As the only two SES attendees hailing from South Dakota, we were excited to see native son Jeffrey Hayzlett kick off the festivities as today’s keynote speaker. Hayzlett, who recently resigned from his position as CMO and VP of Eastman Kodak, preached a message of embracing change–one that led Kodak to a financial and brand turnaround among the most impressive in the history of American business. Impressive, indeed. Five years ago, Kodak made $15 billion of its profits from film sales. This year, they will make less than $2 billion. Yet they have seen growth in the double and sometimes triple digits, and 19 of their top products (which comprise 80% of their business) hold the 1-3 positions in key markets. Kodakgallery.com has 75 million members and hosts over five billion high-resolution photos, the most of any site in the world.
So why and how did the company innovate so quickly and so well?
Well, the “why” was mostly because they had to. It was “adapt or die”, according to Hayzlett.
And the “how”? Hayzlett’s book The Mirror Test dives deeper into some of these ideas, but here are the highlights from his keynote:
- Invest in technology – Kodak is currently developing products that feature pictures organizing themselves into stories and cameras that can recognize grass and enhance the color (just to name a few). They knew they could no longer rely on just film or printers or cameras.
- No one is going to die – when you innovate, you will make mistakes. Best make them big.
- Get social – what’s the return on investment of monitoring social media and creating a presence? Hayzlett’s response: what’s the return on ignoring? (Hint: nada).
- Go to your core – 80% of Kodak’s business this year is business-to-business, not business-to-consumer. They looked at where they already had the market cornered (medical imaging) and further pursued that.
- We love you, but we’ll miss you – since they knew the company could only move as fast as its common denominator, they had to make some hard decisions. In fact, 60% of Kodak employees started within the last five years.
- Ask yourself – what game are you in? The answer for Kodak wasn’t “film” or any of their other products. It was about preserving memories through “emotional technology”.
To see how major change and a focus on digital can pay off was an inspiring way to kick off the conference, so from the (entire) South Dakota delegation to the big city, a tip of the hat to our fellow statesman.
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