’s specialty, and he is studied today as one of the all-time great military and civil strategists.
Yet, despite his strategic prowess and the might of his army, a minor detail—his soldiers' buttons—played a significant role in the campaign's failure.
During the brutally cold Russian winter, many of Napoleon's soldiers wore uniforms fastened with tin buttons. There's an unfortunate property of tin where extreme cold causes the material to crumble. Consequently, as temperatures plummeted, the buttons on the soldiers' uniforms turned to useless powder.
If you live in Florida, this might be no big deal, but Napoleon was not invading the southern United States. Instead, they struggled to keep their jackets closed against the brutal Russian winter, reducing their mobility and exposing them to the harsh elements. Many succumbed to the cold, and the weakened army faced increased difficulties as they retreated from Russia.
This oversight in the tactical choice of button material had a profound impact on the outcome of Napoleon's Russian campaign. A seemingly small detail, in the grand scheme of a massive military operation, proved detrimental to the success of the entire venture.
With Kodak, not zooming out led to their downfall. For Napoleon, it was not zooming in to the most granular detail that led to the end.
Strategy defines the journey, but tactics pave the way. Neglect one, and you risk veering off course.
Balancing Act
Corporate America offers a few success stories too, not just cautionary tales. Apple is notorious for zooming out and having a comprehensive strategy, all while focused on important technical and logistical details that might be considered tactics. Amazon is utterly obsessed with customer service and the individual experience, but they also zoom out to see how every piece of their massive business empire can work together.
Small business owners (ahem!) have to play both roles well. I have the luxury of having an amazing support team I work with over at Revolution BJJ, which means I can focus more than most small business owners on the big picture. This has allowed us to steadily expand to 3 gyms and hundreds of students, but also to make life better for the instructors over time, offer opportunities to people, and improve the quality of training for our students.
But it wasn’t always like this. A solo entrepreneur needs to wear many hats, and I think it’s helpful to remember to carry two metaphorical tools with you at all times: a telescope and a microscope. The telescope can help you zoom out, so you can see further. You can hone your strategy. You don’t want to become Kodak, missing an enormous shift right under your feet.
You need to zoom in, too. You don’t want to end up like Napoleon’s soldiers, failing in their mission (and literally dying) because of missed details.
For Everyone
The pace of change is accelerating today. This means we need to be nimble ourselves, ready to shift between vision (strategy) and action (tactics) at all times. Resiliency is more important than ever.
Exponential technologies are reshaping industries overnight. In such an environment, holding a strategic vision without adapting tactics is a recipe for obsolescence. Conversely, being consumed by tactics without a guiding strategy is like navigating a maze without a map.
The interplay between long-term vision and adaptable execution is more crucial than ever. You have to remember your own true north—the direction you want your life to head in—but you also have to pay attention to your life’s details, not neglecting any one aspect, be it physical health, mental health, your bank account balance, or your personal relationships.
It's not just about plotting a direction and charging forward, nor is it about reacting to every change without a broader purpose. It’s about setting a course, being willing to adapt, and ensuring that each step taken is both purposeful and flexible.
Our greater purpose dictates the path, but it's the details of our actions that determine our journey's success. Let’s not forget this interplay.
This is totally true in businesses everywhere. In fact it's exactly why I started Polymathic Disciplines.
www.polymathicdisciplines.com
Because few people can lake the two. I'd say full strategy, the larger systems perspective, is the most overlooked.
Kodak just like mainstream companies suffer from too-big-to-fail syndrome. While they are concerned with sustaining innovation, they often ignore disruptive innovation and this is what brought down kodak. Digital photography was a negligible market that kodak assumed it as perhaps unprofitable or small in market size but this is where disruption occurs. Netflix did the same and pushed the then CD-focused companies out of the market. Microsoft as well ignored the phone market and by the time it entered into it, other phone companies had monopolised the market.