Kodak Stakeholder Impact Analysis

1. Kodak Stakeholder Impact Analysis

Shareholders

The shareholders of Kodak want a good return on their investment. Kodak has been exhausting resources through acquisitions and joint ventures with other companies, which leads to decreased shareholder profits. Kodak lost over $1.7 billion in already manufactured cameras and a patent suit where Polaroid sued them for violations on seven of their patents which also led to decreased shareholder profits. Competition was increasing in all areas and Kodak was gradually losing its market share and facing threats to its profitability.

Customers

Kodak's customers want a quality and affordable product. Several of their customers are willing to pay extra money for superior value that they receive with Kodak's product compared to a competitor's product. Kodak's competitors (Fuji) were creating products of equal quality with more vivid colors and selling them at a lesser price, causing the customers to make their purchases from other reputable companies.

Employees

Kodak did not give managers an equity stake in the new ventures, therefore they felt that they had no stake in the ventures' success, and did not work hard at attaining success for the company because of this.

Kodak's declining profitability resulted in a large employee layoff which had other employees wondering if and when their termination would come and would result in decreased employee efforts. It wasn't just the managers who did not receive any equity stakes in the business, none of the employees did. If Kodak would have recognized employee efforts with stakes in the business, productivity may have been better which would have contributed to Kodak's profitability.

I believe the stakeholders that are the most important from the organizations perspective are the customers and the shareholders. The customers are the ones that are purchasing their products which assist Kodak in realizing profits for their company. The shareholders are the ones that largely fund the company allowing it to acquire other businesses and enter into joint ventures with other businesses. Without either of these stakeholders, Kodak would not be able to function financially and this would result in Kodak having to cease operations in at least one area of their production, if not all.

Kodak's strategic challenge is that it is losing its market share due to increased competition as well as its profitability and the increasing use and growing application of digital imaging techniques. Major innovations, such as digital imaging, had begun to take over Kodak's technology. Kodak also abandoned the production of the 35mm camera, which eventually