Kodak's proud research heritage predated its creation of one of the first industrial research laboratories in 1912. For decades, that research was a significant competitive advantage in our industry, with a typical closed innovation paradigm. To quote Henry Chesbrough, "When you're targeting your technology to your current business, it's like a chess game. You know the pieces, you know what they can and cannot do. You know what your competition is going to do ... You can think out many moves in advance, and in fact you have to, if you're going to win."
I joined Kodak in 1986 as a new pawn in the Optical Engineering Department. Like many parts of the company at that time, the department had a history of "The smart people in our field work for us" - including former department head Rudolf Kingslake, who "wrote the book" on Optical System Design, and other industry notables.
Eastman Kodak Design Department c. 1965
Fast forward twenty years - our industry has evolved, and the shift to an open innovation model has become part of our transformation. As our CEO, Antonio Perez, puts it: "My philosophy is the following. No company in today's flat world can be the best at everything, therefore: 'Stick to your best and partner for the rest.'"
So now we're playing poker rather than chess... a dynamic game where we are remaining flexible, creating options for the future, and refreshing our strategy as new resources and information become available. In this environment, it is critical not only to collaborate with others, but to excel at collaboration.
Our group, Kodak External Alliances, helps Kodak business and research groups create those alliances with universities, early-stage firms and government-funded labs. We believe that our most effective alliances are those based on aligned interests. An example is our relationship with Isilon Systems, a provider of clustered storage solutions for Kodak Easyshare Gallery. As an early customer and minority investor in Isilon, we validated their technology, supporting their growth in the market - while we benefited from a highly strategic supply relationship. In addition, Isilon's December 2006 IPO was one of the year's most successful.
While successful alliances require good alignment between the two parties, they can take many structural forms. In particular, when an early stage firm works with a large corporation, it can feel like Dancing With Elephants - so in my next post I'll take a look at the elephant's steps in the dance.
For more information about Kodak External Alliances, visit our website at www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kea/
For more information about Open Innovation: Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology by Henry William Chesbrough
The Chess v. Poker analogy is made by Chesbrough in "Managing Open Innovation", Industrial Research Institute, Jan-Feb 2004.
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