Kodak

1. Did Kodak face more of a calm waters or white-water rapids environment? Explain. What external and internal forces impacted on Kodak?
Kodak faced more of s white- water rapids environment because of the fact that circumstances were both uncertain and dynamic, as it was the case of the technological industry. The Kodak problem, on the surface, was that it did not move into the digital world well enough and fast enough, although they invented the digital photography in 1975. (New York, 2012). In the company there were people who saw the problem coming, but the firm did not act when it should have, which is decades ago.
Rick Braddock, a Kodak director since 1987, whose career spans Wall Street, online retailing and private equity, recalls that “the mindset of the company was ready for the challenge: it was ‘Batten down the hatches’. We sold the healthcare business and we started the process of developing a digital response. But the way the market shifted was dramatically faster than we had anticipated or than I’d ever seen”. (Hill, 2012)

2. How would you evaluate Kodak's handling of the forced downsizing that it had to implement?

Downsizing is the systematic reduction of a workforce through an intentionally instituted set of activities by which organizations aim to improve efficiency and performance. (Appelbaum, 1999, p. 536). It means a permanent reduction of workforce through diverse means and changes on different level that affect the workforce. Corporate downsizing is often the result of poor economic conditions.
Downsizing is mostly undertaken on the part of the management of an organization and designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. (Gandolfi, 2009)
Although downsizing is undertaken by many firms to reduce costs but it hardly happens. Companies that simply reduce headcounts, without making