After the Kodak Moment | The New York Times

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Every time I see

the tower I just think:

God, what if ...?

What if somebody else
would have been

a little
bit more innovative?

Or what if the board

would have thought

let's think a little
bit further out?

Every one worked
for Kodak.

Whether their father did

or their mother had
or their uncle did

or their older brother
did.

And so, when Kodak

started to show

signs of faltering

parents didn't know

how they were going
to survive.

And that must have been
just a stab in the heart

because it was really

the end of an era.

(explosions)

You know, there are
some mixed emotions.

We took down
40 buildings and

about 6 million
square feet of space.

In my 34 years I worked

in a lot
of these buildings.

You know,
I've got to be honest,

it was a little bit
tough to see

some of that going down.

When you go to
Eastman Business Park --

it used to be called
Kodak park --

you're standing
in a place

that once had tens
of thousands

of employees working
there.

Now it has fewer and more
diversified

but it's still
an exiting place.

We still have
over 6.500 people.

The difference is,
three quarters of those

people are non-Kodak
workers today.

All around us
are other companies,

not Kodak.

What used to happen
in this facility,

where we are now
making sauce and salsa:

Kodak used to make
camera bodies.

Initially it was
a little eerie

and now it's just normal.

In my last 5 years
at Kodak

I used to manage
the decline.

I used to manage
declined sale buildings,

cut costs...

It was depressing.

It's just the shadow
of its former self.

What it is today

is very different.

Obviously Kodak is a

pretty interesting
company

and it was a brand
that was very warm,

very personal,
because these were

your memories
they were capturing.

Part of me says,
you know,

we need to carry on
that legacy.

In the next generation

of products that we make

we will have Eastman
technology in there.

We have 7.000 patents.

We make our own inks,

we make our own toners,

we also make
the fastest commercial

printing inkjet
machines in the world.

We're using film
and putting

silver halide
in a grid on it.

We then print touch
sensors.

Putting glue on a piece
construction paper

and sprinkling
sparklers on top

is very similar to
what is going on here.

The glue is our ink,
the sparklers in

this part of the process
is the metal.

It's a little more high
tech than that

but fundamentally that's
what's going on.

Ektacolor paper,
Kodacolor

film, Vision Motion
Picture film.

There are all kind
of products

but they are
with the right cycle.

This is now
the next generation|

of great Kodak products.

Part of me would love,
you know,

to have the business
we had.

While I enjoyed
the nostalgia,

I am beyond that now
and ready to move on.

Kodak will be offering
more jobs here

but I think the real
job growth will

likely come from other
companies coming in

utilizing the capability
here.

At one time
there were 30.000

people manufacturing
film.

We now have 300 people
manufacturing film.

There has to be
a sense of renewal

sometimes you have
to prune the tree

to get
it to grow stronger.

This is a real exiting
change for us.

Touch sensors -- you
see them everywhere.

Whether it's
on a phone, a tablet,

just in the airport,

where ever.

I jumped ship and came

over to the food
and beverage industry.

Unlike anything
I've ever done before.

Food and bev is,
you know --

the one thing
that like about it

the most is people
have got to eat.

It won't be replaced

by digital technology.

And that, I like.

(laughs)
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