How CEOs Fail the Disruption Test
An old tale has fresh resonance for today
Everyone knows the story of Kodak because it’s so damn ironic.
It was one of Kodak’s own employees who invented and pitched the first digital camera to leadership, in 1975. The inventor, Steve Sasson, was told by higher-ups, “That’s cute… but don’t tell anyone.”
Kodak failed to move on the technology because it didn’t want to rock the boat of its own thriving business. Of course, as the tech progressed, Kodak eventually wised up. It launched a digital camera line and even bought the online photo-sharing service Ofoto in 2001.
Alas… too little too late.
Kodak had tried to innovate around the edges of a business model that needed a total overhaul.
In this article, rather than retell this favorite corporate campfire tale in the usual way, I want to reexamine what happened in Kodak in light of a simple theory that I have come to articulate like this:
Companies survive or fail based on whether they can deliver consistent value to three groups simul…
