As technology change continues to gather speed, there are some who are making great gains while others are falling by the wayside.
The company that has been helping us remember the good times for more years than we can remember, Kodak, has been shedding workers again. I don’t know about you, but a lot of my favourite memories have been taken on Kodak cameras and film in the past.
I know that they have been steadily downsizing for a while but this time they’re slashing an extra 10 000 jobs. According to this article from BBC News, the 10 000 is on top of 15 000 job losses announced in January last year. If they keep going at this rate I get the feeling there’ll be no one left but the CEO and the office cleaner, and I’m a little concerned about the CEO’s job.
The reality is that Kodak is still a massive comapny. At the end of last year, Kodak had a global workforce of 54,800, down from 64,000 at the end of 2003. That’s still a significant number of employees.
Is Kodak just letting the world pass it by? No. The job losses are part of its restructuring as it continues to move into the world of digital photography. Let’s hope that there are plenty more Kodak moments to come.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Fewer Kodak moments? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.
I’m one of those people who continues to cling, stubbornly and desperately, to fillum. There’s just something about it. But I do find myself, more and more, thinking about a digital camera. Particularly about the freedom to take as many photos as I want without worrying about development costs (after I’ve recovered from the shock of the purchasing cost). But I still think nothing beats holding photos, or a photo album, in your hand and feeling that luscious, rich photography paper.
The problem, of course, is that Kodak is a chemical company. It’s a big jump to be a digital company.