Bad Decisions

I read an article this morning that said that back in the 70s, when Kodak controlled 85% of the market - of everything having to do with photography – their researchers actually invented digital photography. Company execs shied away from the new technology, thinking of the potential loss of income from sales of film, processing, etc.

It didn’t kill the company – they are still around – but the film that used to be available everywhere, and the labs that used to be in every drug store have almost disappeared, and Kodak is a very minor player in the digital market.

If you’re asking yourself how anyone running a major corporation could be so short-sighted, so stupid, they were not alone.  In the late 60s and early 70s, 3M Company was the world’s largest  manufacturer of copy machines.  Back then, all of their copiers used chemically treated papers to produce an image, and the paper was patented. You had to buy your copy paper from 3M, or an authorized distributor. According to the official company history, the guys that invented Xerox pitched their idea to 3M several times, but were turned down.  The 3M decision makers just couldn’t see any profit in plain paper.