No Pain, No Gain in Interactive Marketing
Kodak's chief business development officer Jeffrey Hayzlett knows it's tough to introduce change at a company.
Take th etime when he asked Kodak employees to pose for updated company photos. Some resisted, and Hayzlett pushed back.
"I took everyone's security picture and pushed them up on the Web," he said. He apparently convinced the camera shy to change their minds.
Hayzlett's struggle to inspire or force change in business approaches and marketing strategies is one that was echoed by other business executives gathered at this week's ad:tech SF. Change was a necessity at Kodak, which has seen its consumer film business fade like a color print from another generation. Hayzlett arrived there in 2006, a year that the company saw its annual revenue slide to $13.3 billion, a 7 percent drop, and recorded a net loss of $601 million.
Hayzlett tossed tradition out the window. Kodak will sever ties with the Olympics, marking the end of an advertising partnership that dates back to 1896.
