Kodak and Fujifilm Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kodak and Fujifilm - Research Paper Example The company was able to command 90% of the market by the year 1976. The 90% market command was because of sale of films and the sales of cameras were able to command 85% of the market share in the USA (Burley, 2007). History of Fujifilm Fujifilm is a Japanese multinational company that is based in Tokyo, Japan. The company deals with activities like production, development, servicing, and sales of colored photographic films, photofinishing equipments, digital cameras, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, graphic arts equipments, medical imaging equipments, optical devices, printers, photocopiers, and panel display. The company was established in the year 1934. The aim of the company was to be the very first Japanese manufacturer of photographic film. Within a period of 10 years, the company was able to produce motion-picture films, photographic films, and x-ray films. The company was able to enter into optical glass business in the year 1940s. Other products produced were lenses an d equipments in the market. Diversification of the company’s products was done after the Second World War. The company was able to produce medical products, printing, magnetic materials fields, and electronic imaging. Both Fuji Photo and Rank Xerox that are UK Company launched Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd. Fuji Company was able to intensify its businesses overseas in the 1950s. This company was able to enjoy a monopoly in Japan market (Burley, 2007). Core businesses Both Fujifilm and Kodak have focused on imaging and photography as the core business. Kodak had started earlier than Fujifilm. Fujifilm Company gave a lot of emphasis to market changes and through that, it was able to maintain a reckoning up date. On the contrary, its counterpart Kodak is in bankruptcy protection. Management of Kodak Company The management of the company failed to move fast into the digital world. The company was able to face technological discontinuities. This is because the company failed to combat the ne w changes. The company was reported to be full of complacency. The top officials of the company failed to employ quick strategies to combat the changes in technology. The company can be said to have been built on a culture of innovations and change. The success earned by the company in the early years of the 1970s made its leaders to block their ears from the cry of the customers about the looming failure that was ahead of the company. The poor management finally led to the collapse of the company. Unlike Fuji Film Company that decided to embrace technology, Kodak Company failed to embrace technology. They were not able to go digital at the time when Fuji Film was going digital (Don, 2011). Management of Fujifilm The company was able to build strong and robust corporate constitution. This was possible through implementation of structural reforms that were able to encompass every facet of its operations. The company was able to expand its business in the global markets such as emergi ng countries. A lot of business deteriorated in Europe due to flooding in Thailand. This greatly affected this company and as a result, the company was able to lose a lot of earnings and revenues from Europe. After this downturn, the company was able to employ new medium term management. The new medium term management was covered in the VISION80 plan of the company. The plan was to cover two years. The two years were 2013 and 2014. Unlike a Kodak company, the company was

Growth, Development, and Economic Transformation Essay

Growth, Development, and Economic Transformation - Essay Example This would result in lesser inequality when a particular level of GDP per capita is achieved because of the trickling down of growth benefits. Furthermore, as economic growth takes place, people’s incomes grow and the resulting structural changes in the mindset and attitudes of people invoke them to become environmentally conscious which leads to ‘greener’ measures in the society, thereby reducing the rate of environmental degradation. The other aspect is that increased incomes and environmental awareness can induce governments to impose tighter environmental controls thereby enhancing environmental quality. Another theoretical framework to explain this is the â€Å"self-regulatory market mechanism† associated with the exchange of natural resources within an economy (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998). The stock of natural resources tends to decrease during the early growth stages which results in increased prices. This price signaling mechanism then induces lower explo itation of natural resources at subsequent stages in economic growth (due to high prices) (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998) (World Bank, 1992). Due to this reason, economies also tend to shift towards technologies that are less resource intensive. Thus, the shape of the Kuznets’ Curve (see Appendix 1) is not only explained by enhanced environmental government expenditure but also the price signaling mechanism of the free markets (Torras & Boyce, 1998). One school of thought argues that the present rate of environmental degradation has a tendency to enlarge in the long run, hence, government policy should aim at more rapid economic growth in order to climb up the hump or the turning point soonest possible. However this maybe a tedious process, taking several years before the curve slopes downward; the longer the wait the higher the abatement costs. Hence, the policy of waiting for the relationship to become negative can be potentially damaging. A more appropriate policy is to â€Å"tunn el through† the curve and to flatten it through government interventions such as subsidies on energy and agrochemicals and property rights on natural resources. It is also important to note that developing nations cannot follow what their developed nations did in early stages of development (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998). Infact, the amount of greenhouse emissions inherited by today’s less developed nations is much higher than that inherited by their developed counterparts in similar stage of development. Infact, several resource-intensive industries have shifted from the North to South, thus putting the latter at a disadvantaged position. In the absence of an international government, international environmental policies under the umbrella of ‘sustainability’ are required to enforce both wings (the developed and developing) to cut down environmentally harmful emissions. The change in proportions of labor and capital across various sectors in an economy is one of t he most significant features of economic progress of a nation. Research by Clark, Kuznets and Chenery has produced solid evidence for the notion of decline in the role of agricultural (primary) and secondary sectors of an economy and the simultaneous increase in the role of tertiary sector as the economy develops (Clark, 1940). However, in recent years there has been growing consensus amongst researchers such as Maddison, Buera and Kaboski that while the