Competition Analysis: The Kodak Moment

“When nothing hurts, put a little stone in your shoe and start walking”

– Serbian proverb

Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis champion, cited this as his favourite inspirational quote. And it struck me how relevant this proverb could be for business in general; i.e. a little pain is a great motivator.

What motivates your business?

We’re all guilty of complacency from time to time, of not pushing harder, of not having that ‘stone’ in our shoe.

However, the world is full of businesses who have rested on their laurels and not kept up.

The Kodak moment

There’s a fascinating article in The Economist, charting the demise of Kodak versus to the resurgence of Fujifilm.

Until the 1990’s, Kodak accounted for 90% of film sales in America, whilst Fujifilm had a similar monopoly in Japan, but whilst one has disappeared, the other has flourished – why?

Examples of Kodak’s complacency:

Fujifilm secured the sponsorship for the 1984 LA Olympics and invaded Kodak’s home market.
Fujifilm successfully diversified into cosmetics and optical devices, whilst Kodak remained wedded to cameras.
Kodak remained wedded to the mentality of ‘perfect products’, rather than the new high-tech mindset of ‘make it, launch it, fix it’.

Think outside the box

Kodak is only one of hundreds of examples of once-dominant companies that have been killed off by complacency, and an inability to grasp the bigger picture.

So ask yourself:

Does your company understand its market and its environment?
Does it know what the competition is doing?
What are your customers are saying about you…and about your competitors?

That’s where Nobleword’s Customer Pathfinder product comes into its own – think of it as putting a little stone in your shoe to remind you of the need to keep pushing forwards.

I’ll leave you with this quote, by the author of ‘The Greatest Salesperson in the World’