10/15/2021

The Status Quo is not a Path to Innovation

Saying you need pre-pandemic work structure is the opposite of innovation

In 1973, Kodak hired engineering graduate Steven Sasson to work on figuring out whether a device the company had invented a few years prior had any practical benefits. Two years later, at the age of 24, Sasson’s experiments lead him to invent the world’s first digital camera.

Sasson ran a series of demonstrations of his digital camera for various executives at Kodak, taking pictures that within seconds appeared on a TV screen. Unfortunately, the reaction Sasson got for his new invention was lukewarm at best. Many of these leaders couldn’t see any reason why after 100 years of printing photos people would want to view them through a screen.

The leaders at Kodak remained steadfast in that thinking until it was too late for them to catch up to changing consumer tastes, and Kodak ended up filing for bankruptcy… two years after Instagram was created.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from Tanveer Naseer Leadership.